Cosmic-ray observatory
Encyclopedia
Cosmic ray
Cosmic rays are energetic charged subatomic particles, originating from outer space. They may produce secondary particles that penetrate the Earth's atmosphere and surface. The term ray is historical as cosmic rays were thought to be electromagnetic radiation...
s. This typically includes photons (high-energy light), electrons, protons, and some heavier nuclei, as well as antimatter
Antimatter
In particle physics, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter, where antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed of particles...
particles. About 90% of cosmic rays are protons, 9% are alpha particles, and the rest are other particles including but not limited to lithium, beryllium and boron. About .01% of incoming cosmic rays are made of antimatter.
It is not yet possible to build image forming optics for cosmic rays, like a Wolter telescope
Wolter telescope
A Wolter telescope is a telescope for X-rays using only grazing incidence optics. Visible light telescopes are built with lenses or parabolic mirrors at nearly normal incidence. Neither works well for X-rays. Lenses for visible light are made of a transparent material with an index of refraction...
for lower energy X-rays, although some cosmic-ray observatories also look for high energy gamma rays and x-rays. Ultra-high-energy cosmic ray
Ultra-high-energy cosmic ray
In astroparticle physics, an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray or extreme-energy cosmic ray is a cosmic ray with an extreme kinetic energy, far beyond both its rest mass and energies typical of other cosmic rays....
s (UHEC) pose further detection problems. One way of learning about cosmic rays is using different detectors to observe aspects of a cosmic ray air shower
Air shower (physics)
An air shower is an extensive cascade of ionized particles and electromagnetic radiation produced in the atmosphere when a primary cosmic ray enters the atmosphere...
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Gamma-ray detection
Methods of detection for Gamma-rays.- Scintillation Detectors
- Solid State Detectors
- Compton Scattering
- Pair Telescopes
- Air Cerenkov Detectors
For example, while a visible light photon may have an energy of a few eV, a cosmic gamma ray may exceed a TeV (1,000,000,000,000 eV). Sometimes cosmic gamma rays (photons) are not grouped with nuclei cosmic rays.
History
The Explorer 1 satellite launched in 1958 measured cosmic rays. Anton 314 omnidirectional Geiger-Müller tubeGeiger-Müller tube
A Geiger–Müller tube is the sensing element of a Geiger counter instrument that can detect a single particle of ionizing radiation, and typically produce an audible click for each. It was named for Hans Geiger who invented the device in 1908, and Walther Müller who collaborated with Geiger in...
, designed by Dr. George Ludwig of Iowa's Cosmic Ray Laboratory, detected cosmic ray
Cosmic ray
Cosmic rays are energetic charged subatomic particles, originating from outer space. They may produce secondary particles that penetrate the Earth's atmosphere and surface. The term ray is historical as cosmic rays were thought to be electromagnetic radiation...
s. It could detect proton
Proton
The proton is a subatomic particle with the symbol or and a positive electric charge of 1 elementary charge. One or more protons are present in the nucleus of each atom, along with neutrons. The number of protons in each atom is its atomic number....
s with E > 30 MeV
Electronvolt
In physics, the electron volt is a unit of energy equal to approximately joule . By definition, it is equal to the amount of kinetic energy gained by a single unbound electron when it accelerates through an electric potential difference of one volt...
and electron
Electron
The electron is a subatomic particle with a negative elementary electric charge. It has no known components or substructure; in other words, it is generally thought to be an elementary particle. An electron has a mass that is approximately 1/1836 that of the proton...
s with E > 3 MeV. Most of the time the instrument was saturated
Saturated absorption
In experimental physics, saturated absorption is a set-up that enables the precise determination of the transition frequency of an atom between its ground state and an optically excited state. The accuracy to which these frequencies can be determined should ideally be only limited by the width of...
