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----------------------------- 1927 - Cosmic Rays
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- Cosmic Rays are mostly high speed atomic nuclei coming from our Sun or other Stars. The most common atomic nuclei is Hydrogen, which is a single proton. Helium nuclei are called an Alpha particles, each with 2 protons Heavier elements have more protons right up the Periodic Table all the way to iron.
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- Here are the percentages of Cosmic Rays detected:
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-------------------- 90% ----------------- protons, hydrogen nuclei
-------------------- 9% ---------------- helium nuclei
--------------------- 1% ----------------- heavier nuclei and negatively charge electrons.
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- Why are there not 50% electrons and 50% protons? That is what makes up all neutral hydrogen atoms. That would make more sense? We just don’t know.
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- Next, when enormous energy levels were detected from some Cosmic Rays the conclusion was that they came from galactic cores, or Blackholes, not from the nuclear furnace of our neighborhood Sun, or other single stars.
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- Cosmic Rays from the Sun are much weaker. Galactic Cosmic Rays are more powerful, between 100 million electron volts ( MeV) and 10 billion electron volts (GeV). These were all protons with a mass of 1,836 electron-mass. To have more energy they must be traveling at much higher speeds. Energy = mass * (velocity)^2. A Cosmic Ray of 100 MeV is traveling 43% the speed of light, or, 288,000,000 miles per hour.
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- A Cosmic Ray with energy of 10 GeV is traveling at 99.6% the speed of light, or, 671,000,000 miles per hour. The highest energy Cosmic Ray ever measured was 1,020 GeV.
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- Half of the radiation ( 50%) we experience comes from the ground. Radiation in the Earth. 10% comes from Cosmic Rays from outer space. If you live in Denver, Colorado, you receive twice as much as if you were at sea level, San Francisco, California. Airline pilots experience twice as much radiation as the rest of us.
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- Cosmic Rays coming from deep space first strike the hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen molecules at 35 miles elevation in our atmosphere. The collisions create a shower of lighter particles that rain down on us, neutrons, protons, electrons, and neutrinos Another particle that is a transient is the Muon with a mass of 208 electrons. They are essentially “heavy” electrons with a half-life of 2 millionths of a second.
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- Muons don’t live very long. How can they even reach the ground from 25 miles up in the atmosphere? Because they are traveling so fast, nearly half the speed of light, that they are “ Relativistic”, meaning time slows down for them and distances shrink.
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- Measurements have calculated that your body encounters 240 Muons passing through every second. The really dangerous Cosmic Rays are the heaviest iron nuclei traveling at near light speed. But, these are very rare unless we get close to a supernova explosion.
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- The heaviest nuclei Cosmic Rays are still mysteries, but, they are believed to come from colliding galaxies, like NGC4038 and NGC4039, the “ Antenna Galaxy”. Maybe the source are super massive Blackholes that somehow slingshot these particles to relativistic speeds.
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- These are all charge particles that are redirected by magnetic fields causing them to come at us from all directions. This energetic flow of particles surrounds us, and even goes through us. An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
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- (1): See Review #1747 - Compares Cosmic Rays and Gamma Rays.
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- (2) This Review footnotes 12 other resources on the topic: #1659, #1624, #1568, #1496, #1377, #810, etc.
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- (3) See Review #1926 to learn how Cosmic Rays may be responsible for the evolution of life on Earth.
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----- 707-536-3272 ---------------- Friday, February 3, 2017 -----
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