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What Are Cosmic Rays?! WhatWWhatWhhaatt areaarearree CosmicCCosmicCoossmmiicc Rays?!RRays?!Raayyss??!! By Hayanon Translated by Y. Noda and Y. Kamide Supervised by Y. Muraki ᵶᵶᵋᵰᵿᶗᶑᵘᴾᴾᵱᶇᶀᶊᶇᶌᶅᶑᴾᶍᶄᴾᵡᶍᶑᶋᶇᶁᴾᵰᵿᶗᶑᵋᵰᵿᶗᶑᵘᵘᴾᴾᵱᶇᶀᶊᶊᶇᶌᶅᶑᴾᶍᶄᴾᵡᶍᶑᶋᶇᶁᴾᵰᵿᶗᶑ Have you ever had an X-ray examination Scientists identified three types at the hospital? In 1896, a German of radiation: positively-charged alpha physicist, W. C. Röntgen, astonished people particles, negatively-charged beta particles, with an image of bones captured through and uncharged gamma rays. In 1903, M. the use of X-rays. He had just discovered Curie along with her husband, P. Curie, and the new type of rays emitted by a discharge Becquerel, won the Nobel prize in physics. device. He named them X-rays. Because Furthermore, M. Curie was awarded the of their high penetration ability, they are Nobel prize in chemistry in 1911. able to pass through flesh. Soon after, it Certain types of radiation including was found that excessive use of X-rays can X-rays are now used for many medical cause harm to bodies. purposes including examining inside the In that same year, a French scientist, body, treating cancer, and more. Radiation, A. H. Becquerel, found that a uranium however, could be harmful unless the compound also gave off mysterious rays. amount of radiation exposure is strictly To his surprise, they could penetrate controlled. wrapping paper and expose a photographic The work with radium by M. Curie later film generating an image of the uranium led to the breakthrough discovery of compound. The uranium rays had similar the radiation coming from space. These characteristics as those of X-rays, but were cosmic rays were discovered by an Austrian determined to be different from them. physicist, V. F. Hess. Although cosmic The emission of rays was also found rays have high-penetration ability, they in thorium by G. C. Schmidt in Germany do not affect humans because the Earth‛s and M. Curie in France in 1898. The term atmosphere makes them harmless. “radioactivity” was given to this mysterious Outside the atmosphere, however, phenomenon. M. Curie made the spectacular cosmic rays become a threat to astronauts! discovery of radium. Radium began to be They have to be protected from the used for radiation research because of its harmful effects. intense radiation. It was found to be a Now, what are cosmic rays? In this few tens of thousands times stronger than booklet, you will find the answer with the uranium. help of your friends Mol and Mirubo. ᲶSources: Sun, Earth - NASA; Crab Nebula - Hale Observatories; Jets from Active Galactic Nucleus, Active Galactic Nucleus - National Radio Astronomy Observatory; Supernova Remnant - ISAS/JAXAᲸ TinyTiny mysteriousmysterious particlesparticles areare comingcoming allall thethe wayway throughthrough spacespace toto Earth.Earth. TheyThey areare cosmiccosmic rayrays!s! Hooray, What are you I got it! looking at, Mirubo? Robotic dog, Mirubo. Cosmic rays! Mol, science- loving girl. 1 Cosmic rays?? No way! I am a That sounds exciting! beginning space Are we going to pilot. Space outer space this travel is a little time? too advanced. rrr whiwhirrrrrrr I am glad you asked. OK, then A cosmic ray particle is very tiny. what are It is 1 trillionth of cosmic rays? 1 millimeter. he-h They are too small to e- be visible to mere hhe- Oh, he is e- human eyes, Mol. hhe- making fun Of course I can see e- of me again! he with my super- he duper eyes. giggle That's not Here come How fair, Mirubo!! frustrating! cosmic rays! And here I too want too. to see cosmic hum rays. clap! hum ! sh yoicks! a Gn Now, I will go to ask Sensei. 2 Sensei, I need your You want to help! see cosmic rays? Yes, by all means. The cosmic ray Let‛s try an experiment particles are with a cloud chamber. even smaller It can be a cosmic A cloud than viruses ... with our ray detector. chamber??? and cannot naked eyes, but be seen ... I have an idea. nk- cli clank The materials needed are ethanol, dry ice, a beaker, absorbent cotton, and plastic wrap. Wowie! Plastic Wrap I knew you could do it. First, soak the absorbent cotton with ethanol and place it over the mouth of the beaker. Cover the top with plastic wrap and ... ... tightly seal using a rubber band. Place the beaker on the dry ice to cool it down. CAUTION: Dry ice must be handled with care. Do not touch it directly. 