Gamma ray Gamma rays Gamma ray guns Commentary

Paul Ulrich Villard physics

Gamma ray

• Ernest Rutherford identified two types of radioactive decay.
• Alpha decay created rays that a thin aluminum sheet blocked.
• Beta decay created rays that penetrated aluminum.
• Paul Ulrich Villard studied radiation from radium
• and identified a third type of ray that,
• like beta rays, penetrated a lead shield,
• but, unlike beta rays,
• were not deflected by a magnetic field.
• Rutherford named this third type of decay
• with the third letter of the Greek alphabet, gamma.

Gamma rays

• Gamma rays are energetic photons
• emitted from excited atomic nuclei
• because the atom’s been struck by lightning
• because it’s inherently unstable
• because it’s been created in a nuclear reaction
• because it’s energized by a pulsar, quasar, or blazar.

Gamma ray guns

• Gamma rays kill bacteria
• to sterilize your peaches.
• Gamma rays flow from magnetars
• deep in the Andromeda galaxy.
• Gamma rays stream from guns
• wielded by beasts from planet Φar.