Phone apps that will detect cosmic rays

[twilyth]

http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/reading-the-heavens-with-your-phone

Two groups are working on apps to turn smart phones into roving particle detectors. One group aims to educate, while the other is on a quest to create the largest cosmic ray detector array in the world.

Smart phone cameras contain sensors that help convert particles of light into the digital images that appear on your screen. Astronomers use high-powered versions of these sensors to study the light from faraway galaxies.

When a cosmic ray hits the Earth’s atmosphere, it produces a shower of energetic particles that rain down on the planet. When one of those particles hits a sensor, it leaves a temporary mark—usually a single hit pixel, but sometimes a multi-pixel streak.

If these events were more common or obtrusive, they’d be the scourge of the digital photography world. As it is, it takes a little more work to find them, something the app developers are happy to do.

 

[TheMailMan78]

Silver Surfer status here I come!

 

[NormanStokes]

Nice informative post. Keep updating in future if any other similar technique will arrive.

 

[twilyth]

Now the app is available for download - DECO - Distributed Electronic Cosmic-ray Observatory.

DECO is a citizen science project that enables users around the world to detect cosmic rays and other energetic particles with their cell phones and tablets. The recorded events are automatically uploaded to a central database. In addition to detecting particle events, users can analyze the data produced by their own or other users’ phones.

Source: CERN

Cosmic rays are energetic subatomic particles produced by powerful cosmic accelerators such as black holes and exploding stars. When they hit the top of the atmosphere, they produce showers of secondary particles, including electrons, photons, neutrinos, and muons. Many of these muons, which are particles similar to electrons but heavier, reach the ground at sea level and are a great tool to study cosmic rays because they are easy to detect.

Digital camera sensors detect muons in much the same way that they detect photons when we take a picture of friends or a landscape. When a cosmic-ray muon hits the camera sensor, it liberates some electrons. The accumulated charge tells us about the energy of the incoming particle, while the distribution of this charge in our sensor, the shape, tells us about the kind of particle that has produced it.

The DECO app currently runs on Android OS devices. Information about how it works and how to install it can be found below.

 

[FireFox]

Silver Surfer status here I come!