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From: mwg@petrus.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: Cosmic Rays vs Gamma Rays
Message-ID: <376@petrus.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Jun-85 11:26:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: petrus.376
Posted: Tue Jun 18 11:26:18 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 19-Jun-85 04:27:05 EDT
References: <277@sri-arpa.ARPA>
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Inc
Lines: 32


++
I've been reading a great book, written in 1958, which, among other things
shows that the common modern usage of the term "cosmic ray" has been around
for a little while:

	...the physicists make use of the so-called cosmic radiation.  The
	electromagnetic fields on the surface of stars extending over huge
	spaces are under certain circumstances able to accelerate charged
	atomic particles, electrons and nuclei.  The nuclei, owing to their
	greater inertia, seem to have a better chance of remaining in the
	accelerating field for a long distance, and finally when they leave
	the surface of the star into empty space they have already traveled
	through potentials of several thousand million volts.  There may be a
	further acceleration in the magnetic fields between the stars; in any
	case the nuclei seem to be kept within the space of the galaxy for a
	long time by varying magnetic fields, and finally they fill this
	space with what one calls cosmic radiation.  This radiation reaches
	the earth from the outside and consists of nuclei of practically all
	kinds, hydrogen and helium and many heavier elements, HAVING ENERGIES
	FROM ROUGHLY A HUNDRED OR A THOUSAND MILLION ELECTRON VOLTS TO, AGAIN
	IN RARE CASES, A MILLION TIMES THIS AMOUNT. When the particles of
	this cosmic radiation penetrate into the atmosphere of the earth they
	hit the nitrogen atoms or oxygen atoms of the atmosphere or may hit
	any experimental equipment exposed to the radiation.

			- Werner Heisenberg
			Physics and Philosophy
			pp 158-159

(Just a short historical vignette)
-Mark