Imagine you're chilling in your bedroom after a fun day and suddenly you feel too energized. Maybe you had too much sugar? You need to release some of that energy to get back to your normal, relaxed self. Nuclei do the same thing! They release excess energy as gamma photons.

• Excited State: It's like having a sugar rush for the nucleus. It has more energy than its normal, lowest energy state.
• Gamma Photon: It's the energy the nucleus releases when it’s trying to chill again. It's a form of electromagnetic radiation.

• Step A: A neutron says hello to cobalt-59. The result? An "excited" version of cobalt-60! Think of this as cobalt-59 having an extra shot of espresso. This extra energy is signified by an 'm' next to the chemical symbol (60Com²⁷).
• Step B: Cobalt-60 releases some energy (like when you start yawning after the sugar rush). It emits a gamma photon of energy 0.059MeV to feel more relaxed.
• Step C: Now, in 99.88% of the times, cobalt-60 feels adventurous and turns into an excited version of nickel (60Nim²⁸) by emitting a β⁻ particle (like shedding off a layer). This can happen in 2 ways.
  • 99.9% of the time, it releases energy of 0.31MeV.
  • 0.12% of the time, it goes big and releases energy of 1.48MeV

            Either way, the nickel is supercharged (or excited) at the end of this

• Step D: The hyped-up nickel is now ready to chill. It emits more gamma photons to arrive at its lowest energy, aka its "Netflix-and-chill" state.

• Gamma rays are basically supercharged light. They are part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
• They are high-energy folks, often measured in MeV.
• The energy they have is given by: E = hf (where 'h' is Planck’s constant and 'f' is the frequency of the radiation).
• And yes, they have momentum! Given by: p = hf/c (where 'c' is the speed of light).