Astronomy, Kinds Of

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Additionally, modern astronomers often need to piece together information from different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum to build up a picture of the physics/chemistry of their object(s) of interest. The table on page 12 summarizes some of the links between wavelength, objects/physics of interest, and current/planned observing platforms. It provides a flavor of how the field of astronomy today varies across wavelength, and hence, by the energy of the object sampled.The field of astronomy is also quite vast in terms of the physical nature, location, and frequency of object types to study. The field can be broken down into four categories:

1. Solar and extrasolar planets and planet formation, star formation, and the interstellar medium;
2. Stars (including the Sun) and stellar evolution;
3. Galaxies (including the Milky Way) and stellar systems (clusters, superclusters, large scale structure, dark matter); and
4. Cosmology and fundamental physics.

The Study of Planets, Star Formation, and the Interstellar Medium

One of the most important developments in the first category over the past few years has been the detection of several planets orbiting other stars along

Approximate Wavelengths (m)	Wavelengths Other Units	Photon Energies Greater Than	Frequency	Name for Spectral Brand	Produced by Temperatures in Region of (K)	Examples of Astrophysical Objects of Interest	Examples of Present/Planned Telescopes to Use for Observations
10-13		80.6MeV		Gamma-ray	108	Cosmic rays,	Space only: CGRO (1991-
10-12		80.6MeV				gamma-ray	2000), INTEGRAL (2002-),
10-11		0.8MeV				bursters, nuclear	GLAST (2005-)
						processes
10-10	1Å, 0.1nm	80.6keV		Hard X-ray	107	Accretion disks in
10-9	10Å, 1nm	8.06keV				binaries, black holes,
						hot gas in galaxy
						clusters, Seyfert	Space only: ROSAT (1990-1999),
						galaxies	ASCA (1993-), Chandra (1999-),
							XMM (2000-)
10-8	100Å, 10nm	0.806keV		Soft X-ray	106	Supernovae remnants,
						neutron stars, X-ray
						stars, superbubbles
10-7	1000Å, 100nm	80eV		XUV/EUV Far UV	105	White dwarfs, flare stars,	Space only: EUVE (1992-),
						O stars, plasmas	FUSE (1999-)
2 x 10 -7	200nm			Ultraviolet	105	Hot/young stars,	Space only: HST (1990-), Astro-
						Orion-like star nurseries,	1/2 (1990, 1995), SOHO (1996-)
						interstellar gas, helium
						from the big bang, solar
						corona, Ly alpha forest
						sources
4 x 10 -7	400nm			Violet	104	B stars, spiral galaxies,	Ground: Keck, Gemini (1999-),
						nebulae, Cepheids,	Magellan (1999-), Subaru (1999-)
				Visible		QSOs	VLT (1999-), MMT (2000-),
7 x 10 -7	700nm			Red	104	K, M stars, globular	Space: HST
						clusters, galaxy mass
8-50 x 10-7	0.8-5μm			Near-infrared		Circumstellar dust shells	Ground: CHFT, CTIO, IRTF, Keck
						comets, asteroids, high	Magellan, Subaru, UKIRT, VLT
						z galaxies, brown	Space: ISO (1995-98), SIRTF
						dwarfs	(2002-)
5-30 x 10-6	5-30μm			Mid-infrared	103	Cool interstellar dust,	Ground: IR optimized telescopes:
						PAHs, organic molecules,	IRTF, UKIRT, Gemini
						planetary nebulae,	Airborne: SOFIA (2005-)
						molecular hydrogen	Space: ISO (1995-1998), SIRTF
							(2002-)
3-20 x 10-5	30-200μm			Far-infrared		Ultraluminous/starburst	Airborne: SOFIA
						galaxies, debris disks,	Space: ISO, SIRTF
						Kuiper Belt Objects
3.5-10 x 10-4	350mm-1mm			Sub-millimeter		High z galaxies/proto-	Ground: HHT, JCMT, SMA (1999-)
						galaxies; molecular	Space: SWAS (1998-), FIRST
						clouds; interstellar dust	(2008-)
					100
10-3	1 mm		300,000MHz,	Millimeter		Molecules in dark dense	Gound: IRAM, ALMA
			300GHz			interstellar clouds (CO)
10-2	1cm		30,000MHz,		10	Cosmic microwave	Space: COBE (1989-), MAP
			30GHz			background	(2001-)
				Microwave
10-1	10cm		3000MHz,		1	Galaxy studies,
			3GHz			Hydrogen clouds
						(21cm), masers
1	1m		300MHz			Quasars, radio galaxies,	Ground: Arecibo, VLA, VLBA,
						hot gasses in nebulae	MERLIN
							Space: VSOP (1997-)
10	10 m		30MHz	Radio	<1	Synchroton radiation
						(electronics spiraling in
102	100m		3MHz			magnetic fields) from
						supernovae remnants,
						magnetic lobes of radio
						galaxies
103	1km			Long wave		No data yet. This is a free page. This page contains 170 words. This article contains 1,602 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page). Read the rest of this Article with our Astronomy, Kinds Of Access Pass. More Info on This Product View a FREE Sample Article 4 Alternative Definitions Search Results for "Astronomy, Kinds Of" View the Study Pack   View all | View only answered questions | View only unanswered questions Ask any question on Astronomy and get it answered FAST! Answer questions in BookRags Q&A and earn points toward discounted or even FREE Study Guides and other BookRags products! Learn more about BookRags Q&A Copyrights Astronomy, Kinds Of from Macmillan Science Library: Space Sciences. Copyright © 2001-2006 by Macmillan Reference USA, an imprint of the Gale Group. All rights reserved.