How do cosmic-ray energies compare with energies produced by particle accelerators?

Cosmic rays and particle accelerators both serve as vital tools for exploring high-energy physics, though they differ significantly in their energy reach and accessibility.

While modern colliding-beam storage rings, such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), are capable of producing controlled collision energies in the range of 14 teraelectron volts (TeV), cosmic rays frequently exceed these laboratory limits. Primary cosmic rays have been detected with energies surpassing ${10}^{18}$ eV, which is far beyond the capabilities of any human-made accelerator.123

Historically, cosmic rays were the only source of high-energy particles available to scientists, leading to the discovery of various subatomic particles. Even today, researchers continue to study cosmic rays because they provide access to energy regimes that remain unattainable under controlled laboratory conditions. While accelerators offer the advantage of precision and controlled environments for studying specific particle interactions, cosmic rays provide a window into the most energetic processes in the universe.31