Discover the fascinating world of spectrometers on this episode of Above and Beyond! These exquisitely sensitive instruments can analyze and deconstruct properties of light, revealing a wealth of information about distant objects. Astronomers hook them up to telescopes to make sweeping claims about objects billions of miles away. From frequencies and polarization to intensity and more, the data gathered helps unveil the secrets of temperature, age, size, mass, and even the presence of atoms or molecules. Join us as we raise a glass to the astronomers and their seemingly magic spectrometers, bringing us closer to the wonders of the universe!
Transcript:
I’m holding up two green squares. Can you see em? Can you tell the slight difference in their color?
Okay, even if you could see them, you couldn’t tell… but a spectrometer can.
Spectrometers are a class of exquisitely sensitive instruments that analyze and deconstruct properties of light. In the hands of a skilled professional, these instruments reveal an enormous amount of information about the light that strikes them.
Hook one of these bad boys up to a telescope and astronomers can make sweeping claims about objects bazillions of miles away.
The frequencies, polarization, and intensity of a given sample of light may not seem like much, but astronomers can translate those data into information about an object’s temperature, age, spin, size, mass, intrinsic brightness, how much energy it has, its distance from earth, what atoms or molecules are present, in what direction and how fast a thing is moving, where it’s from, how massive a thing is, how dense a thing is, whether it’s emitting, absorbing, or reflecting light. It tells us how a thing is shaped, whether it has a companion, what that companion is…
Yes. It’s downright mindboggling these things we can learn from far-off flickers and twinkles, too faint for our measly eyehole detectors to see on their own.
Raise a glass to the astronomers and their seemingly magic spectrometers.