A Thin Cosmic Rain: Particles from Outer Space

By Michael W. Friedlander

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674002881
• ISBN13: 9780674002883
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 1.3" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Thought provoking and readable

This book is (was) a real page turner. After less than a week it took its well deserved place among the really great books that I have read through this year. My physics background is rather meager personally, a single university class back in 2004. But nothing other than an interest in gaining a new insight into the cosmos is required to embark with this excellent read. The insights into and the motivations of the early work in CR research was especially useful, and provided not only a fascinating historical perspective but the footing required to continue the journey through the book's short 225 pages. And all along the way the writing and development of ideas and concepts from the beginning are smooth, logical, and eminently readable. And inspiring! I have ordered more such books concerning physics. Highest recommendations.

Fascinating Introduction to Cosmic Radiation

Michael Friedlander begins by quoting the introductory sentence from Cecil Powell's acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1950: "Coming out of space and incident on the high atmosphere, there is a thin rain of charged particles known as primary cosmic radiation." A Thin Cosmic Rain - Particles from Outer Space is a well-written, intriguing introduction to cosmic rays (CR) that will appeal to readers with a moderate technical background. The later chapters were especially fascinating. Friedlander's text involves relatively little mathematics, but is packed with helpful technical graphs and charts, particle track photos, instrumentation diagrams, and astronomical photographs. The early chapters provide a historical context that may be largely familiar to many readers: the discovery of cathode rays (electrons), x-rays, and radioactive decay; the high altitude balloon flights by Victor Hess that resulted in the discovery of cosmic rays, "an extra-terrestrial source of penetrating radiation"; the advances in particle tracking technology in the twentieth century; and the impact of satellite borne instrumentation on CR research, including the discovery of the Van Allen belts. The middle chapters - Particles from the Sun, Cosmic Rays in the Galaxy, The Energy Spectrum, and Ultra-High Energies - are a little more technical and may require some study as they lay the foundation for the final chapters. These chapters immediately engaged my interest and I found myself reading late into the evening. I would finish one chapter and immediately begin another. The remaining chapters, especially Nuclear Clues, The Origin of Cosmic Rays, Cosmic Electrons and Gamma Rays, and Cosmic Neutrinos, are also quite good. Professor Friedlander addressed such topics as the nucleosynthesis model, the galactic leaky box model, calculations of CR travel paths, the CR budget for our galaxy, the spectral shape of supernova emissions, and synchrotron radiation. My hardcover copy of A Thin Cosmic Rain was published by Harvard University Press, 2000. An earlier version, Cosmic Rays, was published in 1989.