Cosmic rays can cause serious computer glitches
Computer crashes and serious glitches may be caused by electrically-charged particles cosmic rays generate, Computerworld reported.
Dubbed a single event upset (SEU), the interference caused by cosmic rays is harmless to living organisms, but can have significant consequences for computer systems.
An SEU can cause a change as trivial as altering the colour of a pixel in an image, or as catastrophic as the crash of an aircraft.
Although SEU’s are rare, one has been blamed for causing a vote count error in Belgium in 2003. The flip of a bit caused a candidate to gain 4,096 votes they should not have received. It was detected as the candidate got more votes than it should have been possible for them to receive.
According to the report, semiconductor manufacturers are working on solutions to combat cosmic ray interference.
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