A mysterious "blob" emitting powerful cosmic rays near the Big Dipper may help scientists solve a 100yr cosmic ray mystery.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/mystery-blob-emits-cosmic-rays/story-fnjwlcze-1226982689060

http://www.space.com/26460-big-dipper-cosmic-ray-hotspot-mystery.html

A MYSTERIOUS "hot spot" in the sky is emitting unusual numbers of powerful cosmic rays, say scientists.

THE discovery may shed new light on the origin of ultra-high energy cosmic rays, which still cannot be fully explained.

The hot spot is centred two hand-widths below the "handle" of the Big Dipper, or Plough, an arrangement of seven stars within the Great Bear constellation.

"All we see is a blob in the sky, and inside this blob there is all sorts of stuff - various types of objects that could be the source," said US astronomer Professor Gordon Thomson, from the University of Utah. "Now we know where to look."

While lower energy cosmic rays come from the Sun, other stars, and exploding stars, the origin of the highest energy rays has been a decades-long mystery.

Discovered in 1912, cosmic rays are actually fast-moving particles - either bare protons from stripped hydrogen atoms or the nuclei of heavier elements such as carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and iron.

Possible sources of high energy cosmic rays include super-dense neutron stars, noisy radio galaxies and shock waves from colliding galaxies.

Cheers.

How many light years away is this? What galaxy is it in? It doesn't really seem to say.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

How many light years away is this? What galaxy is it in? It doesn't really seem to say.

The 2nd link says that it's in the constellation of Ursa Major, but it's anyone's guess at the actual distance involved it seems.

Cheers.

Ursa Major or Great Bear is a star constellation. As such, one cannot think in terms of the distance to it because the stars that make up the constellation are not located in the same general area in space. Epsilon UMa, one of the stars that make up the constellation is also the closest at 64 light years.

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rOZZ
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Ursa Major or Great Bear is a star constellation. As such, one cannot think in terms of the distance to it because the stars that make up the constellation are not located in the same general area in space. Epsilon UMa, one of the stars that make up the constellation is also the closest at 64 light years.

Ah yes, I'm thinking in 2-D. Gotta get my 3-D thinking cap on.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Ursa Major or Great Bear is a star constellation. As such, one cannot think in terms of the distance to it because the stars that make up the constellation are not located in the same general area in space. Epsilon UMa, one of the stars that make up the constellation is also the closest at 64 light years.

Ah yes, I'm thinking in 2-D. Gotta get my 3-D thinking cap on.

:)

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rOZZ
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How many light years away is this? What galaxy is it in? It doesn't really seem to say.

I think that is one of the questions they want to answer.

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If any of the hypothesized non-exotic sources of these particles were located in our galaxy it would be immediately evident. In fact the only potential source that *isn't* a galaxy-level process is a particular type of gigantic supernova which we would know about if it happened in the milky way. So they come from outside our galaxy (unless they are caused by some sort of string-theory process).

So they will be looking in the direction of the blob for colliding galaxies, radio galaxies, and that sort of thing. All of it far outside the Milky Way much much farther away than the stars that make up the Big Dipper.