Tom Liggett, a Bournemouth University student, sent sealed photographic film into space using a helium balloon, producing photographs from cosmic rays.

Antimatter was discovered by examining debris from collisions between atmospheric gases and cosmic rays—high-energy matter particles from space.

By measuring them in hot-air balloons during a partial solar eclipse and at night, Victor Hess discovered cosmic rays and concluded they came from beyond the solar system.

Cosmic rays are evidence of incredibly powerful astronomical events—solar cosmic rays provide information about eruptions and flares on the sun's surface, while galactic cosmic rays shed light on dying stars.

About 10% of the radiation people are exposed to each year comes from outer space, with higher percentages for those living at higher elevations or who fly often.

Scientists have determined the properties of cosmic rays by analyzing their trajectories in bubble chambers—containers filled with a vapor that clings to charged particles.

Cosmic rays can be detected using cloud chambers—containers where alcohol vapor condenses around trails of ions created by these high-speed particles from space.

Learn how to build your own cloud chamber to detect cosmic rays—particles from space that move near the speed of light—at home.

Radioactivity was accidentally discovered when uranium left marks on photographic plates

Particle detection has evolved from cloud and bubble chambers to digital 3D displays

Some cosmic rays possess energies as high as 100,000,000 teraelectron volts—more than 10 million times the energy of particles accelerated in the Large Hadron Collider.

The cosmic microwave background radiation is the oldest light in the universe

Stratospheric balloons: a visual guide

Scientists are experimenting with ways to probe the multiverse theory

Astronauts have used a small portable device to take the first-ever X-rays in space, opening the door for new opportunities for aerospace medicine.

Scientists have tested atmospheric models by firing rockets into the aurora borealis

Cosmic rays are thought to be accelerated to near the speed of light by repeatedly bouncing across shockwaves produced by high-energy cosmic events, such as supernovae.

Throughout its 10-year mission to create a time-lapse of the universe, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will generate 500 petabytes of data by taking an ultrawide, ultra-high definition image every 34 seconds.

Through sonoluminescence, concentrated sound waves can produce short, high-intensity flashes of light by rapidly collapsing microscopic bubbles to temperatures up to twice that of the sun's surface.

Solar eclipses block the sun enough to enable scientists to observe its faint outer atmosphere, or corona, whose spectrum led to the discovery of helium over a decade before it was identified on Earth.

Cosmogenic nuclide dating reveals how long a surface has been exposed to air by measuring the abundance of rare isotopes produced when cosmic rays interact with minerals.

See what the sun looks like in different wavelengths of light, each revealing features the others can't show.

Scientists create movies of subatomic phenomena using X-ray free-electron lasers, in which images are produced by striking matter with high-intensity light created by accelerating electrons.

In 1962, the US detonated a nuclear weapon in space, which produced an electromagnetic pulse that disabled three low Earth orbit satellites and damaged electrical equipment in Hawaii.

A full-ring, ultraviolet view of the Northern Lights was captured for the first time in almost two decades by the European-Chinese Smile mission in 2026.

In comic books, cosmic rays have been described as capable of accelerating evolution, granting humans superpowers, restoring health and energy, and powering advanced technology.

Photographer captures glowing flowers in ultraviolet light

With a reported value of $20M per kilogram, space resource extraction companies are seeking to harvest helium-3 from the moon for its potential use in clean nuclear fusion.

Astrophotographer Vincent Bouchama's stellar photo archive

Tardigrades have not been shown to survive all space conditions at once

Mold growth in space raises the hypothesis of life being brought to Earth

Unlike hot air balloons lifted for hours by heating air, NASA's scientific balloons use helium to lift payloads of up to 3,600 kilograms (8,000 pounds) for up to six weeks at a time.

By separating light with tools such as prisms, scientists can reveal the presence and composition of celestial matter by identifying color fingerprints unique to specific elements and molecules.

View the winners of the 2025 Global Physics Photowalk contest

If particle accelerators did create black holes by packing tremendous energy into a small volume, then trillions would be created in Earth's atmosphere daily by cosmic rays.

As seen in the dark region of the Horsehead Nebula, clouds of space dust can block some forms of light from reaching telescopes, impairing observations and data collection.

Research shows that cosmic rays may trigger the cascade of displaced electrons needed to produce lightning, which is also enabled by pointed ice crystals that create strong electric fields.

Particles produced in cosmic-ray showers that would normally decay long before reaching Earth's surface are observed by ground-based detectors, as predicted by special relativity.

Trillions of neutrinos travel through your body every second without leaving a trace.

How spoiled meat helped uncover a bacterium that can survive the vacuum of space

The cosmic microwave background is the faded light of when the universe glowed orange

Cathode rays are beams of electrons that emit light when hitting a fluorescent screen

Scientists determine the smells of objects in outer space

HeLa cells, 'immortal' cancerous cells that continuously divide, were sent into space in 1960 on both Soviet and American missions—the samples were shared by American researchers as an example of scientific diplomacy amid the Cold War.

Colorizers convert Hubble's gray scale images into color composites of different wavelengths

Delays in the decay of unstable particles provide evidence for time dilation

How scientists earned themselves a Nobel Prize by discovering what destroyed ozone

Georges Lemaître, a Belgian Catholic priest who proposed the Big Bang theory in 1931, became president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1960.

Antimatter can be created from dark lightning—high-energy light emitted by deflected electrons after they are accelerated to near the speed of light by thunderstorms.

The ultraviolet catastrophe is the infinite energy prediction of classical physics

Understanding why charged particles from the sun protect Earth from more dangerous particles