10,000,000,000,000x the Energy of Visible Light: Pulsar’s Record-Breaking Gamma Rays Baffle Scientists

Using the H.E.S.S. observatory in Namibia, scientists have detected exceptionally high-energy gamma rays from the Vela pulsar, challenging established theories on pulsed gamma rays from such stars. These gamma rays, with energy levels 200 times more potent than any previous observations from the Vela pulsar, have prompted researchers to reconsider the mechanisms behind such powerful emissions.Scientists using the H.E.S.S.

The Vela pulsar, located in the Southern sky in the constellation Vela , is the brightest pulsar in the radio band of the electromagnetic spectrum and the brightest persistent source of cosmic gamma rays in the giga-electronvolts range. It rotates about eleven times per second. However, above a few GeV, its radiation ends abruptly, presumably because the electrons reach the end of the pulsar’s magnetosphere and escape from it.

But this is not the end of the story: using deep observations with H.E.S.S., a new radiation component at even higher energies has now been discovered, with energies of up to tens of tera-electronvolts . “That is about 200 times more energetic than all radiation ever detected before from this object,” says co-author Christo Venter from the North-West University in South Africa. This very high-energy component appears at the same phase intervals as the one observed in the GeV range.

“The traditional scheme according to which particles are accelerated along magnetic field lines within or slightly outside the magnetosphere cannot sufficiently explain our observations. Perhaps we are witnessing the acceleration of particles through the so-called magnetic reconnection process beyond the light cylinder, which still somehow preserves the rotational pattern? But even this scenario faces difficulties in explaining how such extreme radiation is produced.

Whatever the explanation, next to its other superlatives, the Vela pulsar now officially holds the record as the pulsar with the highest-energy gamma rays discovered to date.

Source: Energy Industry News (energyindustrynews.net)

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