Air Shower (physics)
An air shower is an extensive (many kilometres (miles) wide) cascade of ionized particles and electromagnetic radiation produced in the atmosphere when a primary cosmic ray (i.e. one of extraterrestrial origin) enters the atmosphere. The term cascade means that the incident particle, which could be a proton, a nucleus, an electron, a photon, or (rarely) a positron, strikes a molecule in the air so as to produce many energetic hadrons. The unstable hadrons decay in the air speedily into other particles and electromagnetic radiation, which are part of the shower components.
The air shower was discovered by Bruno Rossi in 1934. By observing the cosmic ray with the detectors placed apart from each other, Rossi recognized that many particles arrive simultaneously at the detectors. This phenomenom is now called an air shower.
Read more about Air Shower (physics): Air Shower Formation, Detection
Famous quotes containing the words air and/or shower:
“The air has finally gotten to the place that we can breathe it together.”
—Septima Clark (1898–1987)
“Mix salt and sand, and it shall puzzle the wisest of men, with his mere natural appliances, to separate all the grains of sand from all the grains of salt; but a shower of rain will effect the same object in ten minutes.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)