Cosmic ray and astroparticle detectors comprise experimental techniques and instrumentation designed to measure high-energy particles and radiation originating from space, including charged cosmic rays, gamma rays, neutrinos, and, indirectly, dark matter candidates. Detection methods exploit diverse physical processes such as ionization (gas chambers, silicon trackers), scintillation (organic and inorganic scintillators), Cherenkov radiation (water/ice Cherenkov, air Cherenkov telescopes), and calorimetry (electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters), often combined in hybrid observatories. These techniques enable reconstruction of particle energy, charge, direction, and composition, support studies of extensive air showers, and underpin astroparticle physics investigations of cosmic accelerators, fundamental interactions at extreme energies, and the high-energy universe’s particle and radiation fields.
In 2024, a U.S. government official warned that Russia could be developing a new satellite designed to carry nuclear weapons into space. The statement followed the launch of a suspicious Russian satellite into low-Earth orbit ...
General Physics
Jul 8, 2026
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A new study has revealed an unexpected link between solar storms and the flux of high-energy cosmic rays arriving at Earth. The findings, made using one of the world's largest cosmic ray detectors, could open up a new way ...
Millions of light-years away, millions of years ago, a star exploded. In this violent process, it ejected incredible amounts of mass, including carbon, nitrogen and oxygen—the building blocks of life. In fact, the star may ...
Astronomy
Jun 18, 2026
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A new study published in Physical Review Letters by the IceCube Collaboration reports evidence that the energy spectrum of astrophysical neutrinos is not a simple straight line.
NASA's Psyche spacecraft will get a boost from Mars on Friday, May 15, passing just 2,800 miles (4,500 kilometers) from the planet's surface at some 12,333 mph (19,848 kph). The spacecraft will harness the planet's gravitational ...
Planetary Sciences
May 9, 2026
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217
There may be an ultraheavy explanation for the mystery surrounding the origins of the highest-energy particles ever observed. Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays are particles from space that strike Earth with energies far beyond ...
Astronomy
May 7, 2026
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Theories of quantum mechanics predict that some particles can exist in superpositions, which essentially means that they can be in more than one state at once. When a particle's state is measured, however, this superposition ...
A century after their discovery, cosmic rays—particles of extreme energy originating from the far reaches of the universe—remain a mystery to scientists. The DAMPE (Dark Matter Particle Explorer) space telescope is tackling ...
Astronomy
Apr 30, 2026
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76
A detector buried deep in Antarctic ice has captured the first experimental evidence of a predicted but never-before-seen phenomenon: radio pulses generated when high-energy cosmic rays slam into the ice sheet and trigger ...
In the exotic world of particle physics, neutrinos may be the most mysterious members. They rarely interact with other matter, have almost no mass, and have no electrical charge. These characteristics make them extremely ...
Astronomy
Apr 24, 2026
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