WEBVTT - What Are Cosmic Rays? 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:12.160 The universe is chuck filled with crazy stuff, weird, weird stuff. 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:13.920 Every time you look out into the universe, every time 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:16.560 you build a new telescope, you see something else weird 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:23.000 that you don't understand. Things or aliens, things but made 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:26.279 by aliens. I mean, there's all You're always finding things 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:29.440 that don't make any sense. Usually the procedure is, you know, 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:32.000 you see something you don't understand, and then you try 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:34.440 to explain it using things you do understand, and you 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:37.480 get more and more elaborate explanations. But usually you figure 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:40.320 it out or it stands, you know, for decades as 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:43.400 an enduring mystery. That's a clue that there's something out 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:45.959 there that we don't understand. Its truth is out there. 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:49.800 The truth is out there. It's whispering to us, there's 0:00:49.840 --> 0:01:09.360 something here that's interesting. Hi. I'm Jorge. I'm a cartoonist. 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:12.679 And I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist. Welcome back to 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:18.320 our podcast, Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe. Daniel and 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:21.480 Jorge have a strange pause in the title of their podcast, 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:29.520 Daniel and Jorge need a Banana stat Daniel and Jorge 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:35.240 tried to explain the universe, but they ran out of bananas. Yeah. 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:37.200 In this podcast, we try to take things in the 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:39.440 universe and explain them to you because the universe is 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:42.600 filled with wild, wacky stuff that gives us insight into 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:44.960 how the universe works. And so we're trying to take 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:46.880 it apart, piece by piece and make sure it makes 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:50.120 sense to you. Yeah, all the pieces that we understand 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:53.600 and all the pieces that not even physicists understand. And 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:56.480 those are the most fun bits, the ones that are mysteries, 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:59.520 those that are clues as to the next revolution in physics, 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:01.920 the that I hope will lead to a Nobel Prize 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:06.200 discovery hopefully by me or my graduate students or not, 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:10.440 or year leads to years of frustration and nothing. That's 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:13.480 that's research. Or you are a listener, and hey, if 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:16.960 you get a Nobel Prize winning idea listening to this podcast, 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:19.079 at least give us a little bit of credit. Yes, 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:20.760 give us a shout out. At least when you go 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:23.440 to Stockholm, you know, nod in a wink. We'll we'll 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:25.840 understand you're talking about us. Yeah, just say our our 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:28.480 website and then we'll be we'll call it. We'll call 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:30.680 it even. But you know that's a joke, but it 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:33.160 is true that we're gonna be talking today about a 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:35.800 topic which, if somebody could explain it would almost certainly 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:38.680 give them a Nobel prize. Anytime you can explain a 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:42.839 decades long standing mystery in physics, you know, that's that's 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:45.720 worth something. That's right Today on the podcast, we'll be 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:54.720 talking about cosmic raise, and not just any cosmic raise, 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:58.720 super duper crazy high energy cosmic raise. Is that the 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:02.960 official physics for them? Yeah? What is the acronym for 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:08.800 that super duper crazy high such as saying that in 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:11.120 conferences all the time. That's right, you can you should 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:12.960 add some numbers to that though at the end, like 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:18.840 three three cosmic rays. Yeah no, but we run out 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:21.200 of we run out of prephysics prefixist to even described 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:24.960 as a high energy of particles that we see from space. Okay, yeah, yeah, 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:27.880 so yeah. The first time I heard the words cosmic 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:30.680 rays was actually when I was about nine years old. 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:32.720 If you can't believe it. Were you talking to some 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:37.320 dude named Ray and he was like, I'm cosmic close close. 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:41.200 I was reading, uh, some comics by Stanley, the late 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:43.720 Great Stanley. I don't know if you know this, but 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:48.560 the Fantastic Four, their origin is tied to this idea 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:53.520 of cosmic rays. There's so much overlap between physics and cartoons, right, 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:56.520 I mean not just this podcast, but like so much 0:03:56.640 --> 0:04:00.400 of concepts and physics ends up in cartoons. You know, ray, Asian, 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:03.800 cosmic rays, all this stuff. It's just like it's fuel 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:07.200 for people's imagination. Yeah, no, I think I think they 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:09.880 mean comics in general have always sort of tried to 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:15.520 capture the public anxiety and and the public kind of zeitgeist, 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:18.400 and to kind of put in saying, cartoonists have been 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:21.400 making physicists look bad for I've been making you look 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:25.400 cool like superheroes. I can just imagine you, imagine you 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:31.080 in spandex. Daniel, Oh wait, Hard rather not um come out? 