energy never stops It is radiated into space or onto the earth. For more than a decade, hundreds of millions of samples from the never-ending deluge of protons, nuclei, and other atomic debris have been collected in the International Space Station’s cosmic ray bucket, an instrument called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. Here at home, cloud chambers like the one used by the Swiss-based European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, illuminate invisible cosmic storms in space.
March 1951, many years popular science Contributor Kenneth M. Swezey provided space enthusiasts and DIY enthusiasts with the following step-by-step guide. make a cloud chamber, use a peanut butter jar. “The secret of the cloud chamber is supersaturated steam,” Sweezy wrote. “As atomic particles fly around in this vapor, molecules condense in their path, leaving visible droplets, like the vapor trail of a high-flying aircraft.”
The first cloud chamber was devised by physicist Charles Thomas Rees Wilson in 1895 to reproduce puffs in the air and study their behavior. By 1910, he began scouting for traces of charged particles that ionized supersaturated air and caused the formation of water droplets. Around the same time, physicist Victor Hess discovered that charged particles, which he named cosmic rays, were entering Earth’s atmosphere from space, a discovery that won him his 1936 Nobel Prize. Did.
The origins of these celestial sparks remain a mystery despite their ubiquity, although supernovae and ordinary stars like the Sun are suspected to be the main sources. The energy beam collides with atoms in Earth’s upper atmosphere, producing charged subatomic particles such as pions, muons, electrons, and positrons, whose ionized trails appear as long, thin lines in the cloud chamber. Radiation on Earth also produces cosmic rays.
When Sweezy offered the room in his home in the 1950s, its use seemed somewhat realistic. Fears of nuclear war, spurred by the worsening Cold War, dominated the headlines. The handmade cloud chamber captures alpha particles, a product of radioactive decay from sources such as radon gas, and gamma rays from nearby explosions, not to mention gamma rays from radium, which was still painted on watch dials until the 1970s. It can detect atomic particles.
To view cosmic ray storms, start with a glass or plastic jar. The bigger the better. A dark background enhances the experience, including black felt glued to the inside of the base and lid. Dip rubbing alcohol into the bottom of the material, close the lid, and place the jar upside down on a bed of dry ice. As the device cools, steam is produced. Turn off the lights, then shine a flashlight into the jar. A thin line will appear. Some lines are perfectly straight (high-energy muons, big enough to punch through a bottle), others are zigzag (electrons and positrons, small enough to pinball surrounding particles), and even lines like eraser smudges. You’ll also see lines like (Radon-generated alpha). Because the particles are heavy and highly charged, they collect ionic entourages).
The 1951 cloud chamber recipe still works today, but CERN offers an updated instructional video that uses the same key ingredients. Can’t find dry ice? Ready-made cloud chambers work at normal freezer temperatures. All you need is near-pure ethanol and hot water to generate the cloud (and a few hundred dollars more to cover equipment costs).
This article was originally published in the magazine’s High Issue. popular science. Read more stories on PopSci+.