著者

Jones W. Vernon

出版者

Physical Society of Japan

雑誌

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan (ISSN:00319015)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.78, pp.101-107, 2009

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The cosmic-ray community has produced a steady stream of science results with both space-based and balloon-borne experiments. Low-energy cosmic rays have been studied with satellites since the dawn of the space age, but stratospheric balloons have provided all of the direct high-energy data. Results extending beyond 10¹⁴eV from balloon flights in Antarctica now overlap indirect ground based observations in the energy range below the knee (∼3 ×10¹⁵eV). Ultra long-duration balloon flights with super-pressure balloons might allow direct observations to reach 10¹⁵eV within the next decade, but larger aperture space missions with longer exposures may be needed to connect cosmic ray composition to supernovae. Space instruments looking down on the Earth's atmosphere, creating a detector as wide as the Earth, could provide information about astrophysical accelerators involving the intense gravity around black holes, neutron stars, and the largest electromagnetic fields known.