Cosmic rays: A review for astrobiologists

Astrobiology

Volumn 9, Issue 4, 2009, Pages 413-436

  Ferrari, Franco ^a   Szuszkiewicz, Ewa ^b  

^a University of Szczecinul   (Poland)

^b Institute of Physics and CASA   (Poland)

Author keywords

Radiation

Indexed keywords

ASTRONOMY; BIOLOGY; COSMIC RADIATION; GENE; MUTATION; RADIATION EXPOSURE; RADIOMETRY; REVIEW;

COSMIC RADIATION; EARTH (PLANET); EXOBIOLOGY; GENES; MUTATION; RADIOMETRY;

EID: 67650924223     PISSN: 15311074     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1089/ast.2007.0205     Document Type: Review

References (96)

1. Abraham, J., Aglietta, M., Aguirre, I.C., Albrow, M., Allard, D., Allekotte, I., Allison, P., Alvarez Muñ iz, J., do Amaral, M.G., Ambrosio, M., Anchordoqui, L., Andrews, R., Anguiano, M., dos Anjos, J.C., Aramo, C., Argiro, S., Arisaka, K., Arteaga, J.C., Atulugama, S., et al. (2004) Properties and performance of the prototype instrument for the Pierre Auger Observatory. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A 523:50-95.
2. Allan, H.R. (1971) Radio emission from extensive air showers. In Progress in Elementary Particle and Cosmic Ray Physics, Vol. 10, edited by J.G. Wilson and S.A. Wouthuysen, North Holland Publishing Co., Amsterdam, p 171.
3. Allkofer, O.C. (1975) Introduction to Cosmic Radiation, Verlag Karl Thiemig, Mü nchen, Germany.
4. Allkofer, O.C., Carstensen, K., and Dau, W.D. (1971) The absolute cosmic ray muon spectrum at sea level. Phys. Lett. B 36:425-427.
5. th International Cosmic Ray Conference, Vol. 3, edited by N. Iucci and E. La-manna, International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, College Park, MD, p 84.
6. Anchordoqui, L.A., Paul, T., Reucroft, S., and Swain, J. (2003) Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays: the state of the art before the Auger Observatory. Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 18:2229-2366.
7. Arrage, A.A., Phelps, T.J., Benoit, R.E., and White, D.C. (1993) Survival of subsurface microorganisms exposed to UV radiation and hydrogen peroxide. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 59:3545-3550.
8. Babcock, E.B. and Collins, J.L (1929) Does natural ionizing radiation control rate of mutation? Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 15:623-629.
9. Battistoni, G. and Grillo, A.F. (1996) Introduction to high energy cosmic ray physics. In The Proceedings of the Fourth ICTP School on Nonaccelerator Particle Astrophysics, edited by E. Bellotti, R.A. Carrigan, G. Giacomelli, and N. Paver, World Scientific, Singapore, pp 341-375.
10. st European Workshop on Exo-Astrobiology, 16-19 September 2002, Graz, Austria, edited by H. Lacoste, ESA SP-518, ESA Publication Division, Noordwijk, the Netherlands, pp 429-430.
11. Berezovsky, I.N. and Trifonov, E.N. (2001) Protein structure and folding: a new start. J. Biomol. Struct. Dyn. 19:397-403.
12. Bergman, D.R. and Belz, J.W. (2007) Cosmic rays: the Second Knee and beyond. J. Phys. G Nucl. Part. Phys. 34:R359-R400.
13. Bertou, X., Boratav, M., and Letessier-Selvon, A. (2000) Physics of extremely energetic cosmic rays. Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 15: 2181-2224.
14. Bhattacharjee, P. and Sigl, G. (2000) Origin and propagation of extremely high energy cosmic rays. Phys. Rep. 327:109-247.
15. Bhattacharyya, D.P. (1976) Vertical sea-level muon spectrum at solar minimum near geomagnetic equator in the momentum range 0.5-3 GeV/c. Phys. Rev., D 13:1851-1855.
16. Biermann, P. and Sigl, G. (2001) Introduction to cosmic rays. Lecture Notes in Physics 576:1-26.
17. Brechignac, F., Brown, J., Coppelstone, D., Domotor, S., Howard, B., Hunter, G., Mobbs, H., Oughton, D., Pentreath, J., Robinson, C., Woodhead, D., and Zhu, Y. (2002) Protection of the environment. Current status and future work. IUR Report 03, Copyshop, Oslo, pp 1-24. Also available online at http:// www.iur-uir.org.
18. Carslaw, K.S., Harrison, R.G., and Kirkby, J. (2002) Cosmic rays, clouds, and climate. Science 298:1732-1737.
19. Clay, R.W., Smith, A.G.K., and Reid, J.L. (1997) Cosmic ray induced noise in gravitational wave detectors. Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia 14:195-199.
20. Clay, R.W., Kurban, Z., and Wild, N.R. (1998) Cosmic Ray Related Undergraduate Experiments, GAP Note 1998-061, Technical and Scientific Notes about the Pierre Auger Project, Pierre Auger Collaboration. Also available online at http:/ / www.auger .org/admin/GAP-Notes/index.html.
21. th International Cosmic Ray Conference, Vol. 3, edited by N. Iucci and E. Lamanna, International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, College Park, MD, p 5.
22. COESA (U.S. Committee on Extension to the Standard Atmosphere). (1976) U.S. Standard Atmosphere, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC.
23. Cockell, C.S. and Knowland, J. (1999) Ultraviolet radiation screening compounds. Biological Reviews 74:311-345.
24. Cronin, J.W. (1999) Cosmic rays: the most energetic particles in the universe. Reviews of Modern Physics 71:S165-S172.
25. Cronin, J.W. (2004) The highest-energy cosmic rays. Talk presented at TAUP 2003, Seattle, USA, arXiv: astro-ph/0402487.
26. Cronin, J.W., Gaisser, T.K., and Swordy, S.P. (1997) Cosmic rays at the energy frontier. Sci. Am. 276:44-50.
27. Cummings, A.C., McDonald, F.B., Heikkila, B.C., Lal, N., Webber, W.R., and Stone, E.C. (2008) An asymmetric solar wind termination shock. Nature 454:71-74.
28. Dar, A. (1983) Atmospheric neutrinos, astrophysical neutrons, and proton-decay experiments. Phys. Rev. Lett. 51:227-230.
29. Dar, A., Laor, A., and Shaviv, N.J. (1998) Life extinctions by cosmic ray jets. Phys. Rev. Lett. 80:5813-5816.
30. Dedenko, L.G. and Zatsepin, G.T. (2005) Cosmic rays of ultra-high energy. Physics of Atomic Nuclei 68:420-438.
31. Desilets, D. and Zreda, M. (2001) On scaling cosmogenic nuclide production rates for altitude and latitude using cosmic-ray measurements. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 193:213-225.
32. DOE (U.S. Department of Energy). (1999) Radiological control technician training. In DOE Handbook DOE-HDBK-1122-99, Module 1.07, U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, DC. Also available online at http:/ / www.hss.doe.gov/ nuclearsafety/ns/techstds/standard/hdbk1122/rad.html.
33. Dorman, L.I. (2004) Cosmic Rays in the Earth's Atmosphere and Underground, Astrophysics and Space Science Library, Vol. 303, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, the Netherlands.
34. Eidelman, S., Hayes, K.G., Olive, K.A., Aguilar-Benitez, M., Amsler, C., Asner, D., Babu, K.S., Barnett, R.M., Beringer, J., Burchat, P.R., Carone, C.D., Caso, S., Conforto, G., Dahl, O., D'Ambrosio, G., Doser, M., Feng, J.L., Gherghetta, T., Gibbons, L., et al. (2004) The review of particle physics. Phys. Lett. B 592:1-1109.