;
Sometimes the instrumentation would report the expected cosmic ray count (approximately thirty counts per second) but sometimes it would show a peculiar zero counts per second. The University of Iowa (under Van Allen) noted that all of the zero counts per second reports were from an altitude of 2,000+ km (1,250+ miles) over South America, while passes at 500 km (310.7 mi) would show the expected level of cosmic rays. Later, after Explorer 3, it was concluded that the original Geiger counter had been overwhelmed ("saturated") by strong radiation coming from a belt of charged particles trapped in space by the Earth's magnetic field. This belt of charged particles is now known as the Van Allen radiation belt.
Cosmic rays were studied aboard the space station Mir
Mir
Mir was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, at first by the Soviet Union and then by Russia. Assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996, Mir was the first modular space station and had a greater mass than that of any previous spacecraft, holding the record for the...
in the late 20th century, such as with the SilEye experiment. This studied the relationship between flashes seen by astronauts in space and cosmic rays, the cosmic ray visual phenomena
Cosmic ray visual phenomena
Cosmic ray visual phenomena, also referred to as phosphenes or "light flashes", are spontaneous flashes of light visually perceived by astronauts outside the magnetosphere of the Earth, such as during the Apollo program. Researchers believe that cosmic rays are responsible for these flashes of...
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Observatories and experiments
There are a number of cosmic ray research initiatives. These include, but are not limited to:- Ground Experiment
- ALBORZ Observatory
- CHICOSCHICOSThe California High School Cosmic Ray Observatory, , operated by the Kellogg Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, USA, is one of the world's largest ongoing Cosmic Ray observatory programs...
- GAMMAGAMMAGAMMA experiment is a study of: a) Primary cosmic ray energy spectra and elemental composition at energies 1015-1018eV ;b) Galactic diffuse gamma-ray intensity at energies 1014-1015eV;...
- High Resolution Fly's Eye Cosmic Ray DetectorHigh Resolution Fly's Eye Cosmic Ray DetectorThe High Resolution Fly's Eye or HiRes detector was an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray observatory that operated in the western Utah desert from May 1997 until April 2006. HiRes utilized the atmospheric fluorescence technique that was pioneered by the Utah group first in tests at the Volcano Ranch...
- MAGIC (telescope)MAGIC (telescope)MAGIC is a system of two Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes situated at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma, one of the Canary Islands, at about 2200 m above sea level...
- MARIACHIMARIACHIMARIACHI, the Mixed Apparatus for Radar Investigation of Cosmic-rays of High Ionization, is an apparatus for the detection of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays via bi-static radar using VHF transmitters. MARIACHI is also the name of the research project at Brookhaven National Laboratory operating the...
- Pierre Auger ObservatoryPierre Auger ObservatoryThe Pierre Auger Observatory is an international cosmic ray observatory designed to detect ultra-high-energy cosmic rays: single sub-atomic particles with energies beyond 1020 eV...
- Telescope Array ProjectTelescope Array ProjectThe Telescope Array project is an international collaboration involving research and educational institutions in Japan, Taiwan, China, Russia, South Korea, and the United States. The experiment is designed to observe ultra-high-energy cosmic ray air showers using a combination of ground array and...
- WALTA (Washington Large Area Time Coincidence Array)Washington Large Area Time Coincidence ArrayThe Washington Area Large-scale Time-coincidence Array is a cosmic ray physics experiment run by the University of Washington to investigate ultra high energy cosmic rays . The program uses detectors placed at Seattle-area high schools and colleges which are linked via the internet, effectively...
- Satellite Experiment
- PAMELA
- Alpha Magnetic SpectrometerAlpha Magnetic SpectrometerThe Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, also designated AMS-02, is a particle physics experiment module that is mounted on the International Space Station. It is designed to search for various types of unusual matter by measuring cosmic rays. Its experiments will help researchers study the formation of...
- Spaceship EarthSpaceship Earth (detector)Spaceship Earth is a network of neutron monitors designed to measure the flux of cosmic rays arriving at Earth from different directions. All the 12 member neutron monitor stations are located at high latitude, which makes their detecting directions more precise, and their energy responses uniform...
