Electromagnetic Spectrum
"The electromagnetic (EM) spectrum is the range of all possible
electromagnetic radiation. The 'electromagnetic spectrum' (usually just spectrum) of an object is the characteristic distribution of
electromagnetic radiation from that object."
More about Electromagnetic Spectrum.
White Light Spectrum
"White is the combination of all the colors of the visible light
spectrum. White is technically achromatic, and not a color, since it has no hue."
More about White Light
After viewing how short the visible (white) light spectrum is in comparison to the rest of the EM spectrum, we get a better idea about how much energy is invisible to us. Sometimes this invisible energy can be hinted at. For instance, we can feel infrared radiation (IR) as heat. Everything we know of gives off some kind of IR. And IR is simply light of a longer wavelength than is typically visible to us. And if heated to a high enough temperature, nearly everything will give off visible light.
This is all made more fascinating when we consider that some animals have extremely high visual acuity. They can not only see the world with a higher resolution then we do (their brains having visual perception reaction times many times greater than humans), their brains can also integrate some parts of the EM spectrum that we cannot see into their sensory experience.
We have specially adapted electronic methods of seeing either white light, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray, gamma ray, or radio. But even when they are combined in a video display, they aren't actually integrated, as would be the image to an animal with comparable visual ability.
[NON-SCIENCE COMMENT - Along these same lines, it would not be a stretch to expect that any super mortal beings might posses this ability as well. As I had mentioned in Living Lucid, space looks like a black abyss to we of handicapped vision. Is it possible that ALL wavelengths may be viewed by some beings? Would this mean that suns would actually appear to be darker than the space surrounding them?]
There has been great debate and some recent agreement about what light is. Einstein invented the word "quanta" in order to show that there was a point where all material reality could be uncuttable. The idea was that light itself was quantized and that each photon ('light packet') was one quantum. The "quantum" (one piece of this material reality) was given definition by Max Planck and was theorized to possess the following measurements:
Planck length Length
(L) 1.616252 × 10−35 m
Planck mass Mass
(M) 2.17645 × 10−8 kg 1.311 × 1019 u
Planck time Time
(T) 5.39121 × 10−44 s
Planck charge Electric charge
(Q) 1.8755459 × 10−18 C 11.70624 e
Planck temperature Temperature
(Θ) 1.41679 × 1032 K
Ok. So we've seen how complex our sun is and what kinds of light is emits. We understand that light it self comes in separate particles called 'photons'. However light is also a wave. It travels while its wave traces out a horizontal wave plane and a vertical wave plane. When one of these waves is cancelled out we call it 'polarization'. Light is unpolarized if both axes propogate a wave. If only one does, then the wave is said to be 'polarized'. Light from the moon is polarized.
MOONLIGHT IS POLARIZED
OTHER STARS
Our sun is immense when compared to our earth. Over a billion earths could fit inside the sun. Yet, our sun, Sol, is just a baby in the family of stars. Here is a classic NASA video to give you a better sense of both the sizes of the planets and the size of various suns when compared to each other. You will begin to get the feeling that there are much bigger things in the universe.
The largest stars have the shortest lifespan. Sol is a yellow dwarf and will live another 5 billion years...
"The Sun is a yellow, G2 V main sequence dwarf. Yellow dwarfs live
about 10 billion years (from zero-age main sequence to white dwarf
formation), and our Sun is already about 5 billion years old."
More Astronomy FAQ's.
Now let's look at some really big stars...
Betelgeuse
"Alpha Orionis, the right shoulder of Orion (from our point of view at the left), glows in an impressive red. The red supergiant pulsates slightly irregular with a period of 2070 days. It is the supernova-candidate lying next to us."
Constellation: Orion
Distance: 427 light-years
Spectral class: M2
Visual magnitude: 0.45
Luminosity: 55 000 * Sun
Mass: 20 * Sun
Diameter: 662 * Sun
Radial velocity: 21 km/sec
BETELGEUSE
Source: Big and Giant Stars
Even in the visible spectrum of white light - the range we can see - there are great variations in star color. As we saw above Betelgeuse is a red color, while our sun is yellow.
There are blue giants, and multiple star-systems, like the Rigel system...
Rigel
"The brightest star of Orion, yet called Beta Orionis, is a system of a blue star and two white stars. The two very similar whites are close together, but far away from the bigger blue one. Rigel A starts expanding to become a red supergiant. Rigel is in the constellation Orion the left knee (from our point of view right)."
"The star lights a reflection nebula famous as Witch Head Nebula, IC 2118."
Constellation: Orion
Distance: 733 light-years
Radial velocity: 20.7 km/sec
Orbit period of Rigel B and C: 9.85992 days
Rigel A
Spectral class: B8
Visual magnitude: 0.14
Luminosity: 38 679 * Sun
Mass: 17 * Sun
Diameter: 62 * Sun
Rigel B
Spectral class B/C: B9
Visual magnitude: 7.45
Luminosity: 46 * Sun
Mass: 4 * Sun
Diameter: 3.5 * Sun
Rigel C
Spectral class B/C: B9
Visual magnitude: 7.45
Luminosity: 46 * Sun
Mass: 4 * Sun
Diameter: 3.5 * Sun
RIGEL AND IT'S WHITE DWARFS
Check out all the close-up shots of multiple star systems at The Bright and Multiple Stars Gallery.
Here is a chart of the closest stars.
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