Is it feasible for an organism to feed off cosmic radiation?

Cosmic rays are energetic particles coming from space that hit the Earth's atmosphere and produce a lot of secondary radiation (some of which we see in visible light as aurorae). Would it make sense for an organism floating in the upper atmosphere, or even on the brink of space, to try and make this energy work for them, as plants do using the photons from sunlight to split water? Or are cosmic rays too destructive, or too unwieldy, or too sparse for such use? The question is not confined to Earth, of course, or to organisms similar to those living on today's Earth. I'm trying to decide if a microbial biosphere could live off cosmic radiation and its subproducts.

P.S.: This post touches on some of the same points as my question, though I'm thinking more about a rogue planet far from any star-like energy source (i. e. no pulsars or black holes nearby).

posted almost 8 years ago

pablodf76‭

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