Who discovered gamma rays and when was the discovery made?
Paul Villard discovered gamma rays in 1900 while studying radiation emitted by radium. Ernest Rutherford later named the radiation gamma rays in 1903.
Questions about Gamma ray
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What is the energy range of gamma rays and how do they compare to X-rays?
Gamma rays possess an energy range from 10 kiloelectronvolts to 10,000 kiloelectronvolts and can exceed 10 to the power of 11 kiloelectronvolts. Gamma rays have wavelengths shorter and frequencies higher than X-rays and are distinguished by their origin from the atomic nucleus rather than electrons outside the nucleus.
How are gamma rays produced in radioactive materials and what is gamma decay?
Gamma rays are produced when a radioactive nucleus emits an alpha or beta particle and the resulting daughter nucleus decays to a lower energy state by emitting a gamma ray photon. This process known as gamma decay is the primary mechanism by which gamma rays are produced in radioactive materials and can occur in as little as 10 to the power of minus 12 seconds.
What materials are used to shield against gamma rays and how effective is lead?
Gamma rays require shielding made from dense materials such as lead or concrete because they pass through magnetic fields undeflected and penetrate matter more deeply than alpha or beta particles. A lead shield is 20 to 30 percent better as a gamma shield than an equal mass of a low-Z shielding material such as aluminum or concrete due to lead having a high atomic number and high density.
What are the health effects of gamma rays and how are they used in medicine?
High doses of gamma rays produce deterministic effects such as acute tissue damage and can cause symptoms including nausea vomiting hair loss and hemorrhaging. Gamma rays are used to treat cancer through gamma-knife surgery and for diagnostic purposes in PET scans using the nuclear isomer technetium-99m.
What are gamma-ray bursts and how far away can they be detected?
Gamma-ray bursts are long-duration bursts that last 20 to 40 seconds and release energy as much as the Sun will produce in its entire lifetime. These bursts can be detected even at distances of up to 10 billion light years if the beam of particles moving at relativistic speeds is pointed toward Earth.