35. Falcke, H. and Gorham, P. (2002) Detecting radio emission from cosmic ray air showers and neutrinos with LOFAR. LOFAR Scientific Memorandum #3, LOFAR.
36. 20eV may not require new physics. Phys. Rev. Lett. 84:3527-3530.
37. Felsager, B. (1981) Geometry, Particles and Fields, Odense University Press, Odense, Denmark.
38. Fichtner, H. (2001) Anomalous cosmic rays: messengers from the outer heliosphere. Space Sci. Rev. 95:639-754.
39. Fowler, J.W., Fortson, L.F., Jui, C.C.H., Kieda, D.B., Ong, R.A., Pryke, C.L., and Sommers, P. (2001) A measurement of the cosmic ray spectrum and composition at the knee. Astroparticle Physics 15:49-64.
40. Friedlander, M.W. (2000) Thin Cosmic Rain: Particles from Outer Space, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
41. Gaisser, T.K. (1990) Cosmic Rays and Particle Physics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
42. Gilmour, I. and Sephton, M.A. (2004) An Introduction to Astro-biology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
43. Greider, P.K.F. (2001) Cosmic Rays at Earth, Elsevier Science, St. Louis, MO.
44. Greisen, K. (1966) End to the cosmic-ray spectrum? Phys. Rev. Lett. 16:748-750.
45. Grießmeier, J.-M., Stadelmann, A., Motschmann, U., Belisheva, N.K., Lammer, H., and Biernat, H.K. (2005) Cosmic ray impact on extrasolar Earth-like planets in close-in habitable zones. Astrobiology 5:587-603.
46. Heinz, S. and Sunyaev, R. (2002) Cosmic rays from micro-quasars: a narrow component to the CR spectrum? Astron. Astrophys. 390:751-766.
47. Hess, V.F. (1912) Ueber Beobachtungen der durchdringenden Strahlung bei sieben Freiballonfahrten. Physikalische Zeitschrift 13:1084-1091.
48. Horneck, G. (1992) Radiobiological experiments in space: a review. Int. J. Rad. Appl. Instrum. D 20:185-205.
49. Horneck, G., Facius, R., Reitz, G., Rettberg, P., Baumstark-Khan, C., and Gerzer, R. (2001) Critical issues in connection with human planetary missions: protection of and from the environment. Acta Astronaut. 49:279-288.
50. IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). (2001) Cytogenetic Analysis for Radiation Dose Assessment: A Manual, Technical Report Series No. 405, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna.
51. ICRP (International Commission on Radiological Protection). (1991a) Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection, ICRP Publication 60, Annals of the ICRP 21:1-3, Pergamon Press, Oxford.
52. ICRP (International Commission on Radiological Protection). (1991b) Relative biological effectiveness (RBE), quality factor (Q), and radiation weighting factor wR. ICRP Publication 92, edited by J. Valentin, Annals of the ICRP 33:4, Pergamon Press, Oxford.
53. Klecker, B., Mewaldt, R.A., Bieber, J.W., Cummings, A.C., Drury, L., Giacalone, J., Jokipii, J.R., Jones, F.C., Krainev, M.B., Lee, M.A., Le Roux, J.A., Marsden, R.G., McDonald, F.B., McKibben, R.B., Steenberg, C.D., Baring, M.G., Ellison, D.C., Lanzerotti, L.J., Leske, R.A., Mazur, J.E., Moraal, H., Oetliker, M., Ptuskin, V.S., Selesnick, R.S., and Trattner, K.J. (1998) Anomalous cosmic rays. Space Sci. Rev. 83:259-308.
54. Kminek, G., Bada, J.L., Pogliano, K., and Ward, J.F. (2003) Radiation-dependent limit for the viability of bacterial spores in halite fluid inclusions and on Mars. Radiat. Res. 159: 722-729.
55. Landau, L.D. and Lifshitz, E.M. (1975) The Classical Theory of Fields, Pergamon Press, Oxford.