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:35.200 Mike dropped. So yeah. And the Fantastic Four, the they 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:38.120 get their superpowers by flying off into space and then 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.599 getting bombarded by cosmic rays, and then when they land 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:43.520 back on Earth they have these amazing superpowers like stretch 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:47.200 and getting going visible and turning to a flaming torch. 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:49.839 So that's how I know about the cosmic rays. Is 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:52.839 that about correct? You know? Do they give you superpowers? 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:56.680 I finally totally get I totally recommend you go into 0:04:56.839 --> 0:04:59.440 into space and bade yourself in consmic race. You'll definitely 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:04.960 get super ours. That's accurate. Um. I love how cartoons 0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:08.640 and comic books especially have been like using concepts in 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:11.880 physics that are like weakly understood and then making us 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:14.520 look like bad guys. Right, all these it's always like 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:17.479 this new technology is going to cause the rise of 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:21.320 a crazy villain or you know, but to be honest, 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:24.080 in cosmic ray is all these things. But let's be honest, Daniel, 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:27.040 Do you know for sure that getting bathed in cosmic 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:29.279 rays will not give you superpowers? Do you know that 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:31.600 for sure? Um? No, I think if you bathe yourself 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:34.800 in cosmic grads, you're very likely to die. Sons listeners, 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:37.520 if you're about to board your own private spaceship, don't. 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:39.960 So it sounds important for everyone to know what a 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:43.120 cosmic ray is. But we were wondering if you out 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:45.479 there and knew what it means when you say the 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:49.240 words cosmic rays, what are cosmic rays? Yeah? Exactly. So 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:51.919 I went around and I asked random people, one of 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:54.520 whom is my wife at what is a cosmic ray? 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:56.680 Do you know what a cosmic ray is Here's what 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:59.880 they had to say. Um, a cosmic ray is a 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:05.560 particle that is originating from an unknown part of the universe, 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:09.160 and it can go through any kind of matter. So 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:13.239 they come pumbling to the Earth and probably reveal interesting 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:15.320 secrets about what's going on. And we're trying to figure 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:18.040 out how to do that. I heard waves in there somewhere, 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:25.120 So maybe cosmic surfers array that comes from the sky 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:28.599 that can be seen from a telescope. Oh lord, I 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:31.000 feel like I want to say that's like strong radiation 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:34.119 from the Sun, but I'm not sure. Yes, I would 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:37.240 guess it has to do a solar raise the sun 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:42.359 and something related to that. Okay, cosmic raise, they power 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:44.880 Superman be funny of your wife was like, wait, how 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:49.480 do you know about Ray? She's like, he wasn't here 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:52.479 last night. I don't know if you're talking about, but 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:58.760 he is cosmic. This podcast just got not safe for 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:01.159 work once again. This is what happens when we record 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:04.440 at night. Why I tell you it's a little wonky. 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:09.720 It's a d j U late night after dark. But 0:07:10.200 --> 0:07:12.240 most people seem to have heard about cosmic craze, and 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:15.000 one fellow even said, oh, yeah, they power Superman. So 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:19.119 there's definitely the cosmic grave physics cartooning connection there. Okay, 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:22.120 they power Superman? Come on, who is this person? Everyone knows? 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:27.560 That's not right? Not everybody knows that. So where's Superman 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:29.600 get his power? Does he eat? Does Superman actually eat? 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:33.720 Have you seen Superman eat? Um? Superman? No, he doesn't know. 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:36.440 He doesn't need to eat. He gets energy from the Sun. 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:47.640 The Sun says, those are cosmic rays. Jorge, what? Okay, 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:50.720 So let's break it down. So what Daniel is a 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:54.520 cosmic ray? A cosmic ray is a particle from space 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:57.600 that hits the Earth. Ray is just another name for particle. 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:00.880 Cosmic just means it comes from space. So cosmic rays 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:04.600 are just space particles space particles. Yeah, but space particles 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:06.600 was vetoed by the physics committee that came up with 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:09.760 a name for these things, because cosmic rays sounds so 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:12.200 much cooler. But was it? Why do they have this name? 