Enigmatic for many years, cosmic rays are now known to be not
rays at all, but particles, the nuclei of atoms, raining down
continually on the earth, where they can be detected throughout the
atmosphere and sometimes even thousands of feet underground. This
book tells the long-running detective story behind the discovery
and study of cosmic rays, a story that stretches from the early
days of subatomic particle physics in the 1890s to the frontiers of
high-energy astrophysics today.
Writing for the amateur scientist and the educated general
reader, Michael Friedlander, a cosmic ray researcher, relates the
history of cosmic ray science from its accidental discovery to its
present status. He explains how cosmic rays are identified and how
their energies are measured, then surveys current knowledge and
theories of thin cosmic rain. The most thorough, up-to-date, and
readable account of these intriguing phenomena, his book makes us
party to the search into the nature, behavior, and origins of
cosmic rays and into the sources of their enormous energy,
sometimes hundreds of millions times greater than the energy
achievable in the most powerful earthbound particle accelerators.
As this search led unexpectedly to the discovery of new particles
such as the muon, pion, kaon, and hyperon, and as it reveals scenes
of awesome violence in the cosmos and offers clues about black
holes, supernovas, neutron stars, quasars, and neutrinos, we see
clearly why cosmic rays remain central to an astonishingly diverse
range of research studies on scales infinitesimally small and
large.
Attractively illustrated, engagingly written, this is a
fascinating inside look at a science at the center of our
understanding of our universe.
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