SUN'S EFFECT ON COSMIC RAYS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28750, 22 November 1958, Page 4

SUN'S EFFECT ON COSMIC RAYS

Scientists’ Study On U.S. Ship

«°Tne press’ bvectai Service/ NEW PLYMOUTH, Nov. 21

Two United States scientists on the U.S. icebreaker Staten Island now at New Plymouth hope to provide valuable information when the ship reaches the Antarctic about the way the sun affects the number of cosmic rays which reach the earth from outei space. The scientists, Mr H. Anderson and Mr D. Barelli, of the California Institute of Technology. Pasadena, will also provide general information about cosmic radiation that may some day explain where the radiation comes from and how it is produced. About every second day of the voyage a balloon filled with helium gas is released from the Staten Island. By this means cosmic ray apparatus is taken 100,000 feet or more above sea level.

The apparatus includes a meter an<4 radio. Transmitter readings come to radio receivers on the icebreaker where the information is charted on a moving paper tape. The experiments will be repeated at 18 different latitudes between Seattle and McMurdo Sound. y

1 Simultaneously with each shipboard balloon flight, a balloon is released from the fixed station at Invercargill. At the end of the experiments, recordings from the two sources will be compared.

British scientists claim they arc winning the battle to cut nuclear power costs and are confident that power stations by the mid-1960s will be producing electricity cheaper than that produced by conventional coaKfire stations.