LomonosovCosmic rays of extremely high energy
There will be a number of devices on-board the satellite, the main of which is a space telescope TUS. An attempt to register cosmic rays of extremely high energy of ~1019 -1020 eV, i.e. in the region of GZK-cut-off,
Why is it important?
Today in high energy region we have only limited and contradictory information about the energy spectrum and chemical composition of the particles. This fact does not allow to make any conclusions about the nature of space radiation, its sources located out of our Universe and mechanism of acceleration. Predicted “cut-off” of the spectrum can be caused by both particles’ loss against the background of relict photons of the Universe (effect of GZK-cut-off) and limit of an until unknown acceleration mechanism in the far Universe.
It is coming to be understood by means of a new method of measurement of the parameters of the particles of so high energy, for which the Earth’s atmosphere plays the part of a giant detector.
