Hess, Victor Franz (1883–1964)
Austrian-born American physicist who discovered cosmic
rays. Beginning in 1912, Hess sent up balloons carrying electroscopes
in order to locate the source of background radiation causing ionization
in the atmosphere. Hess believed the radiation would decrease at greater
altitudes, but found that instead it increased up to eight times. He suggested
that the radiation came from space and Robert Millikan
proposed the name "cosmic rays." Hess shared the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics
with Carl Anderson.
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