Category Archives: Light

Blog 1: The Speed of Light And Refractive Index

Light travels at a velocity incredibly difficult for us to comprehend other then as just a very, very large number. To be exact, light travels at a constant velocity of 299,792,458 m/s within a vacuum. This is not the same for light traveling through other conditions. When light does travel through things other then a … Continue reading Blog 1: The Speed of Light And Refractive Index Continue reading

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The EM Spectrum

When most people think of the word “light” they are probably talking about visible light, but the electromagnetic spectrum is much bigger and more diverse than that. Visible light is actually a very small part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Lets break down the spectrum in terms of wavelength. Visible light has a wavelength of 390 … Continue reading “The EM Spectrum” Continue reading

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The EM Spectrum

When most people think of the word “light” they are probably talking about visible light, but the electromagnetic spectrum is much bigger and more diverse than that. Visible light is actually a very small part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Lets break down the spectrum in terms of wavelength. Visible light has a wavelength of 390 … Continue reading “The EM Spectrum” Continue reading

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Rogue Radio Burst Leads to Discovery of Billion-Year-Old Galaxy

The detection of fast radio bursts, one of the universe’s most mysterious and rare occurrences, took place in early January of this year when signals from a dwarf galaxy over 2.5 billion light years away were first recorded. Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are an incredibly rare phenomenon usually occurring in a millisecond or so, each […] Continue reading

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The Invention of the Telescope

Galileo was the first astronomer to use a telescope to observe the moon, the phases of Venus, and the largest four moons of Jupiter. In fact, Galileo was the first astronomer to use a telescope for anything because he was the dude who invented it. He first heard about a dutch inventor who put curved […] Continue reading

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A bit on Technology

Since I’m in the School of Engineering and the topics for this blog are a little more open ended, I … More Continue reading

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The Importance of Spectroscopy in Solar System Exploration

While the very existence of visible light allows for the viewing of celestial bodies, not enough credit is oft given to the true capability of light’s full spectrum. Spectroscopy is an imaging and scientific method of measurement that involves the unique spectra that occur when light comes into contact with an object or substance of […] Continue reading

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IR and Telescopes

I previous wrote about how the “oldest” and farthest galaxies and stars from us are also moving the fastest away … More Continue reading

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Hubble’s Law and a Window to the Past

Hubble’s Law is one of the most fundamental observations in cosmology – that objects far off in space are almost … More Continue reading

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Is the speed of light constant or actually variable?

Throughout studies into interactions of various celestial bodies, one constant in putting into scope the mind-bogglingly vast distances has been the speed of light, via the distance unit of a light-year. The concept of the speed of light was first fully suggested when Einstein hypothesized that the speed of light plays the role of infinite speed […] Continue reading

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