How Cosmic-ray Protons Make Gamma rays
In the simplest and most common interaction, a cosmic-ray proton strikes another proton. The protons survive the collision, but their interaction creates an unstable particle — a pion — with only 14 percent the mass of a proton. In 10 millionths of a billionth of a second, the pion decays into a pair of gamma-ray photons. More complex scenarios occur when cosmic-ray protons strike nuclei containing greater numbers of particles.
Simple animation of proton-proton interaction resulting in netural pion that decays into two gamma rays.
This animation shows a more dynamic view of the pion and gamma ray creation process.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
-
Animator
- Scott Wiessinger (UMBC)
-
Producer
- Scott Wiessinger (UMBC)
-
Writer
- Francis Reddy (SPSYS)
Release date
This page was originally published on Saturday, February 13, 2010.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:54 PM EDT.