- ACE (Advanced Composition Explorer)Advanced Composition ExplorerAdvanced Composition Explorer is a NASA space exploration mission being conducted as part of the Explorer program to study matter in situ, comprising energetic particles from the solar wind, the interplanetary medium, and other sources. Real-time data from ACE is used by the Space Weather...
- Voyager 1Voyager 1The Voyager 1 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram space probe launched by NASA in 1977, to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space. Operating for as of today , the spacecraft receives routine commands and transmits data back to the Deep Space Network. At a distance of as of...
and Voyager 2Voyager 2The Voyager 2 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977 to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space... - Cassini-HuygensCassini-HuygensCassini–Huygens is a joint NASA/ESA/ASI spacecraft mission studying the planet Saturn and its many natural satellites since 2004. Launched in 1997 after nearly two decades of gestation, it includes a Saturn orbiter and an atmospheric probe/lander for the moon Titan, although it has also returned...
- HEAO 1, Einstein Observatory (HEAO2)Einstein ObservatoryEinstein Observatory was the first fully imaging X-ray telescope put into space and the second of NASA's three High Energy Astrophysical Observatories...
, HEAO 3
- Balloon-borne Experiment
- BESS (Balloon-borne Experiment with Superconducting Spectrometer)BESSBESS is a particle physics experiment carried by a balloon. BESS stands for Balloon-borne Experiment with Superconducting Spectrometer...
- ATIC (Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter)Advanced Thin Ionization CalorimeterThe Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter is a balloon-borne instrument flying in the stratosphere over Antarctica to measure the energy and composition of cosmic rays...
- TRACER (cosmic ray detector)TRACER (cosmic ray detector)Transition Radiation Array for Cosmic Energetic Radiation is a balloon flown cosmic ray detector built and designed at the University of Chicago. The detector is designed to measure the energy spectra of cosmic ray nuclei with atomic numbers between five and twenty-six .-External links:* on the...
- BOOMERanG experimentBOOMERanG experimentThe BOOMERanG experiment measured the cosmic microwave background radiation of a part of the sky during three sub-orbital balloon flights. It was the first experiment to make large, high fidelity images of the CMB temperature anisotropies...
- TIGER http://tiger.gsfc.nasa.gov/
- Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass(CREAM) http://cosmicray.umd.edu/cream/
- BESS (Balloon-borne Experiment with Superconducting Spectrometer)
Ultra high energy cosmic rays
Observatories for ultra-high-energy cosmic rayUltra-high-energy cosmic ray
In astroparticle physics, an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray or extreme-energy cosmic ray is a cosmic ray with an extreme kinetic energy, far beyond both its rest mass and energies typical of other cosmic rays....
s:
- MARIACHIMARIACHIMARIACHI, the Mixed Apparatus for Radar Investigation of Cosmic-rays of High Ionization, is an apparatus for the detection of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays via bi-static radar using VHF transmitters. MARIACHI is also the name of the research project at Brookhaven National Laboratory operating the...
- Mixed Apparatus for Radar Investigation of Cosmic-rays of High Ionization located on Long Island, USA. - GRAPES-3GRAPES-3GRAPES-3 is a project for cosmic ray study with air shower detector array and large area muon detectors at Ooty in southern India...
(Gamma Ray Astronomy PeV EnergieS 3rd establishment) is a project for cosmic ray study with air shower detector array and large area muon detectors at Ooty in southern India. - LOPES (telescope)LOPES (telescope)The LOPES project is a cosmic ray detector array, located in Karlsruhe, Germany, and is operated in coincidence with an existing, well calibrated air shower experiment called KASCADE....
- LOFAR PrototypE Station is located in Karlsruhe, Germany is part of the LOFARLOFARLOFAR is the Low Frequency Array for radio astronomy, built by the Netherlands astronomical foundation ASTRON and operated by ASTRON's radio observatory....
project. - AGASAAGASAThe Akeno Giant Air Shower Array is a very large surface array designed to study the origin of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. It covers an area of 100 km2 and consists of 111 surface detectors and 27 muon detectors...
