Gamma Rays

            Gamma rays are part of the wave spectrum. They are also known to be really deadly. I will be explaining about how they were discovered, how deadly they are, why they are deadly, and, most importantly, what they are. Please drop a comment if you liked it/ did not like it.

            Gamma rays are the most energetic light radiation in the universe. They are formed in hot regions. They are mainly produced by explosions in space such as supernovas. They can be deadly. How deadly? It takes several inches of lead to block a gamma ray. Gamma rays, like X-rays, can penetrate the entire human body, breaking apart tissues and even DNA. Unlike X-rays, however, it can pass through a mirror. (BYJU’S)

   Gamma rays have the shortest wavelength in the wave spectrum, after X-rays. So, they can actually get inside your body and damage your organs, maybe even beyond repair. The longest wavelength, radio waves, cannot do damage at all. In theory, they can even destroy cancer cells, but it is risky, as if it misses the cancer cell, it can do very bad damage to the DNA and tissues. (US Environmental Protection Agency)

Gamma rays were discovered more than a century ago, by Paul Villard, who was a French chemist and also a physicist. He discovered gamma rays by studying the radiations given out by an element named radium. The gamma rays were observed from supernovae much later on, when they had had technology to build rockets. In the late 1960s, Gamma ray bursts were discovered coming from space. (Wikipedia)

Sometimes in the past, Gamma ray bursts have hit the earth causing disturbances in the ionosphere, from a distant star about a billion light years away. This shows how powerful it is, to have caused that much damage from that distance.

Sources used-

·      BYJU’S

·      US Environmental Protection Agency

·      Wikipedia

·      European Space Agency