Cosmic rays, mostly protons, hit Earth’s atmosphere at varying energy levels. They are ionizing radiation and can cause damage to biomaterial. Most come from within our galaxy, but the most energetic come from outside and provide insight into the wider universe.
Cosmic rays are tiny particles, mostly protons, that strike the Earth’s atmosphere at various energy levels. Billions of cosmic rays hit the Earth every second, most of them with fairly low energy. However, every now and then cosmic rays with extreme energy levels impact the Earth. The most powerful ever recorded was a single proton with an energy of 50 J, roughly equivalent to a baseball field. Scientists cannot explain how some of the more energetic rays got their energy.
Although they are called “cosmic rays”, it should be noted that cosmic rays are point particles, not rays. In addition to protons, which make up 90% of all cosmic rays, there are also helium nuclei, also called alpha particles, which make up another 9%, and electrons which make up the other 1%.
Outer space is filled with a bath of fast-moving particles known as a cosmic ray flux. Cosmic rays are called ionizing radiation because they have a tendency to strike molecules with such force that they knock electrons from their constituent atoms, creating destructive ions. A piece of biomaterial left unprotected long enough in the cosmic environment would turn into Swiss cheese. This is one of the greatest challenges for human space colonization and all space colony projects are equipped with massive shielding to repel cosmic rays.
Cosmic rays get their oomph from high-energy cosmic objects and events, such as neutron stars, supernovae, and black holes. Most cosmic rays come from within our galaxy, where they are erupted from supernovae, or slingshot from a black hole’s steep gravitational well. In fact, the presence of certain power levels of cosmic rays is proof that black holes really exist.
One of the highest levels of Earth’s atmosphere is known as the ionosphere, because it is constantly being ionized by incoming cosmic rays, along with solar radiation. The thermosphere, which is a subset of the ionosphere, experiences heating up to thousands of degrees from ionizing radiation, but since the particle density here is relatively low, it wouldn’t feel as hot if you visited there.
The most energetic cosmic rays come from very high-energy events outside our galaxy and provide a rare window into the workings of the wider universe. Physicists build multimillion-dollar structures to study the flux of cosmic rays in detail.
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