Table of Contents
What is the difference between cosmic rays and gamma rays?
Cosmic rays are easily deflected by galactic magnetic fields, making it difficult to trace them back to their source. However, when cosmic rays collide with other particles in interstellar space, they result in the production of gamma rays, which are not deflected.
What are gamma ray bursts detecting?
Gamma-ray bursts were first observed in the late 1960s by the U.S. Vela satellites, which were built to detect gamma radiation pulses emitted by nuclear weapons tested in space.
How do we detect cosmic rays?
Cosmic rays impacting other planetary bodies in the Solar System are detected indirectly by observing high-energy gamma ray emissions by gamma-ray telescope. These are distinguished from radioactive decay processes by their higher energies above about 10 MeV.
What particle is a cosmic ray?
protons
We know today that galactic cosmic rays are atom fragments such as protons (positively charged particles), electrons (negatively charged particles) and atomic nuclei.
What are cosmic rays used for?
Cosmic rays are high energy particles that flow into our solar system from outer space. They are essential for the production of 14C in our atmosphere, which is used in radiocarbon dating, and in the production of cosmogenic nuclides in rocks at the Earth surface, which we use in cosmogenic nuclide dating[1-3].
What are the two types of gamma-ray bursts?
When astronomers looked at the number of bursts versus how long they lasted, they found two different classes of bursts: long-duration and short-duration.
Which detector can even detect cosmic rays?
A cosmic-ray observatory is a scientific installation built to detect high-energy-particles coming from space called cosmic rays.
Which detector detects high energy particle in cosmic rays?
To understand the nature of cosmic rays, we detect the particles that are created in the shower and are able to make it down to the Earth’s surface; these are mainly muons. We detect muons using a muon detector.
What is a cosmic particle?
They are high energy particles that move through space at nearly the speed of light. Most cosmic rays are atomic nuclei stripped of their atoms with protons (hydrogen nuclei) being the most abundant type but nuclei of elements as heavy as lead have been measured.
What is the difference between a cosmic ray and a gamma ray?
For one thing, gamma rays are high energy photons (like light) and cosmic rays are high energy particles (like protons). So they are different beasts. They also differ in how they are created. Gamma ray bursts are generated in some sort of explosion on a very compact object like a neutron star or black hole.
What is a gamma ray burst?
Gamma ray burst is a source of a particular type of cosmic rays. Cosmic rays are high-energy particles arriving at Earth from sources that lie outside it. What exactly is “high energy” in this definition is not well defined. Practically any stable particle can be a cosmic ray.
What if we could see gamma rays in the sky?
If we could see gamma rays, the night sky would look strange and unfamiliar. The familiar view of constantly shining constellations would be replaced by ever-changing bursts of high-energy gamma radiation that last fractions of a second to minutes, popping like cosmic flashbulbs, momentarily dominating the gamma-ray sky and then fading.
What is the most powerful gamma ray ever observed?
In November 2019, astronomers reported a notable gamma ray burst explosion, named GRB 190114C, initially detected in January 2019, which, so far, produced gamma-rays with the highest energy – about 1 Tera electron volts (Tev) – ever observed for such a cosmic event.