During electron capture, an electron in an atom’s inner shell is drawn into the nucleus where it combines with a proton, forming a neutron and a neutrino. The neutrino is ejected from the atom’s nucleus. Electron capture is also called K-capture since the captured electron usually comes from the atom’s K-shell.

As each element has a specific arrangement of electrons at discrete energy level, then it can be appreciated that the radiation produced from such interactions is ‘characteristic’ of the element involved.

Atoms are small. In fact, even the most powerful light-focusing microscopes can’t visualise single atoms. What makes an object visible is the way it deflects visible light waves. Atoms are so much smaller than the wavelength of visible light that the two don’t really interact.

EC leaves a vacancy in the shell from which the electron was captured. This can be filled with electrons dropping down from a higher-level. This releases energy in the form of a photon classified as characteristic X-ray .

Electron capture is a type of decay in which the nucleus of an atom draws in an inner shell electron. Electron capture occurs when neutrons and protons are below the band of stability, but there is not enough energy to emit a positron.

Positrons (β+) are positively charged electrons. They are emitted from the nucleus of some radioisotopes that are unstable because they have an excessive number of protons and a positive charge. Positron emission stabilizes the nucleus by removing a positive charge through the conversion of a proton into a neutron.

Positron

Positrons are formed during decay of nuclides that have an excess of protons in their nucleus compared to the number of neutrons. When decaying takes place, these radionuclides emit a positron and a neutrino.

When an electron and positron (antielectron) collide at high energy, they can annihilate to produce charm quarks which then produce D+ and D- mesons. Frame 3: The electron and positron have annihilated into a photon, or a Z particle, both of which may be virtual force carrier particles.

When they meet, the positron and the electron, which are Antiparticles of each other, destroy themselves mutually, they annihilate. Two annihilation gamma with equal energy are also emitted back to back. They carry each 511 keV, that is the mass energy of the two particles which is thus restored.

In particle physics, annihilation is the process that occurs when a subatomic particle collides with its respective antiparticle to produce other particles, such as an electron colliding with a positron to produce two photons.

1 : the state or fact of being completely destroyed or obliterated : the act of annihilating something or the state of being annihilated The late 1940s and ’50s were so pervaded by a general fear of nuclear annihilation that the era was known as the Age of Anxiety.—

Annihilation occurs when a particle and a corresponding antiparticle meet and their mass is converted into radiation energy. Two photons are produced in the process (as a single photon only would take away momentum which isn’t allowed, as no outside forces act).

Neutrinos are teeny, tiny, nearly massless particles that travel at near lightspeeds. Born from violent astrophysical events like exploding stars and gamma ray bursts, they are fantastically abundant in the universe, and can move as easily through lead as we move through air.

Neutrinos are everywhere. They permeate the very space all around us. They can be found throughout our galaxy, in our sun and every second tens of thousands of neutrinos are passing through your body. But there is no need to become alarmed for these tiny particles barely interact with anything.

Neutrinos were first detected in 1956 by Fred Reines of the University of California at Irvine and the late George Cowan. They showed that a nucleus undergoing beta decay emits a neutrino with the electron, a discovery that was recognized with the 1995 Nobel Prize for Physics.

Of all the elementary particles that we know of, neutrinos are the least harmful of them all. All charged particles, like electrons, protons, etc do interact and in sufficient quantities can be harmful. Even some neutral particles like gamma rays or neutrons can be harmful since they have stronger interaction rates.

If you observed a supernova from 1 AU away—and you somehow avoided being being incinerated, vaporized, and converted to some type of exotic plasma—even the flood of ghostly neutrinos would be dense enough to kill you. If it’s going fast enough, a feather can absolutely knock you over.

From context, this is a bomb that produces a blast of neutrinos that kill everyone on the planet at nearly the same time as the earth would be transparent to them. This of, course, is nonsense the earth would be nearly transparent but a lethal dose of neutrinos does not seem possible.