Oh-My-God particle facts for kids

The Oh-My-God particle was a really tiny portion of matter or energy (undefined) moving incredibly fast. It was first spotted on the evening of 15 October 1991 over Dugway Proving Ground in Utah and shocked many astrophysicists. It has an estimated energy of 3×10²⁰ eV (50 J)—in other words, a subatomic particle with kinetic energy equal to that of a baseball (5 ounces or 142 grams) traveling at about 100 kilometers per hour (60 mph). That amount of energy is also 50 times the energy that a collision in the Large Hadron Collider would have.

The speed of the particle was almost the speed of light. If a year were to pass in a race between a ray of light and the particle the distance will be 0.00000046 millimetre or be behind 0.00000000000000015 seconds.

There have been at least 15 similar events recorded.

See also

In Spanish: Partícula Oh-My-God para niños