Cosmic Rays Mystery Solved - Sixty Symbols

New observations seem to settle the question of where cosmic rays come from.

Dr Tony Padilla discusses the research. See the paper at: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1302.3307v1.pdf

COMMENT FROM TONY: "My comments at 1.30 were a bit hasty. Cosmic rays do not pass through the earth. Most collide in the upper atmosphere. I was actually thinking of the LHC safety debate. If they exist, mini blackholes produced by cosmic ray collisions on earth would slip straight through because the earth isn't dense enough. But not the protons themselves."

Tony tweets at https://twitter.com/DrTonyPadilla (lots of good science news, links and jokes mixed with some over emotional football commentary)

Nasa write-up at: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2013/...

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• Category

  Science & Technology

[JKJonesInCode]

"So we're gonna throw our hands in the air and say we're never gonna know?" "No of course we don't do that!" *Awkward silence in the Quantum Physicist community*

[AutoPsychotic]

Clearly you weren't paying any attention to the video.

[Mark Robins]

yes because acceleration has velocity in it. 

[b0bthekillar]

there's always one

[SherwinGooch]

That's very interesting. Although inverted with respect to temperature, it's reminiscent of a patent of Tesla's. He patented a motor based on Currie point. His model (in the days when a patent actually had to work) consisted of a candle which heated an iron magnet on a spring which, when it was cool, was attracted to a stationary piece of iron. This attraction pulled it over the flame. When its temperature reached the Currie point, it sprang out of the flame and cooled: Mechanical oscillator.

[SherwinGooch]

Since primary cosmic rays are primarily positively charged, it is difficult for me to understand how interstellar space may be charge neutral. Is there a simple explanation for how this can be? Or does this mean that the aggregate charge of supernovae is negative?

[dave rowbotham]

Enough of them interact.

[felipe970421]

LHC: Little metal thing on earth

Supernova: Huge explosion the size of 10^(big number) suns