Skip to main content Skip to main content

Chemistry: Challenges and Solutions

How a PET Scan Works (animation)

To receive a PET scan, the patient ingests an unstable isotope. Inside the body, the isotope emits a positron, which collides with an electron and they annihilate, creating two photons shoot off in opposite directions exactly 180 apart from one another. The scanner detects the two photons and can map their point of origin to create an image of places where the isotope was most concentrated.

Series Directory

Chemistry: Challenges and Solutions

Credits

Produced by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. 2014.
  • Closed Captioning

Units