Latest Astroparticle physics Stories

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology It is obvious from the data of the KASCADE-Grande experiment at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) that the so-called “knee” of the cosmic rays, a bend in the energy spectrum at high energies, is located at different energies for light and heavy particles. As regards light particles, the scientists have now found that the energy spectrum flattens again beyond the knee and forms a type of “ankle”. This structure indicates that cosmic...

John P. Millis, Ph.D. for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online The search for dark matter has been heating up over the last year or so. First, researchers using the Fermi Gamma-ray Telescope announced that a preliminary analysis of the soft gamma-ray data suggested evidence of dark matter annihilations coming from the galactic center. Then, early results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer found an excess of positrons in their data, an expected signature of dark matter interactions....

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Using detectors created at Stanford, an international collaboration of scientists has, for the first time, observed a concrete hint of a WIMP – weakly interacting massive particle.  Physicists believe the WIMPs could be the particles behind the mysterious phenomenon of dark matter, which is thought to make up nearly a quarter of the Universe’s mass-energy. Texas A&M high-energy physicist Rupak Mahaptra is part of the Super...

[ Watch the Video: AMS Time Lapse Installation ] John P. Millis, Ph.D. for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online For decades scientists have wondered whether a mysterious form of matter – known simply as Dark Matter since it does not interact directly with light – makes up the majority of the “stuff” in the Universe. Researchers have pointed to the seminal work on the Bullet Cluster of galaxies as evidence that dark matter is a real substance. But similar observations of...

AURA announced today that Dr. Steven M. Kahn will assume the role of Director of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) Project effective July 1, 2013. Dr. Kahn will succeed Dr. Sidney C. Wolff and retain his current affiliation with SLAC and Stanford. LSST is the top-ranked large-scale ground-based project for the next decade as recommended by the National Research Council’s Astronomy and Astrophysics decadal survey (Astro2010). By digitally imaging the sky for a decade, the LSST...

University of Chicago The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has awarded $4.4 million to a collaboration of scientists at five United States universities and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center to help build a telescope for deployment on the International Space Station in 2017. The U.S. collaboration is part of a 13-nation effort to build the 2.5-meter ultraviolet telescope, called the Extreme Universe Space Observatory. UChicago Prof. Angela Olinto leads the U.S....

[ Listen to the Webcast ] John P. Millis, Ph.D. for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online As we search the heavens, one of the striking observations is that we are constantly bombarded by a stream of extremely high energy charged particles, traveling at nearly the speed of light. Known as Cosmic Rays – composed mostly (90%) of protons with the rest mostly heavy nuclei and a small number of electrons – these particles appear to come from all directions. But where do they come...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new study using observations from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope reveals the first clear-cut evidence the expanding debris of exploded stars produces some of the fastest-moving matter in the universe. This discovery is a major step toward understanding the origin of cosmic rays, one of Fermi's primary mission goals. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) "Scientists have been trying to find the...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online According to a new study, black hole cosmic radiation blasted into the Earth back in the 8th century. Japanese astrophysicist Fusa Miyake discovered last year clues for the strange event located in the rings of ancient cedar trees that dated back to either 774 or 775 AD. Researchers teamed together to determine what had caused the surge in carbon-14 in the rings and found no evidence of a supernova, as they had expected. The...

John P. Millis, Ph.D. for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online For much of the last century, scientists have been searching for a mysterious substance thought to make up about 85 percent of the total mass of the Universe. Without it, galactic rotation curves, galaxy interactions and the very structure of the Universe are inconsistent with our knowledge of physics. Yet, this so-called dark matter remains elusive. One reason researchers have had such a difficult time finding and...