Number 243 (Story #1), October 5, 1995 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein ULTRAHIGH ENERGY COSMIC RAYS , those with energies above 10**19 eV, pose a problem for astrophysicists. The rays can't originate from too far out in the cosmos, otherwise interactions with photons in the cosmic microwave background would have cooled down the cosmic rays to lower energies. Do they, as some theorists propose, come from the decay of superheavy primordial particles? (See the item in New Scientist, 26 August 1995.) Addressing the subject of whether the high energy cosmic rays come from relatively nearby, a new study of the arrival directions of 143 cosmic ray events with energies of higher than 2 x 10**19 eV reveals a nonuniformity; the rays seem to arrive preferentially from the "supergalactic plane," which, according to Todor Stanev of the Bartol Institute (temporary address in Italy: stanev@roma1.infn.it) is defined by the agglomeration of nearby galaxies (redshift less than 0.03); in the northern hemisphere this would mean roughly the Virgo cluster of galaxies. This finding supports the notion that the highest energy cosmic rays originate outside our own galaxy, perhaps in relatively nearby radio galaxies. (Todor Stanev et al., 23 October 1995, Physical Review Letters; Journalists: for a copy of the article, contact AIP Public Information at physnews@aip.org)