100 Ruhr researchers study cosmic rays

They are constantly raining down on us from space: cosmic ray particles. Scientists from the Ruhr University Alliance are founding a center to study them.
Cosmic rays are the link between the research areas of the working groups that have joined forces in the Ruhr Astroparticle and Plasma Physics Center, or RAPP Center for short. Around 100 researchers will celebrate the opening of the facility in the Ruhr University Alliance on September 21, starting at 7 p.m. in the Bochum Planetarium. An inaugural conference will have been held at RUB on September 22 and 23.

Questions from dark matter to planet formation

At the RAPP Center, researchers ranging from students to professors will work at the intersection of astrophysics, plasma physics and particle physics. They will ask questions like: What is dark matter, anyway? Where does cosmic radiation come from? Why is there more matter than antimatter? Which interactions of elementary particles are relevant and how can they be studied? What is the role of magnetic fields in the universe? How does planet formation work?
Funding

The RAPP Center is funded by the Mercator Research Center Ruhr (Mercur) with about 330,000 euros.