On December 1, the SuperTIGER was taken to the deck of a cargo building 2 at McMurdo station (Antarctica) to test its readiness for the second flight. In the background is Mount Erebus. It is the most southern active terrestrial volcano.
A team of scientists in Antarctica is preparing to launch a balloon SuperTIGER - a tool for collecting data on cosmic rays. These are high-energy particles penetrating the earth’s atmosphere every day. A specific instrument studies rare heavy nuclei, which contain information about where and how cosmic rays are accelerated to near light speed.
If everything is fine with the weather, then the launch will be held on December 10th. The first flight lasted 55 days. The ball is specifically released for a long time, because the particles make up only a small part of the cosmic rays.
The most common particles are protons (90%), helium nuclei (8%) and electrons (1%). SuperTIGER is tuned to search for the rarest super-heavy nuclei outside of iron, from cobalt to barium.
Heavy elements, like gold, are formed by special processes in the stars. SuperTIGER seeks to understand how and where it happens. When a cosmic ray hits the core of an atmospheric gas molecule, both explode into subatomic fragments. Some of the secondary particles fall to Earth, allowing scientists to study themselves. But they also form an obstructive background that can be overcome with a ball at an altitude of 40,000 m. The most massive stars create iron in their cores, after which they explode in the form of supernovae, releasing material into space. The explosions also form the conditions for a short-term intense flux of subatomic particles - neutrons. Many of them “stick” to the gland, and some break up into protons.
Supernova waves create acceleration, which is why particles become high-energy cosmic rays. As the shock wave expands, it captures and accelerates particles. The overall picture has become available thanks to dozens of years of research and the use of TIGER. About 20% of cosmic rays came from massive stars, and 80% from interstellar dust and gas.
Neutron stars are the densest objects available for direct study. They rotate around each other in binary systems, emitting gravitational waves. They also eliminate orbital energy, causing the stars to come closer and merge.
Theorists believe that such events are so saturated with neutrons that they can be responsible for creating the most cosmic rays rich in neutrons. On August 17, the Fermi telescopes and LIGO recorded the first light and gravitational waves from collapsing neutron stars. Spitzer and Hubble confirmed the presence of a huge number of heavy elements. The dominant source can be found with the launch of SuperTIGER.
