quantum mechanics

do you two know how scientists identify

the substances in distant stars do you
know how we measure the composition of
the Sun for example sure one major tool
is spectral analysis isn't it
yes indeed I am familiar with results of
spectral analysis but I am a bit unsure
of how the spectra arise to begin with
Chaucer is that part of our material for
today yes it is Diana in fact it is the
starting point let's use professor
Peabody's wayback machine since we don't
have one of our own and look at a little
science history Jeeves
traveling to the 1750s we find the
scientists were putting different
substances in flames and passing the
resultant light through a prism they
found that the hot gas is given off by
the burning materials emit different
colors of light or spectrum
for example ordinary table salt
generated a bright yellow spectrum
furthermore not all the colors of the
rainbow appeared there were dark gaps in
the spectrum in fact for some materials
there were just a few patches of light
mother 1820s they recognized that
spectra provided an excellent way to
detect and identify small quantities of
an element in a powder that was put into
a flame meanwhile the white light of the
Sun was also being examined closely and
in 1802 it was discovered that the solar
spectrum itself had tiny gaps there were
many thin dark lines in the rainbow of
colors but the reason for spectral lines
in the white and the relationship to
each substance was a real mystery