A study by researchers of IEEC/ICE appears in the top ten of the major discoveries of 2013, according to the journal Science
2014-01-02 00:00:00
The journal Science has published its usual ranking of the top ten research studies of 2013, and among them, there is an article in which have participated researchers of the l’Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya i de l’Institut de Ciències de l’Espai (IEEC/ICE) called ‘Cosmic Particle Accelerators Identified’.
The study has verified one of the hypotheses speculated up to now: the origin of cosmic particles at high-speed-rays is in supernovae. To find it out, scientists have had to analyze data collected over four years by the Fermi telescope of NASA. According to the researchers, the findings are convincing: show “Without doubts” that cosmic rays originate inside this stellar explosion.
Cosmic rays are key to the study of the origin of the universe, but its interest also lies in how they affect astronauts while away from the earth’s atmosphere, as they suffer the consequences of their exposure.