Discovery offers clues to cosmic particles' travel

A joint observation by two of China's flagship observatories has traced a 42-light-year-long stream of high-energy particles traveling in a clear direction through interstellar space, providing strong evidence that such particles can retain a preferred direction long after leaving the places where they were accelerated.

The discovery, made through a joint campaign by the Einstein Probe and the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory or LHAASO, challenges the long-standing assumption that high-energy particles quickly spread in all directions after being accelerated.

Launched in January 2024, the Einstein Probe is a space-based X-ray observatory designed to detect and study powerful, short-lived cosmic events, such as bursts of X-rays from black holes, neutron stars and other extreme objects.