56. Lee, R.C., Feinbaum, R.L., and Ambros, V. (1993) The C. elegans heterochronic gene lin-4 encodes small RNAs with antisense complementarity to lin-14. Cell 75:843-854.
57. Luria, S.E. and Delbrück, M. (1943) Mutations of bacteria from virus sensitivity to virus resistance. Genetics 28:491-511.
58. McComas, D.J., and Schwadron, N.A. (2006) An explanation of the Voyager paradox: particle acceleration at a blunt termination shock. Geophys. Res. Lett. 33:L04102.1-L04102.5.
59. Medvedev, M.V. and Melott, A.L. (2007) Do extragalactic cosmic rays induce cycles in fossil diversity? Astrophys. J. 664: 879-889.
60. Mewaldt, R.A. (1996) Cosmic rays. In MacMillan Encyclopedia of Physics, MacMillan, New York.
61. Miroshnichenko, L.I. (2001) Solar Cosmic Rays, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, the Netherlands.
62. Moreira, R.G. (BSEN-625) Radiation dosimetry. Material for the course on Advances in Food Engineering BSEN-625, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. Also available online at http:/ / moreira.tamu.edu/BAEN625/ BAEN625.html (accessed April 2009).
63. O'Brien, K., Friedberg, W., Sauer, H.H., and Smart, D.F. (1996) Atmospheric cosmic rays and solar energetic particles at aircraft altitudes. Environ. Int. 22:S9-S44.
64. Olbert, S. (1953) Atmospheric effects on cosmic-ray intensity near sea level. Physical Review 92:454-461.
65. th International Cosmic Ray Conference, Vol. 3, edited by N. Iucci and E. Lamanna, International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, College Park, MD, p 76-79.
66. Pierog, T., Engel, R., and Heck, D. (2005) Impact of uncertainties in hadron production on air-shower predictions. Czechoslovak Journal of Physics 56:A161-A172.
67. Rachen, J.P. and Bierman, P.L. (1993) Extragalactic ultra-high energy cosmic-rays - part one - contribution from hot spots in Fr-II radio galaxies. Astron. Astrophys. 272:161-175.
68. Rand, R.J. and Kulkarni, S.R. (1989) The local galactic magnetic field. Astrophys. J. 343:760-772.
69. Rossi, B. (1948) Interpretation of cosmic-ray phenomena. Reviews of Modern Physics 20:537-583.
70. Ruvkun, G. (2001) MOLECULAR BIOLOGY: Glimpses of a Tiny RNA World. Science 294:797-799.
71. Ryan, J.M., Lockwood, J.A., and Debrunner, H. (2000) Solar energetic particles. Space Sci. Rev. 93:35-53.
72. Rybicki, G.B. and Lightman, A.P. (1979) Radiative Processes in Astrophysics, John Wiley and Sons, New York.
73. Sagan, C. and Shklovskii, I.S. (1966) Intelligent Life in the Universe, Holden-Day, San Francisco.
74. Satta, L., Antonelli, F., Belli, M., Sapora, O., Simone, G., Sor-rentino, E., Tabocchini, M.A., Amicarelli, F., Ara, C., Cerù , M.P., Colafarina, S., Conti Devirgiliis, L., De Marco, A., Balata, M., Falgiani, A., and Nisi, S. (2002) Influence of a low background radiation environment on biochemical and biological responses in V79 cells. Radiat. Environ. Biophysics 41:217-224.
75. Seo, E.S., McDonald, F.B., Lai, N., and Weber, W.R. (1994) Study of cosmic-ray H and He isotopes at 23 AU. Astrophys. J. 432:656-664.
76. Shaviv, N.J. (2002) Cosmic ray diffusion from the galactic spiral arms, iron meteorites, and a possible climatic connection. Phys. Rev. Lett. 89:051102.
77. Shaviv, N.J. (2003) Toward a solution to the early faint Sun paradox: a lower cosmic ray flux from a stronger solar wind. J. Geophys. Res. 108, doi:10.1029/2003JA009997.
