New light on the origin of cosmic rays

The problem of the origin of the cosmic radiation has provoked much controversy in recent years. The proponents of a literally cosmic origin (see, for example, the article by Serge A. Korff in Physics Today, January, 1950) survey the properties of this radiation and what is known of the universe and conclude that the cosmic rays must be either the product of some interstellar mechanism or energetic particles “left over” from the creation of the universe itself. Those who favor the hypothesis of the origination of cosmic rays within the solar system (Edward Teller, Physics Today, August, 1949), on the basis of much the same empirical information, arrive at a considerably different result. As is frequently the case when two apparently opposing points of view, both expounded with equally convincing logic, are held on a problem, the actual solution as it appears today seems to combine important features of both.

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