Energy spectra and composition of primary cosmic rays

Abstract

New results are described on the energy spectra and relative abundances of primary cosmic ray nuclei from carbon to iron. The measurement was performed on the Spacelab-2 mission of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1985, and extends to energies beyond 1 TeV per amu. The data indicate that the cosmic ray flux arriving near earth becomes enriched with heavier nuclei, most notably iron, as energy increases. Extrapolating to the source, with a simple leaky box model of galactic propagation with rigidity-dependent containment time, relative abundances of the elements are obtained that are quite similar to those reported at lower energy. In particular, the depletion of elements with high first ionization potential relative to the local galactic abundances, seems to persist in the cosmic ray source well up to TeV energies. A single power-law energy spectrum about E exp {minus}2.1 provides a good description of the observed spectra of most elemental species. 33 refs.