- 4092 - COSMIC RAYS and GAMMA RAYS? Cosmic Rays and Gamma Rays are high energy phenomena that are amazing things to study. They represent some of the extremes of the Universe. Cosmic Rays are not rays at all. They are actually sub-atomic particles, usually the nuclei or hydrogen or helium atoms. They obtain their high energy by traveling so fast, often near the speed of light.
---------------- 4092 - COSMIC RAYS and GAMMA RAYS?
- 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.
-
- The Fermi Gamma Ray
telescope in space has a “Large Area Telescope that 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.
-
-
July 14, 2023 COSMIC RAYS and GAMMA RAYS? 1377 4091
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Friday, July 14, 2023
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