- Akeno Giant Air Shower Array in Japan - High Resolution Fly's Eye Cosmic Ray DetectorHigh Resolution Fly's Eye Cosmic Ray DetectorThe High Resolution Fly's Eye or HiRes detector was an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray observatory that operated in the western Utah desert from May 1997 until April 2006. HiRes utilized the atmospheric fluorescence technique that was pioneered by the Utah group first in tests at the Volcano Ranch...
(HiRes) - Yakutsk Extensive Air Shower ArrayYakutskWith a subarctic climate , Yakutsk is the coldest city, though not the coldest inhabited place, on Earth. Average monthly temperatures range from in July to in January. The coldest temperatures ever recorded on the planet outside Antarctica occurred in the basin of the Yana River to the northeast...
- Pierre Auger ObservatoryPierre Auger ObservatoryThe Pierre Auger Observatory is an international cosmic ray observatory designed to detect ultra-high-energy cosmic rays: single sub-atomic particles with energies beyond 1020 eV...
- Extreme Universe Space ObservatoryExtreme Universe Space ObservatoryThe Extreme Universe Space Observatory is the first Space mission concept devoted to the investigation of cosmic rays and neutrinos of extreme energy...
- Telescope Array ProjectTelescope Array ProjectThe Telescope Array project is an international collaboration involving research and educational institutions in Japan, Taiwan, China, Russia, South Korea, and the United States. The experiment is designed to observe ultra-high-energy cosmic ray air showers using a combination of ground array and...
- Antarctic Impulse Transient AntennaANtarctic Impulse Transient AntennaThe AA experiment has been designed to study ultra-high-energy cosmic neutrinos by detecting the radio pulses emitted by their interacting with the Antarctic ice sheet...
(ANITA) detects ultra-high-energy cosmic neutrinoNeutrinoA neutrino is an electrically neutral, weakly interacting elementary subatomic particle with a half-integer spin, chirality and a disputed but small non-zero mass. It is able to pass through ordinary matter almost unaffected...
s believed to be caused by ultra-high-energy cosmic rays - The COSMICi project at FAMU is developing technology for a distributed network of low-cost detectors for UHECR showers in collaboration with MARIACHIMARIACHIMARIACHI, the Mixed Apparatus for Radar Investigation of Cosmic-rays of High Ionization, is an apparatus for the detection of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays via bi-static radar using VHF transmitters. MARIACHI is also the name of the research project at Brookhaven National Laboratory operating the...
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See also
- Extragalactic cosmic rayExtragalactic cosmic rayExtragalactic cosmic rays are very-high-energy particles that flow into our solar system from beyond our galaxy. The energies these particles possess are in excess of 1015 eV.- Origin :...
Gamma-ray telescopes (Alphabetic list)
- Gamma-ray astronomyGamma-ray astronomyGamma-ray astronomy is the astronomical study of the cosmos with gamma rays. Gamma-rays are the most energetic form of "light" that travel across the universe, and gamma-rays thus have the smallest wavelength of any wave in the electromagnetic spectrum.Gamma-rays are created by celestial events...
& X-ray astronomyX-ray astronomyX-ray astronomy is an observational branch of astronomy which deals with the study of X-ray observation and detection from astronomical objects. X-radiation is absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere, so instruments to detect X-rays must be taken to high altitude by balloons, sounding rockets, and... - X-rays from lightning
External links
- "Strange Instrument Built To Solve Mystery Of Cosmic Rays", April 1932, Popular Science
- The Highest Energy Particle Ever Recorded The details of the event from the official site of the Fly's Eye detector.
- John WalkerJohn Walker (programmer)John Walker is a computer programmer and a co-founder of the computer-aided design software company Autodesk, and a co-author of early versions of AutoCAD, a product Autodesk originally acquired from programmer Michael Riddle...
's lively analysis of the 1991 event, published in 1994 - Origin of energetic space particles pinpointed, by Mark Peplow for news@nature.com, published January 13, 2005.