What are Cosmic Rays?

 Cosmic Rays ( named by Millikan) are highly energetic charged particles ( largely positively charged) possibly originating from space and colliding with nuclei of gases in atmosphere giving a series of elementary particles (cosmic ray shower).

These cosmic showers are also largely responsible for computer malfunctioning in space-tech, as these energetic particles generally induce a bit flip when collided with the mosfets thus accidentally changing information stored on system.

The motivation to find these radiation started when scientists observed that how charge leaked from a well isolated electroscope, which wasn’t irradiated with any sort of radiation. At that time it was believed that this might be due to radiation originating from minerals of the earth’s crust.

In 1911 Hess tried to validate this reasoning by conducting similar experiments at heights well above crust where the mineral radiation wouldn’t have any significance. But to his surprise the radiation intensity grew as altitude rose. This astonishing observation lead to the discovery of cosmic radiation. Hess was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1936 for his discovery of cosmic rays.