Researchers from the University of Utah discovered a hotspot emitting large amounts of cosmic energy beneath the Big Dipper.

Gordon Thomson, a physics professor from the University of Utah and co-principal investigator for the Telescope Array cosmic ray observatory, believes this discovery may help physicists identify the energy sources throughout the universe.

The Telescope Array is collaboration between researchers from Japan, South Korea, Russia, and Belgium studying cosmic rays - energetic, subatomic particles outside the Earth's atmosphere emitted by different sources such as the Sun.

Researchers wanted to trace the source of these cosmic rays, but were having problems because of a bending phenomena that caused magnetic fields in space to bend the rays, making it more difficult to identify the energy source.

Most of the researchers thought these high-energy cosmic rays stemmed from active galactic nuclei (AGN). One theory suggests a black hole pulled the materials and emitted them into a different location. Another theory presumes the cosmic rays were gamma rays emitted by supernovas.

But, a closer analysis of at least 19 cosmic rays showed that they came from the hotspot just below the Big Dipper Constellation. The hotspot was approximately 40 degrees in diameter and accounted for six percent of the northern sky. It was centered at the height of 146.6 degrees and descent of 43.2 degrees.

The statistical probability that the hotspot was, in fact, not real came out to 1.4 in 10,000, Thomson and his team calculated. The researchers are performing a separate study to measure the distribution of the cosmic rays in the universe.

"It points us to the next logical step in the search: building a larger detector that collects four times as many [ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray] events per year. With more events, we are more likely to see structure in that hotspot blob and that may point us toward the real sources," said Charlie Jui, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Utah.

Further details of the study were published in the July 9 issue of the Astrophysical Journal.