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:15.840 Were they just named before we knew about particles? Like 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:20.400 what's the difference? Like did we confuse raisin particles before? Oh? Yeah, um, 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:22.400 you know, we knew about things like X rays and 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:25.080 all sorts of other kinds of rays before we understood particles. 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:28.720 So yeah, cosmic rays have been have been known about 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:31.440 for you know, a hundred years, so we didn't know 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:34.000 they were like little bits. Yeah, it's only it's more 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:37.400 recently that people understood their particles. But you know, everything 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:39.760 that's a particle from space officially could be called the 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:43.679 cosmic ray, and that includes photons from the sun. Random 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:46.160 dude on the streets, know it's more about Superman than 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:48.760 you do. I think they know more about physics than 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:51.800 I do, clearly, but I doubt they know more about 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:54.719 that person. You should do this. They know more physics 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:58.480 and no more cosmics, no more continent boom that qualifies 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:01.000 them to take over. Okay, So it just means any 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:03.960 kind of energy or particle that's coming front space and 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:06.800 hits the Earth. Okay, that's right. Okay, but that's not 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:09.400 a very exciting answer. Like photons, You can't just call 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:12.480 sunlight cosmic grades. You can, it wouldn't be very exciting. 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:14.760 You're right, but the cosmic rays that we're interested in 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:18.120 are not the normal, everyday speam of sunlight that comes 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:20.720 from the sun right into cosmic grades were interested in 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:24.040 are the weird ones. It's not just photons hitting the Earth, 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:28.200 it's other kinds of particles, that's right. The Sun produces 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:31.000 a huge number of particles, right, not just photons, of course, 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:35.520 but neutrinos and protons and heavier stuff and all sorts 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:37.760 of stuff. The Sun is spewing stuff out. It's called 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:40.200 the solar wind. And we have so many names for 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:43.200 the same thing. Right, they're just space particles, but they're 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:45.800 cosmic rays. If they're here, they're space wind. If they're 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:49.120 there anyway, the Sun spews them all out loud. So 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:51.760 so that's that might be an interesting and new idea 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:54.280 for people, the fact that the Sun is not just 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:59.840 shining light, it's also shining stuff, like it's burping matter. Yeah, 0:09:59.840 --> 0:10:02.720 I asolutely, because it's you know, it's a huge fusion reactor, 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:05.599 and fusion produces a lot of stuff. Yeah, So you 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:08.960 get protons, you get heavier elements, you get huge numbers 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:12.880 of neutrinos. I mean, we have um a hundred billion 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:16.280 neutrinos from the Sun passed through your fingernail every second. 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:19.600 So there's a lot of stuff coming from the Sun. Okay, 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:22.400 but neutrinos we don't feel, and they go right through 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:24.680 us right there. Like that, they're known as ghost particle. 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:29.120 That's right. So the reason we're not all constantly getting 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:32.319 superpowers from cosmic grades from the Sun is that most 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:34.600 of this stuff is we're shielded from most of this stuff. 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:38.680 So photons not dangerous neutrinos pass right through us. We haven't. 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:41.000 They can't affect us at all. Right, And for those 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:43.440 of you interested neutrinos, we have a whole podcast on that. 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:46.000 And then the other stuff, the stuff that's more dangerous 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:50.960 are charged particles like protons or heavier, heavier nuclei that 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:53.480 could really do some damage. These are more dangerous because 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:57.400 they're they're in a way bigger and more. They interact 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:01.800 with our cells in a very dangerous way, right, that's right. Yeah, 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:03.680 if you if a protons shot through you, it would 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:06.000 definitely interact with things in you. It could disturb your DNA, 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:08.439 it could give you cancer. It's not a good idea 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:10.920 to stand in the beam of protons. And there's a 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:13.360 huge number of protons coming from the Sun. Now, before 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:16.520 you start digging that shelter to protect yourself, um, you 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:19.439 already have a shelter, and that shelter is the is twofold. 