Giant solar eruption felt on Earth, moon and Mars

A coronal mass ejection erupted from the sun on 28 October 2021 and was spread over such a wide area that Mars and Earth, while on opposite sides of the sun and around 250 million kilometers apart, received an influx of energetic ...

Particle physics pushing cancer treatment boundaries

Researchers at Europe's science lab CERN, who regularly use particle physics to challenge our understanding of the universe, are also applying their craft to upend the limits to cancer treatment.

Buttes on Mars may serve as radiation shelters

Mars has a "bad reputation" for its high exposure to radiation and it has neither a magnetic field nor a thick atmosphere to shelter its surface from high energy particles from outer space.

A personal dosimeter is in your first aid kit

When proper precautions are taken, radioactive substances are extremely safe to use. But what if they leak into the environment in an uncontrolled manner? Then it becomes crucial to find out the dose of radiation people may ...

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Absorbed dose

Absorbed dose (also known as total ionizing dose, TID) is a measure of the energy deposited in a medium by ionizing radiation. It is equal to the energy deposited per unit mass of medium, and so has the unit J/kg, which is given the special name Gray (Gy).

Note that the absorbed dose is not a good indicator of the likely biological effect. 1 Gy of alpha radiation would be much more biologically damaging than 1 Gy of photon radiation for example. Appropriate weighting factors can be applied reflecting the different relative biological effects to find the equivalent dose.

The risk of stochastic effects due to radiation exposure can be quantified using the effective dose, which is a weighted average of the equivalent dose to each organ depending upon its radiosensitivity.

When ionising radiation is used to treat cancer, the doctor will usually prescribe the radiotherapy treatment in Gy. When risk from ionising radiation is being discussed, a related unit, the sievert is used.

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