Cosmic Rays

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

In 2017, a hidden chamber was found in the Great Pyramid of Giza by measuring particles created in the collisions between cosmic rays and atmospheric particles.

Since computers rely on the distribution of electrons in microchips to represent binary code, cosmic rays and ionizing radiation from radioactive elements can introduce software errors by detaching electrons from atoms.

In 2003, an electronic voting system in Belgium reported that a political party received more votes than was possible—a result that was attributed to a glitch caused by a cosmic ray.

During a 2013 speed run of 'Super Mario 64,' the protagonist was inexplicably warped up to a new location—a glitch that would later be attributed to a cosmic ray flipping a bit within a byte responsible for tracking Mario's height.