How much energy do cosmic rays have?
They have a very broad range of energies. The weakest ones have an energy of about 1,000,000,000 electron volts electron volt: a standard unit for measuring the energy of an elementary particle; abbreviation is eV. Typical air molecules at room temperature have energies of about one fortieth (1/40) of an eV.’);”> –> eV. Typical air molecules at room temperature have energies of about one fortieth (1/40) of an eV.’, TITLE, ‘electron volt:’, WIDTH, 300, OFFSETX, 260)” onmouseout=”UnTip()”> , which is about the minimum energy needed for a particle to get from beyond the solar system through the magnetized solar wind. (It is much easier to work with very large numbers by writing them in scientific notation. For example, we can write 1,000,000,000 as 1 x 109.) The highest energy cosmic rays ever recorded had energies of about 1 x 1020 eV. In contrast, the highest energy man-made particles, produced by very expensive machines called accelerators, have energies of about 1 x 1012 eV.
