Earth's outer atmosphere is regularly blasted by subatomic particles
packing so much energy that they defy explanation. These highest
energy cosmic rays have baffled physicists for decades because
no one has found sources powerful enough to generate them in
our cosmic neighborhood. They have been the elite particles
in the universe. Here we first summarize our current
understanding of how they could be produced and reach the earth,
then explain what we have seen by the Akeno
Giant Air Shower Array (AGASA) we built at 140 km west of Tokyo
to challenge the mystery of the elite. Our measurements have
generated an even more fascinating puzzle and we briefely introduce
one exotic but interesting and feasible possibility
to explain the measurements: Neutrinos might Rule!
