- Cosmic Rays and Gamma Rays are high energy phenomena that are amazing things to study. They represent some of the extremes of the Universe.
- Attachments : picture
- Gamma Rays truly are waves. They are high energy light waves. The energy of all “light” , or electromagnetic radiation, is dependent on the frequency of oscillation. The higher the frequency the higher the energy. ( E = h*f).
- Gamma Rays have higher energy than X-rays. Their frequencies are 3*10^22 cycles per second and higher. These frequencies represent energies of 24,900,000 electron volts and higher. Ordinary light is 2 to 3 electron volts. Dental X-rays are 5,000 electron volts.
- Astronomers have had the Fermi Gamma Ray telescope in space for more than 3 years. Its Large Area Telescope scans the entire sky every 3 hours. It measures radiation levels from 20 million to 300 billion electron volts.
- The really high energy Gamma Rays are above 10 billion electron volts ( 10 GeV). Fermi’s telescope has discovered one of these every 4 months on average. Fermi has discovered 496 Gamma Ray Sources over 10 GeV and 1,873 Sources over 1 GeV. (1,000,000,000 electron volts).
----------- Here is how the data breaks down:
------------------ Blazar Galaxy ------------ 1,069 ------------- 57%
------------------ Pulsar ------------------------ 115 ------------- 6%
------------------ Supernovae ------------------- 77 ------------- 4%
------------------ Active Galaxy ---------------- 20 ------------- 1%
------------------ Normal Galaxy -------------- 20 -------------- 1%
------------------ Unknown -------------------- 572 ------------- 31%
- Nearly 60% are Blazars and Active Galaxies. These are super massive Blackholes that are consuming in-falling matter. The rotating matter reaches high energy and jets out the magnetic poles at nearly the speed of light. When these jets collide with particles and intergalactic gases they create high energy Gamma Ray radiation.
- 10% of the Sources lie within the Milky Way Galaxy. These include rotating Neutron Stars called Pulsars, expanding debris from supernovae explosions and binary systems containing massive stars.
- 31% of the Sources found are completely unknown objects that are not detected at other wavelengths. Some of the Sources completely fade away above 1 GeV.
- There have been 130 Gamma Ray Sources discovered that have energies above 100 GeV.
- Cosmic Rays, that is Cosmic Particles, have even greater energies than Gamma Rays. Most Cosmic Rays have energies in the range 0.01 to 10 GeV. However, as amazing as it sounds, a few Cosmic Rays have been detected with energies of 100,000,000,000 GeV. This energy level is 40,000,000 times more powerful that we can create here on Earth with our most powerful particle accelerators. One of these single Cosmic Ray particles the size of a proton would have the same amount of energy as a tennis ball hitting you at 100 miles per hour.
- Cosmic Rays were first discovered in 1912. The Cosmic particle charges that were measured were thought to be some form of invisible light coming from outer space. Therefore, they were called “Cosmic Rays”. The “rays” stuck even though they were later to be discovered to be Cosmic Particles. It was not until 1950 that astronomers figured this out.
--------------- Here is the data on Cosmic Rays:
------------------------- 89% ----------------- protons, hydrogen nuclei, positive charges
------------------------ 10% ----------------- helium nuclei, alpha particles, 2 protons and 2 neutrons nuclei, positive charges
---------------------- 1% ------------------ electrons, negative charges
- All Cosmic Ray particles carry an electric charge and therefore spiral as they travel through a magnetic field. This makes it difficult, or impossible, to determine which direction they were coming from. The ratio of hydrogen nuclei and helium nuclei matches the relative abundance of these elements in the Universe.
- The energy of Cosmic Rays is Kinetic Energy which is mass times velocity and depends on the speed of the particle. The lower energy Cosmic Rays originate in our Sun. The higher energy Cosmic Rays come from outer space.
- The Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field protects us from Cosmic Rays hitting us from outer space. However, some Cosmic Rays do reach the surface of the Earth. Your body on average receives 26 millirems of Cosmic Ray radiation every year. Your body would receive an additional 5 millirems of radiation for each 1,000 feet you go in elevation above sea level. When you fly in commercial airplanes at 30,000 feet add 1 millirems for every 1,000 miles that you travel. Airline crews have been found to have 23 cases for cancer per 100 instead of the 22 cases per 100 for land lubbers ( a 4.5% increase).
- Astronauts experience 5,000 Cosmic Ray hits every second. To protect astronauts to the level found on Earth they would need to be surrounded by 16 feet of water, or some other equivalent mass.
- It is still a mystery of where the truly ultra-high energy Cosmic Rays come from. A best guess is from super massive Blackholes in the center of galaxies. Somehow these powerful energies are able to slingshot cosmic particles to near light speeds. One wild idea is that Dark Matter particles decay into high-speed proton pairs. One proton gets pulled into the Blackhole and the other gets shot out in an equal and opposite direction to travel through the Cosmos.
- Announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
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707-536-3272, Sunday, January 15, 2012
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