Getting the large numbers straight. Peta (P eV) and Exa (E eV). http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/large.html
http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/thecygnusmystery_cygnusx3.htm "3 Characteristics of Cygnet Primaries Between 1983 and 30 October 1985 various ground-based air shower arrays, including Kiel (Samorski and Stamm, 1983a, 1983b) and Fly's Eye (the latter from 1981 through till 1988) reported extensive air showers with the direction and periodicity of Cygnus X-3 (See Marshak et al, 1985; Cassiday et al, 1989). In Kiel's case, particles were detected in the 1016 eV (10 Peta-electron volt eV) range (initially assumed to be gamma-rays). This was later confirmed (Lloyd-Evans et al, 1983) with the pulse being narrow (duty cycle 2%) and occurring at a phase 0.25 after the X-ray maximum. Thus it was concluded that Cygnus X-3 accelerated particles to at least 1016 eV, and that if these were electrons, then protons might reach a higher level still (Hillas, 1984). Indeed, at Kiel the EAS reached energies of > 1018 eV (Cassiday et al, 1989; Sommer and Elbert, 1990)." "Crucially, Sommers and Elbert go on to state that 'although free neutrons decay with a mean proper lifetime of 898 seconds', time dilation allows some neutrons at these energies to travel the distance from Cyg X-3. On this basis, the energy threshold (0.5 EeV) {or 0.5E18 eV} for the data used in the Fly's Eye analysis suggests that the reported increased muon flux could be neutrons, even though the collaboration was at the time unable to distinguish between a neutron-initiated shower and a gamma-ray shower (Sommers and Elbert, 1989). In final conclusion, they stated that 'Cyg X-3 is a strong source of EeV cosmic rays'. The significance of Sommers and Elbert's proposal is that with a relativistic linear acceleration through jet production, the view that cygnets are exotic strange quark particles becomes unnecessary. The neutral particles might indeed be neutrons, reliant on a new model based upon synchrotron radiation loss through relativistic flow." Neutron rest energy 938E6 eV (electron volts) Cygnus X-3 distance ~30,000 light years = ~1.0E12 light-seconds across our Galaxy, thus time dilation "Gamma" = Kinetic Energy (~1.0E18eV) / Rest Energy (~1.0E9 eV) = 1.0^9 time dilation, meaning that the approximate 12 to 15 minute 720-900 second neutron lifetime would let it reach the earth from Cygnus X-3 in 12 to 15 minutes! On the Other Hand, is the ejected Neutron turned into a TACHYON? http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/Tachyon.html "Tachyons are a putative class of particles which able to travel faster than the speed of light. Tachyons were first proposed by physicist Arnold Sommerfeld, and named by Gerald Feinberg. The word tachyon derives from the Greek (tachus), meaning "speedy." Tachyons have the strange properties that, when they lose energy, they gain speed. Consequently, when tachyons gain energy, they slow down. The slowest speed possible for tachyons is the speed of light. Tachyons appear to violate causality (the so-called causality problem), since they could be sent to the past under the assumption that the principle of special relativity is a true law of nature, thus generating a real unavoidable time paradox (Maiorino and Rodrigues 1999). Therefore, it seems unavoidable that if tachyons exist, the principle of special relativity must be false, and there exists a unique time order for all observers in the universe independent of their state of motion. Tachyons can be assigned properties of normal matter such as spin, as well as an antiparticle (the antitachyon). And amazingly, modern presentations of tachyon theory actually allow tachyons to actually have real mass (Recami 1996). It has been proposed that tachyons could be produced from high-energy particle collisions, and tachyon searches have been undertaken in cosmic rays. Cosmic rays hit the Earth's atmosphere with high energy (some of them with speed almost 99.99% of the speed of light) making several collisions with the molecules in the atmosphere. The particles made by this collision interact with the air, creating even more particles in a phenomenon known as a cosmic ray shower. In 1973, using a large collection of particle detectors, Philip Crough and Roger Clay identified a putative superluminal particle in an air shower, although this result has never been reproduced."
