Research balloon flights [
http://lheawww.gsfc…balloon_top.html ] conducted in 1912 by Austrian physicist Victor Hess revealed that the Earth was constantly bombarded by high energy radiation from space - which came to be called "Cosmic Rays" [
http://imagine.gsfc…cosmic_rays.html ]. "What are Cosmic Rays and where do they come from?" They are now known to be mostly subatomic particles - predominantly protons and electrons - but their origin is a long standing mystery. After almost a century of study, this cosmic puzzle may have been at least partially solved by X-ray images and spectra [
http://heasarc.gsfc…] from the ASCA satellite observatory [
http://heasarc.gsfc…]. Pieced together to show the region around a star observed to go supernova [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] in 1006 AD, the overlapping X-ray snapshots above (seen in false color) reveal the bright rims of the exploded star's still expanding blast [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] wave. These ASCA observations showed [ http://heasarc/docs/ asca/science/graphic s/09sep1996/docs/ snr_cosmic.html ] for the first time that the energy spectrum of the bright regions is like that produced by extremely high energy electrons streaming through a magnetic field at nearly the speed of light. If (as expected) [
http://heasarc.gsfc…] high energy protons are associated with these energetic electrons then supernova remnants like SN 1006 [
http://heasarc.gsfc…] are sources of Hess' puzzling Cosmic Rays [
http://www.cosmic-r…].
Explanation
Research balloon flights [
http://lheawww.gsfc…balloon_top.html ] conducted in 1912 by Austrian physicist Victor Hess revealed that the Earth was constantly bombarded by high energy radiation from space - which came to be called "Cosmic Rays" [
http://imagine.gsfc…cosmic_rays.html ]. "What are Cosmic Rays and where do they come from?" They are now known to be mostly subatomic particles - predominantly protons and electrons - but their origin is a long standing mystery. After almost a century of study, this cosmic puzzle may have been at least partially solved by X-ray images and spectra [
http://heasarc.gsfc…] from the ASCA satellite observatory [
http://heasarc.gsfc…]. Pieced together to show the region around a star observed to go supernova [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] in 1006 AD, the overlapping X-ray snapshots above (seen in false color) reveal the bright rims of the exploded star's still expanding blast [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] wave. These ASCA observations showed [ http://heasarc/docs/ asca/science/graphic s/09sep1996/docs/ snr_cosmic.html ] for the first time that the energy spectrum of the bright regions is like that produced by extremely high energy electrons streaming through a magnetic field at nearly the speed of light. If (as expected) [
http://heasarc.gsfc…] high energy protons are associated with these energetic electrons then supernova remnants like SN 1006 [
http://heasarc.gsfc…] are sources of Hess' puzzling Cosmic Rays [
http://www.cosmic-r…].
Explanation
