The discovery was made using an instrument conceived and modeled by Seo, an associate professor in the Institute for Physical Science and Technology and the department of physics at the University of Maryland. Called the Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter, or ATIC, this instrument was flown high above the Antarctic on-board a NASA balloon as part of an ATIC collaboration led by John P. Wefel, a professor in the department of physics & astronomy at LSU
Read More: UM Conceived Experiment Finds Mysterious Cosmic Radiation
UM Conceived Experiment Finds Mysterious Cosmic Radiation
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- An international research project conceived by University of Maryland physicist Eun-Suk Seo has discovered an unexpected surplus of cosmic ray high energy electrons that appear to come from a previously unidentified and relatively nearby cosmic source.
Newsflash
"Galactic cosmic rays consist of protons, electrons and ions, most of which are believed to be accelerated to relativistic speeds in supernova remnants1, 2, 3. All components of the cosmic rays show an intensity that decreases as a power law with increasing energy (for example as E-2.7). Electrons in particular lose energy rapidly through synchrotron and inverse Compton processes, resulting in a relatively short lifetime (about 105 years) and a rapidly falling intensity, which raises the possibility of seeing the contribution from individual nearby sources (less than one kiloparsec away)4." Nature 456, 362-365 (20 November 2008)
Read More: An excess of cosmic ray electrons at energies of 300–800 GeV, November 19, 2008 |
Copyright © 2009 Cosmicray Physics Group. All Rights Reserved.
Joomla! is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL License.
