Re: Can you see Cosmic Particles?

Daniel:
I think you have two questions here, one of which is the origin of the bright lights you see moving across your field of vision, and the second is the visibility of cosmic particles.

I actually think it is unlikely that you are witnessing cosmic particles coming across your field of view. I am not a physician, but it seems since you can apparently link a causal relationship between standing/sitting, it is much more likely a function of the physiology of that event. I can think of two things that would be much more likely to explain your phenomenon. First, is that you are seeing 'floaters' which appear as specks of dust, or pulses that drift around your field of vision. These are actuallly quite common and are actually caused by slight differences in the viscosity of the liquid within your eyes, (Vitreous Humor), and they cause refractions of incoming light.

The second explanation I can imagine is that standing and sitting rapidly causes very large swings in the demand of your heart to pump blood to your brain, and you are essentially seeing 'stars' or some other manifestation of being light-headed or hypoxic, basically.

Unfortunatley, cosmic rays are invisible, and their detection relies on them ionizing something to create something we can detect. They are high energy particles found (in space) that are either protons (charged hydrogen), electrons (negative charge) or gamma rays (photons).

If you would like to see an excellent explanation of cosmic rays, please check the Following Mad Scientist answer.

Again, thank you for your question, and if you have more, please look us up. Mad Scientist Home Page

Thanks

-Matt-

[Moderator's note: Matt's explanation is likely correct. However, the human eye probably can detect another kind of particle from space- the neutrino, although such a detection would be very rare. See this page for details.]