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update on O.W.L. project

update on O.W.L. project. for: CROP summer 2002 by: Dwight Johns RONCALLI date: August 6, 2002. O.W.L. meaning. O rbiting W ide-angle L ight-collectors

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update on O.W.L. project

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  1. update on O.W.L. project for: CROP summer 2002 by: Dwight Johns RONCALLI date: August 6, 2002

  2. O.W.L. meaning • Orbiting Wide-angle Light-collectors • OWL is an earth-orbiting system to study air showers caused by particles with energy equal to or greater than 1019 eV

  3. O.W.L. who? who? • Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland • High Energy Astrophysics Institute, University of Utah Salt Lake City • Dept. of Physics, University of Alabama, Huntsville • Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, Alabama • University of California, Los Angeles Washington University Columbia University Vanderbilt University

  4. O.W.L. time frames • earliest reference: convention at University of Maryland set in Nov. of 1997 • NASA bulletin from Apr. 23, 2002: “A proposed space-based mission called OWL could detect the highest-energy cosmic rays...”

  5. O.W.L. • extremely high energy- 1020eV • heavy particles- PROTONS • source- EXTRA GALACTIC • PARADOX !

  6. O.W.L pair o’ Docs

  7. O.W.L. paradox heavy particles cannot sustain such extreme high energy for the distances implied by being extra- galactic. SO... where do they originate ???

  8. O.W.L. mission? • Use the Earth's atmosphere as a vast calorimeter • Observe fluorescence of giant air showers from above • Determine arrival direction to better than 1° • Observe same shower development with two satellites (stereo OWLs) • Perform measurements of shower energy profile and determine depth of interaction in atmosphere (required for particle identification) • Monitor approximately 3 million km2 of atmosphere, with ~ 10 % observing efficiency, to collect estimated 3000 events with energy >1020 eV per year. • Single photoelectron sensitivity • Identify acceleration mechanism for these particles

  9. O.W.L. do you remember this? • “Above a few times 1019 eV, the number of cosmic rays was expected to drop off sharply, but observations showed an initial drop off (known as the ankle), and then the spectrum became more shallow, meaning there are a lot more particles at these energies than was expected...”

  10. O.W.L. equipment & positioning

  11. O.W.L. other interesting items

  12. O.W.L. closing shots • extremely high energy- 1020eV • composition- protons • rare- (~1000 or so per year) • source- out of this world (galaxy too) • detection from ABOVE looking DOWN • still apparently in planning stage

  13. O.W.L. online sources • http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0204/28atmosphere • http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/news-release/releases/2002 • http://owl.gsfc.nasa.gov/science.html

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