Lili Yang

In October 2022, the cosmos put on a fireworks show that every detector on Earth noticed. The explosion, named GRB 221009A, was so bright that it was called the brightest ever observed. It's a gamma-ray burst — a short but incredibly powerful flash that releases as much energy in seconds as the Sun will produce in its entire lifetime.

In an orchestra, each musician plays their own part, but at a certain moment all instruments pause on a single note. Cosmic rays behave somewhat like this — particles flying toward us from distant stars.

At the heart of the Galaxy, about 7 kiloparsecs away, lies a true natural particle accelerator. This is a rapidly spinning neutron star — the pulsar PSR J1849-0001, left behind by a supernova explosion.