Natural radioactivity
Radiactividad natural
- Date
- 1896 · confidence high
- Place
- National Museum of Natural History, Paris, France
- Credited to
- Henri Becquerel
- People
- 👤 Henri Becquerel1852–1908
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Uranium salts kept in a drawer fog a photographic plate without needing sunlight: they spontaneously emit a penetrating radiation. It is the first evidence that the atom has an internal structure with energy.
Becquerel was looking for a link between fluorescence and X-rays; the finding on a cloudy day (26 February-1 March 1896) was accidental.
What it led to
- The Curies' work on radium and polonium
- Alpha, beta and gamma rays and decay (Rutherford)
- Nuclear physics
- Radiometric dating
Built on
- Röntgen's X-rays
- Fluorescence studies by his father Edmond Becquerel