The Deadly Gamma Ray

An exploration of electromagnetism inspired by the late Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros.

In late January 2009, gamma rays from the distant neutron star, SGR J1550-5418, ionized Earth's upper atmosphere.

Meteorologists are examining whether these rays, which traveled 30,000 light years, may be related to a dramatic warming of the polar stratosphere (see Accuweather meteorologist Elliot Abrams' blog on "The Mysterious Magnetar.")

Other scientists are exploring whether gamma rays have caused -- or may cause -- mass extinctions on Earth.

NASA animations and X-Ray recordings are mixed with personal stills from the July 2008 Flare Night Celebrations at Canada Lake in the Adirondack Mountains.

Film credits:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
NASA/Fermi/Cruz de Wilde
NASA/Swift/Jules Halpern (Columbia Univ.)

A 400 Seawall Studios Production.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Gamma
• Ray
• bursts
• NASA
• XRay
• animation
• stills
• fireworks
• magnetar
• flare
• adirondacks
• canada
• lake
• stratosphere
• extinction
• joe
• strummer
• mescaleros
• goddard
• columbia
• dna
• clash
• caroga
• grb

[mashitupable]

Well Good Get On JOE......Sandanista still in my top 20 Albums of all time...

[streetlightpoetry]

i'm gonna get in the way and get shot by it and become like the hulk dude

[knivesinwest11]

Cher got in cause she's thin

and even Evil Knievel tried to weedle, no!

the deadly gamma ray

[Flopstar80]

I want to own a gamma ray and hold the universe hostage

[Wonderbread8909]

why is it that every time i watch a video on black holes, stars, and supernovas etc the comments are flooded with wanna be scientists wasting their time arguing about who knows the biggest words and calling themselves intelligent. just go jerk off to your star wars action figures and blow off some steam

[bobbycratchit]

@cl0vvntiem : Sure. Agreed. :). 

[cl0vvntiem]

@bobbycratchit Consider it more of a poor simile. Being scientifically/empirically inclined my language skills tend to suffer.

I believe there are more concrete and solvable issues directly threatening our global society and the welfare of the human race that we should be worrying about and attempting to solve.

With what little we know about GRBs, the focus of our general society should not be directed towards them.

[bobbycratchit]

@cl0vvntiem Hey, that's terribly interesting and cool. Hats off to you. But then that begs the question if you did work on the gamma ray polarimeter then why would someone of obvious intelligence make such a stupid comment on spontaneous human combustion? Why is that?

[cl0vvntiem]

@bobbycratchit

Yes, I know they are scientifically documented. I worked on a gamma-ray polarimeter for the Department of Nuclear and Particle Physics of the University of Geneva.

[bobbycratchit]

@RuffleTheTeacher I'd say knowledge + appropriate action can yield survival. The problem is that frequently there are competing interests and/or groups that have their own agendas which can stall the appropriate action part of the equation. And with no action everyone's chance of survival are severely diminished.