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Em Radiation
Em Radiation
• Two stars are the same distance and temperature, but one
looks brighter. It must also be larger.
• Two stars are the same size and temperature, but one looks
brighter. It must also be bluer.
To get an appreciable
change, you have to be
moving with an
appreciable fraction of
the speed of the wave
The Doppler Shift – how we use
it
Atomic energy transitions leave features in the spectrum whose
rest wavelengths are known from laboratory work. We can
measure observed shifts in these wavelengths from astronomical
objects, and see how fast they are moving (you only get the line-
of-sight motion: towards or away from you).