Related papers: Astrophysical Ionizing Radiation and the Earth: A …
Planetary habitability is in part determined by the atmospheric evolution of a planet; one key component of such evolution is escape of heavy ions to space. Ion loss processes are sensitive to the plasma environment of the planet, dictated…
The field of exoplanetary science is making rapid progress both in statistical studies of exoplanet properties as well as in individual characterization. As space missions provide an emerging picture of formation and evolution of…
In the first part of this review we discuss the basic observational features at the end of the cosmic ray energy spectrum. We also present there the main characteristics of each of the experiments involved in the detection of these…
This past decade has seen tremendous advancements in the study of extrasolar planets. Observations are now made with increasing sophistication from both ground and space-based instruments, and exoplanets are characterized with increasing…
This article gives an overview of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and their relation to astroparticle physics and cosmology. GRBs are the most powerful explosions in the universe that occur roughly once per day and are characterized by flashes of…
Long and short gamma-ray bursts are traditionally associated with galactic environments, where circumburst densities are small or moderate (few to hundreds of protons per cubic cm). However, both are also expected to occur in the disks of…
There is now good evidence linking short-hard GRBs with both elliptical and spiral galaxies at relatively low redshifts, redshift of about 0.2. This contrasts with the average redshift of about 2 of long-duration events, which also occur…
We perform Monte Carlo simulations of cosmic ray-induced hard X-ray radiation from the Earth's atmosphere. We find that the shape of the spectrum emergent from the atmosphere in the energy range 25-300 keV is mainly determined by Compton…
Stellar activity and planetary atmospheric properties have the potential to strongly influence habitability. To date, neither have been adequately studied in the multiverse context, so there has been no assessment of how these effects…
We calculate the spectrum of blast wave models of gamma-ray burst sources, for various assumptions about the magnetic field density and the relativistic particle acceleration efficiency. For a range of physically plausible models we find…
Radionuclides with half-lives ranging from some years to billions of years presumably synthesized outside of the solar system are now recorded in ``live'' or ``fossil'' form in various types of materials, like meteorites or the galactic…
The universe is filled with a diffuse and isotropic extragalactic background of gamma-ray radiation, containing roughly equal energy flux per decade in photon energy between 3 MeV-100 GeV. The origin of this background is one of the…
According to recent models, gamma-ray bursts apparently explode in a wide variety of ambient densities ranging from ~ 10^{-3} to 30 cm^{-3}. The lowest density environments seem, at first sight, to be incompatible with bursts in or near…
Estimates made in the 1970's indicated that a supernova occurring within tens of parsecs of Earth could have significant effects on the ozone layer. Since that time, improved tools for detailed modeling of atmospheric chemistry have been…
The first opportunity to detect indications for life outside the Solar System may be provided already within the next decade with upcoming missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the European Extremely Large Telescope…
This paper deals with the cosmic-ray penetration into molecular clouds and with the related gamma--ray emission. High energy cosmic rays interact with the dense gas and produce neutral pions which in turn decay into two gamma rays. This…
After the discovery of the anisotropy in the sky-distribution of intermediate gamma-ray bursts recently also the distribution of the short gamma-ray bursts is proven to be anisotropic. The impact of these behaviors on the validity of the…
Gamma-ray bursts (hereafter GRB) produce a flux of radiation detectable across the observable Universe, and at least some of them are associated with galaxies. A GRB within our own Ggalaxy could do considerable damage to the Earth's…
Continuum gamma-ray emission produced by interactions of cosmic rays with interstellar matter and radiation fields is a probe of non-thermal particle populations in galaxies. After decades of continuous improvements in experimental…
Our model involving cosmic ray acceleration in supernova remnants has been used to predict cosmic ray intensities over long periods of time on a statistical basis. If, as is highly probable, extensive air showers caused by PeV cosmic rays…