What energy range can cosmic rays accelerated by supernova remnants reach?
This nebula is the product of a supernova explosion; in this section, the blast wave has encountered an area of dense interstellar gas, creating turbulence in the wave and causing it to glow. The picture is a composite of three images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Supernova remnants act as powerful cosmic accelerators, capable of boosting electrons and atomic nuclei to a wide range of energies. Specifically, these remnants accelerate particles to cosmic-ray energies spanning from up to electron volts per particle.1
These acceleration processes are driven by the strong shock waves produced as the remnant expands into the surrounding interstellar medium. In addition to accelerating particles, these shock waves create filaments of material that emit gamma-ray photons with energies reaching up to electron volts.1