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- Forbush effect
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Cosmic ray
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What are cosmic rays?
Cosmic rays are high-speed particles, either an atomic nucleus or an electron, that travel through space. Most originate within the Milky Way Galaxy and are known as galactic cosmic rays (GCRs), while others come from the Sun or outside the Milky Way.
Cosmic ray particles aren't directly observed on Earth's surface because they collide with atmospheric nuclei, creating secondary particles like neutrons and short-lived particles. Primary cosmic rays are studied using high-altitude balloons or spacecraft. The study of cosmic rays played a vital role in the study of the atomic nucleus and particle physics, leading to the discovery of subatomic particles.
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Where do cosmic rays come from?
Cosmic rays are high-speed particles traveling through space. Most originate within the Milky Way Galaxy as galactic cosmic rays (GCRs), while others come from the Sun or outside the Milky Way.
Because magnetic fields deflect primary GCRs, they arrive at Earth's atmosphere from all directions. The elemental and isotopic abundances of atomic nuclei help identify cosmic ray sources. After accounting for GCR collisions with interstellar gas, the sources' composition resembles general solar-system matter. About 80% of cosmic ray material has a solar-system composition, and roughly 20% comes from evolved stars, like Type II supernovas and Wolf-Rayet stars. Supernova explosions can supply the power to replenish GCRs. Some gamma-ray bursts have been associated with supernovae. Active galactic nuclei are also sources of cosmic rays.
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What are cosmic rays made of?
Cosmic rays are high-speed particles traveling through space, either atomic nuclei or electrons. Galactic cosmic rays (GCRs), originating mostly within the Milky Way, consist of approximately 85% protons (hydrogen nuclei), 13% alpha particles (helium nuclei), and 2% electrons and heavier nuclei.
The light elements lithium, beryllium, and boron are rare in the universe but surprisingly abundant among primary GCRs. These light nuclei are produced when heavier primaries (like carbon and oxygen) fragment during collisions with interstellar gas, which is mostly hydrogen.
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How are cosmic rays detected on Earth?
Cosmic rays, which are high-energy particles from space, aren't directly observed on Earth's surface. When cosmic ray primaries collide with atmospheric nuclei, they create secondary particles, like neutrons and muons.
To study primary cosmic rays, scientists use high-altitude balloons and spacecraft. Instruments like scintillation counters and proportional counters are used to observe cosmic rays. Some ground-based telescopes can detect Cherenkov radiation, which is produced when a gamma ray strikes Earth’s upper atmosphere.
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What happens when cosmic rays enter Earth's atmosphere?
When cosmic rays reach Earth's atmosphere, they collide with atmospheric nuclei and produce secondary particles, such as neutrons and short-lived particles like muons. These secondary particles result from the fragmentation of colliding nuclei or the energy released during the collisions.
Because of these collisions, cosmic ray particles are not directly observed on Earth's surface; rather, secondary particles are observed at sea level. To study primary cosmic rays directly, scientists use high-altitude balloons or spacecraft. The term "air shower" describes cosmic rays formed into a shower after passing through the atmosphere.
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Why are cosmic rays important to scientists?
Cosmic rays are high-speed particles traveling through space. Scientists find them important because they offer a unique window into the universe beyond Earth. From the early 1930s to 1950s, cosmic rays played a critical role in the study of the atomic nucleus and its components, as they were the only source of high-energy particles at the time.
Even with the development of powerful particle accelerators, cosmic rays are still valuable because they contain particles with energies far beyond what can be achieved in laboratories. By studying the elemental and isotopic abundances of cosmic rays, scientists can reconstruct the history of these particles' journeys through the Milky Way Galaxy.
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Cosmic ray, a high-speed particle—either an atomic nucleus or an electron—that travels through space. Most of these particles come from sources within the Milky Way Galaxy and are known as galactic cosmic rays (GCRs). The rest of the cosmic rays originate either from the Sun or, almost certainly in the case of the particles with the highest energies, outside the Milky Way Galaxy.
Arrival at Earth
Cosmic ray particles are not directly observed on the surface of Earth. This is because cosmic ray “primaries”—that is, the particles that arrive at the outer edge of Earth’s atmosphere—collide with atmospheric nuclei and give rise to “secondaries.” Some secondaries are fragments of the colliding nuclei, including neutrons, and others are short-lived particles created from the energy of the collisions. Secondary nuclei soon have their own collisions. It is the secondaries (neutrons and short-lived particles such as muons) that are observed at sea level. Primaries must be studied by using either high-altitude balloons or spacecraft.
