Cosmic Rays: Prologue
An apparently insignificant fact initiated our story in the eighteenth century. The French physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb (1736–1806)—to whom we owe the expression of the electrical force exerted between two point charges—observed that a charged me
- PDF / 6,988,556 Bytes
- 336 Pages / 439.36 x 666.15 pts Page_size
- 61 Downloads / 233 Views
For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/6960
•
Mario Bertolotti
Celestial Messengers: Cosmic Rays The Story of a Scientific Adventure
123
Mario Bertolotti University of Roma “La Sapienza” Dipartimento di Scienze di Base e Applicate per l’Ingegneria (SBAI) Rome Italy
ISSN 1614-659X ISBN 978-3-642-28370-3 ISBN 978-3-642-28371-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-28371-0 Springer Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London Library of Congress Control Number: 2012943470 c Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Introduction
The history of the research on cosmic rays is that of a scientific adventure. For just one century, researchers climbed mountains, flied in balloons and planes, and travelled all around the globe, trying to understand the nature of this radiation which comes from outer space. At present the research has extended out of our planet, in the open space where spacecrafts are sent to explore our solar system, and in the future, likely beyond. But what are cosmic rays? They are a continuous rain of charged particles which move at nearly the speed of light and invest our planet at every moment from all directions. These particles are nuclei of common atoms—for the most hydrogen nuclei—stripped by the
Data Loading...