0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:22.079 One is the Earth's magnetic field, and the second is 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:24.960 the Earth's atmosphere. Hold on, I have so many questions 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:27.480 for you, but before we keep going, let's take a 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:43.679 short break. Okay, So the Sun is shooting stuff at us, 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:47.640 and it's coming all the way to Earth. So how 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:51.600 does the magnetic field protect us? Well, every charged particle 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:54.600 that hits the magnetic field bends. Magnetic fields are really 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:57.440 good at bending charged particles, and so instead of just 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:00.080 slamming right into the Earth, these things get deflected it 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:02.760 and sometimes they spiral along and end up at the 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:04.559 North Pole. And that's what you that's why you get 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:07.400 the Northern lights. You mean the planet Earth has a 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:11.920 force field. Yes, we have a force field. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:14.000 And it's a good thing we do because otherwise we 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:18.199 don't have cancer. So we have a massive global anti 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:22.400 cancer shield. Wow. Okay, that's pretty crazy impressive stuff like 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:27.000 a force like a force field for for real. Said, also, 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:30.080 the atmosphere protects us, that's right, because a particle that 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:32.160 makes it through the magnetic field and hits the atmosphere 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:33.679 is not just going to fly all the way down 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:36.760 to Earth because the atmosphere is not transparent to charge 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:40.160 particles like a photon can fly through the atmosphere because 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:43.000 the atmosphere is mostly neutral particles, and it'll just fly 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:45.559 through all the nitrogen and oxygen and and get down 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:47.720 to Earth right, get down to the surface. But a 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:51.040 charge particle will slam into those things and will interact 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:53.440 with them. They'll break up those nuclei. It's sort of 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:55.920 like if a rock hits the Earth, right, it rarely 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:57.959 gets all the way down to the surface unless it's 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:00.800 huge smaller rocks, they do burn up. And that's what 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:05.160 we call it's what we see is shooting stars. Oh okay, yeah, 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:08.520 so basically every proton is like a super tiny little meteor, 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:10.880 a super tiny little shooting star. So most of them 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:13.600 don't make it down to the surface. Okay, they interact 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:17.320 with the air and the oxygen in our atmosphere before 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:19.360 it gets to us. Yeah, And you can think of 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:22.800 the atmosphere so like a really big mattress, and it 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:25.360 absorbs most of this energy, and so instead of having 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:28.439 one particle with a huge amount of energy, it spreads 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:30.960 it out, so you get like, you know, billions of particles, 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:32.920 each with a small amount of energy, which is much 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:36.120 less dangerous because they don't all hit you. It's kind 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:39.120 of like an billiards when you start with a like 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:41.440 a cluster of balls and you hit the first one, 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:45.040 that impact kind of spreads. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You don't 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:47.000 want to get hit by the Cuba, all right. If 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:49.000 you get hit by the seven, then you know you're 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:51.640 not gonna be You're gonna be an okay shape. Okay. 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:55.079 But but it's surprising because the atmosphere is pretty thin, 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:57.640 isn't it kind of in comparison to the Earth and 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:00.200 to the Sun. It's like a thin layer of us. 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:03.440 But that you're saying that feeling naked, feeling naked when 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:06.600 when it comes to space now suddenly feeling vulnerable. Oh 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:08.320 my god, I need to put something else on. I 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:13.760 feel cosmicly. Yeah, the other Earth's atmospheres, you know, um uh, 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:15.480 it depends on where you want to call the edge 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:18.040 of the atmosphere. But it's not super thick compared to 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:20.200 the size of the Earth. That's true, just like the 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:21.920 oceans are not that deep compared to the size of 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:23.720 the Earth. The Earth is huge, and the atmosphere is 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:26.040 a thin layer protecting us from space. Yeah, I mean, 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:28.480 it's weird to think air would could be protecting us, 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:31.480 you know, it's um Yeah, And you know they go 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:34.960 hand in hand because the magnetic field is protecting our atmosphere. 