Abstract

For our investigations into cosmic rays and where they come from, we decided to examine if a significant amount of the particles originated from nearby objects such as meteors. The Leonid Meteor shower was the one we chose to examine to see if at the high point of the meteor shower in 2009, on November 17th, caused an increase in the amount of cosmic rays that detectors detected. In order to do this we performed flux studies on the data that schools took for the week surrounding the peak of the meteor shower. We also performed flux studies on a different week, October 24th to the 30th, for each school's detector, to compare and see if there was any difference in the values for the week of the 17th from a normal week. The results were conclusive in that the flux rate was not different on average for the week of the 17th than the week without the meter shower, and so we were able to conclude that the Leonid Meteor shower does not affect the rate of particles arriving to earth. Thus the particles were shown to not be affected by the meteor shower, with it neither producing more cosmic rays, nor blocking rays coming from behind it.

Introduction

(The posters' introduction section was added on 21 August 2010; this poster predates that date.)

Procedures

In order to even start analyzing the data, we first had to narrow the data down to maneageable and pertinant files. By going through all the detectors on the e-lab website to find the schools who collected data on the 17th of November 2009, we were able to find a pool of about 30 detectors that we could further narrow down. Excitingly, in this set of detectors there was one in Germany and one in East Asia that took data on the 17th. However when the pool was shrunk to only include the detectors that took data from the 14th to the 20th, both international schools dropped out and only five detectors in the US remained. Now that we had a reasonable amount of detectors, we still had to narrow the amount of data, by deciding which channel for each detector we would use for the flux study, which only uses one channel. To do this we looked at the performance studies for each school and determined which channel was in the middle of the others and had the most conventional shape. Once we had the flux studies done for each school, we went to the analysis directory while they were still on the analysis list, and got the data for the singlechannelout file, which we then put through a complicated spreadsheet, complements of Mr. Gosling, which calculated the flux rate for each school. We then repeated the process described above for a different week for each school that was not affected by the Leonid Meteor shower. We hoped that by comparing each schools flux rate for during and not during the meteor shower, we would be able to determine if the meteor shower had any impact on the fate of cosmic rays.

Results

Anderson High School has detector number 6118, from which we used channel one. The flux rate for Anderson during the meteor shower was 1.816150826, and the flux rate for Anderson not during the meteor shower was 4.716346977. Fermilab Test Array has detector number 6148 from which we used channel two. The flux rate during the meteor shower was 0.129217921, and for not during the meteor shower was 0.131639683. The Mills Godwin High School has detector number 5079, from which we used channel one. The flux rate for during the meteor shower was 10.72618714, and the flux rate for not during the meteor shower was 8.894743644. UH Windward has detector number 6100 from which we used channel one. The flux rate for during the meteor shower was 5.741089208, and the flux rate for not during the meteor shower was 5.721338648. As shown in Figures 2 and 3, the flux rate decreased during the shower for the data collected from the Anderson High School detector. However, in Figures 4 and 5, the flux rate for the data from Mills Godwin High School increased during the shower. The difference between the data from the two other detectors is almost insignificant as the numbers are so close. All in all, the data proves our hypothesis incorrect; the flux rates did not prove that there was more cosmic ray activity during the Leonid Meteor Shower.

Discussions & Conclusions

The results mostly showed that the rate of cosmic rays was the same when the meteor shower was not occuring, because two out of four schools had higher rates during the meteor shower and two out of four did not. This means that the meteors neither contributed cosmic rays to be detected, or blocked cosmic rays. From this we conclude that cosmic rays originate farther away from the earth than the Leonid meteor shower travels, and that the meteors are not made of anything that could block cosmic rays in significant numbers. The investigation could have been better if we had looked at the schools on a map to see where they were located in the US, or if we had found out where the Leonid meteor shower primarily was centered over, we could have looked at the schools in relation to that. Some further study options would be to investigate if other astronomical phenomena affect the rate of cosmic rays. Also by setting up the detectors in a very large stack you could have a telescope like set up to measure the cosmic rays from a very specific point in the universe, however there would be difficulties in that you would have to determine where the stack is pointing at all moments in time, what with the turning of the earth and everything. Some other studies that could be done would be to calculate how fast the cosmic rays are moving, and then, if possible find data for a star going out way in the past, whose cosmic rays, if they were given off by the dying star, would have reached earth in the years that detectors have been running, and then you could see if there are less cosmic rays coming in after the star dies.

Bibliography

Not Applicable