Particles in Space

High energy particles from outer space, or Cosmic Rays, have been discovered over a hundred years ago, however their exact origins still remain unelucidated. Current evidence suggests astrophysical sources such as supernova explosion or pulsar acceleration, but more exotic sources such as Dark Matter decay or annihilation are also possible. Space experiments allows to detect cosmic rays above the Earth’s atmosphere to unveil the fine features of the spectra, composition and anisotropy of cosmic rays. In the past few years, the unprecedented precision reached by the latest generation of space experiments, exemplified by AMS and DAMPE, allows to detect several unexpected structures in cosmic ray fluxes, providing unique phenomenological inputs to further develop cosmic ray production, acceleration and propagation, as well as Dark Matter models.

This talk will give an overview of the current space cosmic ray experiments and their latest results. In particular the DAMPE (DArk Matter Particle Explorer) mission will be presented in details. Since its successful launch on December 2015 a large amount of cosmic ray data has been collected. With relatively large acceptance, DAMPE is designed to detect electrons and positrons up to 10 TeV with unprecedented energy resolution to search for new features in the cosmic ray electron plus positron (CRE) spectrum. It will also study cosmic ray nuclei up to 100 TeV with good precision. First results from the DAMPE data analysis results, including the recently published CRE spectrum from 25 GeV to 4.6 TeV, as well as preliminary result on the proton flux, will be presented. Finally, a next generation astroparticle space mission, called High Energy Radiation Detection facility (HERD), proposed to be installed on the Chinese Space Station, that will extend the cosmic ray direct detection to the PeV range, will be introduced.