Gamma Rays

Dmitry Petrov and James Eston Dunn III

Position in the Electromagnetic Spectrum

Gamma rays are located between the x-rays and the cosmic rays on the right section of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Frequency of Gamma Rays

• Gamma Rays possess any frequency that is greater than 3*10^19 hertz.

Wavelength of Gamma Rays

Scientists characterize the distance between two neighboring crests of an electromagnetic wave as wavelength. The wavelength in gamma rays can be equal to any value that is less than 10^(-11) meters.

Astronomical Application of Gamma Rays

• Gamma rays allow astronomers to study the objects in outer space that generate these rays. After reaching a gamma ray telescope, the gamma ray transfers energy to electrons, exciting them. When an electron becomes excited, its position changes from a low –energy orbit around the nucleus to a high-energy orbit around the nucleus.

Astronomical Application of Gamma Rays

The excited electrons in the gamma ray telescope return to their original orbits around the nucleus, generating electrical signals that create images of the celestial objects.

Black Hole

Atomic Structure

Gamma Ray Medicine

Doctors inject the cancer cells in patients to destroy them and prevent more cancer cells from forming during the future.

Danger of Gamma Rays

If a gamma ray strikes cells within a human body, it can deform the deoxyribonucleic acid in the nucleus. The deoxyribonucleic acid acts like a book of instructions for the cells to reproduce. Without the deoxyribonucleic acid, the cells nuclei receive no information about at what time to stop reproducing, causing cancer to develop in a human body.

Cancer

Citations

1. website: http://science.hq.nasa.gov/kids/imagers/ems/gamma.html

2. website: http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/spectrum_chart.html 3. picture: http://science.hq.nasa.gov/kids/imagers/ems/gamma.html 4. picture: http://www.edu.pe.ca/threeoaks/teacherpages/dramsay/Solar%20Radiation%20main.htm 5. picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_radiation 6. picture: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap101207.html 7. picture: http://astronomyonline.org/Science/QuantumPhysics.asp 8. picture: http://www.carepointhealth.org/ 9. picture: http://www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials