The Earth’s atmosphere significantly attenuates the detection of many cosmic rays, making observation from space a necessary approach for comprehensive study. A key long-term investigation in this field is the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02), which has been operational on the International Space Station (ISS) for more than thirteen years. New research findings, presented in a recent paper, offer novel insights into particle physics and necessitate revisions to existing theoretical models.
Over a period spanning 13.5 years, the AMS-02 device successfully recorded an immense volume of data, totaling 230 trillion cosmic ray events. While the majority of these interactions involved the most common chemical elements—hydrogen and helium—the detection of heavy elements is considerably rarer, with only a few hundred such events recorded. This new study specifically focused on measuring the flux of five challenging-to-detect elements: phosphorus, chlorine, argon, potassium, and calcium.
The researchers analyzed the data gathered in space to characterize the composition of these particles. They concluded that the measured flux for each of these elements is accurately described by two distinct contributing components. These detailed measurements provide critical data points regarding the sources and propagation pathways of these cosmic materials, furthering our understanding of the fundamental processes occurring in the galaxy.
Topics: #space #cosmic #them
