Subject: Charla del Dr. James W. Cronin (Premio Nobel en físi ca 1980)

From: AFA Filial Buenos Aires <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 20:05:04 -0300

Premio Nobel Dr. James W. Cronin

Miercoles 10 de noviembre, 17:30 hs
Aula Magna de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales
de la Universidad de Buenos Aires
Pabellon I, Ciudad Universitaria
Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires

Titulo:

"An Argentine observatory for the most energetic cosmic rays"

Resumen:

The most energetic particles in the Universe are found in the cosmic rays. 
In Malargue, Mendoza Province, Argentina a unique observatory is under 
construction to detect these particles. When one of these extrordinary
cosmic rays strikes the atmosphere some 10**11 charged particles are 
produced over an area of 30 km**2. An array of 1600 charged particle 
sensors spread over 3000 km**2 detects these particles. In addition the
glow produced by the particles in the atmosphere is observed by four 
telescopes placed symmetrically at the edge of the array. The nature and
origin of these most energetic particles is a complete mystery and it is 
our hope that the observatory will solve this mystery. Some 250 scientists
from 15 countries are participating in the construction of the observatory,
which is hosted by Argentina. The observatory is about 40%
complete. It will be finished by the end of 2005. It collects  data 
as it is growing and beautiful examples of events will be shown. The 
observatory is called the Pierre Auger Observatory after the French
scientist who discovered cosmic rays of extraordinary energy in 
1938.

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12 October 1980

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 1980 Nobel 
Prize in Physics to Professor James W. Cronin, University of Chicago, USA and 
Professor Val L. Fitch, Princeton University, USA, for the discovery of 
violations of fundamental symmetry principles in the decay of neutral K-mesons.

Symmetries play a great role in many sciences and also in many other areas. 
This year's Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded for an unexpected discovery in 
an experiment devoted to a critical scrutiny of the validity of three related 
symmetry principles. These are of great importance to the formulation of 
fundamental laws of Nature.