Sala Seminarios IFIC (Edf. Institutos de Investigación) Lunes, 26 de Junio de 2006 a las 12:00 PM
Resumen
Something in the Universe is bombarding us with incredibly energetic particles and radiations, energies extending to well beyond those obtained with the Earth’s most powerful
accelerators. Do these radiations come from unknown, extremely violent cosmic explosions?
From huge black holes? From rapidly spinning neutron stars? Or from the decay of massive relics dating back to the first moments after the Big Bang? Can they explain the missing
matter, the “Dark Matter” of the Universe? These high-energy radiations can be the messengers of cosmic objects where extreme magnetic fields, densities, temperatures and
gravitation rule. They can be evidence of yet unknown particles that no Earth’s laboratory is capable to produce.
To detect these energetic but luckily very rare radiations, detectors are built deep under ice or water, deployed to cover thousands of square kilometres of dessert areas. Telescopes are pointed to track the faint light left by the cosmic showers in the Earth’s atmosphere. Several
hundreds of scientists work in harsh environments, in the South Pole, on the Pampa of Argentina, in Namibian desert. Wild animals, spiders and snakes are witnessing their struggle in constructing detectors, which up to now could be imagined only by science fiction writers.
The efforts of scientists are being paid off. Data from the detectors are already being analysed and first results being published, promising of a new and exciting Physics. The rapidly expanding research field of High Energy Astroparticle Physics has shown its potential and
major discoveries can be expected in the near future.
