Cosmic Ray Detector SORAMAME

Turn your smartphone into a cosmic ray detector! Join our global citizen science project and observe invisible particles from space just by covering your camera.

Discover the invisible universe right in your pocket!

SORAMAME is an innovative citizen science app that transforms your smartphone into a real cosmic ray detector. Every second, invisible high-energy particles from deep space are raining down on Earth. By using your device's camera sensor, SORAMAME allows you to capture and record these microscopic cosmic events.

Whether you are a science enthusiast, a student, or just curious about the universe, you can easily contribute to global space research. Simply cover your rear camera to block out all light, press play, and let your smartphone catch the invisible hits from the cosmos!

How It Works

Your smartphone's CMOS image sensor is highly sensitive not just to visible light, but also to high-energy particles like muons. When the camera is completely shielded from light, the sensor acts as a particle detector. When a cosmic ray strikes the sensor, it leaves a faint but detectable signal—which SORAMAME captures and analyzes in real-time.

Key Features

Real-Time Detection: Watch your screen as cosmic ray hits are detected and recorded instantly.

Global Observation Map: See where cosmic rays are being detected around the world! Your data contributes to a global map shared by other citizen scientists.

Offline Mode: Exploring off the grid? No problem. SORAMAME saves your detection data (images and coordinates) locally when you are offline and automatically uploads it to the central server once your network connection is restored.

Privacy-Friendly: Your location data is slightly blurred on the public map to ensure your privacy remains fully protected.

Easy Setup: No extra hardware required. Just a smartphone and a dark environment (or a simple piece of black tape to cover the lens).

Important Note for Accurate Measurement

To detect cosmic rays accurately, the camera sensor must be in complete darkness. Please shield the rear camera from light entirely. The app includes a light-leak detection feature and will alert you (ERROR: Please shield the rear camera from light) if the environment is too bright. For best results, we recommend leaving the app running for at least 3 hours to stabilize the background noise learning.

Join the SORAMAME project today, and let's map the cosmic rays of our universe together!

https://soramame.n.kanagawa-u.ac.jp/en/