Student’s Name

Institution

Course

Date

Light

Astronomy is considered as the oldest science in history and is purely observational.The astrophysicists see the universe as bigger than the starry sky with more stars than all the grains of sand on the earth. We can learn the properties of the stars such as their composition, temperature, size, age, and the distance from the earth by observing the light in the sky.Yuan-Sen Ting therefore summarizes the process of determining the composition of stars as making a spectral rainbow to find out the missing elements and trying to figure out the present elements. Yuan-Sen Ting also argues that we are not restricted to just wavelengths as we can use radio waves, infrared light, and the ultraviolet light. The study of different wavelengths gives insight to a wholesome picture of any object and the universe as a whole.

The light from far ends of the universe, carrying six distinctive messages takes billions of light years to reach us. The light from distant space objects can be split to expose different color patterns to reveal the composition of the space object, the temperature and pressure of its integral parts. The Doppler Effect, which states that the sound waves created by an approaching body are compressed whereas those created from an object moving away are stretched, can be applied in astronomy. The Doppler effect can be applied to light whose source is moving at an unprecedented speed, whereby if it is moving towards the observation point the shorter wavelength will appear bluish, while if it is moving away it will have a longer wavelength appearing reddish. Therefore, the analysis of the color pattern in the using the Doppler effect would enable astronomers to know the composition, temperature, pressure, state of motion, the direction and speed of motion of space objects.

Scientists have spent hundreds of years trying to figure out whether light is a particle or a wave. Isaac Newton, the earliest scientists to embark on the study believed that light is composed of tiny atoms, which he named corpuscles and used the idea to explain properties of light like refraction. However, after the death of Newton, scientists proved that light could not be made up of tiny atoms. This was so because two different beams of light that cross paths do not interact at all as expected from Newton’s theory. Light also makes interference patterns like waves, and the understanding of light as a wave explains the concept of what color is.

There are different kinds of light all around us every day, but cannot be seen by the human eye. Light is defined as an electromagnetic radiation that acts both like a particle and a wave. Light is composed of frequencies and wavelengths, which can be used to calculate the energy of the light

Finally, the cosmic rays, discovered in 1912 by Victor Hess, are considered as the space messengers as they originate from outer space. The universe is composed of many stars, planets, black holes and many other components. Cosmic rays consist more of high-energy particles and when they enter the earth’s atmosphere they collide with molecules present there generating cosmic rays, which are rather lighter than the original. The cosmic rays are very useful as space messengers because they carry information about their origins.

In conclusion, astronomers have complex ways of studying the distant rays to know more about the universe. There is still a lot to learn from the light that has not reached us and the universe is boundless.

This entry was posted on February 1, 2018 at 1:25 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.