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:38.120 If we lost our magnetic field suddenly, then all these 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:42.480 the solar wind would blow away our atmosphere. So the 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:44.560 so the magnetic field is doing two things. It's being 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:48.480 a cool force field and it's kind of also protecting 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:53.360 our sun block. Basically exactly exactly, you can think of 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:57.160 the atmospheres like the insulation, and the magnetic field is 0:14:57.240 --> 0:14:59.360 like the you know, the aluminum sheeting on the outside 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:03.920 of your house that keeps the cold, cold, uncarrying space away, 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:06.200 and let's just hang out and relax safely on the 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:12.280 surface of the Earth. So then a cosmic race seems 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:14.440 to be like a commonplace thing. But what's kind of 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:16.960 interesting about them, you were telling me, is that they 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:20.440 vary in energy. Some of them are sort of you 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:23.360 never see, but some of them do have a lot 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:26.120 of energy. Yeah, So you study cosmic rays and you 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:28.400 see a lot of them that don't have that much energy. 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:29.920 You know, they're just pumped out by the sun, no 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:32.400 big deal. But you keep looking, and you keep looking, 0:15:32.400 --> 0:15:34.600 and you find more and more that have higher and 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:37.360 higher energy, and you and as you look, you just 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:40.200 keep finding them at higher and higher energy and the 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:44.120 energy they get to is ridiculous. Like we see cosmic 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:48.320 rays meaning protons, so individual particles coming from space that 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:51.720 have absurd amounts of energy energy that we can't explain 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:55.320 through any mechanism. Okay, so let's break it down. So, um, 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:58.920 at the lower energies of these protons hitting the Earth, 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:02.560 what are the energies of these cosmic rays? So we 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:06.320 usually use a unit called electron volt and um it's 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:08.440 a sort of a unit using particle physics. I'll break 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:10.000 it down for you in a minute. But you know, 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.200 at the lower energies like ten to the eleven electron volts, 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:15.360 tend to the twelve electron volts, These are very common, 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:18.280 no big deal put out by the Sun. But things 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:21.080 start to get interesting around tend to the eighteen ten, 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:24.200 the nineteen ten to the twenty. We even see particles 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:27.160 around ten to the twenty one electron volts. So, for 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:29.240 those of you who aren't familiar with that unit, ten 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:31.600 to the twenty one electron bolts is like more than 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:34.640 a hundred jewels, which is as much energy is in 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:38.360 a major league fastball. So now you have a tiny 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:40.680 little particle with almost no mass. Right, A proton is 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:43.520 super tiny. It's got as much energy as an entire 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:46.400 fastball thrown as fast as a human can throw it, 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:49.960 which would hurt if it hit you right, It certainly would. 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:52.120 It certainly would. It would fly right through you and 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:55.680 cause all sorts of damage. You probably wouldn't notice it immediately. 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:58.120 So if you had to choose between getting hit by 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:00.800 a cosmic ray super hi energy cosmo gray, or a 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:04.280 major league fastball in the head, I'd probably choose cosmic gray, honestly, 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:07.120 because it's tiny and it might not do that much 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:10.160 damage as it slams into Is that right. Yeah, yeah, 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:11.760 it's just one, and you might get lucky. You might 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:14.560 miss everything useful and not cause cancer or something like that. 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:17.320 Oh I see yeah, okay, yeah, But these these particles 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:20.280 are super high energy, and the thing that's fascinating about 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:23.400 them is that we have no understanding with We don't 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:25.959 know anything in the universe that can make particles this 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:29.360 high energy. Okay, so by energy, do you mean like 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:32.000 the particle itself has a lot of energy or it's 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:34.479 just going faster. Yeah, that's the same thing. I mean, 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:36.600 the particle is a lot of kinetic energy. It's moving 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:40.199 super duper fast. It's not like it's hot, it's not 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:42.639 like it's vibrating. It's just it's it's really just trucking 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:44.639 along at a super high speed. Oh I see. So 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:47.119 the Sun is exploding, it's spewing out these protons, and 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:49.600 some of them go faster than others. Some of them 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:52.080 go faster than others, but some of them go faster 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:54.520 than the Sun can make. Right, So these protons we 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:56.320 don't think are coming from the Sun. We think they're 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:59.960 coming from something else. The Sun cannot make protons this fast. 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:02.160 How do we know it can't make them that fast? 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:03.920 How do we know it can't make them that fast? Well, 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:06.320 they don't seem to be coming from the Sun, right, 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:09.520 So we're getting from the back from like the nights. 