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What are some of gamma decay uses?
Gamma rays are ionizing electromagnetic radiation, obtained by the decay of an atomic nucleus. Gamma rays are more penetrating, in matter, and can damage living cells to a great extent. Gamma rays are used in medicine (radiotherapy), industry (sterilization and disinfection) and the nuclear industry.
What are 3 examples of gamma rays?
SOURCES OF GAMMA RAYS They are produced by the hottest and most energetic objects in the universe, such as neutron stars and pulsars, supernova explosions, and regions around black holes. On Earth, gamma waves are generated by nuclear explosions, lightning, and the less dramatic activity of radioactive decay.
What is an example of gamma radiation?
Gamma rays are the photons emitted from the atomic nuclear decay of radioactive isotopes—for example, 137Cs (cesium) or 60Co (cobalt).
What is gamma decay when does it occur?
Gamma rays are produced when radioactive elements decay. Gamma decay, in contrast, occurs when a nucleus is in an excited state and has too much energy to be stable. This often happens after alpha or beta decay has occurred. Because only energy is emitted during gamma decay, the number of protons remains the same.
How far can gamma decay travel?
Gamma rays can be emitted from the nucleus of an atom during radioactive decay. They are able to travel tens of yards or more in air and can easily penetrate the human body. Shielding this very penetrating type of ionizing radiation requires thick, dense material such as several inches of lead or concrete.
What is gamma decay simple definition?
Gamma decay, type of radioactivity in which some unstable atomic nuclei dissipate excess energy by a spontaneous electromagnetic process. In internal conversion, excess energy in a nucleus is directly transferred to one of its own orbiting electrons, thereby ejecting the electron from the atom.
What would gamma rays look like?
What do gamma-rays show us? If you could see gamma-rays, the night sky would look strange and unfamiliar. The gamma-ray moon just looks like a round blob – lunar features are not visible. In high-energy gamma rays, the Moon is actually brighter than the quiet Sun.
How do you detect gamma rays?
Like X-ray detection, gamma-ray detection is done photon-by-photon. Gamma rays are detected by observing the effects they have on matter. A gamma ray can collide with an electron and bounce off it like a billiard ball (Compton scatter) or it can push an electron to a higher energy level (photoelectric ionization).
Which is an example of gamma decay in an atom?
Instead, the energy level of the atom is lowered by one to a stable state. Another example is of gamma decay of Technetium-99m into Technetium-99, where ‘m’ stands for metastable, which in terms of an atom, ion or atomic nucleus, means that the atom is in an excited state:
When does the rate of gamma decay slow down?
The rate of gamma decay is also slowed when the energy of excitation of the nucleus is small. An example is the decay of the isomer or metastable state of protactinium: Extremely unstable nuclei that decay as soon as they are formed in nuclear reactions (half-life less than 10-11 s) are not generally classified as nuclear isomers.
Are there any other sources of gamma rays?
Sources of gamma rays other than radioactive decay include terrestrial thunderstorms and lightning, from celestial bodies such as pulsars, quasars, distant galaxies, gamma ray bursts in space and collapse of a star into a black hole known as a hypernova aka super-luminous supernova.
What are the energy levels of gamma rays?
Gamma rays from radioactive decay are in the energy range from a few keV to ~8 MeV, corresponding to the typical energy levels in nuclei with reasonably long lifetimes. As was written, they are produced by the decay of nuclei as they transition from a high energy state to a lower state.