Japan used cosmic rays to track underground movements

Scientists have developed a global positioning system that can track underground movements using powerful cosmic rays.

cosmic rays are high-energy particles from outer space, including sources such as the Sun, distant galaxies, supernovae, and other celestial bodies. Although humans cannot directly see or feel cosmic rays, they still continuously bounce back to Earth from space. In fact, they are so abundant that scientists estimate that every minute a cosmic ray bounces off one square centimeter of the Earth’s surface.

Illustration of cosmic rays bouncing to Earth from space.

Illustration of cosmic rays bouncing to Earth from space. (Image: Shutterstock).

The research team led by Professor Hiroуuki Tanaka of the University of Tokyo uses cosmic rays to develop a global positioning system that can track movement in the ground, Interesting engineering June 18 was reported. New study published in a journal iScience.

As they enter the Earth’s atmosphere, cosmic rays collide with molecules and atoms in the air, creating secondary particles called particles. muon. The muon is an elementary subatomic particle like the electron but 207 times heavier. Muons can penetrate solid objects, the degree of penetration depends on the density of the object. For example, rocks and buildings absorb many muons due to their high density.

Meanwhile, GPS relies on traditional radio waves which are generally weaker at higher altitudes and easily dispersed. This makes it very difficult to use it to detect underground movement.

Canaka and his colleagues exploit the properties of cosmic rays to map hard-to-reach places like volcanoes, nuclear reactor cores and pyramids. They are developing a new wireless navigation system using Muon seeds named MuWNS. The system includes reference detectors on the surface and an underground receiver to detect the trajectory of the muon. By analyzing the timing and orientation of the muons, MuWNS determines the relative position of the underground receiver to the surface reference detector.

Then, all the data collected will make it possible to reconstruct the path of the muons to create a model or a map of the underground zone. Maps can provide valuable information, such as the composition and density of materials they want to scan, allowing experts to visualize the earth’s geological structures and features.

The research team the MuWNS system. by equipping a man with a receiver detector in the basement and by placing 4 reference detectors on the 6th floor of a building. They then succeeded in reconstructing the path of the human tunnel by sifting through the cosmic rays picked up by the detectors.

The expert team demonstrated that the world’s first global cosmic-ray positioning system can support future search and rescue missions and volcano monitoring. Next, they plan to improve MuWNS so that it can be integrated into smartphones.

Article source: VnExpress