Rumours of dangerous cosmic rays passing by Earth “tonight,” have been circulating in our inbox from so many years.

The message says, “VERY URGENT! Tonight from 12:30 to 03:30 am make sure to turn off your phone, cellular, tablet etc & put far away from your body! Singapore TV announced on the news! Please tell your family & friends! Tonight 12:30 pm to 3:30 am for our Planet will be very high radiation! Cosmic rays will pass close to Earth, so please turn off your cell phone! Do not leave your device close to your body, it can cause you terrible damage! Check Google & NASA BBC News! Send this message to all the people who matter to you! Thank you.”

Despite the claim in the message, there are several reasons to say that this information is not true.

First, Mars could not emit harmful radiation because it is not a star. Cosmic rays are emitted by stars. i.e. bodies that are undergoing nuclear reactions that is fusion (as occurs in our sun) or fission (as occurs in nuclear reactors). Mars is neither. It is a planet that just reflects sunlight. It cannot emit cosmic radiation.

And coming to the other part of the message, the earth’s atmosphere is capable of taking care of them so there’s no need to worry. The magnetosphere absorbs and protects us from the sun’s harmful radiation. Whatever remains is too weak to affect anything as far as earth.

This claim has been around for years and makes no scientific sense whatsoever.

SIASAT NEWS