Today, on 21 November 2023, the annual International Cosmic Day (ICD) will take place. This day is dedicated to the unnoticed cosmic particles that flood our universe and constantly surround us on Earth.

“I am delighted that what began in 2012, the anniversary year of the discovery of cosmic rays, is now taking place for the 12th time coordinated by DESY”, says Christian Stegmann, DESY Director of Astroparticle Physics. “For a day young people will get a taste how science works by slipping into the role of a researcher.”

On the International Cosmic Day schools, universities and research institutions in 18 countries from 4 continents enable young people all over the world to come together to talk about these particles from the cosmos, to explore them and to exchange their newly acquired knowledge in joint video conferences. They are supported and guided by scientists and teachers.

The young people deal with the exciting questions of astroparticle physics, carry out measurements of cosmic muons and network all over the world via video conferences. Afterwards, they document their results in a joint publication. The joint work shows how international cooperation works and how science functions as a unifying element beyond national borders, language barriers and cultural differences.

DESY in Zeuthen is initiating and coordinating the ICD for the 12th time with a team of scientists, students and event experts. And this year we have another online masterclass for Ukrainian students in Ukrainian. This is being held in cooperation with the organisation Astrosandboxers, the Pierre Auger Observatory, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), and a young scientist at DESY.

Those who do not live near a venue can also participate as a class without conducting their own experiments. The Cosmic@Web website, specially developed by DESY for school projects, provides data from long-term experiments and tools for evaluation. As is usual in astroparticle physics, the experiment only has to be built once and all participating researchers have access to the data and can pursue their own research topics. "We are very pleased that Cosmic@Web gives young people around the world the chance to work like scientists," explains Carolin Gnebner, scientific coordinator of the astroparticle projects for young people at DESY in Zeuthen.

In the Netzwerk Teilchenwelt Network, a wide range of events take place within the framework of the ICD at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg and at a school in Wildau (near DESY in Zeuthen).

The International Cosmic Day is an initiative of DESY in cooperation with the International Particle Physics Outreach Group (IPPOG) and many national networks and partners.

 
https://icd.desy.de
http://globalcosmics.org
https://cosmic.desy.de/eng
http://cosmicatweb.desy.de