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Session 48 - Workshop on the Future of Antarctic Astrophysics - I.
Topical, Oral session, Wednesday, June 10
Presidio,
Astronomy is now able to investigate the photon spectrum from radio frequencies (the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation--CMBR) to the highest-energy gamma rays using ground-based gamma-ray telescopes. However, because of the intergalactic CMBR and infra-red light (IR), space becomes increasing opaque to these high-energy photons as their energy increases. Neutrinos have a distinct advantage in this energy regime, for unlike photons of energies of 10^13 eV and beyond, they are not absorbed by the intergalactic IR light and CMBR. Neutrinos can, in principle, reach us from the edge of the universe, whereas, if the sources of the high-energy cosmic rays were beyond the Virgo cluster, then the conventional window of exploration would be closed above 100 TeV. Thus, sources which may be responsible for the highest-energy cosmic rays may lie beyond the discovery radius of conventional astronomy.
