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On the evening of October 15, 1991, an ultra-high energy cosmic particle was observed over Salt Lake City, Utah. Dubbed the "Oh-My-God particle" (a play on the nickname "God particle" for the Higgs boson), it was estimated to have an energy of approximately 3 × 1020 electronvolts, equivalent to about 50 joules—in other words, it was a subatomic particle with macroscopic energy, comparable to that of a fastball. Its observation was a shock to astrophysicists.
It was a proton travelling with almost the speed of light. Due to this high speed the energy was, though submacroscopic, very large for a proton: like that of a microbe.
Since the first observation, by the University of UtahThe University of Utah (also The U or the U of U opened under the name "University of Deseret" (see also University of Deseret) in Salt Lake City, Utah on February 28, 1850, only to be closed two years later for financial reasons. It reopened as a busines's Fly's Eye 2 , at least fifteen similar events have been recorded, confirming the phenomenon. The source of such high energy particles remains a mystery.
Because of its mass the OMG particle would have experienced very little influence from cosmic fields, and so its trajectory should be easily calculable. However, nothing of note was found in the estimated direction of its origin.
External links
- John WalkerJohn Walker is a computer programmer and the founder of the CAD software company Autodesk. Before Autodesk, John founded a hardware integration manufacturing company called Marinchip. Among other things, Marinchip pioneered the translation of numerous com's lively analysis of the 1991 event, published in 1994
- Update: ScienceScience is the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Science was founded by Thomas Edison in 1880. Science became the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 1900. A major concern of the j 2000 (subscription required)
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