VIEWING THE UNIVERSE
THE ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM AND TELESCOPES
What is astronomy?
Astronomy is the scientific study of the universe. Astronomy is very important to humans because we need to learn about space and the processes involved in the formation of our solar system and also to be aware of potential catastrophes, such as collision between asteroids and Earth. Another example why astronomy is important is the shine of the stars that one day it might lead us to improved or new energy sources on Earth. These are just few ideas of what is Astronomy and why is it important.
Objectives:
I. Identify the visible and nonvisible parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.
II.Compare refracting telescopes and reflecting telescopes.
III. Explain how telescopes for nonvisible electromagnetic radiation differ from light telescopes.
Astronomy Vocabulary
Light year
A light year is a unit of length equal just under 10 trillion kilometers.
Galaxy
A collection of stars, dust, and gas bound together by gravity.
Astronomical unit
The average distance between the Earth and the sun; approximately 150 million kilometers.
Electromagnetic Spectrum
All of the frequencies or wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation.
Refracting Telescope
A telescope that uses a set of lenses to gather and focus light from distant objects.
Reflecting Telescope
A telescope that uses a curved mirror to gather and focus light from distant objects.
DESCRIBE THE ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM
The Electromagnetic Spectrum is all of the frequencies or wavelength of electromagnetic radiation. Light, radio waves, and X rays are all examples of electromagnetic radiation. The radiation is composed by traveling waves of electric and magnetic fields. The human eye can only see wavelengths in the visible light range of the spectrum that are form from energy. The invisible light cannot be seen by humans but they can can be detected by special instruments. Invisible light includes infrared waves, microwaves, radio, ultraviolet rays, X rays, and gamma rays. If the wavelengths are shorter than violet they are visible; if they are longer than red they are invisible. On the other hand, they both have a lot of common, for example they are both radiation from stars and they are both collected on the electromagnetic spectrum. They both travel in wavelengths and produce different wavelengths colors. The visible and invisible travel at the same speed of 300,000 kilometers per second.
Compare the refracting and reflecting telescopes
Astronomers use two types of telescope to study and analyze visible light. The name of these two brilliant telescopes are the Refracting and Reflecting telescopes. These telescopes share things in common for example their both optical and and they both focus different colors of light at different distances. On the other hand their also very different; the refracting telescope uses a set of lenses to gather ad focus light from different distant objects and colors. This telescope has an objective lens and focuses the light to be magnified by an eyepiece. The problem of this telescope is that if an object is focus in the red light the object will appear on blue. The reflecting telescope uses a curved mirror to gather and focus light from distant objects. This telescopes can be much larger and can gather more light than reflecting telescopes can. When light enters a reflecting telescopes, the light is reflected by a large curved mirror to a second mirror, which makes it a little bit more efficient than the refracting telescope.
Telescopes for invisible light and spaced based telescopes
There is two types of telescopes; their is one for invisible light and and their is another named space based telescope. The space based telescope is for a solution of telescopes on earth that have to deal with the atmosphere getting on the way. This telescope was launched into space to collect electromagnetic radiation images. The invisible light telescope could detect invisible radiation, gamma rays, X rays, and infrared waves. This telescope was also use to study forms of radiation. The problem of this telescope is that magnetic radiation acts as a shield to electromagnetic radiation and its hard to see.