NEW YORK: Contradicting previous findings, new research has found that cosmic rays do not pose any hazards at the Earth’s surface.
In recent years, research has suggested that “solar particle events” — spikes in cosmic rays from the sun which sometimes hamper communications or the electric power grid — may cause congenital birth defects on Earth.
However, the new NASA-funded investigation, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, found that radiation from solar events is too weak to cause worry at ground level.
“We looked at two different studies. Both of them indicated a connection between cosmic rays and the rate of birth defects,” said co-author Professor Adrian Melott from University of Kansas.
“But we have a contradiction. Our estimates suggest that the radiation on the ground from these solar events is very small. And yet the experimental evidence suggests that something is going on that causes birth defects,” Mellot added.
Melott and colleagues looked at how cosmic rays from the sun create hazardous “secondaries” by reacting with the Earth’s atmosphere.
Showers of “secondary” high-energy particles are produced when a high-energy cosmic ray strikes Earth’s atmosphere.
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