Crab Nebula Might Harbor the Most Powerful Electron Accelerator Ever Discovered, Scientists Found

Physicists at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) have hurled electrons into related particles with all the energy that they could master from the 1960s up until the 2000s. They have made discoveries that won three Nobel Prizes and infused electrons with energy that could reach billions of electronvolts. But now Chinese scientists have used a much powerful tool that helps discovered something in the Crab Nebula that challenges previous theories.

High in the mountains of southwest China, a colossal facility picked up two showers of particles produced by a single high-energy beam of light, which is a gamma-ray, that they believe originated from the Crab Nebula.

This signals that the famous remnant of a supernova might have the most powerful electron accelerator ever identified, according to Popular Science. Scientists noted that this gamma-ray energy, which contains billions of electron volts or called petaelectronvolt (PeV), challenges classical physical theories.

Early Observations of Crab Nebula

On July 4, 1054, Chinese astronomers were watching the sky and noted the appearance of a guest star above the southern horn of Taurus. Records reveal that this bright source of light was visible during the daytime for 23 days, and shines six times brightly than Venus. Even Japanese and Arab stargazers were able to record observations of the explosion, Space.com reported.

Then a record from 1731 from British astronomer John Bevis reveals that there was a cloudy blob in the sky. About 27 years later, French astronomer Charles Messier observed the hazy patch in the sky using a telescope that allowed him to better observe the sky. He created a Messier catalog that describes all the nebulae he observed and end up including 110 objects in his list.

Around 1844, British astronomer William Parsons sketched the nebula and found that it resembles Messier's M1, which is called the Crab Nebula. It was in the early 20th century that astronomers were able to make detailed observations of M1 and determined that it is expanding.

Some scientists believe that cave paintings in the Navajo Reservation could have depicted the nebula. But more recent studies said it is not the Crab Nebula, according to Scientific American.

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Most Powerful Electron Accelerator

The Crab Nebula is one of the few nebulae that has been measured in all energy bands from radio, infrared, optical, UV, X-ray, and gamma-ray. It is considered to be the standard candle by scientists in terms of being a bright and stable high-energy source.

The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO), is one of China's key national science and technology infrastructure facilities that have measured the brightness of the Crab Nebula.

Xinhua Net reported that Chinese scientists achieved an accurate measurement of the ultra-high-energy it possesses in the ultra-high energy band from 0.3 to 1.1 PeV, which calibrates the brightness of the standard candle at an unprecedented range.

They also detected a photon with an energy of 1.1 PeV, which is the most powerful electron accelerator ever identified. It is equivalent to one-tenth of the size of the solar system in the nebula's core region.

According to the local news outlet, the accelerator can energize electrons to travel 20,000 times greater than the human-made electron accelerator on Earth, which breaks classical electrodynamics and ideal magnetohydrodynamics theories.

Scientists expect to detect one to two photons with at least 1 PeV every year from the Crab Nebula, which could hopefully help them unravel the mystery of the cosmic PeV electron accelerator.