Science: Messages from Space

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Shortly after dinner one evening last week, Physicist John A. Simpson got an important message from the University of Chicago's Enrico Fermi Institute: the alarm bell on the cosmic ray monitoring device in Simpson's office was ringing. When he got to his office, Simpson discovered that cosmic rays were bombarding the earth at a phenomenal rate of 3,000 per minute (normal rate for the area: 200 per minute). The activity, noted by observatories around the world, followed by less than 30 minutes a giant solar flare. It was the strongest indication so far that cosmic rays can originate in the solar system, and not only in outer space, as some scientists have believed.

A solar flare is a gigantic eruption of the turbulent gases in the sun. They usually occur in areas marked by sunspots and are followed by an increase in the cosmic radiation streaming toward the earth. Only five flares have been observed thus far, and last week's released the highest concentration of cosmic rays ever recorded. While scientists rushed to launch balloons loaded with photographic film and radio-recording equipment, the explosion was producing some weird and widespread effects. Short-wave communication about the globe was severely crippled, and telephone communications between New York, London and Rome were totally disrupted for several hours. For seven panicky hours the British Admiralty lost contact with the submarine Acheron, which was cruising in the frigid waters of Denmark Strait.