Computer Problems with an Unearthly Cause

Next time your computer crashes unexpectedly, you might be able to blame the cosmic rays as the culprit.

Earth's atmosphere is constantly bombarded by cosmic rays traveling close to the speed of light. Thanks to the atoms in the air, we are shielded from most of the cosmic rays. But when these high energy particles strike the atmosphere, they break apart the atomic structures, producing cascades of subatomic particles by the billions every second.

Even though the secondary radiation does not pose a serious health hazard to lives on earth, some of these particles are so energetic that they can interfere with the operation of the microelectronic circuitry in our computers by altering individual bits of data stored in memory, and causing errors, or even system crashes. 

Source: SciShow via Youtube