A team of researchers created an app that brings high-tech radioactive particle detection to your smartphone. Using the Android app, users will be able to capture the particles of light that are created when cosmic rays enter Earth's atmosphere.
Cosmic rays are radioactive particles that scientists believe come from supernovas. The app detects and analyzes electric charges that are caused when particles of light called photons hit the silicon chips found in smartphone cameras.
"The apps basically transform the phone into a high-energy particle detector," says Justin Vandenbroucke, a University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professor of physics and a researcher at the Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center. "It uses the same principles as these very large experiments."
The project, called Distributed Electronic Cosmic-ray Observatory (DECO) received funding from the American Physical Society, the Knight Foundation and the Simon-Strauss Foundation. The app was developed for educational purposes, with plans to engage high school students. High school teachers are encouraged to create their classroom materials to include the cosmic ray detector to make learning more hands on.
"It would be great to get students and the public interested in gathering data and understanding the particles around them, things they ordinarily don't get a chance to see," says Vandenbroucke.
To use the app, users need to put a piece of duct tape over the camera lens and place the phone screen-up on any surface, like on a desk. DECO then captures photos every couple of seconds, and after analyzing the images, pixels that light up become recorded as an event. The app essentially allows users to record radioactivity.
Scientists have been tracking cosmic rays with lower-tech methods for years. Even though the International Space Station currently uses a $2 billion cosmic ray detector. The app allows anyone with a mobile phone to take part in science. The app may be offered to other smartphone brands besides Androids in the distant future.
