Cosmic rays consist of subatomic particles which have high energy (those not from our own sun) due to their high velocities. Victor Franz Hess (1883-1964) showed in 1911 that the ionization of the Earth's atmosphere increases with altitude. Hess made...

The term cosmic ray refers to highly-energetic atomic particles (mostly single protons, some proton-neutron pairs, and occasionally subatomic particles and electrons) that travel through space near the speed of light. Physicists divide cosmic rays into...

Cosmic rays are, in fact, not rays, but high energy subatomic particles of cosmic origin that continually bombard Earth. The measurements scientists make of them, both on the ground and from probes in space, are the only direct measurements that are...

Cosmic rays are a component of interstellar matter. Their composition is similar to ordinary interstellar gas, but they are hurtling through space at very high speeds. In 1911, physicist Victor Franz Hess made balloon ascensions with an electroscope to...

Cosmic rays are energetic particles originating from space that impinge on Earth's atmosphere. Almost 90% of all the incoming cosmic ray particles are protons, about 9% are helium nuclei (alpha particles) and about 1% are electrons. The term "ray" is a...

As you read your Independent over breakfast, more invisible rays will zap through it than you have cornflakes in your bowl. Day and night, this torrent of rays indiscriminately blasts through you, your home and everything around you. Victor Hess, the Austrian physicist,...

Researchers studying global warming have often been confounded by the differences between observed increases in surface-level temperatures and unchanging low-atmosphere temperatures. Because of this discrepancy, some have argued that global warming is unproven, suggesting instead that true warming should show uniformly elevated temperatures from...

Two multi-ton clean rooms have been lowered into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant for eventual physics experiments that need to be shielded from cosmic rays and naturally occurring radiation on the surface of the Earth.WIPP, a Department of Energy's nuclear waste repository in salt beds...

Scientists in Shanghai are developing a nuclear-powered lunar rover for the country's first unmanned mission to the moon in 2012, newspapers reported Monday.The six-wheeled vehicle has been under development for four years at the Shanghai Aerospace System Engineering Institute, where a laboratory has been outfitted...