With the aim of increasing the number and diversity of people who have access to scientific data and thus support the development of shared scientific potential for the future, Pierre Auger collaboration 10% of the data recorded by the world’s largest cosmic ray detector located in Malargue, Mendoza County, released.
The Pierre Auger project is an international initiative that seeks to define the origin and identity of cosmic rays to enhance understanding of our universe.
CNEA is one of the main participants in this project, with 400 scientists from nearly a hundred institutions in 18 countries participating who observe cosmic ray showers and measure the cascades of particles that are produced every time a cosmic ray collides. Molecules in the upper atmosphere. This determines the energy, direction of arrival, and the nature of cosmic rays of the highest observable energies.
Data from the Pierre Auger Observatory and the computer platform that supports it are of immense value to the global scientific community, so its publication is expected to generate educational and scientific communication initiatives. The data set released consists of 10% of all events recorded at the observatory, which are subject to the same selection and reconstruction procedures that Pierre Auger Collaboration has used in recent publications.
The analysis of this data made it possible, for example, to demonstrate that high-energy particles have an extralactic origin, to measure their energy spectrum and to detect indicators of astronomical particle emission from specific nearby sources, as well as to distinguish the type. Of the particles that these wonderful energies transmit.
To classify this data, it has been divided into four levels of complexity that have been adapted to the Auger Collaboration Open Access Policy:
Level 1Open access scholarly publications, with additional digital data to facilitate reuse.
Level 2: Periodic publication of cosmic ray data in a simplified form for education and awareness. It began in 2007, when 1% of the data was published, and increased to 10% in 2019.
Level 3: Propagate reconstructed cosmic ray events, selected with the best available knowledge of detector performance and conditions at the time of data collection. Examples of code derived from that used by the Collaboration Organization for published analyzes are also provided.
Level 4: The publication of semi-raw data on these events. An event and cipher browser is also provided to read this data.
For more information and access to data, you can visit the website of Pierre Auger collaboration, Which also includes data from the observatory’s two main tools: the observatory surface detector, which covers 3,000 square kilometers, and the fluorescence detector.
About the Pierre Auger Observatory
To solve the mystery of high-energy cosmic rays, the Pierre Auger Observatory studies the cascades of particles that occur every time a cosmic ray collides with particles in the upper atmosphere. This determines the energy, direction of arrival, and nature of subatomic particles to the highest observable energies.
The observatory is located in the counties of Malargue and San Rafael, Mendoza County. It operates a network of 1,660 surface detectors, 1.5 km apart, covering a total of 3,000 km2. The network of surface detectors is completed by an array of 27 highly sensitive telescopes that, on clear moonless nights, scan the atmosphere to note the faint ultraviolet light produced by cascades of showers of secondary particles as they pass through the air.