0:18:10.160 --> 0:18:12.359 We get them, Yeah, we get them from getting from 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:15.040 the actions in space. We're getting shot out from some 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:18.719 someplace in the universe we don't even know, right, the 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.000 cosmic rays aren't aren't just all coming from the Sun. 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:24.320 Some of them were getting bombarded by rays from all directions. 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:27.080 You're saying that's right, Lots of things in space make 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:31.720 cosmic grays, our son other sons, black holes, pulsars, all 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:34.560 those crazy things that all shoot out particles, and some 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:37.440 of them come to Earth any kind of violent kind 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:41.320 of you know, explosion continues. Crashing in the universe is 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:44.359 feeling out stuff. That's right, it's making cosmic rays, and 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:46.760 some of them land on Earth and their clue right there, 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:49.480 clues to what happened, What made this neutrino and what 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:51.359 made it come in this direction and go so fast? 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:53.920 What made this proton? What made this piece of iron 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:56.720 go so fast? Each one carries with it some information 0:18:56.760 --> 0:18:59.520 about how and where it was born, and that's fascinating 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:01.960 because it tells us about places will never get to 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:05.359 and things will never see. Right. Okay, so sometimes some 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:08.040 of these cosmic rays have a super amount of energy 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:09.600 and we don't know where they're coming from. How often 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:13.600 are we getting bombarded by these high energy cosmic rays? Yea, 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:16.520 the higher the energy, the more the more rare they are. 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:19.920 So for example, at ten to the twenty one electron bolts, 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:22.520 which is like the highest energy particle anybody's ever seen. 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:26.200 You know, we think that those come about one per 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:31.359 square kilometer per few hundred years. One per square kilometers, 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:33.960 so very rare. Well, you know, the Earth has a 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:36.320 lot of square kilometers, So yeah, if you had a 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:39.399 square kilometer of cameras looking for these things, you wouldn't 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:41.600 would have to wait a long time to observe them. 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:43.159 But if you have a big detective you're a lot 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:45.080 of square kilometers, then you can see. You know, if 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:47.160 you had a few hundred square kilometers, you could see 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:49.240 one a year. Okay, so if you're listening to this 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:54.800 podcast and you draw one kilometer square around you, you 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:57.080 have to wait a hundred years to see one of 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:00.440 these high energy particles come down on you. That's right exactly. 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:02.400 But and to me, the most interesting thing about these 0:20:02.400 --> 0:20:05.960 particles is that, um, we have no idea what could 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:08.240 be making them. I mean, I've asked after a physicists 0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:11.679 have said, what's the highest energy particle? You imagine in 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:15.040 space anywhere in the universe, use anything you want. And 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:18.080 they start with like a supernova, huge explosion, particles going 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:20.359 super fast. Then they sling shot the stuff around a 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:23.119 black hole. Right then they ride waves from other stars 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:25.600 and they can't get close to the kind of particles 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:28.560 we see they at most can explain particles that like 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:31.520 tend to the seventeen tend of the eighteen, but we 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:35.280 see particles a thousand times more energetic than that. Right, 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:38.400 it's totally unexplained. There's nothing out there that can make 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:40.679 these kind of particles that we know of, which means 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:43.320 there's something new out there. It's like you're in the 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:45.520 middle of the jungle and you hear some strange animal 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:48.399 sound and there's no animal that you know of that 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:51.359 makes that sound or could make that sound exactly. And 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:54.199 that's right, you see. Yeah, you see tracks in the 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:56.640 in the in the in the mud, and you've never 0:20:56.680 --> 0:20:58.720 seen an animal make that track before. And so that's 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:01.760 a clue that there's something out there waiting to be discovered. 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:03.920 You know, these are clues that are surfing along on 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:07.720 the cosmos, being delivered to Earth and saying there's something interesting, 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:11.200 pay attention. Wow. So that's a huge mystery. So but 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:13.760 you I'm sure if physicists have ideas like what could 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:17.880 these crazy high energy particles be or be coming from? 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:20.480 I think it's a fantastic four. Yeah, I think they're 0:21:20.520 --> 0:21:27.320