- The Oh-My-God Particle (fourmilab.ch)
The University of Utah operates a cosmic ray detector called the Fly’s Eye II, situated at the Dugway Proving Ground about an hour’s drive from Salt Lake City. The Fly’s Eye consists of an array of telescopes which stare into the night sky and record the blue flashes which result when very high energy cosmic rays slam into the atmosphere. From the height and intensity of the flash, one can calculate the nature of the particle and its energy.
- Oh-My-God particle (Wikipedia)
The Oh-My-God particle was an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray detected on 15 October 1991 by the Fly’s Eye camera in Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, United States. As of 2023, it is the highest-energy cosmic ray ever observed. Its energy was estimated as (3.2±0.9)×1020 eV (320 exa-eV). The particle’s energy was unexpected and called into question prevailing theories about the origin and propagation of cosmic rays.