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Are cosmic rays more dangerous than the sun's own radiation?
Was learning about the heliosphere and how the sun's wind acts as a shield against cosmic radiation but if we are so much closer to the sun, shouldn't it be just as dangerous? Is one worse than the other?
3 Answers
- ?Lv 72 years ago
The point is that it depends on what the rays ARE. What the Sun mostly produces are charged particles, and being electrically charged, the Earth's magnetic field diverts them. However, some cosmic rays are X-rays and gamma rays, those are not charged and stay unaffected. But there is far less of that getting to Earth.
Of course if you go out in space far enough that the Earth's magnetism has less effect, the Sun is by far the greater danger. This is what makes radiation a huge problem for any manned mission that goes further than just to the Moon for a few days. For example, it would take about a year to get to Mars and it would be like standing in the fallout from a nuclear bomb most of the way. That really needs solving or else the astronauts will all die of cancer on the way.
- Anonymous2 years ago
Cosmic rays are only dangerous if we didn't have an atmosphere. There's much fewer cosmic rays coming in than the Sun's own particles. The solar winds are handled by the Earth's magnetic field.