Gamma Rays
This type of electromagnetic radiation holds the record for the shortest wavelength and the highest energy.
What are gamma rays?
Doctors commonly use this type of radiation to check if you have a broken bone.
What are X-rays?
Slathering on SPF sunscreen protects your skin from these harmful rays emitted by the sun.
What is ultraviolet (or UV) light?
This colorful meteorological phenomenon appears when visible sunlight is refracted, reflected, and dispersed by water droplets in the sky.
What is a rainbow?
Radio waves hold this record-breaking distinction when compared to all other waves on the electromagnetic spectrum.
What is the longest wavelength (or lowest energy/lowest frequency)?
Gamma rays are often released during this incredibly destructive cosmic event involving the explosive death of a massive star.
What is a supernova?
X-rays are heavily utilized at these travel hubs to scan your luggage and carry-on bags before you board.
What are airports?
This protective atmospheric layer, composed of O3 molecules, absorbs the vast majority of the sun's high-frequency UV light before it reaches Earth.
What is the ozone layer?
Of all the colors in the visible spectrum, this color sits on the edge next to infrared, meaning it has the longest wavelength and lowest energy.
What is red?
A microwave oven heats up your dinner by specifically causing these molecules within the food to vibrate rapidly and generate friction.
What are water molecules?
In modern medicine, the "knife" named after this type of radiation is used to accurately target and treat brain tumors without surgery.
What is the Gamma Knife?
In 1895, this German physicist accidentally discovered X-rays while working with a cathode-ray tube, later winning the first Nobel Prize in Physics.
Who is Wilhelm Röntgen?
These glowing bulbs, also known as UV-A lights, are famous for making white shirts, teeth, and certain posters brightly fluoresce in the dark.
What are blacklights?
This famous 1973 album cover by Pink Floyd features a beam of white light hitting a prism and separating into a visible spectrum.
What is The Dark Side of the Moon?
This tracking system, commonly used by air traffic controllers and police speed guns, relies on bouncing radio waves or microwaves off objects.
What is RADAR?
This green comic book superhero was famously created when scientist Dr. Bruce Banner was exposed to a massive dose of gamma radiation.
Who is the Incredible Hulk?
Because Earth's atmosphere blocks X-rays from space, astronomers must use these devices placed in orbit, like the Chandra Observatory, to study them.
What are space telescopes (or satellites)?
Hospitals and laboratories frequently use strong UV light on surfaces and equipment for this specific purpose.
What is sterilization (or disinfection/killing bacteria)?
In the human eye, these specific photoreceptor cells found in the retina are responsible for detecting color in visible light.
What are cones?
Your smartphone uses radio waves to connect to wireless headphones via this short-range technology, named after a 10th-century Danish king.
What is Bluetooth?
Gamma rays were discovered in 1900 by Paul Villard while he was studying the radiation emitted from this highly radioactive element, famously studied by Marie Curie.
What is radium?
High-energy X-rays are emitted by the super-heated accretion disks surrounding these incredibly dense cosmic objects, from which not even light can escape.
What are black holes?
While totally invisible to humans, UV light creates "bullseye" patterns on flower petals to guide these flying pollinators to nectar.
What are bees (or insects)?
Visible light occupies the tiny sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum perfectly sandwiched between Infrared and this other category.
What is Ultraviolet (UV)?
Discovered accidentally in 1964, the Cosmic Microwave Background is a faint glow of radiation leftover from this monumental event.
What is the Big Bang?