GRAPES-3 Telescope

GRAPES-3 Telescope Latest News

Recently, researchers from Mumbai, Kochi, and Japan used the GRAPES-3 telescope to track how the earth’s upper atmosphere temperature and the sun’s magnetic field affect muons — subatomic particles from space.  

About GRAPES-3 Telescope

• Gamma Ray Astronomy PeV EnergieS phase-3 (GRAPES-3) is designed to study the origin, acceleration and propagation of cosmic rays through measurement of extensive air showers.
• It is induced by primary cosmic rays or gamma rays entering the Earth’s atmosphere in tera to peta electronvolt energies.
• It also studies solar and thunderstorm phenomena using cosmic ray muons.
• GRAPES-3 employs an array of plastic scintillator detectors and a large area muon detector based on proportional counters.
• Location: It is located in Ooty, India.
• It is operated by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.

Key Facts about Cosmic rays

• These rays were discovered more than a century ago.
• They are considered to be the most energetic particles in the universe.
• Our planet is constantly bombarded by them from outer space almost uniformly from all directions at a constant rate.
• They enter into Earth’s atmosphere and induce a shower of particles that travel to the ground almost at the speed of light.
• The shower particles constitute electrons, photons, muons, protons, neutrons etc.
• They have been observed over a remarkably wide energy range (108 to 1020 eV).

Source: TH

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