cosmic radiation?

Question

what is cosmic radiation? and do you have a picture of it?

Answer 1

A cosmic radiation is a radiation of electromagnetic particles coming from outer space. The sun light can be called cosmic radiation and any outdoor photo would then be a picture of it. Radiations from the cosmos come in all electro-magnetic frequencies but there is a special one called the cosmic microwave background radiation. It comes almost uniformly from all directions and is one of the arguments used to defend the theory of the Big Bang. One interesting point is that it comes from the Big Bang, i.e. all directions. Because when you look at the sky, you look in both space and time as the furthest you can see is the furthest in the past.

Answer 2

Cosmic radiation are low energy particles from the sun and high energy particles from the outside of the solar system. They are mostly protons and helium nuclei but also heavier ions, electrons, positrons, gamma rays and neutrinos.

Here is what the (simulations of) showers of high energy cosmic rays look like when they enter the atmosphere:

http://www.particle.kth.se/~pearce/shower.jpg
http://www.auger.org/images/Auger_cosmic_ray_shower.jpg
http://eas.ysn.ru/pictures/eas_in_atmosphere2.jpg

Here is such a shower in a detector:

http://www.aquila.infn.it/icarus/exp.html

Cosmic rays are a great field to be in, right now.