In the vast, icy expanse of Antarctica, something extraordinary is happening. A massive helium balloon, carrying a high-tech experiment, is soaring high above the Earth's surface. This isn't just any balloon—it's part of NASA's annual Antarctic Long-Duration Balloon campaign. The goal? To explore th
Scientists have long thought that Earth-like planets need a rare cosmic event to form. They believed a nearby supernova explosion provided essential radioactive materials, like aluminum-26, to create planets like Earth. These materials heated early planetary building blocks, causing them to lose wat
Black holes, those mysterious giants of the universe, have been making waves in the world of science. Recent discoveries have shown that these cosmic behemoths might be the key to understanding a long-standing puzzle: the "knee" in the cosmic ray energy spectrum. For nearly 70 years, scientists hav
Supernovas are the universe's way of recycling stars. They are massive explosions that mark the end of a star's life. These explosions can be so powerful that they create some of the most energetic particles in the universe. These particles are called cosmic rays. They are made up of protons and oth
The universe is full of mysteries, and one of them is the origin of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. These cosmic rays are incredibly powerful, but where do they come from? One possible source is ultra-fast outflows, or UFOs, from active galactic nuclei. These UFOs are not the kind that people repo
Scientists have recently found some of the most powerful cosmic rays ever. These aren't your typical rays; they're made of electrons and positrons, and they're incredibly energetic, reaching up to 40, 000 times the energy of visible light. The High Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS) observatory in Na
