Universe  ID: 10690

How to make a gamma ray

Released on November 9, 2010
A series of animations showing how gamma rays can be created through various particle interactions.
Download Options
Pion production and decay animation. A proton travelling to the speed of light strikes a slower-moving proton. The protons survive the collision, but their interaction creates an unstable particle — a pion — with only 14 percent of the proton's mass. In 10 millionths of a billionth of a second, the pion decays into a pair of gamma-ray photons.
Download Options
Inverse Compton scattering animation. An electron travelling at close the speed of light has a head-on collision with a lower-energy photon (from microwave to ultraviolet). The photon picks up energy from the electron and becomes a gamma ray.
Download Options
Pair production animation. A gamma ray grazes an atom and interacts with it. The reaction annihilates the gamma-ray photon and creates a matter/antimatter pair of an electron and a positron.
Download Options
Electron bremsstrahlung animation. An electron traveling close to the speed of light is deflected by the electric field of an atomic nucleus. It emits gamma rays as its path bends.
 

Related

ComPair Infographic
NASA's Fermi Mission Sharpens its High-energy View
NASA's Fermi Detects the Highest-Energy Light from a Solar Flare

Credits

Scott Wiessinger (UMBC): Lead Animator
Scott Wiessinger (UMBC): Producer
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10690

Mission:
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

This item is part of this series:
Astrophysics Animations

Goddard TV Tape:
G2010-136 -- Fermi Gamma Ray Bubbles

Keywords:
SVS >> HDTV
DLESE >> Space science
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Spectral/Engineering >> Gamma Ray
SVS >> Astrophysics
SVS >> Universe
SVS >> Particle Physics
SVS >> Fermi
SVS >> Supernova
NASA Science >> Universe

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0