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Telescope Array (TA) Experiment Lab
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The lab is a research group that detects the highest-energy cosmic rays in the universe with a giant detector array in Utah, USA.
AboutAbout the lab
Where do the highest-energy cosmic rays come from?
The Telescope Array Experiment lab is carrying out an international collaborative experiment to observe the highest-energy cosmic rays arriving from space.
Observation instruments are placed on barren desert land in Utah, USA, where they detect cosmic rays with energies above 10²⁰ electronvolts.
The lab aims to identify the astrophysical objects that accelerate particles to such high energies, and to clarify how these particles propagate through space.
In the lab, members from universities and research institutes work together with graduate students on operating the experiment, analyzing data, and developing new instruments.
Key terms
- Cosmic rays
- Particles with very high energy that travel to Earth from space
- Air shower
- A phenomenon in which a cosmic ray collides with an atomic nucleus in the atmosphere and produces new particles one after another, so that a shower of particles rains down onto the ground
- Cosmic microwave background
- Light from soon after the birth of the universe, which still fills the entire universe today as faint radio waves
NewsLab news
A doctoral student received a Poster Presentation Award at the 4th GCOS Workshop
A master's student received a Poster Presentation Award at the 7th UHECR Symposium
Observation of the highest-energy cosmic ray in the history of the Telescope Array experiment (Science)
ResearchResearch themes
The Telescope Array experiment is an international collaboration among Japan, the United States, Russia, South Korea, and Belgium. Ground-based particle detectors and fluorescence telescopes are deployed in Utah, USA, to observe the highest-energy cosmic rays, those exceeding 10²⁰ electronvolts.
*Illustrative imageMeasuring the energy spectrum of cosmic rays
Extremely high-energy cosmic rays lose energy by colliding with the cosmic microwave background that fills the universe, so the number reaching Earth should drop sharply above a certain limit. The lab measures cosmic-ray energies precisely to test whether this limit can be observed.
*Illustrative imageSearching for the sources of cosmic rays
Extremely high-energy cosmic rays are thought to reach Earth with little deflection by magnetic fields in space. By detecting as many cosmic rays as possible and examining their arrival directions, the lab investigates whether they can be linked to the directions of objects such as active galactic nuclei.
*Illustrative imageSimultaneous observation with a ground array and fluorescence telescopes
Two methods are used simultaneously at the same site: detecting air-shower particles with particle detectors laid out on the ground, and imaging the ultraviolet light emitted by air showers with telescopes. The aim is to collect as much information as possible, with high precision, from these rare cosmic rays.
*Illustrative imageThe TAx4 project to quadruple the observation area
To confirm sooner the "hotspot", a region of the sky from which many cosmic rays arrive from a specific direction, the lab is pursuing the TAx4 project, which expands the ground array to four times its area and adds more fluorescence telescopes.
MembersFaculty
- ProfessorShoichi OgioPublications ↗
- Associate ProfessorKazumasa KawataPublications ↗
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “SurfaceDetection” Theturnipmaster / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Measuring the energy spectrum of cosmic rays: “Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)” ESA and the Planck Collaboration / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Searching for the sources of cosmic rays: “M87 jet” NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) / Public domain (cropped)
- Simultaneous observation with a ground array and fluorescence telescopes: “TelescopeArray” Theturnipmaster / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- The TAx4 project to quadruple the observation area: “BRM-FD-open” John N. Matthews www.telescopearray.org / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
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