Unveiling the Composition of Primary Cosmic Rays: Insights into Cosmic-Ray Sulfur

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) collaboration has published a paper in Physical Review Letters revealing new insights into the properties and composition of primary cosmic rays, specifically carbon, neon, magnesium, and sulfur. The AMS experiment on the International Space Station provides accurate measurements of elementary particles and all elements of the periodic table up to kinetic energy levels of over 1,000 Giga electron-volts per nucleon. The research group found that primary cosmic rays can be divided into at least two sub-classes, Ne-Mg-Si and He-C-O-Fe, and that sulfur cosmic rays have similar properties to the Ne-Mg-Si class. The findings challenge existing cosmic ray models and contribute to a better understanding of cosmic ray origin and propagation.