Text: Here's a little quiz, borrowed from the site below to stimulate your minds: http://science.nasa.gov/default.htm *************** QUIZ TIME:********************* Which of the following is NOT a form of light? ______gamma rays ________cosmic rays _______radio waves Answer at end of post. *********************************************** >From this link: full article available at: http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast26mar99_1.htm March 26, 1999: The crime: catastrophic explosions deep within the Universe. The clues: emissions ranging all around the spectrum, from gamma-rays to radio waves. The motive: Unknown. Determining what happens during a gamma-ray burst reads like a detective story. Scientists are hot on the trail of unraveling the mystery, using telescopes that are far more complex than Sherlock Holmes' simple magnifying glass. (snip).......... Every aspect of a burst, from the electromagnetic emissions to the intensity of the explosion, tells its own tale. By figuring out how all these different "points-of-view" fit into the main event, scientists hope to determine what really happens. A gamma-ray burst detected on Jan. 23, 1999 - GRB 990123 - has provided scientists with even more clues to help interpret the postmortem examinations. "This burst makes us ask two questions," says Michael Briggs, a University of Alabama at Huntsville research scientist working at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. "First, what caused the initial emission of visible light, and second, was that light beamed?".....snip.... Revealing Light With GRB 990123, scientists saw for the first time visible light emitted during a gamma-ray burst explosion. Although the burst was 9 billion light years away, the light was so bright observers on Earth could've seen it with a pair of binoculars. Scientists see the emission of this intense visible light as a clue that helps determine the structure of the explosion. The explosion of a gamma-ray burst is like a bizarre, interstellar traffic accident. Because material is flowing out from the explosion at different velocities, collisions occur. (snip)......................................... *********!!!!!!!!****Guiding Light****!!!!!!!********* The amount of energy released from a gamma-ray burst boggles the imagination. Exploding with the power of ten million billion suns, only collisions between objects like super-dense neutron stars and black holes have enough energy potential to create such a cataclysmic event. But no one is sure what causes a gamma-ray burst; the motive remains a mystery. Gamma-Ray Burst, alias "GRB" Although gamma-ray bursts emit most of their energy in the gamma-ray part of the spectrum, they emit other wavelengths as well. Gamma-ray bursts were thus named because when they were discovered by accident in the early 1970s, they seemed to only emit radiation in the gamma portion of the spectrum. Scientists thought it was odd that the bursts appeared to only give off one form of energy. Most other energy sources give off several forms of energy simultaneously. A flame, for instance, gives off infrared (heat) and visible light. As it turns out, gamma-ray bursts are more than just explosions emitting gamma rays. ****Now we know that it was our ability to see,**** rather than the source, which was limited. Telescopes are only designed to see one part of the electromagnetic spectrum. When a gamma-ray telescope detects a burst, there is usually not enough time to direct other telescopes to look at the explosion. The bursts are extremely short-lived. For GRB 990123, the Robotic and Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE) coordinated with the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory within 20 seconds of the start of the explosion - just quick enough to catch a burst in action. (snip)................................ ******************************************************** Answer: ________gamma rays...wrong...gamma rays are a very energetic form of light. The wavelength of gamma-rays is much shorter than the wavelength of visible light. ________radio waves..wrong...Radio waves are a form of light. The wavelength of radio waves is longer than the wavelength of visible light. ________cosmic rays..correct..Cosmic rays are high energy particles that have been accelerated to high velocities in cosmic explosions like spuernovae and solar flares. Cosmic rays consist of about 85% protons, 12% helium muclei, and 4% electrons. .......Question? where does Microwave fall into this electromagnetic spectrum?

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