You won't feel these particles darting through you, but it raises a question: How many cosmic particles are actually passing through your body at any moment?
Neutrinos barely interact with regular matter. Nearly all of them pass through us and the rest of the planet without leaving a trace. "The fact that most of these particles never interact with us demonstrates that there is an underlying reality to our existence, much of which we are not even aware of," Pravica said.
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Cosmic rays are mostly either protons, which are the nuclei of hydrogen atoms, or the atomic nuclei of heavier elements (which contain both protons and neutrons), such as helium or iron. Electrons and positrons (the antimatter counterparts of electrons) also make up a tiny fraction of cosmic rays.
At sea level on Earth, about one muon passes through per 0.15 square inch (1 square centimeter) per minute, Lu said. "For a person, the number ranges from tens to hundreds per second," she noted. "Roughly one or two pass through a hand each second."
In contrast, neutrinos are not electrically charged. They also have almost no mass. These two qualities make it very difficult to detect neutrinos, which is why they're often dubbed "ghost particles."
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica. (Image credit: Christopher Michel, CC BY-SA 4.0)Detecting cosmic particles
For instance, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica surrounds 0.24 cubic mile (1 cubic kilometer) of ice with thousands of light sensors. "When a neutrino interacts with an atomic nucleus in the ice, it produces fast-moving charged particles, and those particles emit a faint flash of blue Cherenkov light, which the sensors record," Lu said. "From the pattern and brightness of that light, we can reconstruct the neutrino's energy and direction."
This illustration shows how cosmic rays — electrically charged, highly energetic particles — interact with Earth's atmosphere. Although the atmosphere obstructs cosmic rays, they can spray down secondary particles, including muons. Research into these secondary particles can be carried out with atmospheric balloons or advanced detectors built underground or underwater, to shield them from other radiation. (Image credit: MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images)
When it comes to the neutrinos that IceCube studies, although trillions pass through each of our bodies every second, nearly none of them interact with our atoms. "You would expect no more than roughly one interaction in your body, perhaps a few, over an entire lifetime," Lu said.
In contrast, the showers of particles resulting from cosmic ray impacts can potentially affect human biology. "At ground level, muons dominate the penetrating charged particles reaching us from cosmic-ray showers," Lu said. "At higher altitudes, and especially during air travel, other secondary particles, particularly neutrons, contribute a significant share of the biologically relevant dose."
So, every second, there are about 100 trillion neutrinos and tens to hundreds of muons passing through your body per second, and maybe a tiny scattering of neutrons and other cosmic particles or debris from cosmic particles impacting the atmosphere.
Related mysteriesThese cosmic particles may lead to a variety of discoveries. For instance, scientists have used muon detectors to identify hidden passageways in pyramids. And "high-energy neutrinos allow us to study some of the most violent and otherwise hidden environments in the universe, such as the regions surrounding black holes, exploding stars and other powerful cosmic accelerators," Lu said.
All in all, "the particles streaming through us are a constant reminder that we are not separate from the universe," Lu said. "We are part of a cosmic story stretching back 13.8 billion years."
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