Other
Scientific paper
Oct 1993
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1993aipc..291...35s&link_type=abstract
Prairie View summer science academy. AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 291, pp. 35-53 (1993).
Other
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Neutrino, Muon, Pion, And Other Elementary Particle Detectors, Cosmic Ray Detectors, Cosmic Rays
Scientific paper
For millennia humankind has looked at the stars and wondered about the universe. Only in recent years have we been able to ``look'' at the stars by means other than visible light. Not only can we now use photons of other wavelengths-from radio waves to ultra-high-energy gamma rays-but we can also detect, or try to detect, other particles. These include (i) cosmic rays-charged particles; probably protons, but perhaps heavier nuclei, which arrive from outer space with energies up to 1020 eV (the Greissen cutoff, a limit due to collisions with the 3 K microwave background radiation); (ii) neutrinos-which can penetrate through large amounts of intervening matter, whereas photons are blocked by less than 100 grams of matter; (iii) gravitational waves-which can be produced by collapsing binaries of neutron stars or black holes, or other large, violent astrophysical events.
The talk mentioned some of the weird and wonderful detectors now operating or being built: Cherenkov telescopes, air-shower arrays; neutrino detectors, including the AMANDA detector embedded in the antarctic ice; and the laser-interferometer gravitational-wave detector, LIGO. This ``New Astronomy'' is just beginning. We have already ``seen'' neutrinos coming from our sun, and the burst of neutrinos that came from the nearby supernova in 1987. We have also ``seen'' gamma rays of TeV energy-higher than the most energetic photon beam yet produced on earth-coming from the Crab Nebula (the remnant of a supernova that exploded in the year 1054). Many more exciting discoveries can be confidently expected in the next few years.
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