UW professor’s dream leads to breakthrough in identifying origin of cosmic rays

For more than a century, the origin of cosmic rays — fragments of atoms that rain down on the Earth at close to the speed of light — had been one of the great mysteries in science, thwarting the best minds in physics.An international team of scientists (including at UW–Madison) reported Thursday that the likely solution arrived at just after 3:54 p.m. Central Time on Sept. 22, in a scene beyond anything special effects wizards in Hollywood could have imagined.