Using 16 years of data from NASA's gamma-ray detecting Fermi spacecraft, astronomers have discovered that "microquasars," systems in which a black hole is slowly devouring a star, may be small, but they pack one heck of a punch.
Despite their diminutive nature, this research suggests even microquasars snacking on small stars can have an impressive cosmic influence, becoming powerful natural particle accelerators.
This means black holes indulging in stellar meals of all sizes could be responsible for a higher-than-suspected amount of high-energy charged particles called "cosmic rays," which are constantly bombarding Earth. The mechanism for this particle acceleration is the near-light-speed jets that blast out from microquasars.
