Equipo internacional de laboratorio de Los Alamos encuentra fuente de irradiación de particulas hacia la Tierra

Los Alamos Observatory Fingers Cosmic Ray 'Hot Spots'
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=27011


PRESS RELEASE
Date Released: Monday, November 24, 2008
Source: Los Alamos National Laboratory - Comments

An international team of researchers, using Los Alamos National Laboratory's Milagro observatory, has seen for the first time two distinct hot spots that appear to be bombarding Earth with an excess of cosmic rays. The hot spots were identified in the two red-colored regions near the constellation Orion. enlarge image Credit: courtesy John Pretz, P-23 LOS ALAMOS, N.M., November 25, 2008 -- Milagro Observatory unveils something never before seen from Earth

A Los Alamos National Laboratory cosmic-ray observatory has seen for the first time two distinct hot spots that appear to be bombarding Earth with an excess of cosmic rays. The research calls into question nearly a century of understanding about galactic magnetic fields near our solar system.

Joining an international team of collaborators, Los Alamos researchers Brenda Dingus, Gus Sinnis, Gary Walker, Petra Huentemeyer and John Pretz published the findings today in Physical Review Letters.

"The source of cosmic rays has been a 100-year-old problem for astrophysicists," Pretz said. "With the Milagro observatory, we identified two distinct regions with an excess of cosmic rays. These regions are relatively tiny bumps on the background of cosmic rays, which is why they were missed for so long. This discovery calls into question our understanding of cosmic rays and raises the possibility that an unknown source or magnetic effect near our solar system is responsible for these observations."

Cosmic rays are high-energy particles that move through our Galaxy from sources far away. No one knows exactly where cosmic rays come from, but scientists theorize they might originate from supernovae--massive stars that explode-- from quasars or perhaps from other exotic, less-understood or yet-to-be-discovered sources within the universe.

Researchers used Los Alamos' Milagro cosmic-ray observatory to peer into the sky above the northern hemisphere for nearly seven years starting in July 2000. The observatory is unique in that it monitors the entire sky above the northern hemisphere. Because of its design and field of view, Milagro was able to record over 200 billion cosmic-ray collisions with the Earth's atmosphere.

"Our observatory is unique in that we can detect events of low enough energies that we were able to record enough cosmic-ray encounters to see a statistically significant fractional excess coming from two distinct regions of the sky," Dingus said.

Because cosmic rays are charged particles, magnetic fields from the Milky Way and our solar system change the flight paths of the particles so much that researchers had not been able to pinpoint their exact origin. Consequently, traditional wisdom has held that cosmic-ray events appear uniformly throughout the sky.

But because Milagro was able to record so many cosmic-ray events, researchers for the first time were able to see statistical peaks in the number of cosmic-ray events originating from specific regions of the sky near the constellation Orion. The region with the highest hot spot of cosmic rays is a concentrated bulls eye above and to the right visually of Orion, near the constellation Taurus. The other hot spot is a comma-shaped region visually occurring near the constellation Gemini.

The researchers created a graphic depiction of the hot spots that makes them appear as a pair of red cosmic rashes in a field of stars.

Milagro scientists are currently working with researchers in Mexico to build a second-generation observatory known as the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) experiment. If built, the HAWC observatory could help researchers solve the mystery of cosmic-ray origin.

In addition to the Los Alamos Milagro team, collaborators include nearly three dozen researchers from the following institutions: Naval Research Laboratory; University of California-Santa Cruz; University of Maryland; University of California-Irvine; George Mason University; New York University; Instituto de Astronomia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico; Michigan State University; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; University of New Hampshire.

Funding for the research came from the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of High-Energy Physics and Office of Nuclear Physics; Los Alamos National Laboratory's Laboratory-Directed Research and Development fund and the Laboratory's Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics; and the National Science Foundation.

Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and Washington Group International for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.

Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.

Small GEO Programme moves forward with contract-signing

20 November 2008 ESA PR 45-2008. Today, ESA has signed the Small GEO Platform and Small GEO Mission contracts with the respective industrial primes, namely: OHB- System AG (Germany) and Hispasat S.A. (Spain).

The contracts were signed in the presence of representatives of the German space agency (DLR), the Spanish Delegation to ESA (CDTI) and members of other Delegations participating in this programme.

The Small GEO Programme aims to develop a general-purpose small geostationary satellite platform and subsequent mission which will enable European industry to play a significant role on the commercial telecommunications market for small platforms.

To achieve this, ESA established an element within its Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) programme called ARTES 11 which is divided into two parts.

The first part involves the development of a Small Geostationary Platform capable of supporting a payload mass of up to 300kg, payload power of up to 3kW and a lifetime of up to 15 years.

The second part involves the development and launch of a Small Geostationary Satellite and associated mission to provide flight qualification as well as in-orbit demonstration for the platform.

A consortium led by the German company OHB-System AG has been working on the preliminary development of the Small GEO Platform since March 2007. The core team of companies which is jointly developing the Platform and will subsequently commercialise it includes the Swedish Space Corporation (Sweden), Oerlikon (Switzerland) as well as OHB-System AG and its Luxembourg-based subsidiary LuxSpace. The definition phase has been completed, while the detailed design, manufacturing and testing phases have now been authorised by this contract-signing.

As far as the mission is concerned, Hispasat, the leading operator for the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking markets, has put together the necessary industrial team to implement all the mission elements.

OHB-System AG will act as Satellite Prime. Tesat GmbH (Germany) will be Payload Prime and will be responsible for the integration of the Transparent Repeater (produced by Tesat) and the REDSAT payload.

The resulting satellite, Hispasat (AG1), planned to be launched in 2012, will be placed in geostationary orbit at an altitude of 36000 kilometres, where it will supply Spain, Portugal, the Canary Islands and South America with multimedia services. It will serve as an important and distinctive asset in Hispasat's satellite fleet, delivering:

* A communications capacity of up to 24 transponders in Ku-band and 3 transponders in Ka band,

* A highly innovative REDSAT payload, project-led by Spanish industry.

Development of the REDSAT payload will be led by Thales Alenia Space Espana, which will coordinate a group of mainly Spanish companies with Thales Alenia Space Espana being responsible for the Onboard Processor and EADS CASA responsible for the Reflector and DRA Antennas.