How cosmic rays help us understand the universe

Welcome back student, you might know about your family, neighborhood and even city but how much do you know about the universe?

We are all a part of this universe and this universe, according to studies and research is said to have formed after Big Bang.

We can see objects in space about billions of light-years away with the help of human-designed instruments (telescope) and with this the studies related to universe and space are conducted but we still don’t know what is the universe made of?

Heve you heard of Cosmic rays? The name says these are some sort of light! Isn’t it?

Yes! Somehow it’s true. These are lights coming from the different corners of the space.

Contents

What are Cosmic rays?

Cosmic rays were discovered in 1912 by Victor Hess while he was exploring the changes in atmospheric radiation which were then thought to be coming from the Earth’s crust (Earth’s outermost layer).

With all the calculations he made, it looked like the radiation increased in going upwards and the conclusion was made that it was coming somewhere from the outer space.

The universe

Our universe is very large and constitutes many astronomical objects like stars of different sizes, black holes, galaxies, planets and a lot more.

During astronomical movements when a large star explodes it break into billions of particles which are then emitted into space and are called rays. Cosmic rays consist of these high energy particles.

There are lots of cosmic rays in space and these rays travel millions and billions of years.

What happens when these rays enter the atmosphere?

When these rays enter the atmosphere, they come in contact with the molecules there and generates lighter secondary cosmic rays.

The amazing fact is that some of these rays pass our body too while the others are absorbed by the atmosphere. The amount of this radiation is more at higher altitudes.

How are cosmic rays useful?

Cosmic rays are useful for research purposes because they carry traces of the universe.

Cosmic rays provide more information about the universe and also about the particles and the elements of which the universe is made of.

An experimental device called the Alpha -Magnetic spectrometer is installed over the international space station to measure different factors of cosmic rays.

It was a lot about Cosmic rays, isn’t it?

Now look at the sky and try finding some!