Answer:
Gamma rays are the most powerful
- Gamma rays are not necessarily harmful to the planet Earth, but to all the living organisms that inhabit it, as Gamma is a powerful form of radiation.
- Gamma-rays are produced primarily by four different nuclear reactions: fusion, fission, alpha decay and gamma decay
<u>GAMMA</u><u> </u><u>RAYS</u>
Gamma-rays are a form of electromagnetic radiation, as are radio waves, infrared radiation, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays and microwaves. Gamma-rays can be used to treat cancer, and gamma-ray bursts are studied by astronomers.
Electromagnetic (EM) radiation is transmitted in waves or particles at different wavelengths and frequencies. This broad range of wavelengths is known as the electromagnetic spectrum. The spectrum is generally divided into seven regions in order of decreasing wavelength and increasing energy and frequency. The common designations are radio waves, microwaves, infrared (IR), visible light, ultraviolet (UV), X-rays and gamma-rays.
Gamma-rays fall in the range of the EM spectrum above soft X-rays. Gamma-rays have frequencies greater than about 1,018 cycles per second, or hertz (Hz), and wavelengths of less than 100 picometers (pm), or 4 x 10^9 inches. (A picometer is one-trillionth of a meter.)
Gamma-rays and hard X-rays overlap in the EM spectrum, which can make it hard to differentiate them. In some fields, such as astrophysics, an arbitrary line is drawn in the spectrum where rays above a certain wavelength are classified as X-rays and rays with shorter wavelengths are classified as gamma-rays. Both gamma-rays and X-rays have enough energy to cause damage to living tissue, but almost all cosmic gamma-rays are blocked by Earth's atmosphere.
