Wednesday 12 November 2008

Gamma ray


That's an image of the moon's gamma-ray emissions; as beautiful, I think, for its irregular five-pointed crown (the image, perhaps, is ninety-degrees rotated) as for its white hot central face. Wikipedia informs us: 'surprisingly, the Moon is actually brighter than the quiet Sun at gamma ray wavelengths.' But this is not a surprise for those men seared by the sight of an unshielded Diana-Artemis.
If our eyes saw gamma rays rather than visible light rays night would replace day. And what would our vision reveal to us? Danger. ('Gamma rays are the most dangerous form of radiation emitted by a nuclear explosion because of the difficulty in shielding them. This is because gamma rays have the shortest wavelength of all waves in the electromagnetic spectrum, and therefore have the greatest ability to penetrate through any gap, even a subatomic one, in what might otherwise be an effective shield.') The moon cannot be kept out. The moon penetrates.

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