Cosmic Ray Mystery: Largest Ever Data Sample Sheds No Light On Origin

5 March 2017

 - Scientists are none the wiser on the origin of cosmic rays despite trawling through seven years of observational data from NASA’s Fermi Large Area Telescope.

A study published in Physical Review Letters details efforts of scientists to examine the “largest ever sample of high-energy cosmic-ray electron and positron events since the beginning of its operation.”

The team examined nearly seven years of data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope – the principal scientific instrument on the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope spacecraft but fell short on pinpointing the direction from which the elusive cosmic rays originate.