Cosmic rays from space hit Earth's atmosphere all the time. When a high-energy cosmic ray enters the atmosphere, it can cause an "air shower". The cosmic ray hits a molecule in the atmosphere and "breaks up", producing lots more sub-atomic particles. A real air shower can make millions of particles. This picture shows a simple version of an air shower. The cosmic ray (in red, at the top) makes lots of other particles, many with odd names. The sub-atomic particles shown here include protons (green), neutrons (orange), pions (yellow), muons (purple), photons (blue), and electrons & positrons (pink).
Windows to the Universe original artwork by Randy Russell using a photo courtesy UCAR (Nicole Gordon).