Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Observatory of Cosmic Rays

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BUENOS AIRES, Nov 17 2008 (IPS) - Ten years after laying its cornerstone, the Pierre Auger Observatory, in Argentina, the only one in the southern hemisphere for studying cosmic rays hitting the Earth's atmosphere, will open its doors this month. Over an area of 3,000 square kilometers, located in Malargue, in the western province of Mendoza, 1,660 ray detectors and 24 telescopes have already provided relevant information, director Alberto Etchegoyen told Tierramérica.

“We detected that the rays do not arrive in a homogeneous way. That allows us to think about a new branch in the science: astronomy with charged particles,” explained the physicist about the discovery published in 2007 in the magazine Science.

The project will be completed with a twin observatory in the central U.S. state of Colorado.