Electromagnetic radiation with the shortest wavelengths, no longer than 0.01 nanometer, is categorized as gamma rays (1 nanometer = 10–9 meters; see Units Used in Science). The name gamma comes from the third letter of the Greek alphabet: gamma rays were the third kind of radiation discovered coming from radioactive atoms when physicists first investigated their behavior. Because gamma rays carry a lot of energy, they can be dangerous for living tissues. Gamma radiation is generated deep in the interior of stars, as well as by some of the most violent phenomena in the universe, such as the deaths of stars and the merging of stellar corpses. Gamma rays coming to Earth are absorbed by our atmosphere before they reach the ground (which is a good thing for our health); thus, they can only be studied using instruments in space.
Electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths between 0.01 nanometer and 20 nanometers is referred to as X-rays. Being more energetic than visible light, X-rays are able to penetrate soft tissues but not bones, and so allow us to make images of the shadows of the bones inside us. While X-rays can penetrate a short length of human flesh, they are stopped by the large numbers of atoms in Earth’s atmosphere with which they interact. Thus, X-ray astronomy (like gamma-ray astronomy) could not develop until we invented ways of sending instruments above our atmosphere (Figure 2).
