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----------------- 1747 - Cosmic Rays and Gamma Rays.
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- Gamma Rays and Cosmic Rays constantly collide with Earth carrying enormous amounts of energy. Energies far beyond what we can create her on Earth with our most powerful particle accelerators. Where does these high energy rays and particles originate? How do they collect so much energy?
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- Some astronomers are busy studying galaxies to understand the evolution of the Universe. Other astronomers, or astrophysicists, are studying the tiniest high energy particles to learn answers to the same questions.
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- The closer to the Big Bang physicists get the higher the energies and the more fundamental the physics becomes. At the most fundamental level it all started with “nothing’, then it evolved into pure energy, then mass condensed out as things expanded and cooled down.
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- The highest energies can not yet be created here on Earth. Yet, the highest energies enter our upper atmosphere from outer space every second. These high energy bombardments are called Cosmic Rays, however, they are not radiation, they are high energy particles with mass at velocity. Gamma Rays are high energy photons. Cosmic Rays are not photons but particles like: , atomic nuclei, protons, electrons, positrons (anti-electrons) and other atomic nuclei.
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- In the 1912 while investigating Cosmic Rays in laboratory cloud chambers new particles were discovered including the positron, the muon, and the pion.
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- If you add up the energy density of all the sunlight, plus starlight, plus turbulent interstellar gas motion, plus the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation, the total would equal the energy density of Cosmic Rays alone that fill the galaxy.
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- The energies of these individual particles range from 10^8 electron volts to 10^20 electron volts.
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- Where do they come from?
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- We can not trace their trajectories backwards because they do not travel in straight lines. They are charged particles and they spiral in their forward motion through the interstellar magnetic fields.
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- Continued study has proposed the likely source of Cosmic Rays to be active galactic centers powered by super massive Blackholes.
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- Adding up the power of Cosmic Rays lead to 10^29 megawatts, or a billion times the total power of the Sun’s output A few supernovae explosions per century could provide this much power.
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- Cosmic Ray research needs to be done in space. Once the Cosmic Rays get the atmosphere most collide with air molecules and create a shower of other fundamental particle debris.
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- Cosmic Rays > 10^19 eV are rare , less than one per 0.4 square mile per year. This rarity makes direct measurements difficult. So, indirect measurements of the shower of particles produced when one of these high energy Cosmic Rays collide with the atmosphere becomes the preferred method of detection. By analyzing the debris in the particle shower physics can reconstruct the particle and energy from which it came.
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- To capture a particle shower of this nature the detector on the surface of the Earth covers 1,160 square miles, containing 1,600 detectors that are 0.9 miles apart.
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- Gamma Rays are not influenced by magnetic fields. So their straight-line trajectories can be traced back from which they came.
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- Blazers have been found that produce Gamma Rays of 10^8 eV energies. Our atmosphere blocks Gamma Rays from reaching the surface. But, the Rays also create showers of lower energy particles and flashes of blue light, called Cerenkov Radiation, that can be detected.
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- Cosmic Rays were first discovered in 1912 when high altitude balloons were used to detect atmospheric radiation that was 4 times greater than at ground level.
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- Initially Cosmic Rays were thought to be Gamma Rays , the same ones that are produced in radioactive decay. That was how they got the name “ Rays”, even though they are actually high velocity particles.
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- Cosmic Rays collide with air molecules high in the atmosphere producing a shower of electron, photons, and muons that reach Earth’ surface. When we say “high-energy” particles we mean a particle the size of a proton having the energy of a tennis ball traveling 340 miles per hour.
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- The Cosmic Rays are studied as 4 basic types:
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- (1) Low energy particles originating at the edge of the Solar System where electrically neutral atoms become ionized and accelerated as charged particles. The disk of our galaxy glows from “ synchrotron radiation” produced by mostly Electron Cosmic Rays spiraling around the galaxy’s magnetic field.
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- (2) Galactic Cosmic Rays flowing into the Solar System from the other parts of the Milky Way. Astronomers believe these are produced by supernovae explosions where charged particles get bounced back and forth, getting accelerated inside the supernova remnant until they reach escape velocity speeds.
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- (3) Cosmic Rays that originate from the Sun. Mostly low energy protons that get accelerated by the Sun’s intense magnetic fields.
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- (4) Ultra-high energy particles coming from an unknown source probably from outside our Galaxy. The hypothesis is that Cosmic Rays are accelerated to high energies by the shockwaves produced in supernovae explosions.
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- A new astronomy is emerging using these charged particles and Gamma Rays to explore the Universe. What is the source of the highest energy Gamma Rays and how are they being produced. This has been a mystery now for over 100 years. Stay tuned , we have more to learn.
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- Other Review available on the topic, available upon request:
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- #1659 Cosmic Rays can take tens of million so years traveling at near light speeds in their magnetically twisted spiral paths to reach Earth.
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- #1624 - Most Cosmic Rays pass through Earth without touching anything.
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- #1568 - Cosmic Rays hit air molecules and create a shower of billions of electrons, muons, positrons, pions, etc.
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- #1496 - 90% of Cosmic Rays reaching Earth’s surface are protons. About 10 of them pass through your thumb every minute.
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- #1377 - Astronauts experience much higher bombardment of Cosmic Rays 5,000 hit their body every second.
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- #810, #763, #541 - an average body absorbs enough Cosmic Ray energy to equate to 2 chest X-rays per year.
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- #687, #26, #709 - the risks of space travel.
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