Do Black Holes Play Ball? - Cosmic Messengers of the High Energy Universe May 10, 2010

Prof. Angela Olinto, University of Chicago

The most energetic particles in the universe are ultra-high energy cosmic rays. Millions of times more powerful than anything produced by Earth-bound accelerators, their origin has remained a mystery for about a century. To search for evidence, an international collaboration of 18 countries recently completed construction of the Pierre Auger Observatory, an array of detectors spread over 3,000 square kilometers in western Argentina—covering an area as big as Rhode Island. During its construction, the observatory gathered enough ultra-high energy cosmic rays to find the first clues to their genesis.

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