![]() ![]() For example, hotter stars will peak closer to blue light, and colder stars will peak closer to red light. The intensity of the rainbow across its different colours or its different wavelengths will depend on the temperature of the light source. This spectrum can also extend to invisible kinds of light such as ultraviolet or infrared light. What is spectroscopy used for? To determine the temperature of a starĪ spectrum emitted by a hot, dense light source such as a star shows up as a nearly continuous rainbow. Some of these details are revealed by studying the parts of the light that have been absorbed by a planet's or a star's atmosphere and are therefore " missing" from the spectra collected. ![]() Studying the way that different wavelengths of light interact with different types of matter can reveal many of its characteristics, including temperature, composition, and motion. These instruments can thus create infrared spectra, and measure the amounts of light in various parts of them.Ī basic principle of spectroscopy is that colour and light carry information. Instruments called spectrographs on the Webb Telescope, like Canada's NIRISS, contain grisms, a specialized type of prism that can break apart infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye. This process of separating light into its smaller components can be done with all kinds of light. Scientists use prisms and other instruments that work in similar ways to split the light from distant celestial objects to understand them more deeply. When the Sun appears at the same time as, or shortly after, a rainfall, raindrops will separate, or disperse, sunlight into a rainbow in the sky. Sunlight also contains invisible kinds of light, like ultraviolet and infrared light, which are parts of the spectrum as well. Text version - Sunlight broken down by a prism - infographicĪ glass prism separates sunlight into all its colours to create a rainbow, which is a spectrum of its visible light. ![]()
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