Talk:Health threat from cosmic rays

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A fact from Health threat from cosmic rays appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 29 November 2007.
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[edit] Mis-named?? Merge candidate??

I think the title of this article is wrong. Space does not give off radiation ... stars do. A better title would be "Solar radiation" ... note there already is an article with this title. Should your title be "Protecting astronauts from radiation"? Victuallers (talk) 12:59, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

Space radiation (radiation that permeates space, not implying that it is generated by space) seems to be a standard way to refer to cosmic rays when evaluating their impact on human missions. It is referred as such in the second reference and the names of the Space Radiation Shielding Program and of the Space Radiation Laboratory confirm it. Eubulide (talk) 14:02, 25 November 2007 (UTC)
Yes, Victuallers, at the very least, this article is mis-named. "Space radiation" is defined in the first sentence as cosmic rays and we already have an article about that. It would seem best to add this material to that article rather than starting a separate one under the vague and possibly title of "Space radiation". Madman (talk) 04:52, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merge proposal

Since:

  • The term "space radiation" is defined as cosmic rays in the lead sentence, and
  • The term "space radiation" is rather vague and potentially misleading,

I suggest that non-duplicate information here be merged into that article. Madman (talk) 04:57, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

As I remarked in my answer to Victuallers, the term space radiation is used by NASA itself in the name of its projects to find a solution to the potential health risks of interplanetary travel. It is indeed a vague expression, but we should blame the scientists for it! In my opinion the topic deserves a separate article. Maybe the best solution is simply to rename it to something like health threat from cosmic rays. Would you agree with that? Eubulide (talk) 05:48, 26 November 2007 (UTC)
That sounds reasonable. Anyone else?? Madman (talk) 13:16, 26 November 2007 (UTC)
As I commented at DYK, "space radiation" is a real term. The move to "health threat from cosmic rays" sounds reasonable, as long as space radiation redirects to the moved name. The redirect will automatically happen when it is moved. This article should be moved fairly soon, so it doesn't interfere with featuring the article in the DYK section on the main page. Royalbroil 01:45, 27 November 2007 (UTC)
Done. Eubulide (talk) 09:56, 27 November 2007 (UTC)