Energetic Particles

Energetic Particles in the News
Energetic Particle Activities

Energetic particles are pieces of matter (things with rest mass, unlike photons of light) that are moving very fast. The low end of what is meant by "very fast" is a little cloudy, but the solar wind can move as slowly as a few hundred km per second (or about one thousandth the speed of light). Energetic particles have been measured moving at speeds as high as .99999999 times the speed of light. Energetic particles include protons, electrons, neutrons, neutrinos, the nuclei of atoms, and other sub-atomic particles.

An electron volt (eV), is a unit of energy used to describe the total energy carried by a particle.

• 1 keV = 1 kilo-electron volt = 1,000 eV -- typical of dental X-rays
• 1 MeV = 1 mega-electron volt = 1 million eV -- typical of radioactive decay particles
• 1 GeV = 1 giga-electron volt = 1 billion eV -- the equivalent energy of a proton (hydrogen nucleus) at rest

The molecules in our atmosphere have energies around 0.03 eV. The Sun's plasma and Earth's magnetosphere contain particles that are much more energetic. Protons in the magnetosphere typically have energies of 1 keV to 10 keV. And particles having still higher energies are quite common throughout the Universe.

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Energetic Particles in the News:

August 10, 2009: Particles as tracers for the most massive explosions in the Milky Way -- University of Gothenburg
August 5, 2009: Moon may reveal elusive cosmic neutrinos -- New Scientist
July 27, 2009: Supernova starting gun: Neutrinos -- Physical Review Focus
July 6, 2009: Speed gun -- HEAPOW
July 3, 2009: A galaxy as particle accelerator -- Max Planck Society
June 2, 2009: Particles larger than galaxies fill the universe? -- National Geographic
May 26, 2009: Ginormous neutrino -- APS Focus
May 21, 2009: Looking under the Antarctic ice for evidence of dark matter -- APS
May 15, 2009: Dark matter or pulsars? Fermi is on the case -- Sky & Telescope
May 13, 2009: Deep concerns -- Nature
May 1, 2009: Officials break ground for the world's most advanced neutrino experiment -- Fermilab
January 13, 2009: First all-sky map of the edge of the Solar System -- Astronomy.com
September 22, 2008: Why the Large Hadron Collider is already on the fritz -- Time
September 19, 2008: The LHC sees its first circulating beam -- CERN
September 12, 2008: Large Hadron Collider to have "practical" spin-offs? -- National Geographic
September 10, 2008: What the collider might discover -- Time
September 10, 2008: Large Hadron Collider rap video is a hit -- National Geographic
September 10, 2008: First beam for Large Hadron Collider -- Brookhaven National Laboratory
September 4, 2008: What happens to particle accelerators after they are shut down? -- Scientific American
July 2, 2008: As LHC draws nigh, Nobelists outline dreams -- and nightmares -- Scientific American
May 12, 2008: Video: Lab probes universe's secrets -- National Geographic
May 5, 2008: GRBs -- HEAPOW
April 28, 2008: 'Broken heart' image the last for NASA's long-lived Polar mission -- NASA GSFC
April 28, 2008: Found link? -- HEAPOW
April 24, 2008: Secrets of massive black hole unveiled: Workings of giant galactic particle accelerators discovered -- Science Daily
April 23, 2008: Radio telescope reveals secrets of massive black hole -- NRAO
April 16, 2008: Reflections offer new way to bend particles -- CERN
April 16, 2008: Finding the Higgs boson -- AIP
March 20, 2008: NASA satellite detects naked-eye explosion halfway across universe -- NASA / Swift mission
March 9, 2008: New discovery at Jupiter could help protect Earth-orbit satellites -- Eurekalert
March 7, 2008: WMAP reveals neutrinos, end of dark ages, first second of universe -- NASA
March 3, 2008: Particle collider's last big piece set -- National Geographic
February 25, 2008: Dawn of the Large Hadron Collider -- APOD
February 25, 2008: Killer electrons surf celestial tsunamis -- NASA GSFC
February 25, 2008: Transformer -- HEAPOW
February 20, 2008: Integral: Stellar winds colliding at our cosmic doorstep -- ESA
February 19, 2008: High energy electron holes reveal unseen rings -- ESA
February 13, 2008: Theorists weigh up new route to neutrino mass -- Physics World
February 7, 2008: Particle accelerator: Signals sent racing ahead at light speed to keep particles colliding -- Science Daily
January 27, 2008: Giant particle accelerator discovered in the sky -- Science Daily
January 17, 2008: The future of physics -- Scientific American
January 17, 2008: Large Hadron Collider: The discovery machine -- Scientific American
