Air shower
Cascada atmosférica extensa
- Date
- 1933 · confidence high
- Place
- Florence, Tuscany, Italy
- Credited to
- Bruno Rossi
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Cascades of subatomic particles produced in the atmosphere when a high-energy primary cosmic ray collides with air molecules, identified through detector-coincidence experiments by Bruno Rossi.
What it led to
- development of coincidence circuits to detect cosmic rays
- indirect measurement of primary cosmic-ray energy
- basis for large-area cosmic-ray observatories such as the Pierre Auger Observatory