JEM EUSO: Mission Overview

 JEM-EUSO (Extreme Universe Space Observatory on Japanese Experiment Module) is a new type of observatory that uses the Earth's atmosphere as a detector.

Accommodated on the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) of the International Space Station (ISS), the Extreme Universe Space Observatory JEM-EUSO will utilize the Earth's atmosphere as a giant detector of the highest energy cosmic rays, the most energetic particles coming from the Universe. 

Looking downward the Earth from Space, JEM-EUSO will detect such particles observing the fluorescence signal produced during their pass in the atmosphere.

The main objective of JEM-EUSO is the possibility of doing astronomy and astrophysics through the particle channel with extreme energies above 10²⁰ eV, so extending, with a significant statistical evidence, the measurement of the energy spectrum of the cosmic radiation beyond the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) cut-off. Moreover, using the atmosphere as a giant detector, JEM-EUSO could observe extremely high energy neutrinos, so opening the field of high energy neutrino astronomy. Furthermore, JEM-EUSO will contribute to the investigation of phenomena intrinsic to the Earth‘s atmosphere or induced by the flux of meteoroids incoming from Space.

JEM-EUSO has been designed to operate for more than 3 years onboard the International Space Station orbiting around the Earth every 90 minutes at altitude of about 400 km.

JEM-EUSO is a worldwide collaborating effort of 75 research groups from 13 countries.

Parameters of Mission