The California High School Cosmic Ray Observatory, (abbreviated ''CHICOS'', for California HIgh school Cosmic ray ObServatory), operated by the Kellogg Laboratory at the
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
in
Pasadena
Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district.
...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, United States, is one of the world's largest ongoing
Cosmic Ray
Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our own ...
observatory programs. It is known for its large network within the Los Angeles County area, based mainly on high school sites carrying cosmic ray detector units, though there are also detector units on associated elementary schools and middle schools.
Mission
The CHICOS project represents a unique blending of cutting-edge scientific research and broadly-based educational outreach. CHICOS is an active research array for the detection of
Ultra-high-energy cosmic ray
In astroparticle physics, an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray (UHECR) is a cosmic ray with an energy greater than 1 EeV (1018 electronvolts, approximately 0.16 joules), far beyond both the rest mass and energies typical of other cosmic ray parti ...
. The array as presently deployed has already seen extended air showers, and the soon-to-be-completed CHICOS 90 array will observe with large aperture in the energy range from 10
18 to 10
21 eV, with the angular resolution to address questions of clustering in several years of run time.
The events CHICOS is designed to observe are single
subatomic particles
In physical sciences, a subatomic particle is a particle that composes an atom. According to the Standard Model of particle physics, a subatomic particle can be either a composite particle, which is composed of other particles (for example, a pro ...
slamming into the Earth's
atmosphere with the energy of a brick falling from a rooftop. These Ultra-high-energy cosmic ray, or UHECRs, interact with the atmosphere to produce large showers of secondary particles at the surface of the Earth. Detection of UHECRs therefore depends on an array of particle sensors deployed like a net over many square kilometers to catch the incoming shower. In the CHICOS project, schools across the Los Angeles area provide the "net" of detector sites with ready-made infrastructure and a valuable population of teachers and students who participate in the project.
Shmoos (Cosmic Ray Detector Units)
![Cosmic Ray Detector Units1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Cosmic_Ray_Detector_Units1.png)
The detectors used in the CHICOS program are specially called "Shmoos" because of their similarity in shape to the cartoon character
Shmoo
The shmoo (plural: shmoos, also shmoon) is a fictional cartoon creature created by Al Capp (1909–1979); the character first appeared in the comic strip '' Li'l Abner'' on August 31, 1948. The popular character has gone on to influence pop cu ...
. Each school site generally has two of these Shmoos set on their campus, to help gather accurate particle shower data.
![CHICOS school site1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/CHICOS_school_site1.jpg)
The Shmoos are the most important part of the CHICOS project, and their setup requires accurate measurements and careful construction from the inside-out. Shmoos are generally set up at the Kellogg Radiation Laboratory and sent to schools. High school students have the chance to participate in the assembly process. Once the Shmoos are installed, the on-site teachers and students assist with their repair and maintenance. At a school site, Shmoos are generally put not too far from each other, with the two Shmoos connected via cables to the associated
computer provided with the detectors.
Future
CHICOS has a data collection system that is recording all the large cosmic ray showers that fall within the array. The information that is collected from the Cosmic Ray detectors from different schools are combined to reconstruct cosmic ray events. These events are analyzed to create histograms of cosmic ray incidents, including a sky-map that would indicate the spread of cosmic rays directions from outer space, with each shower that is recorded indicating a cosmic event. The goal of CHICOS is to be able to trace these cosmic rays back to their source, and understand what it exactly is that produces UHECRs. This quest remains one of the top eleven unsolved mysteries in
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
today. In the future, more schools in the Los Angeles area are joining this program, more data will be collected and a more complete sky-map will be graphed. More detailed studies of CHICOS data and matches with
astronomical
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxi ...
research will provide progress toward a better understand of the nature cosmic rays and the
universe
The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. ...
.
Sponsorship
IBM donated a significant fraction of the computers used in data collection at each site. Ongoing operational expenses of the project are provided by the
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...
.
CHICOS actively seeks additional grants, both public and private, to enable expansion and better educational support as described above.
See also
*
List of astronomical observatories
This is a list of astronomical observatories ordered by name, along with initial dates of operation (where an accurate date is available) and location. The list also includes a final year of operation for many observatories that are no longer in ...
*
UHECR
References
External links
Official site(Bottom of Page)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chicos
Cosmic-ray experiments
Astronomical observatories in California