Facilities and Experiments

Experiments at the Cosmic Frontier

Project Status: Operating

Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory studies ultra-high energy cosmic rays, the most energetic and rarest particles in the universe. When these particles strike the earth's atmosphere, they produce extensive air showers made of billions of secondary particles. While much progress has been made in nearly a century of research in understanding cosmic rays with low to moderate energies, those with extremely high energies remain a mystery. The Pierre Auger Observatory is working to solve these mysteries.