Using All of Our Tools
What the Various Parts of the Spectrum Tell us About Space
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Radio Waves are NOT sound!They are part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
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Electromagnetic Waves
traveling, mass-less packet of energy travels at the speed of light (by definition) all radiation travels at this speed, regardless of
whether is carries a lot of energy or only a little
Animation from Nick Strobel’s Astronomy Notes (www.astronomynotes.com)
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A light wave is a light wave, no matter how long...
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Different Views of Common Objects
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Optical and Radio telescopes can be used from the ground!
•Infrared, X-ray and Gamma ray telescopes must work beyond the ionosphere.
•The ionosphere filters out many of the waves
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Radio Telescope
Optical Telescope
Nowadays, there are more similarities between optical and radio telescopes than ever before.
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The Visible Sky, Sagittarius Region
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The Radio Sky
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Tour of Orion
The tour presents five images of Orion. All show the same area of the sky but were made with telescopes working at different wavelengths of light (optical, infrared, and three
radio wavelengths).
Optical view
Dust in the infrared
Image created By IRAS
Molecular hydrogen
Radio telescope
Ionized hydrogen
Atomic Hydrogen