A Thin Cosmic Rain: Particles from Outer Space

by Michael W. Friedlander

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.

Genres: Physics, Science

256 pages, Hardcover

First published February 5, 2000

About the author

Michael Wulf Friedlander (born 1928) is an American physicist and skeptic.

Friedlander is Professor Emeritus of physics at Washington University in St. Louis. His research has involved the study of cosmic rays and gamma ray astronomy.

He is the author of the book At The Fringes Of Science (1998), a scholarly study of fringe science. The book is notable for its criticism of the ideas of Immanuel Velikovsky.

Reviews

[John Ammer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've searched for help to understand the extra things ...rays, auras and shadows and circles as birds fly through the PLASMA. This book was no help for me.

[Hubert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally finished reading it - fairly detailed account of cosmic rays, gets into any number of subatomic elementary particles, the nature of their discovery. Much too advanced for first-time encounters with the subject, but upon finishing, I did enjoy going back through the book and reviewing things.