Don't panic, but.. ALIEN galaxies are slamming Earth with ultra-high-energy cosmic rays

The most energetic cosmic rays bombarding Earth originate from outside our Milky Way Galaxy, according to research published just before the weekend. More than 400 scientists from 18 countries working under the Pierre Auger Collaboration wanted to solve the mystery of where these special rays – containing extremely rare and …

[Destroy All Monsters]

Pew Pew Pew!

Of much interest, and only two years ago:

The Particle That Broke a Cosmic Speed Limit: Physicists are beginning to unravel the mysteries of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays, particles accelerated by the most powerful forces in the universe.

Only recently, with the discovery of a cosmic ray “hotspot” in the sky, the detection of related high-energy cosmic particles, and a better understanding of physics at more familiar energies, have researchers secured the first footholds in the quest to understand ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays. “We’re learning things very rapidly,” said Tim Linden, a theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Chicago.

...

Thomson has his money on threads of galaxies and dark matter called “filaments” that are draped throughout the cosmos and which, at hundreds of millions of light-years long, are among the largest structures in existence. There’s a filament in the direction of the hotspot. “It’s probably something in the filament,” Thomson said. In any case, he added, “we have an idea now of interesting places to look. And all we need to do is collect more data.”

[Zash the Bench Geek]

What if...

...these particles are a form of communication we have yet to discover?

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps particle jets at the poles of a supermassive black hole?

That might explain why we don't get them from our galactic center, because the jets aren't aimed our way. But the jets from some distant galaxies are - or rather were aimed where we are now when the particles would be emitted.