Hi! My name is Tony the Proton
and I was a cosmic ray 
Today I will tell you my story and how I ended up on Earth!
I lived in
that really old star, which unfortunately exploded as supernova
thousands of years ago. I was a regular proton in a hydrogen atom
along with my friend the electron. One day my star
decided to join us with other particles and we became an atom called helium.
After billions of years my star had joined most of us particles into
heavier elements and it exploded as supernova.
|
This was a really frightening experience - many of us were shot
out from the star in a so called plasma
jet and I too was seperated from my friends, the neutrons and
electrons, but this was the beginning of a very exciting
journey.
|
After being accelerated to almost the speed of light I was flying thru
the galaxy.
The real fun was being deflected by magnetic fields - a rollercoaster ride!
The galactic magnetic field captured me soon after emerging from
my star. Now traveling at almost the speed of light I saw many solar
systems and gaseous nebulae from
the distance, but one day I recognized one star, which was coming
closer and closer.
|
Not long after I saw the star, I met many particles (the solar wind),
which claimed to come from this sun and they told me it
is a fun solar system, because one planet has developed live.
Since the magnetic field of this star has already captured me, I kept
on flying. One day I saw
a tiny blue planet - OH!OH! Another magnetic field ? Indeed! This tiny
blue planet has a magnetic field and I was already in it's influence and
according to my calculations I'm gonna crash with it!
|
The planet came near very fast and I entered it's atmosphere.
A thrilling and exciting ride! What will happen to me ? I managed to avoid
collisions with most atoms and molecules
in the planet's atmosphere, but then I saw one oxygen atom - the lovely
Princess Oxygenia!
I assume it was my destiny to end up on this planet, crash into
Princess Oxygenia and produce a pion, which decayed into a muon and a
neutrino particle!
|
So this is the story about Princess Oxygenia 
and me
Later we heard that our muon ended up in a muon detector on the surface and contributed to
a scientific experiment.
Last-Modified: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 17:38:27 GMT |
