News tagged with gamma radiation

Japan firm unveils radiation-gauging smartphone

Mobile phone operator Softbank on Tuesday unveiled a smartphone that can measure radiation as consumers in Japan clamour for reassurance following last year's Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets

created May 29, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Very High Energy Gamma Rays

(PhysOrg.com) -- Gamma-rays are the most energetic known form of electromagnetic radiation, with each gamma ray being at least one hundred thousand times more energetic than an optical light photon. The most ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 25, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (13) | comments 3

Blazars

(PhysOrg.com) -- A blazar is a galaxy which, like a quasar, has an intensely bright central nucleus containing a supermassive black hole. In a blazar, however, the emitted light sometimes includes extremely ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 06, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

Gamma-ray photon race ends in dead heat; Einstein wins this round

Racing across the universe for the last 7.3 billion years, two gamma-ray photons arrived at NASA's orbiting Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope within nine-tenths of a second of one another. The dead-heat finish ...

Physics / General Physics

created Oct 28, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (37) | comments 62

Heart of a galaxy emits gamma rays

(PhysOrg.com) -- Quite a few distant galaxies turn out to be cosmic delivery rooms. Large numbers of massive stars are born in the hearts of these starburst galaxies, and later explode as supernovae. In the ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Oct 02, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (6) | comments 6

High-energy Electrons Could Come from Pulsars -- or Dark Matter

(PhysOrg.com) -- Something in our galactic neighborhood seems to be producing large numbers of high-energy electrons, according to new data gathered by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The electrons could ...

Physics / General Physics

created May 05, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (9) | comments 1

Fermi maps an active galaxy's 'smokestack plumes'

If our eyes could see radio waves, the nearby galaxy Centaurus A (Cen A) would be one of the biggest and brightest objects in the sky, nearly 20 times the apparent size of a full moon. What we can't see when ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Apr 01, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Fermi Telescope Caps First Year With Glimpse of Space-Time (w/ Video)

During its first year of operations, NASA's Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope mapped the extreme sky with unprecedented resolution and sensitivity. It captured more than one thousand discrete sources of gamma ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Oct 28, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (14) | comments 5

Lightning-produced radiation a potential health concern for air travelers

New information about lightning-emitted X-rays, gamma rays and high-energy electrons during thunderstorms is prompting scientists to raise concerns about the potential for airline passengers and crews to be ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 07, 2009 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (10) | comments 7

Team develops new metamaterial device

An engineered metamaterial proved it can function as a state-of-the-art device in the complex terahertz range of the electromagnetic spectrum, setting a standard of performance for modulating tiny waves of radiation, according ...

Physics / Optics & Photonics

created Feb 24, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (6) | comments 0

Astrophysics and extinctions: News about planet-threatening events

Space is a violent place. If a star explodes or black holes collide anywhere in our part of the Milky Way, they'd give off colossal blasts of lethal gamma-rays, X-rays and cosmic rays and it's perfectly reasonable to expect ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Oct 07, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (8) | comments 0

Dissecting a stellar explosion

(PhysOrg.com) -- Integral has captured one of the brightest gamma-ray bursts ever seen. A meticulous analysis of the data has allowed astronomers to investigate the initial phases of this giant stellar explosion, ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Apr 03, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (6) | comments 0

Radiation boost for artificial joints

A blast of gamma radiation could toughen up plastic prosthetic joints to make them strong enough to last for years, according to researchers in China writing in the current issue of the International Journal of Biomedical En ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Sep 22, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Explained: rad, rem, sieverts, becquerels

Sometimes it must seem as though reports on releases of radioactive materials from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear powerplant in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami are going out of their ...

Other Sciences / Other

created Mar 28, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 1

Melanin's 'trick' for maintaining radioprotection studied

Sunbathers have long known that melanin in their skin cells provides protection from the damage caused by visible and ultraviolet light. More recent studies have shown that melanin, which is produced by multitudes of the ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Aug 23, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0