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Photon Race Ends in Dead Heat

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STANFORD, Calif., Oct. 29, 2009 – Racing across the universe for the last 7.3 billion years, two gamma-ray photons arrived at NASA’s orbiting Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope within nine-tenths of a second of one another. The dead-heat finish may stoke the fires of debate among physicists over Einstein’s special theory of relativity because one of the photons possessed a million times more energy than the other. For Einstein’s theory, that’s no problem. In his vision of the structure of space and time, unified as space-time, all forms of electromagnetic radiation – gamma rays, radio waves, infrared, visible light and...Read full article

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    Published: October 2009
    Glossary
    einstein
    A unit of energy equal to the amount of energy absorbed by one molecule of material undergoing a photochemical reaction, as determined by the Stark-Einstein law.
    electromagnetic radiation
    Radiation emitted from vibrating charged particles. A combination of oscillating electrical and magnetic fields that propagates through otherwise empty space with the velocity of light. This constant velocity equals the alternation frequency multiplied by the wavelength; hence, the frequency and wavelength are inversely proportional to each other. The spectrum of electromagnetic radiation is continuous over all frequencies.
    infrared
    Infrared (IR) refers to the region of the electromagnetic spectrum with wavelengths longer than those of visible light, but shorter than those of microwaves. The infrared spectrum spans wavelengths roughly between 700 nanometers (nm) and 1 millimeter (mm). It is divided into three main subcategories: Near-infrared (NIR): Wavelengths from approximately 700 nm to 1.4 micrometers (µm). Near-infrared light is often used in telecommunications, as well as in various imaging and sensing...
    photonics
    The technology of generating and harnessing light and other forms of radiant energy whose quantum unit is the photon. The science includes light emission, transmission, deflection, amplification and detection by optical components and instruments, lasers and other light sources, fiber optics, electro-optical instrumentation, related hardware and electronics, and sophisticated systems. The range of applications of photonics extends from energy generation to detection to communications and...
    AmericaEinsteinelectromagnetic radiationFermi Gamma-ray Space Telescopefundamental forces in the universegamma raysgamma-ray photonsgreen photonicshigh-energy particle physicsImaginginfraredNASAneutron starNews & FeaturesPhoton Race Ends in Dead Heatphotonicsphotonics.comradio wavesResearch & TechnologyStanford Universitytheory of relativityvisible lightx-rays

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