X-ray interesting Facts

• X-radiation (composed of X-rays) is a form of electromagnetic radiation.
• X-rays are made when negatively charged particles called electrons are fired at a heavy plate made of the metal tungsten. The plate bounces back X-rays.
• In many languages, X-radiation is called Röntgen radiation, after Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, who is generally credited as their discoverer, and who had named them X-rays to signify an unknown type of radiation.
• X-rays are so energetic that they pass through some body tissues like a light through a net curtain.
• X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz (3 × 1016 Hz to 3 × 1019 Hz) and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV.
• Each kind of tissue lets X-rays through differently. Bones are dense and contain calcium, so they block X-rays and show up white on film. Skin, fat, muscle and blood let X-rays through and show up black on film.
• The Chandra X-ray Observatory, launched on July 23, 1999, has been allowing the exploration of the very violent processes in the universe which produce X-rays.
• X-rays are very good at showing up bone defects. So if you break a bone, it will probably be X-rayed.
• An X-ray laser device was proposed as part of the Reagan Administration's Strategic Defense Initiative in the 1980s, but the first and only test of the device (a sort of laser "blaster", or death ray, powered by a thermonuclear explosion) gave inconclusive results.
• X-rays are electromagnetic rays whose waves are shorter than ultraviolet rays and longer than gamma rays.
• X-ray sources are stars and galaxies that give out X-rays.
• The remnants of supernovae such as the Crab nebula are strong sources of X-rays.
• X-rays are emitted by electrons outside the nucleus, while gamma rays are emitted by the nucleus.
• X-ray star binaries pump out 1000 times as much X-ray radiation as the Sun does.