The scattering of high-energy photons by free electrons, where the photon transfers some of its energy to the electron and emerges with lower energy (longer wavelength). This process is important in high-energy astrophysical environments.
Named after American physicist Arthur Compton, who discovered and explained this phenomenon in 1923, earning him the Nobel Prize in Physics. The effect demonstrated the particle nature of light and helped establish quantum mechanics.
Compton scattering is like a cosmic game of billiards where photons and electrons collide and exchange energy! This process can actually cool down extremely hot gas by stealing energy from high-energy photons, and it's one of the ways the universe's background radiation got stretched to microwave wavelengths.
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