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  • X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/R. van Weeren et al; Optical: NAOJ/Subaru

    Scientists discover a cosmic-scale particle accelerator

    by 
    Jon Fingas
    Jon Fingas
    01.09.2017

    Suddenly, even the Large Hadron Collider seems downright quaint. Researchers have found a combination of cosmic phenomena that's creating the universe's largest known particle accelerator. At least one supermassive black hole in a galaxy cluster has created a electromagnetic tunnel that's accelerating gas to high speeds, only for the gas to travel even faster as it interacts with shock waves from another cluster colliding with the first. The result is particles traveling at a significant portion of the speed of light -- no mean feat for anything that isn't, well, light.