Cosmic radiation bathes our solar system, and therefore also our planet, from the moment in which it was formed from A gigantic cloud of gas and dust does more than 4.5 billion years. During most of our history we have not been aware of its existence, so to find the first scientist who told us about the presence of a form of radiation that had to proceed from the outer space we must go back to 1912.
The Austrian physicist Victor Franz HESS was the first to identify the origin of a form of radiation whose intensity increases with altitude and its abundance varies with latitude. To carry out his experiments he used probe balloons inside whose measurement devices expressly designed to measure the radiation present in the atmosphere.
His valuable scientific findings were rewarded with several awards, among which is the Nobel Prize in Physics, which he shared with the American physicist Carl David Anderson in 1936. Many other scientists continued HESS’s research, and thanks to all of them we know today a little better A radiation form that transports to our planet very valuable information about the universe to which we belong.
Kilonovas seem to be responsible for the most energy radiation
Cosmic radiation is constituted by high -energy ionized atomic nuclei that move through space at a speed very close to that of light (which is approximately 300,000 km/s). That they are ionized indicates that they have acquired electric charge because they have been stripped of their electrons, but these atomic nuclei are made of the same matter that constitutes us and everything that surrounds us, a quality that reveals to some extent their origin.
One of the most important characteristics of cosmic radiation is its essentially perfect isotropy. This parameter reflects that the rays arrive from all directions with the same frequency, which indicates that they must coexist simultaneously numerous sources capable of generating them. And this invites us to ask ourselves one more question: where cosmic radiation comes from.
A good part of the cosmic rays we receive comes from outside our solar system. Of other stars
An important part of the radiation that permeates the atmosphere of our planet comes from the sun, which, as we all know, is the closest star. However, it is not at all the only source of external radiation that reaches the earth. A good part of the cosmic rays we receive comes from outside our solar system. Of other stars. And travel through space with enormous energy until impacting with the atoms present in the upper layers of the atmosphere of our planet.
What astrophysics did not know with certainty until very recently was the nature of the source that originates the most energy particles that we can find in the universe. But researchers from the University of New York have published a scientific study in Physical Review Letters in which they argue that this form of radiation proceeds with a high probability of kilonovaswhich are nothing other than the clash and fusion of two neutron stars to give rise to the formation of a black hole.
“After six decades of effort it is likely that we have identified the origin of the mysterious most energy particles in the universe. This discovery provides a new tool to understand the most aggressive events of the universe: the fusion of two neutron stars to form a black hole, the process responsible for the creation of many precious and exotic elements, such as, for example, gold, platinum, uranium, iodine or xenon. Gennys R. Farrar points outPhysics professor and one of the people who sign the study.
When they are close enough, gravity takes control and the two neutron stars are condemned to collide
Neutron stars are not always lonely. Sometimes one of them is part of a binary system next to a “living” star, and if the appropriate conditions are given, the latter can also become a neutron star. In this scenario the binary system ends up being constituted by Two neutron stars that turn around the other. As time goes by, angular momentum is being lost, which causes their orbits to narrow and approach more and more. And when they are close enough, gravity takes control and the two neutron stars are condemned to collide.
The main contribution made by Farrar and their research partners is their defense of the existence of a very close relationship between the energy of the most intense cosmic rays and their electric charge. Their conclusions have to be experimentally endorsed, but they represent a breath of fresh air in a field in which it is not easy to elaborate new knowledge.
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More information | Physical Review Letters
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