A New Life Force: Could Cosmic Rays Be Coming from an Alien Civilization?

A New Life Force: Could Cosmic Rays Be Coming from an Alien Civilization?

By Mr Ghaz, February 20, 2011

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A New Life Force: Could Cosmic Rays Be Coming from an Alien Civilization?

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When Australian physicist Victor Hess ascended into the stratosphere in a balloon in 1912, he was hoping to throw light on a mystery that had been baffling his scientific colleagues for years.

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In the laboratory, experimenters had found that an object that had been electrically charged would lose its charge, slowly but inexorably, no matter how well insulated it was from the ground. The reason? They believed that electrically charged particles in the air flowed into the object and neutralized the charge already present.

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But what was generating such charged particles? Was it in the earth or somewhere outside it? Hess meant to find out. He could not possibly have guessed that his balloon flight was to mark the beginning of 20 years’ work that would, in 1936, bring him the Nobel Prize in physics.

During the first 2,000 feet of his ascent, Hess’s crude instruments showed that the numbers of charged particles in the air were decreasing – proof that some of them, at least, were being caused by something in the earth. (Today we know that it is the natural radioactivity of the earth’s crust.)

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But as he climbed higher, the number of particles increased again, indicating that at least some influence from skies was involved. As Hess rose toward the outer atmosphere, he encountered an increasingly intense barrage of what he would later dub “cosmic rays.”

Although the term cosmic rays are still used, it is in fact a misnomer. Rays are normally defined as the lines along which radiation travels. But cosmic rays have only a slight connection with radiation: they consist mostly of fragments of atoms, electrons, and atomic nuclei – with a few high-energy gamma rays – mixed together. Some cosmic ray particles get to the ground, but most smash into atoms of the earth’s atmosphere and produce some electrically charged particles that ultimately bombarded the earth. Special instruments can detect both types of particles on earth.

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Just one of the fast moving cosmic ray particles contains enough energy to lift the book you are holding one inch – a hundred million times more energy than the most powerful atom smashers now envisioned can give to a particle. Astrophysicists have long been investigating the source of cosmic-ray particles and what raises them to such speeds.

Unknown Origins

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In studying the origins of cosmic rays, one of the greatest problems scientists face is that the rays never journey in a straight line. Deflected by the magnetic fields between the stars, they follow twisted, spiraling paths, making it impossible to discover where they have come from.

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Since it seems logical that the rays originate in regions of space where there is violent activity, it is to these that scientist have turned their attention. The likely source of cosmic rays, they believe, may perhaps be exploding stars, or supernovas, and fast-spinning pulsars; both may shed some fast-moving atomic fragments.

Studies of ancient rock and polar ice reveal the strength of cosmic rays that reached the earth’s surface in the past. Samples up to 10 million years old show that the intensity has a times been 30 percent above the average of a particular period. The high levels probably occurred when supernovas exploded near the earth.

Cosmic Mutations

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The possible effects of cosmic rays have also intrigued scientists. It is known that radioactivity can cause mutations in the genetic material of living creatures. Given the similarity between cosmic rays and radioactivity, could cosmic rays – in combination with the radioactivity of the earth’s surface – have had the same effects on life-forms? Scientists believe that this is a strong possibility.

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Mutations are the raw material of evolution – and are often harmful. But occasionally they enhance the chance of survival for the organisms in which they occur. As beneficial mutations accumulate, the end result is the gradual modification of species and their transformation into different ones.

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Increases in the intensity of cosmic radiation, while harming individual organisms, might have speeded up the rate of evolution. However, remote the origin of cosmic rays, their continued effects on the earth may have been profound.