4 ms·
How does this really work? I imagine looking at the starry sky for brief flashes of light is not without complications, what are the biggest backgrounds?
by Trombone12 11y ago
How does this really work? I imagine looking at the starry sky for brief flashes of light is not without complications, what are the biggest backgrounds?
- batbomb 11y agoTo elaborate, when a proton (or iron) particle hits the atmosphere, it starts interacting with matter it hasn't interacted with before. These interactions produce pions and kaons, which decays further until you end up with a bunch of electrons/positrons, gamma rays, and muons. These particles ionize the atmosphere, which puts the electrons in the N2 orbitals in a frenzy, causing fluorescence and Cerenkov radiation (also light). This light is more energetic (shorter wavelength, more blue, near-UV, etc...) than the human eye can detect. In theory you could maybe see some light (in high humidity environments, but I think there's a bunch of favorable conditions that would be required for that to happen.