--------------------- #1513 - Discovers in the Far Infrared
- Astronomers have been given new eyes. The eyes we are born with see visible light that ranges in wavelength from blue to red, from 400 nanometers to 700 nanometers.
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- Astronomers now have eyes 1,000 times better to see in the infrared. Other space telescopes are peering in the full electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to X-rays to Gamma Rays. This review covers the 60,000 t 700,000 nanometer wavelengths:
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---------------- Visible ----------------------------------------- 400 to 700 nanometers
---------------- Hubble Space Telescope -------------------- 115 to 2500 nanometers
---------------- James Webb Space Telescope ------------ 600 to 28,000 nanometers
---------------- Spitzer Space Telescope ------------------ 3,600 to 160,000 nanometers
---------------- Herschel Space Observatory ------------- 60,000 to 700,000 nanometers
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- The Herschel Space Observatory discoveries are in the sub millimeter wavelengths, the far infrared. Sub millimeter wavelengths are 0.1 to 1 millimeter.
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- The Herschel Space Observatory has to be flying far from Earth because we are an infrared beacon that would drown out any observations. So it is station at Lagrangian Point (P2). It is a point in space where the gravity from the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon are in perfect balance. The telescope can just sit there not being pulled in any direction. The telescope is four times farther from Earth than the Moon.
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- When Herschel infrared detectors look at a galaxy the astronomers do not see the stars, they se the interstellar dust in between the stars. The star’s ultraviolet radiation heats up the dust to -243Celsius. This is certainly cold, but, the dust is still emitting sub millimeter radiation that is warmer than the surrounding space.
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- Astronomers have known that the evolution of stars and planets comes from molecular clouds of this intergalactic dust. When the cloud gets denser with electrostatic attractions, gravity takes over and increases density even farther. Eventually the density and temperatures reach the stage of nuclear fusion and a star is born. Studying infrared will help us learn about this process.
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- Another reason to observe the far infrared is to see images further back in time. Herschel studies galaxies with light that has been traveling 8 billion years. The expanding space over that distance has stretched out the light wavelengths into the sub millimeter wavelengths.
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- Looking back in time has discovered that star formation was much faster rates than today’s . Sprial galaxies were forming 100 times faster when we get back halfway to the Universe’s beginning.
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- The deep field observations have been taking advantage of gravitational lensing. Gravity of a nearby galaxy actually bends and magnifies radiation from far away galaxies. Images in the sub millimeter have been made of galaxies formed 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang.
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- Spectrographs of the light spectrums can detect individual elements and molecules from their emission wavelengths. One of the molecules readily detected in the far infrared spectrum is H2O, water. ( See Review #1509 to learn about molecules discovered in the Orion Nebula.).
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- Astronomers have had trouble explaining how water stayed on the Earth during its early formation. The hot volcanic and tectonic upheavals of early Earth should have boiled off all the liquid water. The theory is that more water was delivered to the surface by the Great Bombardment of asteroids and comets. ( See Review #1510 to learn Earth’s Evolution.).
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- There are 2 types of water in our oceans, normal H2O and heavy H2O that contains an additional neutron. The ratio of normal to this isotope of heavy water is unique. Astronomers have been trying to discover comets that have this same ratio as evidence that their theory is correct. Herschel studies have discovered such a comet in the Kuiper Belt, just beyond the orbit of Neptune. Other studies of the Oort Cloud of comets at the far edge of our Solar System do not match. The Kuiper Belt of ice comets probably delivered Earth’s water when Jupiter and Saturn went into 2:1 resonant orbits. The gravitational perturbations sent a rain of comets into the inner planets.
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- New discoveries are made with new eyes.
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707-536-3272, Monday, November 12, 2012
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