Solar Cosmic Rays

Cosmic raysHigh-energy subatomic particles mainly originating outside the Solar System that continuously bombard the Earth from all directions. They represent one of the few direct samples of matter from outside our solar system and travel through space at nearly the speed of light. These charged particles – positively charged protons or Click on Term to Read More with energies ~107 to 1010 eV, primarily ejected solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CME). Their composition is similar to that of the SunOur parent star. The structure of Sun's interior is the result of the hydrostatic equilibrium between gravity and the pressure of the gas. The interior consists of three shells: the core, radiative region, and convective region. Image source: http://eclipse99.nasa.gov/pages/SunActiv.html. The core is the hot, dense central region in which the, and are produced in the coronaExtended outer atmosphere of the Sun. The glow of the corona is a million times less bright than that of the photosphere; it can only be seen when the disk of the Sun is blocked during a total solar eclipse, or by using a coronagraph, which artificially blocks the disk Click on Term to Read More by shock acceleration, or when part of the solar magnetic field reconfigures itself.