Lynne Timmons, age 14, of Stratford, Conn., for her question:

Where do cosmic rays come from?

Cosmic rays are high speed particles that plunge down through the atmosphere to the surface of the Earth, often reaching deep into the ground. Particles of matter, of course, are not rays like those in energy, such as sunlight, and experts claim that cosmic rays are wrongly named. Actually, they are tiny bullets. However, they do come from the wide reaches of outer space called the cosmos. The cosmic part of their name is correct and they might, perhaps, be called cosmic bullets, missiles, or atomic particles.

The tiny cosmic bullets that strike our upper atmosphere often have traveled from some starry upheaval far across the Milky Way. They do not hit the ground, for on the way down they crash and collide with other atomic particles of the air. These smashed and bashed fragments crash down at collision speeds and strike the Earth as so called cosmic rays.