Extension of the Auger International Agreement
In the presence of Her Excellency Ms Jarmila Povejšilová, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Argentina, her deputy Filip Kanda and the Head of Unit for Research Infrastructures of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic Marek Vyšinka, the Director of the Institute of Physics Michael Prouza signed an agreement to extend the operation of the Pierre Auger Observatory for another 10 years.
The Pierre Auger Observatory is the largest cosmic ray detector in the world, covering an area of 3000 km². Its operation and scientific data analyses require involvement of over 400 scientists from 17 countries. The observatory’s goal is to study the most energetic particles in the Universe – ultra-high energy cosmic rays.
Until the end of 2021, the Pierre Auger Observatory was collecting data in an old configuration consisting of water surface stations and an optical fluorescence detector, which the Czech Republic had a major role in building and operating. The data from the first phase changed our understanding of the phenomena associated with the most energetic processes in the Universe.
Author: RNDr. Petr Trávníček, Ph.D.