
Trillions of Cosmic Particles Zip Through You Every Second
Earth is constantly bathed in cosmic particles. About 100 trillion neutrinos pass through each of us every second, mostly from the Sun, and nearly all go through without interacting. Cosmic-ray showers also create muons—tens to hundreds pass through a person each second (roughly one or two through a hand). Neutrino interactions are extremely rare; detectors like the IceCube Neutrino Observatory infer their numbers from tiny Cherenkov flashes. Cosmic radiation adds about 0.4 millisieverts per year to our exposure, within a natural ~2.4 mSv/year background. In short, we’re continuously bathed in invisible particles, but they pose negligible health risk and connect us to the cosmos.









