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Article

The genesis of cosmic radiation

JAN 01, 1950
Are cosmic rays really cosmic, pervading all space; or are they limited to galaxies such as our Milky Way; or do they originate within the solar system? In the August, 1949 issue of Physics Today, Edward Teller favored the latter theory; the author of the present article surveys the situation and comes to a different conclusion.
Serge A. Korff

The total energies involved in cosmic radiation are so large, individually and collectively, that however they are generated the process or processes involved certainly are basic to the total structure of the universe. Moreover, since some of the hypotheses suggest experimental tests, the speculation on the origin of cosmic radiation has been extremely beneficial to the progress of physics. The speculations exhibit an exciting variety and give full play to imaginative thinking which, nevertheless, must be limited by experimental facts and by reasonable conjectures based on experimental facts.

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More about the authors

Serge A. Korff, New York University.

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This Content Appeared In
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Volume 3, Number 1

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