Howard B. Brown, age 12, of Westmoreland, Tenn., for his question:

Where do cosmic rays originate?

The cosmic rays that strike our planet are flying particles from our own atmosphere. These high speed fragments are shattered from gaseous m01ecules of the air. They are ca11ed secondary cosmic rays. The shattering of atmospheric molecules is caused by primary cosmic rays. These dynamic bullets are space travelers.

Astronomers suspect that primary cosmic rays are travelers from afar that originate, most likely, in titanic explosions of remote stars and perhaps even galaxies. The fragments from these upheavals are infinitesimally small and immensely fast. They appear to travel on and on through space until they strike perhaps a planet or the atmosphere above it.