The final act of some forgotten star,
Unleashes unseen light at breakneck speed;
And once these cosmic rays have journeyed far,
Into our atmosphere they start to bleed.
This energy from interstellar rays,
Is tempered by the Sun’s magnetic haze;
Creating nuclei from which clouds form,
A dying star can cause our Earth to warm.
An illustrated drawing of atmospheric showers from very high energy cosmic rays (Photo Credit: Simon Swordy and NASA).
This is a Heroic Rispetto, inspired by recent research which has shown how cosmic rays from supernovae can lead to the creation of clouds on Earth, and in doing so can influence our climate.
Cloud Condensation Nuclei
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