Category Archives: Light

The James Webb Space Telescope

Posted on February 13, 2015 by bryancm1

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or Webb) is set to be the official successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, due to launch is 2018. In order to understand how the JWST will be improving on the Hubble, I think it is first important to understand some of the light aspects of space observation. Model […] Continue reading →

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Hubble’s Law

Posted on February 13, 2015 by jamej00

Photo Source: Hubble’s Law Considering the topic of what light can tell us, Hubble’s Law is one topic I’ve always found greatly interesting.  As the picture suggests, the redshift of a distant galaxy is in direct linear proportion to its distance from Earth.  This is the essence of Hubble’s Law – which relates a galaxy’s… Continue reading →

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Tour de Light

Posted on February 13, 2015 by christophermfitzgerald

If you’re like me, when you think of light you think of the visible light spectrum, the colors of the rainbow. In reality light is much more than what we can see with our eyes, the spectrum extends far in … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Absorption Spectra

Posted on February 12, 2015 by jamej00

Photo Source: Absorption Spectrum The photo above is the full absorption spectrum of the sun.  The black lines come from the different chemical elements within its atmosphere, and this is true for all stars!  Different elements absorb and emit light at different wavelengths from one another.  Scientists have conducted (here on earth) experiments to determine… Continue reading →

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Blog Post #4: The Twilight Saga

Posted on February 12, 2015 by Elizabeth D.

If you’re like me, then the concept of “twilight” has recently become a little confusing. In class, twilight has been …

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LIGHTS? OR ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES?

Posted on February 12, 2015 by dungeonastronomy

When we talk about light in our daily life, usually we only talk about visible lights. However, light can include any kind of electromagnetic waves. Lights in visible spectrum are the only lights which can be received and recognized by human eyes. From the very left to the right of the whole spectrum, lights of … Continue reading LIGHTS? OR ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES? → Continue reading →

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Light Pollution in the Move From Rural to Urban

Posted on January 24, 2015 by dillonkoval

I am from a very small rural town, which equates to incredible views of the starry sky every night. Every so often, mostly on warm summer nights, there would be bonfires in the middle of a field or on a beach and the sky would be absolutely incredible to behold. It wasn’t until I moved […] Continue reading →

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Shadow Bands!

Posted on January 24, 2015 by christophermfitzgerald

If you’re like me, you have probably never heard of Shadow Bands. Shadow bands are a phenomenon that accompany total solar eclipses and occur just before and after totality, appearing as lines of alternating lines of dark and light moving … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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You Could Be One Step Closer to Understanding the Size of our Solar System!

Posted on January 23, 2015 by christophermfitzgerald

Have you ever felt that understanding the truly staggering size of the universe is unfathomable? With the help of this interactive website you can see first-hand the tremendous distances in just our own solar system! Starting from the center of our solar … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Just how small… or big… am I?

Posted on January 23, 2015 by jamej00

The Known Universe This video really puts into perspective the true size of the observable universe.  Some say this makes us insignificant, but I disagree.  I think that our ability to map the nature of the universe to such an extent makes us quite significant! Realize that everything we know about the universe came solely from… Continue reading →

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