Overview of the Pierre Auger Observatory dedicated to the study of cosmic rays.

The Pierre Auger Observatory represents the largest effort undertaken by scientists to observe high energy cosmic rays by recording the information available in extensive air showers (EAS). The Observatory consists of several detection systems: the water Cherenkov detectors (covering an area of 3000 km²), the fluorescence detectors (overlooking the entire Cherenkov array), and the smaller systems: the radio antenna array (currently covering 17 km²) and the muon underground detectors. This hybrid approach facilitates the observation of a single shower from multiple points of view. Thus various parameters can be reconstructed and validated with several measurements. The physics at the Observatory focuses on mass composition, energy spectrum and sources of the primary astropaticles, as well as atmospheric and detectors studies. The recent discoveries of the Observatory have helped us understand the Universe at these ultra high energies, unavailable to terrestrial accelerators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]