Fermilab

Photos of the Pierre Auger observatory for downloading

When publishing any of the photos on this page please credit them to the Pierre Auger collaboration unless otherwise noted. Click on thumbnail photos for medium resolution images. Download high-resolution tiff images by right clicking on the tiff image links.

In October 2003, Argentinean technicians finished the installation of the 100th surface detector, making the Pierre Auger Observatory the largest cosmic-ray experiment in the world. High Resolution Tiff Image

High-energy cosmic rays create extensive air showers that begin many miles above the surface. The Pierre Auger collaboration uses both fluorescence detectors, which detect ultraviolet light emitted by air showers, and surface detectors, which record particles as they traverse tanks filled with 3,000 gallons of pure water.

Animation of an air shower striking detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory. For an explanation, go to http://www.auger.org/photos/AnimGif.html

The Pierre Auger Observatory is located in the Pampa Amarilla, or Yellow Pampa, an area 600 miles west of Buenos Aires, near the town of Malargüe. When complete, 1,600 surface detectors, spaced a mile apart, will cover an area of the size of Rhode Island. High Resolution Tiff Image

Some of the 250 scientists of the Pierre Auger collaboration, which encompasses 33 institutions in 16 countries. High Resolution Jpeg Image

Physicists Jim Cronin (left, University of Chicago) and Alan Watson (University of Leeds) proposed the Pierre Auger Observatory in the 1990s to solve the mystery of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays. Cronin won a share of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of symmetry violations in subatomic processes involving matter and antimatter. (Photo credit: Fermilab) High Resolution Jpeg Image

More photos are available at http://www.auger.org/photos/gallery.html
More information on the experiment is available at http://www.auger.org/
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