January 17, 2008: The coming revolutions in particle physics -- Scientific American
January 16, 2008: Upgraded neutrino detector could root out dark matter -- New Scientist
January 10, 2008: Centaurus A exposed -- Astronomy.com
January 9, 2008: Japanese particle physics in good health -- Physics World
January 1, 2008: Important days in history of universe -- CNN
December 22, 2007: The best of 2007 -- Physics World
December 18, 2007: 'Bully' black hole blasts galaxy with radiation -- CNN
December 13, 2007: Ten top physics stories for 2007 -- AIP
November 30, 2007: Neutrinos could probe Earth's structure -- Physics World
November 23, 2007: Giant 'IceCube' could take snaps of Earth's core -- New Scientist
November 7, 2007: Physicists see similarities in stream of sand grains, exotic plasma at birth of Universe -- Science Daily
October 25, 2007: Look mum, it's a neutrino -- Australian Broadcasting Company
August 29, 2007: Low-energy neutrinos detected inside Sun -- Science Daily
August 21, 2007: Scientists confirm long-held theory about source of sunshine -- Science Daily
August 20, 2007: Catching some rays -- NSF
June 28, 2007: Neutron stars join the black hole jet set -- Science Daily
May 23, 2007: UD scientists build an 'ice top' at the bottom of the world -- EurekAlert!
February 28, 2007: NASA MESSENGER mission news: priming instruments to map Mercury's crust -- SpaceRef.com
February 20, 2007: Classification of ACE/EPAM near-relativistic electron beam events -- ACE News
July 1, 2006: ALICE experiment sees first cosmic-ray events -- CERN Courier
March 1, 2006: Germany seeks to fulfil astroparticle aspirations -- CERN Courier
February 20, 2006: New study questions the effects of cosmic proton radiation on human cells -- SpaceRef.com
November 7, 2005: Effects of interplanetary shocks on energetic particles -- ACE News
June 24, 2005: A force field for astronauts? -- Science@NASA
February 23, 2005: Cosmic insight into pyramids, volcanoes and nuclear contraband -- LiveScience
February 23, 2005: Cosmic rays reveal past and present secrets -- MSNBC
April 15, 2004: Killer electrons -- NASA HQ
March 18, 2004: Space dust to unlock pyramid secrets -- Australian Broadcasting Corporation
February 19, 2004: Antarctic test flight preps way for hunt for 'killer' particles -- SpaceRef.com
January 15, 2004: Doctoral student journeys to "the ice" to study neutrinos -- University at Buffalo Reporter
December 10, 2003: UCSD physicists see solar electrons, auroras associated with recent geomagnetic storms -- EurekAlert!
December 8, 2003: Earth's radiation belts spectacular following Halloween solar storms -- EurekAlert!
October 29, 2003: A powerful solar flare -- NASA GSFC APOD
October 14, 2003: New NASA facility will help protect space crews from radiation -- SpaceRef.com
October 14, 2003: NASA and DOE dedicate new NASA facility at Brookhaven Lab -- Brookhaven National Laboratory
September 11, 2003: Sudbury Neutrino Observatory reports new measurements - thanks to table salt! -- ScienceDaily
September 9, 2003: Solar wind makes waves; killer electrons go surfing? -- NASA GSFC
September 5, 2003: Solar flare serves up antimatter surprises -- Scientific American
September 2, 2003: Antimatter factory on Sun yields clues to solar explosions -- NASA GSFC
September 2, 2003: RHESSI satellite offers clues about how solar explosions act as particle accelerators -- UC Berkeley News
August 14, 2003: MINOS detector ready to take first data -- EurekAlert
August 3, 2003: Ice fishing for cosmic neutrinos -- NASA GSFC APOD
May 1, 2003: NESTOR sees muons at the bottom of the sea -- CERN Courier
March 24, 2003: Gamma-ray burst, supernova connection confirmed -- Spaceflight Now
February 28, 2003: Black Widow pulsar spraying antimatter into space -- Australian Broadcasting Corporation
January 17, 2003: New look for Cerenkov radiation -- PhysicsWeb
November 7, 2002: UC Berkeley analysis of satellite data turns up first direct evidence that magnetic processes in space can accelerate electrons to near light speed -- UC Berkeley
September 19, 2002: Space movie reveals shocking secrets of the Crab pulsar -- Chandra
April 18, 2002: How ultra high-energy neutrinos might be made, seen -- UniSci
February 21, 2002: Antimatter atoms captured for the first time -- New Scientist
December 25, 2001: Two theorists never in doubt -- Physics Today
November 19, 2001: Particle physics telescope explodes -- BBC News
July 10, 2001: New peek into differences between matter, antimatter -- UniSci
July 1, 2001: Neutrinos have mass for sure -- Jupiter Scientific
June 29, 2001: Energetic particle fluences from solar wind to cosmic ray energies -- ACE News

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