Re: Reach for the Stars B
Posted: March 8th, 2020, 2:06 pm
Any topics that deviate from the rules manual that are found in tests??
I'm assuming you mean the benefits of observing at each wavelength. It's not possible to list all the purposes of each range of light, and I'm not going to make all your notes for you, but some examples of uses include interferometry (radio), cosmology from observing CMB (microwave), heat detection (infrared), literally anything observable to humans (optical), and observing black holes (most wavelengths, but especially x-ray and gamma radiation). I'll leave the rest to you because part of the fun is in discovering for yourself all the fascinating ways we use lightAstroKing wrote: ↑March 5th, 2020, 6:31 pmThank you for your reply, but I was asking for the benefits of each individual wavelength!!gz839918 wrote: ↑March 5th, 2020, 4:05 pmDifferent wavelengths give different information about an object. By examining the wavelength of an object, you can learn properties about its temperature through Wien's Law. Different wavelengths can also tell you about what an object is made out of, because different gases emit different wavelengths of light. And since you won't know what the spectrum of wavelengths of an object is until you observe it, it's beneficial to observe across the entire spectrum of wavelengths.
Moreover, building telescopes for certain wavelengths helps to compensate for times when light at other wavelengths aren't available. It's hard to detect gamma rays from the Earth, so we observe at other wavelengths like optical and radio for our Earth-based observatories to account for that. Meanwhile, in space, it's too costly to build radio telescopes because radio telescopes are enormous; in this case, it's more feasible to launch gamma ray detectors, like the Fermi and Compton telescopes.