Los Alamos Observatory Fingers Cosmic Ray ‘Hot Spots’
An international team of researchers, using Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Milagro observatory, has
seen for the first time two distinct hot spots that appear to be bombarding Earth with an excess of
cosmic rays. The hot spots were identified in the two red-colored regions near the constellation
Orion.
An international team of researchers, using Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Milagro observatory, has
seen for the first time two distinct hot spots that appear to be bombarding Earth with an excess of
cosmic rays. The hot spots were identified in the two red-colored regions near the constellation
Orion. enlarge image
Credit: courtesy John Pretz, P-23
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., November 25, 2008 — Milagro Observatory unveils something never before seen from
Earth
A Los Alamos National Laboratory cosmic-ray observatory has seen for the first time two distinct hot
spots that appear to be bombarding Earth with an excess of cosmic rays. The research calls into
question nearly a century of understanding about galactic magnetic fields near our solar system.
Joining an international team of collaborators, Los Alamos researchers Brenda Dingus, Gus Sinnis,
Gary Walker, Petra Huentemeyer and John Pretz published the findings today in Physical Review
Letters.
“The source of cosmic rays has been a 100-year-old problem for astrophysicists,” Pretz said. “With
the Milagro observatory, we identified two distinct regions with an excess of cosmic rays. These
regions are relatively tiny bumps on the background of cosmic rays, which is why they were missed for
so long. This discovery calls into question our understanding of cosmic rays and raises the
possibility that an unknown source or magnetic effect near our solar system is responsible for these
observations.”
Cosmic rays are high-energy particles that move through our Galaxy from sources far away. No one
knows exactly where cosmic rays come from, but scientists theorize they might originate from
supernovae–massive stars that explode– from quasars or perhaps from other exotic, less-understood
or yet-to-be-discovered sources within the universe.
Researchers used Los Alamos’ Milagro cosmic-ray observatory to peer into the sky above the northern
hemisphere for nearly seven years starting in July 2000. The observatory is unique in that it
monitors the entire sky above the northern hemisphere. Because of its design and field of view,
Milagro was able to record over 200 billion cosmic-ray collisions with the Earth’s atmosphere.
“Our observatory is unique in that we can detect events of low enough energies that we were able to
record enough cosmic-ray encounters to see a statistically significant fractional excess coming from
two distinct regions of the sky,” Dingus said.
Because cosmic rays are charged particles, magnetic fields from the Milky Way and our solar system
change the flight paths of the particles so much that researchers had not been able to pinpoint their
exact origin. Consequently, traditional wisdom has held that cosmic-ray events appear uniformly
throughout the sky.
But because Milagro was able to record so many cosmic-ray events, researchers for the first time were
able to see statistical peaks in the number of cosmic-ray events originating from specific regions of
the sky near the constellation Orion. The region with the highest hot spot of cosmic rays is a
concentrated bulls eye above and to the right visually of Orion, near the constellation Taurus. The
other hot spot is a comma-shaped region visually occurring near the constellation Gemini.
The researchers created a graphic depiction of the hot spots that makes them appear as a pair of red
cosmic rashes in a field of stars.
Milagro scientists are currently working with researchers in Mexico to build a second-generation
observatory known as the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) experiment. If built, the HAWC
observatory could help researchers solve the mystery of cosmic-ray origin.
In addition to the Los Alamos Milagro team, collaborators include nearly three dozen researchers from
the following institutions: Naval Research Laboratory; University of California-Santa Cruz;
University of Maryland; University of California-Irvine; George Mason University; New York
University; Instituto de Astronomia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico; Michigan State
University; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; University of New Hampshire.
Funding for the research came from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of High-Energy Physics and
Office of Nuclear Physics; Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Laboratory-Directed Research and
Development fund and the Laboratory’s Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics; and the
National Science Foundation.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science
on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of
Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and Washington Group
International for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear
stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving
problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.
Small GEO Programme moves forward with contract-signing
20 November 2008
ESA PR 45-2008. Today, ESA has signed the Small GEO Platform and Small GEO Mission contracts with the
respective industrial primes, namely: OHB- System AG (Germany) and Hispasat S.A. (Spain).
The contracts were signed in the presence of representatives of the German space agency (DLR), the
Spanish Delegation to ESA (CDTI) and members of other Delegations participating in this programme.
The Small GEO Programme aims to develop a general-purpose small geostationary satellite platform and
subsequent mission which will enable European industry to play a significant role on the commercial
telecommunications market for small platforms.
To achieve this, ESA established an element within its Advanced Research in Telecommunications
Systems (ARTES) programme called ARTES 11 which is divided into two parts.
The first part involves the development of a Small Geostationary Platform capable of supporting a
payload mass of up to 300kg, payload power of up to 3kW and a lifetime of up to 15 years.
The second part involves the development and launch of a Small Geostationary Satellite and associated
mission to provide flight qualification as well as in-orbit demonstration for the platform.
A consortium led by the German company OHB-System AG has been working on the preliminary development
of the Small GEO Platform since March 2007. The core team of companies which is jointly developing
the Platform and will subsequently commercialise it includes the Swedish Space Corporation (Sweden),
Oerlikon (Switzerland) as well as OHB-System AG and its Luxembourg-based subsidiary LuxSpace. The
definition phase has been completed, while the detailed design, manufacturing and testing phases have
now been authorised by this contract-signing.
As far as the mission is concerned, Hispasat, the leading operator for the Spanish- and
Portuguese-speaking markets, has put together the necessary industrial team to implement all the
mission elements.
OHB-System AG will act as Satellite Prime. Tesat GmbH (Germany) will be Payload Prime and will be
responsible for the integration of the Transparent Repeater (produced by Tesat) and the REDSAT
payload.
The resulting satellite, Hispasat (AG1), planned to be launched in 2012, will be placed in
geostationary orbit at an altitude of 36000 kilometres, where it will supply Spain, Portugal, the
Canary Islands and South America with multimedia services. It will serve as an important and
distinctive asset in Hispasat’s satellite fleet, delivering:
* A communications capacity of up to 24 transponders in Ku-band and 3 transponders in Ka band,
* A highly innovative REDSAT payload, project-led by Spanish industry.
Development of the REDSAT payload will be led by Thales Alenia Space Espana, which will coordinate a
group of mainly Spanish companies with Thales Alenia Space Espana being responsible for the Onboard
Processor and EADS CASA responsible for the Reflector and DRA Antennas.
