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When stars explode, the supernovas send off shock waves like the one shown in this artist's rendition, which accelerate protons to cosmic-ray energies through a process known as Fermi acceleration. (Credit: Greg Stewart / SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) |
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This image combines data from ESA's Herschel Space Observatory with Fermi's gamma-ray observations (magenta) of supernova remnant W44. This remnant is a prime example of the remains of a supernova interacting with dense interstellar material around it and was one of two supernova remnants that provided the data Fermi needed to prove that cosmic rays are accelerated in supernova shock waves. (Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration and ESA/Herschel) |
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In order to understand the origin and acceleration of cosmic-ray protons, researchers used data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and targeted W44 and IC 443, two supernova remnants thousands of light years away. Both turned out to be strong sources of gamma rays, but not at energies below what neutral pion decay would produce - the observational proof scientists had been looking for. (Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration) |
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Finding evidence for the acceleration of protons has long been a key issue in the efforts to explain the origin of cosmic rays. This pair of spectra from two supernova remnants, shown here with data from various satellites and wavelengths, are the "smoking gun" that researchers have been looking for. The Fermi Large Area Telescope's observations fit neatly with predictions of neutral pion decay. (Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration, Chandra X-ray Observatory, ESA Herschel/XMM-Newton) |
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IKAROS Spacecraft (Courtesy: JAXA) |
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The BigBOSS proposal adds a new widefield, prime-focus corrector to the Mayall 4-meter telescope. A focal array with 5,000 optical fibers, individually positioned by robotic actuators, delivers light to a set of 10 three-arm spectrometers. (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Background photo Mark Duggan) |
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BOSS is capturing accurate spectra for millions of astronomical objects by using 2,000 plug plates that are placed at the Sloan Foundation Telescope's focal plane. Each of the 1,000 holes drilled in a single plug plate captures the light from a specific galaxy, quasar, or other target, and conveys its light to a sensitive spectrograph through an optical fiber. The plates are marked to indicate which holes belong to which bundles of the thousand optical fibers that carry the object's light. (Courtesy: Berkeley Lab) |
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An artist's rendering of the proposed Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. The 8.4-meter LSST will use a special three-mirror design, creating an exceptionally wide field of view and will have the ability to survey the entire sky in only three nights. (Courtesy: LSST Corporation) |
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IPMU - The two images illustrate the effect of gravitational lensing. A massive galaxy at the center of the right panel causes the images of the background galaxies (white spots) to be enlarged and brightened. (Courtesy: Joerg Colberg, Ryan Scranton, Robert Lupton, SDSS, http://www.sdss.org/news/releases/20050426.magnification.html) |
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The surface mass density as a function of distance (in units of a hundred thousand light-years). The blue points are observational data, whereas the solid line is the result of a computer simulation. The contributions from the central galaxy (red line) and from nearby galaxies (dashed line) are also shown. (Courtesy: IPMU) |
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A computer simulation shows dark matter is distributed in a clumpy but organized manner. In the figure, high density regions appear bright whereas dark regions are nearly, but not completely, empty. (Courtesy: IPMU) |
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view of the RFQ - RFQ of the ASACUSA experiment. It allows to slow down antiprotons coming from the AD from 5 MeV to 100 KeV with high efficiency. (Courtesy: CERN) |
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view of the TRAP - The ASACUSA Cusp trap. Thanks to its special magnetic field configuration, it enables the extraction of an anti-hydrogen beam, thus allowing a high precision microwave spectroscopy outside the magnetic field of the trap. This new method opens a new path to make a stringent test of CPT symmetry between matter and antimatter. (Courtesy: CERN) |
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Laser beams are prepared for shooting at antiprotonic helium atoms. Left to right: Masaki Hori (Tokyo University) and John Eades (CERN). (Courtesy: CERN) |
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Masaki Hori adjusting optical system of laser beams. (Courtesy: CERN) |
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LHCb: Event display presented at the EPS-HEP 2011 conference showing a B0s meson decaying into a μ+ and μ- pair. (Courtesy: LHCb Team) |
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Neutrinos, ghost-like particles that rarely interact with matter, travel 450 miles straight through the earth from Fermilab to Soudan -- no tunnel needed. The Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS) experiment studies a muon neutrino beam using two detectors. The MINOS near detector, located at Fermilab, records the composition of the neutrino beam as it leaves the Fermilab site. The MINOS far detector, located in Minnesota, half a mile underground, again analyzes the neutrino beam. This allows scientists to directly study the oscillation of muon neutrinos into electron neutrinos or tau neutrinos under laboratory conditions |
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ATLAS experiment at the LHC: display of an event with a Z boson producing two muons. (Courtesy: ATLAS Team) |
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CMS experiment at the LHC: display of a multi-jet event at 7 TeV. (Courtesy: CMS Team) |
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Once produced, the neutral Xi-sub-b particle travels about a millimeter before it disintegrates into two particles: the short-lived, positively charged Xi-sub-c and a long-lived, negative pion (π-). The Xi-sub-c then promptly decays into a pair of long-lived pions and a Xi particle, which lives long enough to leave a track in the silicon vertex system (SVX) of the CDF detector before it decays a pion and a Lambda (Λ). The Lambda particle, which has no electric charge, can travel several centimeters before decaying into a proton (p) and a pion (π). (Courtesy: CDF collaboration) |
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Baryons are particles made of three quarks. The quark model predicts the baryon combinations that exist with either spin J=1/2 (this graphic) or spin J=3/2 (not shown). The graphic shows the various three-quark combinations with J=1/2 that are possible using the three lightest quarks--up, down and strange--and the bottom quark. The CDF collaboration announced the discovery of the neutral Xi-sub-b, highlighted in this graphic. Experiments at Fermilab’s Tevatron collider have discovered all of the observed baryons with one bottom quark except the Lambda-sub-b, which was discovered at CERN. There exist additional baryons involving the charm quark, which are not shown in this graphic. The top quark, discovered at Fermilab in 1995, is too short-lived to become part of a baryon. (Courtesy: Fermilab) |
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The CDF collaboration has observed 25 Xi-sub-b candidates in their data. The analysis established the discovery of the neutral Xi-sub-b baryon at a level of 7 sigma. Scientists consider 5 sigma the threshold for discoveries. CDF scientists measured the mass of the neutral Xi-sub-b to be 5.7878 GeV/c^2. (Courtesy: CDF collaboration) |
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In J-PARC, protons are accelerated in a linear accelerator and accumulated in a 3 GeV synchrotron, and then injected into a main ring (MR). These protons are subsequently extracted from MR by kicker magnets and bent toward Kamioka, then collide with a target to produce neutrino beams, which finally travel to Super-Kamiokande. A part of these neutrino beams are measured with near detectors at J-PARC. By combining these two measurements, study on neutrino oscillations, in which a particular type of neutrinos transforms into other types of neutrinos while traveling, will become possible. (Courtesy: KEK) |
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Fermi's Large Area Telescope has recently detected two short-duration gamma-ray pulses coming from the Crab Nebula, which was previously believed to emit radiation at very steady rate. The pulses were fueled by the most energetic particles ever traced to a discrete astronomical object. (Courtesy: NASA/ESA) |
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Logo for the programme of the European Week of astroparticle physics. |
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