Cosmic ray effects in the solar system objects

Abstract

Long term characteristics of solar and galactic cosmic rays, as revealed by the study of their nuclear effects in lunar, meteoritic and terrestrial samples are summarised. The data so far available on radioisotopes, noble gases and tracks, though limited, are consistent with nearly constant fluxes and composition during different epochs over billions of years; one exception is ¹⁴C activity in the earths atmosphere over the past few hundred years, suggesting a variation in the solar activity. Other small or brief variations, which cannot be ruled out as yet, require better estimation of depth and size dependence of nuclear effects in rocks before they can be attributed to cosmic rays.