ACTINIDE SUB-ACTINIDE FLUX RATIO ESTIMATED FROM NASA CHALLENGER SPACE SHUTTLE BORNE PASSIVE DETECTOR EXPERIMENT

Abstract

A video trace analysis of 117 ultra heavy cosmic nuclei detected by NASA space shuttle borne lexan detectors has been presented here. The major axes of the elliptical track etch pits in the long hour etched detectors have been measured using a Hund microscope computerized for the measurements using a Pentium. The major axes distribution exhibits the existence of ultra heavy nuclei of charges of Z ranging from 72 to 96 compatible with the expected results from restricted energy loss calculations. The estimated actinide sub-actinide flux ratio has been found to be 0.0636±0.0248 which is comparable to the earlier observations by Fowler et al., Thompson et al. and O'Sullivan.