Cosmic Rays Experiments

Cosmic rays are energetic, subatomic particles constantly bombard the Earth’s atmosphere from all directions.

The cosmic radiation, discovered by Victor Hess¹ in 1912, includes all stable charged particles and it is composed by two component: “primary” and “secondary” cosmic rays. Essentially, the first ones are composed by heavy nucleus, protons (~90%) and helium (~10%), but also electrons, neutrinos, photons, some light nucleus and antimatter (positron and antiprotons). These particles are accelerated by astrophysical sources and by interacting with the terrestrial atmosphere, they mainly produce the “secondary” cosmic rays: pions, kaons and electromagnetic showers. Muons and neutrinos are products of the decay chain of charged mesons, while electrons and photons originate in decays of neutral mesons.

The experiments on cosmic rays proposed in this section are performed by using the “Educational Beta KIT” and the “Cosmic Hunter”.

For both kits, the mechanical structure to build a cosmic telescope to measure the flux azimuthal variation is also available.

(1) Nobel Prize in Physics in 1936.

View Cosmic Rays Experiments by Educational Kit

Cosmic Rays Experiments performed via the Cosmic Hunter Kit. In the symbol (*) is present, extra tools are needed to perform the experiment.


Cosmic Rays	SP5620CH	SP5600AN	SP5600D
Muons Spectrum – Coming soon		✔	✔
SG6210D – Statistics	✔	✔	✔
SG6211A – Muons Detection (related experiment: SG6211D)	✔	✔	✔
SG6212A – Muons Vertical Flux on Horizontal Detector (related experiment: SG6212D)	✔	✔	✔
SG6213A – Random Coincidence (related experiment: SG6213D)	✔	✔	✔
SG6214D* – Detection Efficiency	✔
SG6215D – Cosmic Flux as a function of the altitude	✔
SG6216D – Zenith Dependence of Muons Flux	✔	✔	✔
SG6217D* – Cosmic Shower Detection	✔
SG6218D – Environmental and Cosmic Radiation	✔
SG6219F – Absorption Measurements	✔
SG6220D – Solar Activity Monitoring	✔

Note: The star indicates the recommended Kits while the yellow color highlights the Kits especially dedicated to the experiences of this Section.
If you are also interested in other experiences, the PREMIUM Kit is recommended. This symbol “K12” indicates that the Kit is also suitable for educational use with young students.