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The Akeno Giant Air Shower Array (AGASA) is a very large surface array designed to study the origin of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. Located in the town of Akeno in Yamanashi prefecture, Japan, it covers an area of 100 km² and consists of 111 surface detectors and 27 muon detectors. Array experiments such as this one are used to detect air shower particles.

The array is operated by the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo at the Akeno Observatory.

Results

The results from AGASA were used to calculate the energy spectrum and anisotropy of cosmic rays. The results helped to confirm the existence of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (>5×10¹⁹ eV), such as the so-called "Oh-My-God" particle that was observed by the Fly's Eye experiment run by the University of Utah.

The Telescope Array, a merger of the AGASA and High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) groups, and the Pierre Auger Observatory have improved on the results from AGASA by building larger, hybrid detectors and collecting greater quantities of more precise data.

See also

• CREDO
• Extragalactic cosmic ray
• Gamma-ray telescopes (Alphabetic list)
• Gamma-ray astronomy & X-ray astronomy
• Cosmic Ray System (CR instrument on the Voyagers)

References

External links

• AGASA.
• High Resolution Fly's Eye

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