Cosmic rays and solar flares

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Cosmic rays and solar flares

Draw in the back of your book the life cycle of a star

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Cosmic rays are fast-moving ionising particles from the Sun.

The Earth’s magnetic field prevents them from reaching us because they would be very harmful

Solar flares (bursts of energy from the Sun) interfere with these satellite systems.

Slide 3

Cosmic rays

Cosmic rays are not really rays at all, they are a stream of particles of ionised atoms.

They can range from a single proton to the nucleus of an iron atom-or larger

The most common cosmic ray is a alpha particle (3protons and 2 neutrons)

Cosmic rays originate in space and are produced form sources such as:

The sun

Other stars

Supernova and their remains

Neutron stars and black holes

Distant galaxies

Slide 4

Cosmic ray particles are travelling at speeds close to that of light and they have a lot of energy

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Cosmic rays

Slide 12

Solar flares

A solar flare is a violent explosion above the suns surface.

A large amount of energy is released

Slide 13

Solar flares may last for 10 mins and will produce more energy than a MILLION hydrogen bombs.

There is a peak in this type of activity ever 10-11 yrs, during which large numbers of charged particles are released at very high speeds

This results in the production of a magnetic field that interacts with the earths magnetic field

Slide 14

Only a small amount of energy reaches the earth from a solar flare, but it is enough to interfere with radio and microwave transmissions

They can also affect electrical power distribution in the national grid