An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

Spurious signals in CCD frames caused by ionizing radiation which appear as a set of pixels with intense values sparsely scattered over the CCD frame. High energy particles generate muons, which deposit around 80 electrons per micron in silicon. With a collection depth of 10-20 microns, a cosmic-ray event is seen on a CCD frame as having a signal of up to a few thousand electrons, usually concentrated in one or two pixels. Although attributed to cosmic-ray hits, they may also be due to background terrestrial radiation.

See also: → cosmic rays; → event.