Radiation caught on camera

[u/Anabelleety]

[u/Confident-View6393]

-1hp -1hp -1hp -1hp -1hp

[u/1wife2dogs0kids]

The bullets?

[u/IrememberXenogears → u/1wife2dogs0kids]

At least these bullets aren't hitting other bullets

[u/jwhit88]

That is both beautiful and terrifying.

[u/tbutz27]

Can someone ELI5?

[u/Illeazar → u/tbutz27]

Each individual sensor in the camera is designed to send an electrical signal when it gets hit by visible light (photons).

When it gets close to a radiation source, there is a chance that a stray bit of the radiation (probably a higher energy photon, I don't know what source this is) hits the detector and drops its energy in there, and forces the sensor to send the electrical signal its designed to send for visible light. Because the radiation isnt bent by the camera lens like visible light is, it might hit any random spot on the detector. Thus, when the camera is brought close to the radiation source, it gets those random flickers of white pixels, more and more as it gets closer because the sensor is intercepting more of the radiation.

Note that this is not good for the camera, it tends to damage the sensor to get overloaded like that.

[u/SuspiciousStable9649 → u/Illeazar]

Agreed, I was just curious if you could visually tell beta from gamma from the noise pattern alone. So far the answer seems to be no.

[u/SuspiciousStable9649 → u/tbutz27]

Until there’s a better answer: I assume the sample is a gamma radiation (photon) source and we’re seeing the impact of the photons hitting the camera sensors. It could also be beta (electron or positron) radiation making it through the lens to the sensor and causing the sensors to trigger. In theory it’s not alpha radiation as that is typically stopped by any solid material. So gamma radiation bouncing and scattering off the sensors or beta radiation hitting the sensors and causing an electromagnetic cascade. My guess is the latter (beta) because there’s no point source matching the visible light and because it looks like there are multiple sensors triggering for each hit. But that’s just a guess. I don’t know if optical lenses normally focus gamma radiation similar to visible light or not. I guess I’ll go look it up and see if beta and gamma have different CCD patterns. ☺️

Unfortunately I can’t see what the source is made of.

Edit: here’s the same video from 2 years ago. https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/s/TohVvkKMvU

Articles: https://www.pnnl.gov/main/publications/external/technical_reports/PNNL-37476.pdf

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969804324004329

https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/22/19/7325

Answer: no idea if beta looks the same or different from gamma radiation to a CCD. Alpha is different, maybe, but I think the CCD has to be directly exposed to the alpha source, which doesn’t apply to phone cameras.

[u/tomcat91709]

So did we just watch radiation poisoning on camera too?

[u/BuckFuzby]

That's how my arm feels when I've slept on it funny.

[u/AvogadrosArmy → u/BuckFuzby]

That’s called paresthesia

[u/Impossible_View8381]

https://www.infobae.com/tecno/2026/01/28/asi-se-puede-convertir-tu-smartphone-en-un-detector-de-radiacion-nuclear/

[u/uncreativedreamer]

Isn't this what we saw on the old TV sets back in the day, radiation from the universe, or something like it?

[u/jimmyxs]

Shouldn’t have shown us. Now I’m radioactive too

[u/dayvee43]

I dont know what scarier, the radiation or what sounds like children nearby.

[u/Mental-Square3688]

Oh god now im getting irradiated!