AMS Physics Overview

Earth's Particle Environment

What's up with cosmic rays orbiting the Earth? Cosmic rays have a hard time getting to Earth. The Earth's comparatively-strong magnetic field generally prevents low-energy cosmic rays from getting to the atmosphere - we call this the "geomagnetic cutoff". The AMS-01 prototype flight saw lots of particles below this energy cutoff. It seems that the higher-energy rays - the ones that make it through the atmosphere - in fact hit the atmosphere, crash into nuclei, and spew some particles back into space. AMS-01 did a very detailed study of the origins of these particles, which AMS-02 will continue.
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