Massive Cosmic Particle Approaching Earth with Unprecedented 240EeV Energy

Unidentified Particle Heading for Earth

A particle with an energy of more than 240 exa-electron volts (EeV) is heading for Earth, leading to a debate as to its origins.

Named Amaterasu, after the Japanese sun goddess (pictured), it is the second highest energy particle ever recorded. The first was the Oh-My-God particle, detected in 1991, which possessed 320 EeV of energy.

Amaterasu was discovered by Toshihiro Fujii, an associate professor at Osaka Metropolitan University.

The debate among astronomers focuses on how Amaterasu came to have so much energy when it originated in the Local Void, near the Milky Way, which has nothing in it with enough energy to have produced it.

One possibility is that it came from a black hole in another galaxy where matter is reduced to its subatomic structures spraying out protons, electrons, and nuclei at nearly the speed of light.

Other theories suggest that it could indicate a much larger magnetic deflection than predicted, or there's an unidentified source in the Local Void, or we have an incomplete understanding of high-energy particle physics.