Dork writes in with word of a study that contradicts, at least for the highest-energy events, the recent conclusion that cosmic rays are plausibly formed in supernova remnants. The Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina has announced that active galactic nuclei are the most likely candidates for the source of the highest-energy cosmic rays that hit Earth. The researchers found that the sources of these highly energetic events are not distributed uniformly across the sky, linking their origins to the locations of nearby galaxies hosting active nuclei in their centers. These galaxies are thought to be powered by supermassive black holes that are devouring large amounts of matter. The exact mechanism of how particles get accelerated to energies 100 million times higher than achievable by the most powerful particle accelerators on Earth is still unknown. The observatory has made 1% of its events available through a public online event display."

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