Evening star., 1953-11-23
Titanic Atom Smushers
Yield Cosmic Roys
Vast Magnetic Fields
Around Stors Explained
By Thomos R. Henry

There are titantic "atom smashers"
in cosmic space.
They consist of vast magnetic fields
built up around cosmic clouds in which
elementary particles shot out of the
gaseous envelopes of stars are caught
and vhirled around as in cyclotrons.
In this way they acquire energies as
high as 10000, ,00O, ,000, ,000. 900 volts.
Streams Of them are constantly
escaping from these magnetic sacks"
in space. They are the primary cosnlic
rays which hit the top Of the earth's
atmosphere. Their total energy is al
most equivalent to the total energy
of starlight. They consist of protons and
the heavy nuclei of atoms stripped Of
all their electrons.
Such is the present picture Of cosmic
radiation derived from recent expert
mentS and observations as described by
DIR. Fred Singer, now Of the University
OF Maryland. at the Johns Hopkins
University Laboratory Of Applied
Physics where some of the most sig
nificant researches in this field are be-
ing conducted.
Originate in Milky Way
Present evidence. DR.. Singer said,
indicates that all the coSnic radiation
originates within the Milky Way galaxy
from streams of particles shot out from
the envelopes of stars. Weak ones are
known to increase at times of great
flares on the face of the sum- which
can be considered a typical star. Since
they are particles Of appreciable mass,
however, they are subject to magnetic
attraction and cannot pass in straight
lines through magnetic fields as can
the weightless photons of light. Hence
they are trapped in the great galaxy
and the longer they are confined in
the vast space whirlpool the greater
the energy.
An appreciable part of the primary
cosmic radiation, DR.. Singer said, con-
sists of stripped nuclei of the atoms Of
the elements boron. berylium and
lithium. The source of these long has
puzzled investigators since no trace
of them can be found in envelopes of
stars whose spectra are observable.
They now can be explained, however,
as fragments of the nuclei of iron
atoms caused by collisions with protons
in space. Iron is an abundant element
in the stars. Iron nuclei are quite rare
in the cosmic radiation reaching the
earth. It is possible to calculate the
frequency of such collisions and hence
the number of the light element frag-
rnentS gives a rough estimate of the
age of the radiation itself.
1,OOO-Year Average.
This turns out to be an average
of about 10, billion years. DR.. Singer
explained. Average starlight is about
1000 years old-that is, it has been
travelling for thousand years at a
speed of 10000 miles a second to
reach the earth. This is very general
average. Some, of course, coming from
stars nearest the sun. is only eight or
ten years old.
A great difference between cosmic
radiation and starlight, DR.. Singer
pointed out, is that the former seems
to come with equal intensity from all
directions whereas the chief source Of
the latter is the Milky Way This is
accounted for by the magnetic whirl-
pool theory. If the particle of radia-
ton actually comes from stars, the
great Milky Way concentration must
be considered the chief source. But out
of the magnetic fields in which it is
trapped it is likely to come at any
point of the compass.
The great magnetic fields, DR.. Sin
fger declared, may be set up to some
extent by the stars themselves, but most
of them probably are built UP around
vast but extremely tenuous clouds of
elementary particles now known to ex-
ist in the spaces between the stars.
These clouds are invisible but their
combined weight is believed to be equiv
alent to that of all the stars, and out
of them new stars may be formed.