Using All of Our Tools

What the Various Parts of the Spectrum Tell us About Space

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Radio Waves are NOT sound!They are part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

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Electromagnetic Waves

traveling, mass-less packet of energy travels at the speed of light (by definition) all radiation travels at this speed, regardless of

whether is carries a lot of energy or only a little

Animation from Nick Strobel’s Astronomy Notes (www.astronomynotes.com)

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A light wave is a light wave, no matter how long...

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Different Views of Common Objects

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Optical and Radio telescopes can be used from the ground!

•Infrared, X-ray and Gamma ray telescopes must work beyond the ionosphere.

•The ionosphere filters out many of the waves

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Radio Telescope

Optical Telescope

Nowadays, there are more similarities between optical and radio telescopes than ever before.

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The Visible Sky, Sagittarius Region

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The Radio Sky

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Tour of Orion

The tour presents five images of Orion. All show the same area of the sky but were made with telescopes working at different wavelengths of light (optical, infrared, and three

radio wavelengths).

Optical view

Dust in the infrared

Image created By IRAS

Molecular hydrogen

Radio telescope

Ionized hydrogen

Atomic Hydrogen