Hi Ed, Chris,
I also posted a reply to this along the lines Chris did, but it didn't show
up. Ed, I am gathering from Chris' conclusions from your post that you've
mixed up visible light with gamma rays as sources of neutrons because they
are both radiation?
Best wishes,
Doug
my original below:
Hi Ed,
I am trying to understand what you mean to say. Please bear with me and
tell me what I'm missing:
The energy of the photons we see in visible light, whether from meteors or a
night light or Sunlight on the porch is the same (per discrete photon) we
see.
There is no upper limit for the energy content of a "photon", and any finite
proces has an energy associated with it. In other words, a generic 'photon'
can release anything requiring any energy, and anything releasing energy
releases "photons", so I can't follow what you mean by "It turns out photons
can...". In fact saying a "photon" can do something is just like saying a
certain energy can do something -nothing new here, if it weren't true,
nuclear fusion and fission, two observable processes would be impossible- as
all processes have an associated energy, including warming my hot chocolate
to 80 C with infrared "photons".
The energy is proportional to the inverse of the wavelength of the "photon".
So it is simple arithmetic to calculate the wavelength of a "photon" capable
of atomic fission - which is what you are discussing (more specifically
deuterium fission)...which is the same photon energy than is released on
deuterium fusion.
Although the incredible Hulk is green, the photon of green light (wavelength
nearly measurable at = 0.00055 millimeters), the most average light, has ten
thousand times less energy per "photon" than gamma "photons". Gamma
radiation in the neighborhood of the spectrum you are discussing, in fact,
is a result of nuclear fission explosions, and has a wavelength shorter than
any distance between atoms (no surprise since it is the amount of energy
that interacts with atomic nuclei).
Until one can mathematically derive or experimentally determine whether such
energy present in gamma 'photons' (and energenitic gamma photons at that)
can be generated and applied to a little deuterium atom somehow, from all
these impacts on Earth, the status of the theory is the same as the status
of
the Hulk comic character! I am the first to respect a thought experiment:
But what scientific experiment could you propose (or has one already been
done?) to follow through?
On the other hand, if all of the big impact sites are creating all of these
radiation byproducts, the least of which is 14-C, would likely create
radioactive waste dumps at every major impact event site - a measureable
quantity. Has this been seen at Canon Diablo? An observation of that would
support your theories. I don't believe any radioactivity has been deduced
from any of the impact sites, and this is a subject very interesting to look
for by the best military satellites of the most enthused nations.
I suppose a new extinction theory can be - the radiation released from
ground zero and into the atmosphere was extremely short lived, intense and
conveniently left no trace detected yet, but clearly could be responsible
for the great dyings in geological history for suceptible creatures.
Just need a little clarification,
Thanks, Doug
----- Original Message -----
From: "E.P. Grondine" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2007 11:08 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Neutron and Proton production in
hyper-velocityimpacts
Hi all -
Over the last several days, I've cited several C14
spikes associated with hyper-velocity impacts.
It turns out that photons can release neutrons and
protons from a nucleus:
http://galileo.phys.virginia.edu/classes/252/Nuclear_Notes/nuclear_notes.html
To give you idea of the energies involved, we've all
watched the photons given off by meteors traveling at
cosmic speeds. If I remember right, those photons come
from excited electrons - as does the electrophorenic
sound discussed so many times here on the list over
the years.
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