= Becquerel's rays
= Becquerel rays
{synonym}
These must have been <gamma rays>.
\Q[Just before he left <Cambridge> for Montreal in 1898, <Rutherford> conducted a simple, systematic experiment to study the absorption of rays from <uranium>. \[...\] In 1901 he determined that <Becquerel's rays> are indeed <electromagnetic rays>. He called them γ (gamma) rays.]
This terminology is used e.g. in <Marie Curie's Polonium paper>:
\Q[Some minerals containing <uranium> and <thorium> (<pitchblende>, chalcolite, uranite) are very active from the point of view of the emission of <Becquerel rays>.]
\Image[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Gamma_Spectrum_Uranium_Ore.svg]
{disambiguate=Becquerel's rays}
{title=<Gamma spectroscopy> of a <Uranium ore>}
{description=Several points of the <Uranium 238 decay chain> are clearly visible.}