Cosmic rays are highly energetic, charged particles (protons, alphas, electrons, etc, with energies ranging from $\sim10^9\text{ eV}$ to at least $10^{20}\text{ eV}$) from various galactic and extragalactic sources, that often interact with our atmosphere. Consider adding other tags to specify the origin you're interested in (i.e., solar or galactic).
Questions tagged [cosmic-rays]
142 questions
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How often does a cosmic ray hit our eyes when we are on Earth?
Astronauts often see flashes when they are in space. How often these particles make their ways down to the Earth and hit us? What's the chance they hit our eyes and see flashes?
Calmarius
- 8,100
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Can one detect cosmic ray muons with a DSLR camera?
The flux of cosmic ray muons is about 1 muon per square centimeter per minute. I was trying to see if I can detect these using a glass of water, putting it in a totally dark room and take a picture of that with a camera mounted on a tripod. I used…
Count Iblis
- 10,114
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Understanding the graph of cosmic rays flux
This graph is to be found in various Articles, Papers, and websites.
I am trying to understand, what the "y axis" represent.
Are they refering to electromagnetic Flux ? What is this unit being used ? (m^2 , Sr, s Gev)^-1
Furthermore, what is meant…
Mad
- 361
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How are the other components related?
Often, the tensor of diffusion of cosmic rays in the inner heliosphere is given in terms of $k_{\parallel}$ and $k_\perp$, the coefficients of diffusion along and perpendicular to the magnetic field. These are related to the radial coefficient of…
mattiav27
- 1,325
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Origin of correlated multi-muon events underground
The flux of muons underground (above ~10 km water equivalent) are primarily produced in the atmosphere by cosmic rays. There is an abundance of literature detailing the flux, spectrum, and angular distribution as a function of depth. Though sparser,…
thegreatemu
- 307
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Solar modulation of cosmic rays
Whilst studying cosmic rays (CRs) and the influence of the sun on the intensity of the CRs, I read that solar modulation mainly affects low-energy CR-particles.
Could someone maybe explain to me why this is the case? Why aren't high-energy particles…
R3E1W4
- 147
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Energy distribution of incoming muons from cosmic rays
I believe there has been research done which provides data on the kinetic energies of muons which result from incoming cosmic rays. I'm looking for a graph of counts (vertical axis) vs. kinetic energy (horizontal axis.)
DJG
- 455
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Knee in cosmic ray spectrum
I was going through a research paper explaining the possible reasons for origin of knee in the cosmic ray spectrum. I came across this statement
"nuclei-initiated showers have smaller fluctuations in their development and the sharp cutoff in the…
Tejas P
- 989
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Energy of single particles, measured in kelvin?
This page says cosmic photons have an energy of 2.78 kelvin, so how much energy would the particles that show up in a bubble chamber have?
Cees Timmerman
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