Cosmic rays are mysterious particles arriving from space constantly bombard the Earth from all directions. Only a few have the highest energy is known and now also know from where come. Yesterday, scientists at the Pierre Auger Observatory, located in Malargue, unveiled the mystery: they linked the origin of cosmic rays at high energy with the nearest galaxies that have active nuclei. So a new research discipline, of charged particle astronomy opens. The scientific breakthrough was made in Mendoza and reached the international press, is now on the cover of the prestigious journal Science. Thus, the observatory world’s largest cosmic ray unveiled its biggest advance since it began working with stable data, in 2004 Seventeen countries and more than 370 were involved in scientific research, including Mendoza experts. Members of the international Pierre Auger collaboration of the world we explained yesterday that the origin of cosmic rays is related to the nearest galaxies that have active nuclei. What this means First I must say that a galaxy consists of stars, gas clouds, dust, matter and energy. Then the experts -enfatizaron some of these galaxies have active nuclei (AGN, for its acronym in English) indicating the presence of a black hole with a lot of mass, which absorbs large amounts of energy. Then, the cores of these galaxies attract and devour gas, dust and material and release a large amount of energy particles and Cosmo, ie the rays emerge. We discovered that cosmic rays of the highest energies does not flow equally from all directions. There preferential directions of arrival. This discovery opens a new era for observing the Universe: born cosmic ray astronomy, noted Alberto Etchegoyen, who from the National Atomic Energy Commission leads the project in Argentina. Step by step beam to beam or cosmic rays are protons and atomic nuclei that travel through the universe with near-light speeds. Just these particles enter the Earth’s atmosphere collide with air molecules and create a cascade of secondary particles, which can be dispersed in forty or more square kilometers when it reaches the planet. The Pierre Auger, two types of detectors-the cosmic rays of fluorescencia- surface and captured by three and a half years to these mysterious particles. In a Malargüe area three thousand square kilometers, cosmic events were many, almost half a million, but only 27 were optimal for research. High energy events were 27 and 20 were selected, who came from nearby galaxies and not ours. For example, from the galaxy Centaurus A, which is close and is being studied, came two events, astronomer explained Beatriz García, member of the Argentina collaboration and group coordinator at the National Technological University (UTN). Scientists now know that cosmic rays of the highest energies can not come from great distances, over hundreds of millions of light years, because they lose energy in collisions with the cosmic microwave background radiation left and the Big Bang which fills all space, described Diego Harari, Bariloche Atomic Center researcher and CONICET. What is the next challenge continue to explore the galaxy Centaurus A, analyzing high-energy events in other galaxies and the physical Esteban -remarcó Roulet- know what happens to the particles of low energy. Yesterday, from Mendoza, took a step closer to understanding the universe.
Source: Diario Los Andes
