The One with the Eighth Astronomy Class 🌙🌎💫☄️

● Diffraction: The bending of a wave around an obstacle

● Interference: The sum of two waves; may be larger or smaller than the original
waves
○ Eg. As a hot metal cools, particles slow down, giving up energy to the
surrounding air.
● It does so by emitting visible light and a lot of heat (infrared) but also a fair
amount of microwaves and even some radio waves.

● What is a Blackbody Curve (Spectrum)?

● From early atomic EM wave studies, scientist wanted to understand the types/
amounts of each λ that different atoms give off under different circumstances...
● Graph shows theoretical distribution of λs (frequencies) of EM waves emitted by
ANY object (no matter size, shape, composition, etc.)
● Intensity of radiated waves NOT evenly distributed, not symmetrical
○ every object gives off energy more intensely at certain frequencies than
others.
● “Blackbody” because in ideal situation, object would absorb all energy falling on it
and then re-emit the same amount of energy that it absorbed.
● We can see that as temperature increases the peak wavelength decreases

● Wien’s Law for Blackbody Radiation

○ (1897) Wilhelm Wien discovers that peak wavelength radiated by
objects is inversely proportional to their temperature.
● Meaning: the hotter the object, the smaller (shorter) the peak wavelength emitted
& the bluer its radiation.
● The cooler the object, the larger (longer) its peak wavelength emitted & the
redder its radiation.

● Stefan-Boltzmann law:
○ Josef Stefan (1879): Total energy emitted by an object is proportional
to fourth power of the temperature.

● When we use a spectrometer to split light, we get different spectra, depending on

the light source.
● Summarized by Gustav Kirchoff’s Laws of Spectra:
● Law #1) Continuous Spectrum: a full continuous sequence of blended colours
from red through to violet. (all wavelengths in visible light range are emitted by
object).
● Produced by:
 ○ Luminous solids/liquids or dense gases
■ Eg. White hot filament of a light bulb or the core of a star.
● Law #2) Emission Line Spectrum: a series of specific wavelengths emitted by
particular atoms
● Produced by:
○ Low-Density Hot Gas
● Law #3) Absorption line Spectrum: If a continuous spectrum passes through a
cool gas, atoms of the gas will absorb the same frequencies they emit.

● The Formation of Spectral Lines

● Molecular spectra are complex compared to the spectra of atoms
○ (a) Molecular hydrogen (b) Atomic hydrogen

● The Doppler Effect:

○ The Doppler Effect describes how relative motion between an observer
and object impacts what we see.
○ If one is moving toward a source of radiation, the wavelengths seem
shorter; if moving away, they seem longer. We can use the following
mathematical relationship to help us find the true recessional velocity of an
object we are receiving EM wave from...