When an ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray impacts the Earth’s atmosphere, it can generate an enormous cascade of billions of energetic particles capable of reaching the ground.
Scientific Highlights
One of the most pressing mysteries in astroparticle physics is the composition and origin of cosmic rays at energies around 1 EeV = 1018 eV.
100 years after their prediction by Albert Einstein, Gravitational Waves (GW) were detected in 2015 by the LIGO detectors.
The highest energy cosmic rays remain elusive and mysterious, and their study requires extraordinary efforts.
Maxwell’s unified description of electric and magnetic phenomena is one of the greatest achievements of 19th century physics.
Cosmic rays are energetic particles, mostly atomic nuclei, raining down upon the Earth from the depths of the cosmos.