HEAPOW: Effects of Gamma-Rays on Moon and Sun (2019 Feb 18)

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HEAPOW: Effects of Gamma-Rays on Moon and Sun (2019 Feb 18)

Gamma-ray emission is the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation. It's produced by the most powerul phenomena known - exploding stars, giant black holes devouring matter, the annihilation of matter and anti-matter, neutron stars that crash into each other. It is somewhat unnerving, perhaps, that natural sources of gamma-ray emission reside close to our home. The images above, from the Large Area Telescope on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, show that both the Sun and the Moon are sources of gamma-rays, These heavenly bodies are not themselves steady Gamma-ray sources, however (although the powerful explosions from the Sun do produce outbursts of gamma-rays on occasion). They shine because both the Sun and Moon are pummeled by cosmic rays, broken bits of atoms accelerated to incredibly high energies by stellar explosions, among other things. These fast-moving, energetic particles collide with atoms in the moon's surface and in the atmosphere of the Sun, and these collisions convert some of the kinetic energy of the cosmic rays into gamma-ray radiation.

Fermi: Gamma Rays from Our Neighbors: The Quiet Sun and Moon

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Author: Dr. Michael F. Corcoran

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Effec ... lds_(film)

<<The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds is a 1972 American drama film produced and directed by Paul Newman. The screenplay by Alvin Sargent is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same title by Paul Zindel. Newman cast his wife, Joanne Woodward, and one of their daughters, Nell Potts, in two of the lead roles. Roberta Wallach, daughter of Eli Wallach, played the third lead.

Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer (Joanne Woodward) and her daughters Ruth (Roberta Wallach) and Matilda (Nell Potts) are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one which gives the film its title.

Matilda's science experiment is designed to show how small amounts of gamma radiation from cobalt-60 affect marigolds; some die, but others transform into strange but beautiful mutations completely unlike the original plants. Similarly, Matilda has managed to muddle through a grim existence in a dilapidated, debris-ridden house in a lower middle class neighborhood, learning to deal with her embarrassing mother while managing to avoid becoming anything like her, a future for which her sister seems fated.>>
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Matilda: I've got to go to school. I'm late already. I've got a science test second period.

Beatrice: Pshh. Science, huh? Well, you tell Mr. Goodman there's a lot of work to be done around here, so he'd better not count on you spending your days with half-life. Tell him if he wants to find out about half-life, he can come and ask me; I'm the original half-life. I've got one daughter with half a mind, the other who's half a test tube, a house half-full of rabbit crap and half a corpse. That's a half-life, all right. Jesus, don't you hate the world, Matilda?