Confirm that rays produce nuclear reactions

2017/11/22 Etxebeste Aduriz, Egoitz - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Fisika

A recent paper published in the journal Nature confirms that lightning causes atmospheric nuclear reactions. These reactions generate radioactive isotopes.

Theoretically it had been proposed that gamma rays that occur in rays can cause nuclear reactions. But so far this theory has not been confirmed. Japanese researchers have shown that the theory was correct. During a storm in Japan on 6 February neutrons and positrons were detected by four radiation detectors. Thus, from the data obtained it has been concluded that the gamma rays generated in the rays collided with the nuclei of atmospheric particles causing nuclear reactions. These reactions resulted in unstable radioactive neutrons and isotopes, and by disintegrating them, positrons.

In addition, researchers have suggested that, according to this discovery, rays would be the second natural source of radioactive isotopes (cosmic rays are the first). Radioactive isotopes generated in rays include 13C, 14C and 15N.