78. Shea, M.A. and Smart, D.F. (2000) Cosmic ray implications for human health. Space Sci. Rev. 93:187-205.
79. Sinnis, C., Dingus, B.L., Haines, T.J., Hoffman, C.M., Samuelson, F.W., Gisler, G.R., Atkins, R., Gonzalez, M.M., McEnery, J.E., Wilson, M.E., Benbow, W., Coyne, D.G., Dorfan, D.E., Kelley, L.A., Morales, M.F., Williams, D.A., Westerhoff, S., Berley, D., Blaufuss, E., Bussons, J., Goodman, J.A., Hays, E., Lansdell, C.P., Noyes, D., Smith, A.J., Sullivan, G.W., DeYoung, T., Ellsworth, R.W., Fleysher, L., Fleysher, R., Mincer, A.I., Nemethy, P., Linnemann, J., Xu, X., Miller, R.S., Ryan, J.M., Shoup, A., and Yodh, G.B. (2003) Teravolt astrophysics - the Milagro Gamma-Ray Observatory. In Physics Division Activity Report January 1-December 31, 2003, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos NM, pp 145-148. Also available online at http:// www.lanl.gov/p/prog-rpt.shtml.
80. Sokolsky, P. (1989) Introduction to Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Ray Physics, Addison-Wesley, New York.
81. NASA (1994) Space Station Ionizing Radiation Design Environment: International Space Station Alpha, SSP 30512 revision C, NASA, Johnson Space Flight Center, Houston, Texas.
82. Stanev, T. (2004) High Energy Cosmic Rays, Praxis/Springer-Verlag, New York.
83. Strong, A.W. and Moskalenko, I.V. (2001) SNR and fluctuations in the diffuse galactic γ-ray continuum. In Gamma 2001: Gamma-Ray Astrophysics, AIP Conference Proceedings 587, edited by S. Ritz, C.R. Shrade, and N. Gehrels, American Institute of Physics, Melville, NY, pp 533-537.
84. Torres, D.F. and Anchordoqui, L.A. (2004) Astrophysical origins of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. Reports on Progress in Physics 67:1663-1730.
85. Trimble, V., Aschwanden, M.J., and Hansen, C.J. (2006) Astrophysics in 2005. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. 118:947-1047.
86. UNSCEAR (United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation). (2000a) Sources and Effects of Ionizing Radiation, Annex B: Exposures from Natural Radiation Sources, UNSCEAR 2000 Report, UNSCEAR, Vienna.
87. UNSCEAR. (2000b) Sources and Effects of Ionizing Radiation, Annex F: DNA Repair and Mutagenesis, UNSCEAR 2000 Report, UNSCEAR, Vienna.
88. UNSCEAR. (2000c) Sources and Effects of Ionizing Radiation, Annex G: Biological Effects at Low Radiation Doses, UNSCEAR 2000 Report, UNSCEAR, Vienna.
89. Uryson, A.V. (2004) The maximum energy and spectra of cosmic rays accelerated in active galactic nuclei. Astronomy Letters 30:816-823.
90. Usoskin, I.G., Mursula, K., Solanki, S.K., Schü ssler, M., and Kovaltsov, G.A. (2002) A physical reconstruction of cosmic ray intensity since 1610. J. Geophys. Res. 107, doi:10.1029/ 2002JA009343.
91. Wolfendale, A.W. (1979) Origin of cosmic rays. Pramana 12:631-651.
92. Yao, W.-M., et al. (2006) Review of particle physics. J. Phys. G 33:1-1232. Also available online on the Particle Data Group pages at http:// pdg.lbl.gov.
93. Zatsepin, G.T. and Kuz'min, V.A. (1966) Upper limit of the spectrum of cosmic rays. Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics Letters 4:78-80.
94. Ziegler, J.F. (1981) The background in detectors caused by sea level cosmic rays. Nuclear Instruments and Methods 191:419-424.
95. Ziegler, J.F. (1996) Terrestrial cosmic rays. IBM Journal of Research and Development 40:19-39.
96. Ziegler, J.F. (1998) Terrestrial cosmic ray intensities. IBM Journal of Research and Development 42:117-139.