Cosmic rays

Cosmic rays are immensely high-energy radiation, mainly originating outside the Solar Systems. They may produce showers of secondary particles that penetrate and impact planets atmosphere and sometimes even reach the surface. Composed primarily of high-energy protons and atomic nuclei, they are of mysterious origin. Data has been interpreted as evidence that a significant fraction of primary cosmic rays originate from the supernovae of massive stars. However, this is not thought to be their only source. Active galactic nuclei probably also produce cosmic rays.

The term ray is a historical accident, as cosmic rays were at first, and wrongly, thought to be mostly electromagnetic radiation. In common scientific usage high-energy particles with intrinsic mass are known as "cosmic" rays, and photons, which are quanta of electromagnetic radiation (and so have no intrinsic mass) are known by their common names, such as "gamma rays " or "X-rays", depending on their frequencies.

Cosmic rays attract great interest practically, due to the damage they inflict on microelectronics and life outside the protection of an atmosphere and magnetic field, and scientifically, because the energies of the most energetic ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) have been observed to approach 3 × 1020 eV,[5] about 40 million times the energy of particles accelerated by the Large Hadron Collider. the highest-energy ultra-high-energy cosmic rays have energies comparable to the kinetic energy of a 90-kilometre-per-hour (56 mph) baseball. As a result of these discoveries, there has been interest in investigating cosmic rays of even greater energies. Most cosmic rays, however, do not have such extreme energies; the energy distribution of cosmic rays peaks at 0.3 gigaelectronvolts (4.8×10−11 J).

The effective protection against Cosmic rays has been a problem for TL 2 and the creation of protective shields allowing faat interstellar travel is considered one of the hallmarks  of a TL 3 society.

Several species have created ships using these rays as means of propulsion for "interstellar sail ships ".

Scholars and scientists of the Wurgus have created a "Cosmic Ray Map " of  much of the Upward and Spinward sector of the M-0 galaxy and their work is continued by the Astrographic Institute of the Union (associated to the Science Council ) and issues an updated "Space Weather report" every year.

Almost all Union Deep Space installations have Cosmic Ray detection equipment and collect data for the AIotU.

The largest such installation is the NEAR CORE research station that is the closest artificial object in relation to the Galactic Core, which is the main source of Comic Rays.