International School of Cosmic Ray Astrophysics

16^th  Course: "Gamma Ray and Cosmic Ray Astrophysics: From below GeV to beyond EeV Energies"

 5-12 July 2008
Ettore Majorana Centre
Erice, Sicily, Italy

Topic: Study of cosmic rays of galactic, solar, terrestrial and unknown origin with Pamela detector: first results.
Lecturer: Marco Cassolino

Cosmic rays are an unique probe to many still unanswered cosmological and astrophysical problems. For instance, the matter/antimatter asymmetry in the cosmos and the nature of Dark Matter can be addressed by studying the antiproton and positiron components of cosmic rays. Furthemore, by studying the flux and composition of cosmic rays it is possible to shed light on acceleration and propagation of cosmic rays in our galaxy, in our solar system and in Earth’s magnetosphere. The spectrometer Pamela was launched with a Soyuz rocket in 2006 and is currently in a 350*600 km, 70o inclination orbit. Pamela is capable to perform measurement of the antiparticle and particle component in cosmic rays over a wide energy range with unprecedented accuracy. We will discuss the first results obtained by Pamela and their relevance for cosmic ray physics.