Cosmic ray is A highly
energetic atomic nucleus or
other particle traveling
through space at a speed
approaching that of light..A
stream of ionizing radiation
of extraterrestrial origin,
consisting chiefly of protons,
alpha particles, and other
atomic nuclei but including
some high-energy electrons,
that enters the atmosphere,
collides with atomic nuclei,
and produces secondary
radiation, principally pions,
muons, electrons, and
gamma rays. advantages of cosmic rays are that they are the same particles that are stable components (part) of the types of atoms that normally occur on Earth (ex. protons, electrons). They are also responsible for 10-15% of natural background radiation on Earth. Help in d action of x-ray at hospital..and produce gamma ray.. disadvantage is that it takes 1 Sievert of cosmic rays to cause nausea and 2-6 Sieverts to cause death and unless you're shielded by really thick concrete, than cosmic rays are bouncing on you all the time....

Cosmic rays are pieces of
atoms, flying through space
at incredible speeds.
Sometimes they hit Earth,
and some of them even hit
you.
About 30 cosmic rays fly
through your body every
second, in fact.
Also, I want to clarify what I
meant by incredible speeds.
Although there are several
known sources of cosmic
rays, the most energetic
cosmic rays detected have
been found to travel at
about:
0.
999999999999999999999995
the speed of light. (thats 23
9's, plus half of that)
Now that may seem like just
a number... but the problem is
that this is faster than any
known process
could possibly launch a
particle. In fact it would have
taken 40 million times more
energy than our most
powerful particle accelerator
can pack into an atom for
those particles to reach
those speeds.
Not nuclear fusion in the
sun... not exploding stars... if
they come from black holes
or colliding galaxies? How!?
Further, according to a
phenomenon known as the
GZK limit, cosmic ray particles
with these ultra-high
energies should be
interacting and cancelling out
with the cosmic radiation
background over long
distances - so not only
should they not exist, but
even if they did (which they
do) we should not be seeing
them at all!
Because some cosmic rays
are so energetic that they
defy explanation, there has
been a lot of speculation of
where they come from. Some
recent research suggests
that cosmic rays do not seem
to be arriving uniformly from
space. Therefore they think
that maybe they come from
something in nearby
galaxies, possibly from some
yet-unknown violent event
in or near the supermassive
black holes in the centers of
some of them.
But then there is the GZK
limit: which says they can't be
coming from farther than 30
million light years away and
suggests the opposite, that
high energy rays are coming
from nearby or even from
within our own galaxy... but
then from what source?
Maybe the GZK limit is not
absolute? The most high
energy cosmic rays are very
rare after all.
We don't know.
What happens when
cosmic rays hit Earth?
In short: Anti-matter.
When a highly energetic
cosmic ray hits Earth, we
would not detect it directly,
we would detect something
called the air shower of a
cosmic ray. Air showers are
a cascade of secondary
particles created when the
cosmic rays smash into the
upper atmosphere. As these
powerful particles crash
through the air, they can
spread out over 40
kilometers by the time they
reach the ground (and up to
billions of secondary
particles). The relatively low
energy cosmic rays from the
sun (aka solar wind) are also
responsible for auroras at
Earth's poles, and some
scientists wonder whether
cosmic rays spark lightning!
Cosmic rays coming from
outside the solar system are
called galactic cosmic rays, of
which many were launched
here long ago by distant
supernovae explosions.
However most of these
never reach us. A large
percentage are dispersed by
the heliosheath of the sun,
then another large portion of
the remnants are deflected
by the Earth's magnetic field,
and still some of those left
hit the atmosphere but are
not powerful enough to reach
the ground

DROP UR COMMENT ON COSMIC RAY'S RUMOUR

seriously man, speak English! Abeg o!

Serious man not seriously man ..take note!!!

Av i spoke french ? @ ortopazz

Ok damaiht I was on point, meant u wud av done bera than juxtaposing protons n electrns stuff all arund, got ur point at the cosmic matter just wantd some clarification on the whole issue, scientifik termz n moi aint fwendz again, get it?

Thumbs 2 d arti

Ok...thank u bro