Among the GCRs, the relative abundances of the different nuclei and electrons vary with energy. Above about 1 GeV per nucleon (gigaelectron volts, or one billion electron volts, per nucleon), the proportions are about 85 percent protons (nuclei of hydrogen atoms), with approximately 13 percent consisting of alpha particles (helium nuclei). (An energy of 1 GeV corresponds to speeds greater than about 87 percent of the speed of light.) The remaining 2 percent are electrons and nuclei of heavier atoms. At energies of several hundred MeV per nucleon (megaelectron volts, or one million electron volts, per nucleon), the corresponding figures are about 90, 9, and 1 percent.
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Most of the GCRs detected near Earth have kinetic energies in excess of about 1 GeV per nucleon. The steady flux of these primaries at the top layer of the atmosphere is around 1,500 particles per square metre per second. The number of particles drops rapidly with increasing energy, but individual particles with energies as high as several times 1020 eV have been detected. (This energy is comparable to that of a baseball thrown at 160 km [100 miles] per hour.)
The trajectories of the lowest-energy cosmic ray primaries are strongly influenced by Earth’s magnetic field. Consequently, at energies below about 1 GeV per nucleon, at each geomagnetic latitude there is a cutoff energy below which primary GCRs are not detected. The flux of these low-energy particles is influenced by solar activity, and the amount of cosmic radiation reaching Earth is inversely correlated with the number of sunspots through the 11-year solar cycle. This inverse correlation is called the Forbush effect and occurs because, at maximum solar activity, stronger magnetic fields are carried out into interplanetary space by the solar wind, and these fields block the cosmic rays.
Origin of cosmic rays
Because of their deflection by magnetic fields in the Milky Way Galaxy, primary GCRs follow convoluted paths and arrive at the top of Earth’s atmosphere nearly uniformly from all directions. Consequently, cosmic ray sources cannot be identified from the direction of arrival but rather must be inferred from the elemental and isotopic abundances of those cosmic rays that are atomic nuclei. This can be attempted by comparing cosmic ray abundances with those deduced spectroscopically for stars and interstellar regions. The relative abundances of different elements among cosmic ray nuclei have been well studied for particles with energies from roughly 100 MeV to several tens of GeV per nucleon. Abundances have been measured for elements up to uranium. From such data it has been possible to reconstruct much of the history of the cosmic ray particles’ journeys through the Milky Way Galaxy. The light elements lithium, beryllium, and boron are rare throughout the universe but are surprisingly abundant among the primary GCRs. It is accepted that these light nuclei are produced when heavier primaries (e.g., carbon and oxygen) are fragmented during collisions with the thin interstellar gas composed mostly of hydrogen.
After appropriate corrections for the collisions of GCRs with interstellar gas, it is found that the inferred composition of the sources is similar to that of general solar-system matter; however, too little hydrogen and helium are present, and significant differences exist for isotopes of neon and iron. Those elements that preferentially form dust grains are found to have enhanced abundances. It is thought that the cosmic rays represent a mixture of material, with about 80 percent having solar-system composition and with about 20 percent of nuclei coming from massive evolved stars, such as Type II, or core-collapse, supernovas and Wolf-Rayet stars that are found in groups of young, hot stars called OB associations.
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With an average life of 15 million years, GCRs must be replenished at an average power level of about 1041 ergs per second. Supernova explosions can supply this much power as they occur about every 50 years in the galaxy. Core-collapse supernovas, coming from OB stars, comprise about 85 percent of all galactic supernovas, and close to 90 percent of heavy GCRs are probably accelerated there. While it appears that particle acceleration can be accomplished by the expanding shock waves from supernovas, details of the processes involved in cosmic ray production and acceleration remain unclear.
The GCRs must have been traveling for about 15 million years to produce enough interstellar collisions to yield the observed number of light nuclei. The timescale for this travel is based in part on the observation of such radioactive fragments as beryllium-10. This radionuclide has a half-life of 1.5 million years, and the number of such particles that can survive to be detected on Earth depends on their total travel time.