Cygnus X-3 accelerates cosmic-ray particles to at least 30 PeV, making the binary system the most powerful particle accelerator yet observed, according to China’s LHAASO.
Gamma-ray analysis tied that ultra-high-energy signal to a 4.8-hour periodicity and narrowed the acceleration zone to about three solar radii, pointing to an unexpectedly compact source.
Researchers said the system reaches those energies by pulling material from a massive companion star’s wind, implying far more efficient acceleration than standard Milky Way models allowed.
The result blows past the long-assumed galactic ceiling of roughly 1 PeV and pushes astrophysicists to revisit how black holes, neutron stars and related extreme environments generate cosmic rays.