Universe  ID: 20113

Gamma Ray Creation

Animations by Susan Twardy Released on September 7, 2007
Gamma rays are the highest-energy forms of light in the electromagnetic spectrum and they can have over a billion times the energy of the type of light visible to the human eye. Gamma rays can be created in several different ways: a high-energy particle can collide with another particle, a particle can collide and annihilate with its anti-particle, an element can undergo radioactive decay, or a charged particle can be accelerated. In this animation, we see a high-energy photon collide with a free electron, which causes the creation of a gamma-ray.
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This animation shows a high-energy photon (blue coil) colliding with a free electron (red ball), which causes the release of a gamma-ray (purple flash).

For More Information

http://www.nasa.gov/GLAST

Animation Credits

Susan Twardy (HTSI): Lead Animator
Elizabeth A. Smith (HTSI): Producer
Steven Ritz (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20113

Missions:
GLAST
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

Data Used:
Fermi/LAT
Event List
Fermi Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) Large Area Telescope (LAT)
view all stories where this data set is used
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of these series:
Astrophysics Animations
GLAST Pre-Launch

Goddard TV Tape:
G2007-011HD -- GLAST Pre-Launch Resource Tape

Keywords:
SVS >> Space
SVS >> Wavelengths
SVS >> GLAST
SVS >> Universe
SVS >> Astrophysics
SVS >> Gamma Ray Burst
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Spectral/Engineering >> Gamma Ray
SVS >> Spectrum
DLESE >> Space science
SVS >> HDTV
NASA Science >> Universe
SVS >> Fermi
SVS >> Electromagnetic Spectrum

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