News tagged with cosmic rays
Physicists investigate lower dimensions of the universe
(PhysOrg.com) -- Several speculative theories in physics involve extra dimensions beyond our well-known four (which are broken down into three dimensions of space and one of time). Some theories have suggested 5, 10, 26, ...
Mar 18, 2011 |
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Primordial beryllium could reveal insights into the Big Bang
(PhysOrg.com) -- Some chemical elements appear much more abundantly in nature than others, which is partly due to how the elements originally formed. Scientists know that the light elements (hydrogen, deuterium, ...
Apr 21, 2011 |
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Researchers take first steps toward X-ray superfluorescence
(PhysOrg.com) -- While physicist Robert Dicke is probably most famous for his work on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) – and being "scooped" while attempting to be the first to detect it – he ...
Nov 14, 2011 |
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Where do the highest-energy cosmic rays come from? Not from gamma-ray bursts, says IceCube study
The IceCube neutrino telescope encompasses a cubic kilometer of clear Antarctic ice under the South Pole, a volume seeded with an array of 5,160 sensitive digital optical modules (DOMs) that precisely track ...
Apr 18, 2012 |
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Jupiter's Moon Europa Has Enough Oxygen For Life
New research suggests that there is plenty of oxygen available in the subsurface ocean of Europa to support oxygen-based metabolic processes for life similar to that on Earth. In fact, there may be enough ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 16, 2009 |
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Researchers prove existence of antiproton radiation belt around Earth
Italian researchers using data from the satellite PAMELA have proven that theories showing there ought to be a ring of antiprotons encircling the Earth due to cosmic rays colliding with nuclei in the upper atmosphere are ...
Aug 05, 2011 |
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A big surprise from the edge of the solar system: magnetic bubbles (w/ video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Voyager probes are truly going where no one has gone before. Gliding silently toward the stars, 9 billion miles from Earth, they are beaming back news from the most distant, unexplored ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jun 09, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (35) |
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Missing sunspots: Solar mystery solved
The Sun has been in the news a lot lately because it's beginning to send out more flares and solar storms. Its recent turmoil is particularly newsworthy because the Sun was very quiet for an unusually long ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Mar 02, 2011 |
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A new kind of metal in the deep Earth
(PhysOrg.com) -- The crushing pressures and intense temperatures in Earth's deep interior squeeze atoms and electrons so closely together that they interact very differently. With depth materials change. New ...
Dec 19, 2011 |
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In the heart of Cygnus, NASA's Fermi reveals a cosmic-ray cocoon
(PhysOrg.com) -- The constellation Cygnus, now visible in the western sky as twilight deepens after sunset, hosts one of our galaxy's richest-known stellar construction zones. Astronomers viewing the region ...
Nov 28, 2011 |
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Did exploding stars help life on Earth to thrive?
(Phys.org) -- Research by a Danish physicist suggests that the explosion of massive stars – supernovae – near the Solar System has strongly influenced the development of life. Prof. Henrik Svensmark ...
Apr 24, 2012 |
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'Necropanspermia' suggested as a way of seeding life on Earth
(PhysOrg.com) -- Panspermia is a mechanism for spreading organic material throughout the galaxy, but the destructive effects of cosmic rays and ultraviolet light tend to mean most organisms would be destroyed ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Nov 12, 2010 |
3.8 / 5 (32) |
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Herschel Space Observatory discovers source of cosmic dust in a stellar explosion
(PhysOrg.com) -- ESA's Herschel Space Observatory is helping unravel the mystery of where cosmic dust comes from. Thanks to the resolution and sensitivity of Herschel, astronomers have been able to detect ...
Jul 07, 2011 |
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Microbes survive a year and a half in space
(PhysOrg.com) -- Bacteria collected from rocks taken from the cliffs at the tiny English fishing village of Beer in Devon, have survived on the outside surface of the International Space Station for 553 days. ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Aug 25, 2010 |
5 / 5 (22) |
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Invading black holes explain cosmic flashes
(PhysOrg.com) -- Black holes are invading stars, providing a radical explanation to bright flashes in the universe that are one of the biggest mysteries in astronomy today.
Sep 18, 2009 |
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Cosmic ray
Cosmic rays are energetic particles originating from outer space that impinge on Earth's atmosphere. Almost 90% of all the incoming cosmic ray particles are protons, almost 10% are helium nuclei (alpha particles), and slightly under 1% are heavier elements and electrons (beta minus particles). The term ray is a misnomer, as cosmic particles arrive individually, not in the form of a ray or beam of particles.
The variety of particle energies reflects the wide variety of sources. The origins of these particles range from energetic processes on the Sun all the way to as yet unknown events in the farthest reaches of the visible universe. Cosmic rays can have energies of over 1020 eV, far higher than the 1012 to 1013 eV that man-made particle accelerators can produce. (See Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays for a description of the detection of a single particle with an energy of about 50 J, the same as a well-hit tennis ball at 42 m/s [about 94 mph].) There has been interest in investigating cosmic rays of even greater energies.
For more information about Cosmic ray, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
