Portal:Radiation astronomy/Resource/12
Beta particles
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A number of subatomic reactions can be detected in astronomy that yield beta particles. The detection of beta particles or the reactions that include them in an astronomical situation is beta-particles astronomy.
Beta particles are high-energy, high-speed electrons or positrons.
Beta particles may be the key to fusion. "If the exterior of the capsule is maintained at a uniform temperature of about 19.5 K, the natural beta decay energy of the tritium will accomplish this through a process known as "beta layering." The very low energy beta particles from tritium decay deposit their energy very close to the location of the original tritium atoms."[1]
"Beta-particles leaving the upper surface of the lunar sample could trigger the upper beta detector, while the lower beta-detector was triggered by beta particles from the lower surface of the sample."[2]
Notation: let the symbol β− designate an unbound electron in motion.
Notation: let β+ designate an unbound positron in motion.
Notation: let TGF stand for a Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flash.
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ K. R. Schultz (September 1998). "Cost Effective Steps to Fusion power: IFE target fabrication, injection and tracking". Journal of Fusion Energy 17 (3): 237-46. doi:10.1023/A:1021814514091. http://www.springerlink.com/content/r7u527p786144l7k/. Retrieved 2012-06-08.
- ↑ L. A. Rancitelli, R. W. Perkins, W. D. Felix, and N. A. Wogman (1971). "Erosion and mixing of the lunar surface from cosmogenic and primordial radio-nuclide measurements in Apollo 12 lunar samples". Proceedings of the Lunar Science Conference 2: 1757-72. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1971LPSC....2.1757R. Retrieved 2012-06-08.