Sheffield Cafe Scientifique 7 March

[Café Scientifique]

Monday 7th March 2016 - 7.00 pm

Cosmic Rays, Climate Change and Homeland Security

Prof Lee Thompson,  Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Sheffield 

 

On Earth we are constantly bombarded by elementary particles produced when cosmic rays interact in the atmosphere. The cosmic rays are produced in a wealth of different sources, from our own Sun to violent astrophysical events such as supernovae. At their highest energies they far exceed any energies ever achieved in man-made accelerators such as the LHC at CERN.

We will start by discussing cosmic rays, what they are, where they come from and how we study them. We will then move on to discuss how the cosmic rays detected on earth can be used by scientists as a tool to study a variety of disparate subjects such as monitoring stored carbon in carbon capture and storage and looking for nuclear contraband at the country’s borders.