Cosmic rays aren’t fully understood and in 1912, it was a wildly-debated topic. From Hess doing experiments in hot air balloons hundreds of meters off the ground, to Aden and Marjorie Meinel's (two retired astronomers) attempted connections to climate, cosmic rays have baffled many of the most brilliant scientist through out history. Today we have a reasonable understanding of how they work and where they come from. For instance, most of these particles, or cosmic rays, are results of a supernova explosion. Supernovas occur after a start is depleted of its reactive elements such as neon and selenium until it turns into iron. Next, Hammond explains, “ For nuclei lighter than iron, the attractive nuclear force greatly overpowers the repulsion of protons, which is why fusion gives off energy.” It is at this point where fusion ceases and it begins absorbing energy. At this point fission occurs. This was the first part of Hammond’s description of a supernova but it lacks detain in his explanation. However it is a very interesting process in which I understand the basics and the main reactions that case step one in the process. Next a neutron star is created when the gravitational forces become so strong that the electrons and protons of these larger iron and other elemental atoms become incredibly close together. These neutron stars emit neutrinos into the universe. Finally, when the mass becomes too large, it collapses on itself in the most violent explosions in the universe. These explosions send elements and cosmic rays in all directions scattering them across the universe. Although not as detailed as it could have been I still feel that Hammond did a sufficient job in identifying the process of how a supernova explodes and sends out cosmic rays.
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