From there, astronomers have gone on to investigate the formation of the planets and Sun, the life cycles of stars, and the age and formation of the universe.
Astronomy is not just about visible light. What the human eye sees is only a small portion of the activities and processes underway in the universe. Astronomers study the universe by measuring electromagnetic radiation emitted by planets, stars, galaxies, and other distant celestial objects. Radiation is the emission and movement of waves or atomic particles through space or other media. Electromagnetic radiation is radiation that transmits energy through the interaction of electricity and magnetism. When astronomers view the night sky through forms of electromagnetic radiation, they see an entirely different picture: Hot gases seethe and boil when viewed at infrared wavelengths, newly forming galaxies and stars glow with X rays, and mysterious objects generate explosive bursts of gamma rays.
The various forms of electromagnetic radiation, including gamma rays, X rays, optical and infrared radiation, and radio waves, move through space in waves. Like any wave, they can be described by two properties: wavelength and frequency. The wavelength is the distance between one crest, or peak, of a wave and the next corresponding peak.
This is a free page. This page contains 197 words. This
article contains 8,268 words (approx. 28 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our Ground-Based Observatories Access Pass.
