Cosmic Rays Origns Solved?

First off, I'm sorry that I haven't posted but it turns out if you blog while at the school library, they will ban you. I have my computer fixed now and my Internet will be up for good in about a week, for now I should be making a post a week or so.

Now for the cool stuff, a new study looks at the origins of cosmic rays. Here is the Wikipedia article on cosmic rays, I would really read it if you don't know much about them. This is what I understand about them, they are high energy subatomic particles that travel near the speed of light and are proppeled by enormous magnetic fields, since the 60's scientist were pointing towards supernovae for the origin of majority of cosmic rays. The proplem is that all measurements of the magnetic fields were indirect but this research directly measured the magnetic fields and showed that they were powerfull enough to propel them at the speeds measured, for spefics check the link to ScienceDaily.

Biggest Supernova Ever

Yesterday astronomers reported that a supernova, in the relatively nearby galaxy NGC 1260, has taken the record for the biggest supernova ever recorded. The supernova, SN 2006gy, was is a certain class of supernovas that is reserved only for stars of masses many order of magnitudes greater than our sun. Until September of last year, when this supernova was recorded, this class of supernova was purely a theoretical mathematic equation and only now has this class been seen in our piece of the universe.

A normal supernova is the process of a star dying by the collapse of its core from the lack of proper fuel created at its core. All previously recorded novas have been simply a collapse of the star and the creation of a black hole or neutron star. This type of supernova is the explosion of its particles and in the process it creates much heavier elements. This is said to be how most of the planetary materiel in the universe was created.

For more information on the death of stars look for the podcast Astronomy Cast