Cosmic rays & astroparticles is a research area focused on high-energy particles of extraterrestrial origin and their role in fundamental physics and astrophysics. It encompasses experimental and theoretical studies of primary cosmic rays (protons, nuclei, electrons), secondary air-shower particles, gamma rays, neutrinos, and other non-photonic messengers that probe extreme environments such as supernova remnants, active galactic nuclei, and compact objects. The field integrates particle detection techniques, high-energy astrophysics, plasma and magnetic field modeling, and multi-messenger observations to investigate particle acceleration mechanisms, propagation in interstellar and intergalactic media, and potential signatures of new physics beyond the Standard Model.
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 ...
The world's most powerful particle accelerator will shutter operations Monday for four years of renovations to dramatically boost its collision capacity and the potential for unlocking one of the greatest mysteries of the ...
General Physics
Jun 27, 2026
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There are multiple ways to form black holes. The one most commonly taught in high school physics classes is that they are created from the collapse of a dying star. But there is another class of black holes, known as primordial ...
Astronomy
Jun 22, 2026
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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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Neutrinos are one of the fundamental particles of the universe. They live a ghostly existence with no electric charge, very little mass and extremely few interactions with matter. They are also the most abundant particles ...
Astronomy
Jun 17, 2026
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When a star dies, it generates an explosion of elemental nuclei and hurls them into space. Those elements, called cosmic rays, travel at nearly the speed of light, and eventually some of them encounter manmade detectors. ...
General Physics
Jun 13, 2026
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Cosmic rays seen at Earth show a wide range of particle energies, from 107 electron-volts (eV) to more than 1020 eV, the latter being about the same as the kinetic energy of a 450 gram football (soccer ball) being kicked ...
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.
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 ...