3 Darken the room and shine a flashlight on the vapor cloud in the Wow! beaker. Observe the cloud carefully, then There is you will see ... a flash!! sparks Ummmm park ...? Yipes! That was the track What made of a cosmic ray, which passed through that flash?! the beaker. o- Creation of a cloud Whoopee! woo-wo chamber was the original I saw a hoohoo idea of a Scottish cosmic ray ... physicist C. T. R. Wilson, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1927. I mean its track. The design is simple and well- v signs! constructed. 4 As many as 140 What are cosmic cosmic ray particles Ugh, is rays all about? fall onto your desk that true?! per second. I can see clearly. There are two types of cosmic rays: solar cosmic rays and galactic cosmic rays. Solar cosmic rays come to Earth a few hours after being formed. On the other hand, galactic cosmic rays are formed in the area of a supernova ... ... and travel for more than 10 million years to reach Earth. They hit the Earth at nearly the speed of light. 5 I know! We can see more tracks of cosmic rays if we try the experiment outside, can‛t we? It does not make a difference. They pass through Oops, is Cosmic rays get ground, cement, and that so?! into a building. I haven‛t even our bodies. noticed it. You have kshould that ! now n I remember that No need to worry. They are not harmful cosmic rays are to life as long as we radiation. are on Earth. Really?! What a relief. Don‛t scare me. 6 What do cosmic Primary cosmic rays consist of? rays, the cosmic What particles rays coming from outer space, are do they have? P mostly protons. primary cosmic rays They collide with the Earth‛s atmosphere and pion decay into secondary gamma cosmic rays. ray secondary cosmic rays muon electron I have got it! Cosmic rays on the Earth‛s surface are tiny particles produced by energetic protons. 7 Let‛s take a familiar Exactly. They are tiny example, a fluorescent but have exceedingly How high light commonly seen at high energy! is that? school and home, ... ... to compare its energy to that of cosmic ray particles. Inside a fluorescent tube, atoms in a high-energy state The energy is return to the ground state equal to 2 by emitting the extra energy electron volts in the form of light. (eV). Now, an individual cosmic ray particle has ... the energy of... 1 billion eV!!! Aiiieee!! Wait! I have never heard Why doesn‛t If we were of these anyone care hit by those dangerous about them? particles, ... particles. ... we would ! get a huge shock! 8 Cosmic rays do have high energy, but their number is small. Considering the size of Earth, the cosmic ray particles reaching Earth are too few to affect us. It is just like thinking Then, cosmic rays are only one raindrop really powerless! could solve the water I expected that they You are shortage. could do something with their energy! right, Mol. Oh, I see... This is surely huff teeny-weeny. They come all They can be the way here ignored. They and are not are uninvited useful at all? guests to our Earth! That‛s not fun! 9 Do not jump to Huh, how could conclusions. they be?! They are helpful in many ways. By taking Muons in cosmic advantage of their rays can penetrate nature, we are about 1 km into able to research rocks. ... ... the inside of the Egyptian pyramids and the status of volcanic magma. Cosmic rays also enable us to study below the surface of Mars and the Moon to search for water! That is amazing! I have never thought of such ideas. 10 I hope cosmic That sounds like we rays will be used are going to decode for many more messages sent from purposes in the outer space. future ... ... along with Messages from progress in space ... cosmic ray That is exciting! research itself. stoked! zingz I am surely going to in catch and embrace cosmic rays. g You are messengers from the universe! zingzing zingzing Ah, if only you could, Mol. They are passing through your body. 11 ⁉⁚⁓⁦‒⁓⁤⁗‒‵⁡⁥ ⁛⁕‒⁄⁓⁥‱– I am excited to learn about cosmic Harrumph! I am well-designed. rays. First of all, how high is the energy of cosmic rays? You are lucky, Mirubo. Sensei, would you tell me how they can search The energy of cosmic rays is over for water on Mars and the Moon 1,000 times higher than that of other through cosmic rays? types of natural background radiation. Sometimes it becomes 10 trillion times Cosmic rays can penetrate 40 cm higher for ultra-high-energy cosmic deep into the surface of Mars and rays. the Moon, and reach ice that may be lying beneath the dust. Cosmic rays Wow, what gives them such high would be reflected by hydrogen nuclei, energy? just like billiard balls. We then have to measure the reflected rays via Good question, Mol. Cosmic rays satellite. obtain energy through repeated When the rays that are reflected collisions with other particles. by hydrogen increase, we are able to pinpoint an area which could have Where do they come from? water.
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