{"id":242181,"date":"2026-08-04T06:04:54","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T11:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/chinese-observatory-identifies-most-powerful-cosmic-particle-accelerator-ever-detected"},"modified":"2026-08-04T06:04:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T11:04:54","slug":"chinese-observatory-identifies-most-powerful-cosmic-particle-accelerator-ever-detected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/chinese-observatory-identifies-most-powerful-cosmic-particle-accelerator-ever-detected","title":{"rendered":"Chinese observatory identifies most powerful cosmic particle accelerator ever detected"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Researchers working at the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) in China\u2019s Sichuan Province have discovered that the unique binary system Cygnus X-3, located in the constellation Cygnus, is the most powerful particle accelerator known to date. The findings were reported by Xinhua News Agency<\/a>, a TV BRICS partner, citing the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.<\/p>\n

Cygnus X-3 is a binary system consisting of either a black hole or a neutron star and a massive companion star. The compact object actively accretes material from the powerful stellar wind of its companion, accelerating particles to extremely high energies.<\/p>\n

Scientists had previously believed that charged particles within the Milky Way could reach energies of around one petaelectronvolt (PeV). However, a detailed analysis of ultra-high-energy gamma-ray emissions enabled LHAASO researchers to determine that Cygnus X-3 is capable of accelerating cosmic rays to energies of at least 30 petaelectronvolts. The team also detected a periodic ultra-high-energy gamma-ray signal with a cycle of 4.8 hours and established that the particle acceleration region is located approximately three solar radii from the source of the radiation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers working at the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) in China\u2019s Sichuan Province have discovered that the unique binary system Cygnus X-3, located in the constellation Cygnus, is the most powerful particle accelerator known to date. The findings were reported by Xinhua News Agency, a TV BRICS partner, citing the Institute of High [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cosmology","category-particle-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242181\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}