The mystery of cosmic rays began with their discovery in 1912. “We also can’t figure out where they are coming from.” Cosmic rays, explained “Our theoretical physicist colleagues are perplexed” about how these particles are energized, says Charles Jui, a physicist at the University of Utah on the hunt for cosmic rays. Recall that these rays were potentially propelled by forces from beyond our solar system, by forces no physicist understands. Scientists can do some cool things with muons, like use them to photograph the inside of the Great Pyramid in Egypt. Luckily, they are harmless, moving so fast that they don’t have the time to land an impactful punch in your body. If Einstein’s theory weren’t true, we wouldn’t see any muons in the cloud chamber. (A similar thing happened to Matthew McConaughey’s character in the movie Interstellar, as he sped up his relative speed nearing a black hole.) But because they’re moving so fast, relative to us, they age 22 times more slowly. break apart into smaller components, electrons, and neutrinos - in just 2.2 microseconds, which would mean they’d barely get 2,000 feet down from the top of the atmosphere before dying. They move so fast, they experience the time dilation predicted by Einstein’s theory of special relativity. When you see the paths these muons make, think about this: These subatomic particles rocket down to Earth at 98 percent the speed of light. And those droplets then trace the path the cosmic rays made through the chamber. The charge in the air attracts the alcohol vapor, and it condenses into droplets. When the muons zip through the alcohol cloud, they ionize (charge) the air they pass through. Like electrons, muons carry a negative charge. Every square centimeter of Earth at sea level, including the space at the top of your head, gets hit by one muon every minute. Muons are like electrons, but a bit heavier. In this chamber, you can see the cosmic rays, particularly those from a particle called a muon. You soak the felt in the alcohol, and the dry ice (which is super-cold solid carbon dioxide) cools down the alcohol vapor, which is streaming down from the felt. ![]() It’s possible to see this in action by building what’s called a cloud chamber out of a glass jar, felt, dry ice, and isopropyl alcohol (i.e. Some of this atomic shrapnel even hits the ground. The particles from that explosion then keep bursting apart other bits of matter, in a snowballing chain reaction. When the particles in cosmic rays collide with the atoms in at the top of the atmosphere, they burst, tearing apart atoms in a violent collision.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |