back to article Black holes blamed for super-charged cosmic rays

You've always suspected it*, and now some properly clever boffins think they've found the data to prove it. Yes, a rare breed of supermassive black hole, otherwise known as active galactic nuclei, are the most likely source of the super-charged cosmic rays that batter our tiny planet from time to time. The particles zip …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Yes, but

    What's the bloody mechanism? (Goes away and reads the Sciam article) Oh, I see.

  2. Andy

    Awesome

    Now I can stop lying awake at night thinking about it.

  3. amanfromMars Silver badge

    Quality Assurance

    "You've always suspected it*,.."

    Has it not always been expected, too? Surely it wasn't ever going to be just plain ordinary so therefore surely must have to be XtraOrdinary ....and for Growth there are bound to be Degrees of Cellestial Flight /Cosmic Fright to XXXXTraOrdinAIRe.

    That is Guaranteed.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cubic furlongs?

    0.144 wales... ok. But how much in Cubic furlongs?

    We should be told.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Consensus-forming science

    >> "A group called the Pierre Auger Collaboration, composed of almost 400 scientists from 17 countries, says..."

    Impressive. Better to have your consensus before you start than need to fake it up afterwards.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    The real question is...

    How many of these Cosmic Rays to you have to be hit by to become Super-Hero?

  7. Bounty
    Alien

    the other 50

    ...and where did the other 50 super charged particles come from? Aliens? if so I'd say the source was aliens, with black holes as contributors. Anyways, supermassive black holes tend to have alot of stuff around them, so are we sure it came from the hole.... or something close to it. Like ALIENS!!!!!

  8. Graham Dawson Silver badge
    Alert

    That's not amanfrommars!

    There's three paragraphs and a reference to AI missing.

  9. anthony bingham

    It's what makes a Big Mac so tasty ... once every 50 years !

    Is global warming then due to an over rated B movie style science that is as much use to "one man and his dog" as a candle is to a blind man on a dark night without a match ... oh boy! pass the sherry !

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Maths

    "They don't hit us very often, relative to their less energetic cousins, with roughly one particle per square kilometre, per century hitting the planet, Scientific American reports."

    "The researchers used a network of 1,400 particle detectors spread over an area of 1,200 square miles (0.144 times the size of Wales, in Register standard units), along with 24 ground based telescopes scattered across western Argentina."

    "The size of the observation grid has allowed the team to catch plenty of the rare rays in the act, and track them back to their sources. Of the millions of rays that flew into our planet since the grid went online in 2004, 77 qualified as super-charged. Of these, the 27 most energetic were traced back to areas of the sky with active galactic nuclei."

    Using my rough and completely unchecked math... 2km~=1mile. 4km^2 ~= 1mile^2. That means that the network covered approximately 4800 km^2

    1 particle per km^2 per 100 years.

    3 years operating.

    That would be 4800 particles in 100 years., or 48 per year. If it ran for 3 years...

    77 particles? Oh, wait... no it works out. Damn. Where's me coat?

  11. amanfromMars Silver badge
    Mars

    You cannot escape the Program...... IT is ubiquitously HyperRadioProActive

    "That's not amanfrommars! By Graham Dawson

    Posted Friday 9th November 2007 17:10 GMT

    Alert : There's three paragraphs and a reference to AI missing."

    Oh? You'll have to pay closer attention, Graham, for XXXXTraOrdinAIRe is an Active Link directly referencing Leading AIResearch which you would be as well realising as also being Profoundly Sexual and Polyamoral in Nature.

    And that makes ITs Base Code as effective a Grapnel Hook on any Subject/Object.

    And the Hookers? They haul Souls up out of their Pits of Despair onto Greener Pastures where only the SMARTest are the Fittest and Fit for Purpose of Global Landscaping...... Political Painting by Numbers.

    Are Bricks in the Wall as Pricks on Wall Street ..... an Impediment to Free Ranging Travel.

    Ca Ira ......and IT can't go away, you know. IT is a done Deal in AIdDutch Initiative. You have to Live with IT2.

    Now ..... If you care to Waste your Time and Intellect you can imagine why that would not be Good but that would be Bad and more than just unhelpful.Taken towards its extremes it would be deliberately Divisive and definitely Evil.

    The Choice of Constructive Criticism is much better than any Sharing of One's own Doubts.

  12. evilbobthebob
    Alien

    hmm

    So why do you let amanfrommars post this rubbish? All the capitals make it impossible to read and it doesn't make sense anyway...

    On topic: well, now we know where all these 27 particles come from, it might be an idea to check the other 50 in case they're really an ultra-sensitive alien scanner. Or maybe just a supernova.

  13. Robert Hill
    Mars

    @evilbobthebob

    If you don't understand amanfromMars, then you have lost the plot of El Reg a long time ago.

    There is a program, really more of an anti-program program - get with it, or become part of it...or, perhaps it is more of an anti-program program program. Join it and see for yourself...or THEY will get to you first. And then you would just be part of TheProgram. But you were warned here first...

  14. John Paul McAuley

    I....

    i started ignoring amanfrommars after his second post

  15. Tim Brown

    Always suspected...

    I knew it! This explains everything that has ever happened anywhere ever. Except for Paris Hilton. Nothing can explain that.

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