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Antarctic Experiment Finds Puzzling Distribution of Cosmic Rays
pitchpipe writes "A puzzling pattern in the cosmic rays bombarding Earth from space has been discovered by an experiment buried deep under the ice of Antarctica. ... It turns out these particles are not arriving uniformly from all directions. The new study detected an overabundance of cosmic rays coming from one part of the sky, and a lack of cosmic rays coming from another." The map of this uneven distribution comes from the IceCube neutrino observatory last mentioned several days ago.
Scientists have called this part of the sky "The Sun".
Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
God went that-a-way
We call this the "Microwave oven theory". Some areas get cooked to carbon, others are left frozen solid.
"Who modded this informative? Whoever it is must've been smokin' some of that martian pot!"
Doesn't even contain a link to the project in question.
> I mean, it is what protects us from vasts amounts of cosmic rays...
No it isn't. The Earth's magnetic field has negligible effect on cosmic rays: they are far to energetic for it to influence them significantly. What protects us from cosmic rays is the atmosphere.
> ...maybe those differences account for a vast majority of this patterns?
The physicists will have already taken the small (but known) effect of the magnetic field into account.
> And the various celestial bodies that surround us (constantly deflecting
> this rays) account for the rest?
Celestial bodies do not surround us. The sun and the moon together cover less than 1/100,000th of the sky.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Look Around You.
Look. Around. You.
Have you guessed what we're looking for, yet? Yes, that's right - it's computer programming.
[ MAN SITTING AT TYPEWRITER ]
This man is writing a computer programme. A computer programme is like a script that tells a computer what to do. Like people, computers understand different languages - some examples of computer languages are:
* C
* PASCAL
* BASIC
* C double-plus
* C triple-plus
* C detuned bassoon
* Norwegian
Your school computer is probably a BBC Microcomputerisation Engine and, therefore, understands a dialect of BASIC known as 'HyperFrench.'
Make a note of this in your copybook... now.
The Earth's magnetic field is well mapped. The physicists will already have taken it into consideration.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
It makes me sad that you had to explain that here.
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
This universal reference exists and is known by scientists, google for cosmic microwave dipole.
Our galaxy is moving at 627 km/s in relation to the microwave background radiation of the universe, which is the nearest direct effect of the Big Bang that we can observe.
I'm happy that it was phrased in the form of a question. Too often, the reaction to a bit of science that somebody doesn't wish to believe is simply rejection of it, perhaps combined with unsourced assertions (or assertions to un-peer-reviewed sources).
You don't have to know everything in science. There's too much to know. Ignorance is fine, as long as you're (a) aware of it, (b) curious, and (c) not going to fight against those who do know it.
R'lyeh is in the south pacific. Pnakoticos is in the Australian desert. Irem is in Saudia Arabia. Unfortunately, the Pentagonally Symmetrical Elder Things named their last surface city 'Can'ned'spham', which is why the Shoggoths ate them.
Who is John Cabal?
No it isn't. The Earth's magnetic field has negligible effect on cosmic rays: they are far to energetic for it to influence them significantly. What protects us from cosmic rays is the atmosphere.
This is incorrect. The International Space Station has a significantly lower cosmic radiation environment due to the Earth's magnetic field. However, the cosmic rays that are energetic enough to be detected under a few hundred meters of ice can easily punch through the Earth's magnetic field.
Celestial bodies do not surround us. The sun and the moon together cover less than 1/100,000th of the sky.
Indeed. The heliosphere might, due to its vast size (and its shock interaction with the galactic medium is apparently a known source of cosmic rays), be an intermediate filter with enough pull to distort the path of incoming cosmic rays.