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Radiation: Information From The Cosmos
Radiation: Information From The Cosmos
OR
– pattern in a field
(light or radio waves).
Waves: Standard Dimensions
In physics, waves are described by a few standard
dimensions.
Amplitude A= height of wave
Wavelength = length of one cycle above “rest position”
Cheerleader demo
Types of waves
Transverse waves: the motion of the medium is at right
angles to the direction in which the wave travels.
Examples: stretched strings of musical instruments,
waves on the surfaces of liquids,
some of the waves produced in earthquakes.
Although they require no “medium” to travel,
electromagnetic waves are also transverse waves.
E = hf
where h = Planck’s constant
Recall that wave speed relates frequency and wavelength:
v = f
and for light, c = f
so, E f or E 1/
Creating and Detecting Light
• Light is created by the
motion of charged particles.
• Matter is made up of atoms, which are
in turn made up of charged particles.
• Motions of these charged particles
create light.
– Not just the light we detect with our eyes,
but at all wavelengths (or frequencies).
Electromagnetic Spectrum
Properties of Light
• Polarization
• Reflection
• Refraction
• Dispersion
• Diffraction
• Interference
Properties of Light:
Reflection and Refraction
• An isolated light beam travels in a straight line.
• Light can change directions under certain
conditions:
• Reflection from a surface,
– mirrors, objects
• Refraction (or bending of a ray of light) as the
ray travels from one transparent medium to
another.
– pencil in a clear glass of water
– light through a piece of glass
Properties of Light: Dispersion
•Electromagnetic waves interact with the charged particles in matter
and travel more slowly in transparent media than in a vacuum.
•The change in speed of the light wave causes the wave to refract.
•Since the speed of an EM wave in a medium changes with
wavelength, the amount of refraction depends on the wavelength.
•This effect is called dispersion.
Visible Light
• Prism will separate light into its components
• Composed of 7 hues (Roy G. Biv), known as its
spectrum
– Red (~ 700 nm or 7000 Å)
– Orange
– Yellow
– Green
– Blue
– Indigo
– Violet (~ 400 nm or 4000 Å)
• Color determined by its frequency
(or, equivalently, its wavelength)
Visible Spectrum
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Properties of Light:
Interference and Superposition
• What happens if two waves run into each other?
• Waves can interact and combine with each other,
resulting in a composite form.
• Interference is the interaction of the two waves.
– reinforcing interaction = constructive interference
– canceling interaction = destructive interference
• Superposition is the method used to model the
composite form of the resulting wave.
Interference of Waves
Interference: ability of two or more waves to reinforce
or cancel each other.
Constructive interference
occurs when two wave
motions reinforce each
other, resulting in a wave of
greater amplitude.
Destructive interference
occurs when two waves
exactly cancel, so that no
net motion remains.
Radiation and Temperature
• What determines the type of electromagnetic radiation
emitted by the Sun, stars, and other astronomical
objects? Temperature
• Electromagnetic radiation is emitted when electric
charges accelerate, changing either the speed or the
direction of their motion.
• The hotter the object, the faster the atoms move in the
object, jostling one another, colliding with more
electrons, changing their motions with each collision.
• Each collision results in the emission of electromagnetic
radiation- radio, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, x-rays.
How much of each depends on the temperature of the
object producing the radiation.
Measuring Temperature
• Atoms and molecules that make up matter
are in constant random motion.
• Temperature is a direct measure of this
internal motion.
– The higher the temperature,
the faster (on average) the random motion
of particles in matter.
– Temperature of an object represents the average
thermal energy of particles that
make up that object.
TWO MAJOR
SCALES °F and °C
• As an object is heated,
the radiation it emits
peaks at higher and
higher frequencies.
• Shown here are curves
corresponding to
temperatures of
300 K (room temperature),
1000 K (glow dull red),
4000 K (red hot), and
7000 K (white hot).
“Red Hot”
2 T = 2 x 5800 K • = 16 ( T4 )
= 11,600 K,
• = 16 ET
how much more energy
would it radiate than it The energy radiated by the
does now? Sun would be 24 or 16 times
more than now.
Electromagnetic Spectrum
Electromagnetic Energy from the Sun
Why Do We Need Space Telescopes?
Opacity of the Atmosphere
• Only a small fraction of the radiation produced by astronomical
objects actually reaches our eyes because atoms and molecules in
the Earth's atmosphere absorb certain wavelengths and transmit
others.
• Opacity is proportional to the amount of radiation that is absorbed
by the atmosphere.
Half-Absorption Altitude (km)
Wavelength (angstroms)