Cosmic Rays
Do you remember seeing the TED talk by Jill Tarter as she accepted the 2009 TED Prize? Jill is one of my hero's and I follower her work closely. Its an inspiring talk and should provoke thought and if possible action. As she spoke to those at the TED conference she said:
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"I wish that you would empower Earthlings everywhere to become active participants in the ultimate search for cosmic company" |
Projects for Citizen Scientists
- ERGO
- CosmicPi
- CosmicWatch
- SETIPixel - My own project
Other Cosmic Ray Telescopes
There are several professional projects with observatories around the world. Wikipedia lists several:
- Telescope Array in Utah
- CHICOS
- CTA
- GAMMA
- High Energy Stereoscopic System
- High Resolution Fly's Eye Cosmic Ray Detector
- MAGIC (telescope)
- MARIACHI
- Pierre Auger Observatory
- Telescope Array Project
One that Wiki doesn't list is the H.E.S.S II system that came to First Light just recently (0:43 a.m. on 26 July 2012). H.E.S.S II is a massive machine that is built to study very high energy particles from space using the Cherenkov process.
The Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina is also built to observe these particles but has a much different physical organization (an array of water tanks). Its interesting to use Google Earth to see the location of Pierre Auger. Fly to:-34.928516, -68.994057 to see one of the tanks in the most God forsaken part of the earth possible.
Detecting and tracking cosmic rays is a huge subject and well worth investigating. Start, as usual, with Wikipedia.
| "We, all of us, are what happens when a primordial mixture of hydrogen and helium evolves for so long that it begins to ask where it came from.” (Jill Tarter) |
