Immediately after the 3I/ATLAS story, astronomers recorded a new unusual phenomenon – a cosmic particle with enormous energy crashed into the Earth's atmosphere, dubbed the “Amaterasu particle” in honor of the Japanese sun goddess. What kind of particle is this, what prospects does it hold for humanity and what does all this have to do with comet 3I/ATLAS – in matter URA.RU.
Space “bullet”.
Astronomers from the All Day Astronomy scientific community reported the discovery of an unusual cosmic particle colliding with Earth with a record energy unattainable by modern accelerators. According to them, the fire was detected by high-energy particle detectors on the ground.
“A mysterious cosmic “bullet” has hit Earth—with more energy than anything humans can create—and it came “out of nowhere.” If it had come from very far away, it would not have been so powerful,” astronomers said in a statement.
According to the report's authors, the recorded particle belongs to the category of extremely high-energy cosmic rays. Typically, such objects are associated with extreme astrophysical events – supernova explosions, black hole activity or gamma-ray bursts. Experts have linked the new cosmic discovery to the Amaterasu particle, which was first recorded in 2021.
“God Particle”
The Amaterasu particle is an extremely high-energy cosmic ray particle with an estimated energy of up to 244 exaelectronvolts. For comparison, this is millions of times more energy than the most powerful accelerators on earth, such as the Large Hadron Collider, can impart to particles.
The particle was recorded by the Telescope Array observatory in Utah on May 27, 2021. After tracing its orbit, scientists discovered that it came from an area that is a local cosmic void (void). In this direction there are no active galactic nuclei, no black holes, no supernovae – the origin of such jets is known.
This discovery challenges current thinking. First, it challenges the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) limit, a theoretical barrier that limits the distance such energetic particles can travel without losing energy. Astronomers note that if the particle came from far away, it should not have retained such energy.
Researchers from the Telescope Array collaboration, who previously published a paper in the journal Science, suggest that the particle is most likely a proton or the nucleus of an atom. To explain its origin, several hypotheses have been considered: extreme deviations of the orbit due to unaccounted for magnetic fields, the existence of an unknown source nearby in the Local Universe, or the need to modify basic physical models.
Second recent spatial anomaly
While scientists are puzzling over the “space bullet,” another interstellar visitor – comet 3I/ATLAS – has disappeared from the view of earth observers. Discovered in July 2025, it became the third known interstellar object. Many different origin theories have been built around it, the National News Service recalled.
Tsargrad TV channel reported that currently, the comet has almost completely disappeared behind an unusually large dense dust cloud, not typical of normal comets. The special attention of scientists was attracted by its “prop tail” pointing towards the Sun, which gave rise to speculation about the possible artificial origin of the object, reports 360.RU.
However, most scientists consider this to be a natural interstellar comet, whose strange behavior can be explained by active gas emissions. Now 3I/ATLAS continues its journey toward Jupiter. Previously, it was reported that several more comets were heading towards Earth, reports VSE42.RU. Furthermore, experts noted that comet 3I/ATLAS itself emitted unusually large particles, business newspaper Vzglyad reported.
