Distant objects beyond our solar system affect Earth everyday. Fortunately, most of those effects aren’t noticeable. In our solar system, there are noticeable effects from the sun and the moon. Light and heat from the sun can be seen and felt. The sun’s gravity keeps Earth in its orbit. The sun’s gravity also affects the tides. The moon’s orbit affects Earth’s rate of spin and its gravity affects tides.

The sun emits light in different wavelengths, most of which cannot be seen. Photons are light in wavelengths that can be seen. Infrared energy is light in infrared wavelengths that can’t be seen but can be felt as heat. The moon gives Earth reflected light and each full moon actually warms the Earth’s lower atmosphere by .04 degrees.

Photons or light and infrared energy or heat come to Earth from beyond the solar system too. Distant stars give off light that is easy to see and heat that is hard to detect. For example, the star Arcturus in Bootes (the Herdsman) or maybe better known as the tip of the ice cream cone, gives off heat that reaches Earth. But it’s only as warm as a candle from three miles away. It is hard to sense but the heat is still there.

Some of the material that comes to Earth from outer space doesn’t stop at the surface, but passes through Earth and other solid objects. For example, neutrinos from nuclear fusion travel at near light speed and arrive at Earth at a rate of one trillion per second. That means a trillion neutrinos pass through your body every second! Neutrinos pass through the planet in 1/20 of a second. Our sun releases neutrinos like other stars with nuclear fusion in their cores. Fortunately, neutrinos are harmless.

Other materials from space can be harmful. Neutralinos are massive particles of dark matter that can pass through objects and weakly interact with them, mostly by gravitational effect.

Muons penetrate objects at a rate of 240 per second. Muons form 30 miles above Earth’s surface as a result of cosmic rays from supernovae and other violent events striking air molecules. Muons weigh 207 electrons each. They can damage material in cell nuclei and scientists believe muons are probably responsible for some spontaneous tumors.

Gamma rays are another wavelength that cannot be seen. Magnetars, tiny stars on the far side of our galaxy, released a burst of energy as gamma rays on December 27, 2004 and Nov.3, 2005. It released more power in a quarter of a second than our sun emits in 100,000 years. Gamma rays knocked spacecraft detectors off-scale, caused an aurora, and interfered with radio communications.