I get radiation is basically light…..some we some we don’t. And the more intense it is the worse it is. So if a thing has become radioactive, is it basically glowing? And how is that happening? What is the energy source?
In: Planetary Science
There are four types of radiation:
* Electromagnetic radiation, or light. *All* objects emit light via **thermal radiation**, which is basically glowing from being hot. A red-hot pan is thermal radiation; you, too, emit thermal radiation, but it’s both dim and in the infrared part of the spectrum you cannot see (but infrared cameras can). There are also dangerous types of EM radiation, like x-rays and gamma rays. Light can be viewed as a wave; its frequency (speed of wiggling) denotes how much energy is in them. X-rays and gamma rays have a very high frequency, so they contain a lot of energy; enough to break apart molecules into ions. We call this **ionizing radiation** and it is dangerous because it can break apart your cells (causing burns) and damage DNA (causing cancer).
* Alpha radiation. Basically a helium nucleus (two protons and two neutrons), kicked off of a decomposing atom that’s too big to hold on to all its protons & neutrons. They’re slow and heavy and big, and thus can be stopped by a very thin barrier, but they contain a lot of energy and are ionizing as well.
* Beta radiation. Just a free electron traveling at high speeds. Also ionizing and dangerous, but highly interactive and so it gets stopped moderately easily. These free electrons get created by beta decay, when a neutron breaks apart into an electron, a proton, and an antineutrino (don’t worry about the antineutrino, it’s too weird to discuss in depth here)
* Free neutrons, flying very fast. These get kicked off of atoms when they decay. When they hit another atom, they can then cause *that* atom to decay and kick off its own neutrons. This chain reaction is what makes nuclear reactions either self-sustaining (as in a nuclear power plant) or take off out of control (as in a nuclear bomb). In a reactor, control rods (which are not radioactive, but do absorb or slow down neutrons) are used to make sure the reaction stays at a constant rate.
Latest Answers