AST201H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Astronomical Object, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

• School: UTSG
• Department: Astronomy & Astrophysics
• Course: AST201H1
• Professor: Bryan Gaensler

Document Summary

Spectrum of light: white is(cid:374)"t a color, white light is the sum of all colors, a prism splits sunlight up into a spectrum. Light is a wave: wavelength distance between 2 peaks/troughs, wavelent of light determines its color & energy, shorter & bluer = high energy, longer & reder= low energy, all colors travel at the same speed, c. Figure 1(credit: prof. gaensler: sun appears to have continuous spectrum: has some of every color of light. Figure 3(credit: prof. gaensler: spectrum with such a shape = blackbody spectrum. Figure 4(credit: prof. gaensler: as you heat an opaque object (a blackbody), it emits more light. Figure 5(credit: prof. gaensler: as you heat a blackbody, wavelength at which it emits the most light shifts to shorter wavelengths. If we spread the light from the sun out a whole lot, we see that the solar spectrum is. Figure 8(credit: prof. gaensler: electrons can only orbit in orbitals allowed for that atom.