Pierre Auger Project

9979239克罗宁科学家喜欢神秘，因为解决自然界的一个谜意味着有机会了解宇宙的新事物。高能宇宙射线就是这样一个谜。 它们从哪里来，它们如何获得能量，以及它们如何到达这里都不知道。最高能量的宇宙射线的能量是世界上最强大的粒子加速器产生的粒子的一亿倍。 那里有什么东西--没人知道是什么--正在向宇宙中投掷令人难以置信的高能粒子。这些粒子来自于某种未知的超级强大的宇宙爆炸吗？从一个巨大的黑洞吞噬恒星到它们的暴毙？ 星系碰撞的结果？从宇宙起源的巨大无形遗迹的崩溃中？每秒钟，大约有200个能量为几百万电子伏特的宇宙射线粒子撞击地球的每一平方米。虽然这些低能量的宇宙射线是丰富的，但更高能量的宇宙射线要罕见得多。能量超过10 ^18 eV时，每星期只有一个粒子福尔斯落在一平方公里的区域上。在10 ^20 eV以上的能量，在一个世纪里，只有一个粒子福尔斯落在一平方公里上！为了发现和测量这些罕见的事件，高能宇宙射线研究需要一个真正的巨型探测器。这是皮埃尔·俄歇合作提出的仪器。皮埃尔·俄歇项目将建造两个3000平方公里的探测器网格，每隔1.5公里。南半球的一个阵列将试图追踪高能宇宙射线的未知来源，该项目得到数学和物理科学局物理司和多学科活动办公室的联合支助。

9979239CroninScientists love a mystery, because solving a mystery in nature means the opportunity to learn something new about the universe. High-energy cosmic rays are just such a mystery. Where they come from, how they get their energy, and how they get here is not known. The highest-energy cosmic rays have a hundred million times more energy than the particles produced in the world's most powerful particle accelerator. Something out there -- no one knows what -- is hurling incredibly energetic particles around the universe. Do these particles come from some unknown super-powerful cosmic explosion? From a huge black hole sucking stars to their violent deaths? From colliding galaxies? From the collapse of massive invisible relics from the origin of the universe?Each second, about 200 cosmic ray particles with energies of a few million electron volts strike every square meter of the earth. While these low-energy cosmic rays are plentiful, cosmic rays at higher energies are far rarer. Above the energy of 10^18 eV, only one particle each week falls on an area of one square kilometer. Above the energy of 10^20 eV, only one particle falls on a square kilometer in a century! To find and measure these rare events, a high-energy cosmic ray study needs a truly giant detector. This is the instrument proposed by the Pierre Auger collaboration.The Pierre Auger Project will construct two 3000 square kilometer grids of detectors spaced at 1.5 kilometer intervals. An array in the Southern Hemisphere will attempt to track high-energy cosmic rays to their unknown sources.This project is supported jointly by the Division of Physics and the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate.