Questions tagged [light]
Questions regarding electromagnetic radiation in the visible spectrum.
252
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How much photon is still in flight?
Since space is mostly empty, one might first think that the majority of the photons, e.g. emissions from the stars since the beginning of the universe, are still in flight and not absorbed by anything....
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0answers
330 views
Why the space is so dark even there are billions of stars and many quasars emitting light [duplicate]
In our galaxy itself, there are millions of stars, and there are many more other galaxies in our local group and billions in the observable universes.
For sure they all emit a lot of light, still why ...
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1answer
103 views
How much starlight do black holes absorb?
Can it be calculated how much light from other stars a black hole of certain sizes would absorb? And how long will it take for the number of active stars to decrease to the point where Hawking ...
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1answer
23 views
Does The ISW Effect Predict Net Redshift Over Distance?
The Integrated Sachs–Wolfe (ISW) effect is concerned primarily with the study of the Cosmic Background Microwave Radiation (CMBR), but seems to demonstrate that photons passing through voids suffer a ...
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1answer
49 views
Beneficial astronomical uses of satellite constellations like Starlink?
Has any thought been given to software that would use predictable occultations by Earth-orbiting satellites to improve (rather than degrade) astronomical observations?
Potential challenges I could ...
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3answers
1k views
Chromatic aberration in lens
Is there a way to prevent chromatic aberration without using an achromatic lens in refracting telescopes or in any other instruments...?
5
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1answer
347 views
Is the resulting light from a supernova a product of photons bouncing around in the Sun?
I was thinking about how photons formed in the centre of the Sun take quite a long time to exit the surface. And it occurred to me that at the end of a star's life (during a supernova, given that it's ...
5
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1answer
57 views
What is the intensity distribution of visible light over the solar disk?
What is the distribution of the visible spectrum over the solar disk?
Images of the Sun using the visible spectrum suggest that the light emmitted from the edge is almost equal to the light emmited ...
6
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1answer
122 views
Does light from the sun reach the surface of Venus
I am aware we have images from the surface of Venus from the Venera missions but I am not sure if those images are taken using the visible spectrum the human eye can see. This is why I was wondering ...
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1answer
136 views
What is the final destiny of a photon?
What happens with a photon when it moves ouit of a galaxy into the 'infinity void', where there's nothing but 'darkness'? Does the photon decay in the end when there are no interactions?
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1answer
133 views
How to find the source of the light? [closed]
There are millions of galaxies out there in the entire universe. When a telescope is set to a direction to to identify the stellar objects, it can capture all lights from all the objects. How do we ...
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2answers
199 views
What's the actual speed of electromagnetic radiation in space?
The speed of EM radiation is very slightly less than $c$, because space is not quite a vacuum. Say EM travels at $(1-\varepsilon)c$.
For example, this results in a slight delay between receiving a ...
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1answer
80 views
Do all stars of a given age and mass have relatively the same emission spectrum?
My understanding is that much of the visible light that we see during the day is given off from the Sun, and that means that most of the colors that we see are dictated by (with the exception of ...
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3answers
155 views
How do we measure distance in space?
I know that you can calculate the distance to another star for example, by using the phenomenon redshift to determine how much it has redshifted because of the expansion of the universe. But how do ...
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0answers
45 views
really fast moving star-like light [duplicate]
I don't know ANYTHING about astronomy but I know what I saw and 2 of my siblings saw it too. I initially thought it was a shooting star, but a Google search quickly made it clear that it wasn't.
it ...
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0answers
47 views
How is “surface brightness dimming” derived from redshift in the NED extragalactic database
I have several questions regarding “Surface Brightness Dimming” in the “Quantities Derived from Redshift” section of the Nasa/ipac Extragalactic Database.
As an example, please use quasar IRAS F08279+...
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3answers
227 views
Why doesn't it hurt to look at stars?
If I stare at the sun, it's bright and blinding. However, if I look at a star in the sky, it doesn't hurt. What causes this loss of energy that would otherwise damage one's eyes?
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1answer
73 views
how to define the universe itself is expanding greater than than the speed of light?
since we observe galaxies and other steller objects in very tiny tiny scale, and how we can understand that the speed of expansion on universe is higher than the speed of light ?
even using the ...
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0answers
50 views
Could Hubble's Law simply be light's frequency decaying over time? [duplicate]
Is it proven that the frequency of EMR does not decay (at all, ever), and if not, could the observations that led to Hubble's Law simply be that the frequency of light decays over very large durations/...
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3answers
168 views
Do photons slow down as they approach the event horizon of a black hole?
So, if a black hole is so dense, that light cannot escape, what happens to the photons as the approach and go past the event horizon (or some other horizon, about which I am ignorant)? Do photons ...
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0answers
20 views
Polarization of an emission line
Say I have a flux density spectrum of a galaxy, as well as polarization spectra for the object in U, Q, and P. I want to find the polarization of some emission line in the spectrum. First, I can fit a ...
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1answer
103 views
Could an object, assuming possible, escape black hole by travelling above constant speed? [closed]
I am always hearing that after travelling inside a given BH's event horizon, the escape velocity is greater than c, which makes it impossible to escape.
Suppose an ship is inside a BH. Assume it is ...
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2answers
91 views
Radiative Flux, Irradiance and Luminosity confusion
First of all I know there is a similar question here, but I feel is wasn't answered at all.
My question is that I have seen many texts which says that Radiative Flux is equal to the Irradiance of a ...
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1answer
49 views
How do radio telescopes gather information about visible light?
Is the first image of a black hole that was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope what would be seen with a large enough optical telescope (or with the naked eye from a proper distance of the black ...
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1answer
127 views
If a black hole does not emit light, how can one take a picture of the black hole itself?
There's some discussion that the image composed by the Event Horizons Telescope is really just an accretion disk. To "take an image" of something, you need the light reflecting off of the surface of ...
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0answers
77 views
What is the actual visual characteristics of a black hole?
Is there a safe distance in which a black hole can be observed with the human eye? What is a safe distance?
I have seen many computer simulated and artist renditions, and I am not sure if they ...
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3answers
109 views
If FTL travel is possible can i look back in time to a younger earth? [closed]
For this question assume that.
We found a way to go faster than light.
I build a ship that could go faster than light and go to another planet with this ship in the span of mere hours. The ship was ...
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1answer
68 views
Was is the angle needed to see a glory (a rainbow-like effect) from space off the Earth? [closed]
What positions would the Earth, Sun and viewer need to be to see a glory (a rainbow-like effect) from space?
What position would they need to be in to reproduce this picture?
Source: Gizmodo (NASA ...
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0answers
46 views
Definition of the light that is projected by a celestial body/luminary [closed]
I'm creating an application which will simulate the light created by sun or moon on a 3d topographic map of Earth. Something like this:
Is there a word or definition for this light/light projection?
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1answer
107 views
Possible to use tachyons to explore black hole?
I read on a Wikipedia article lately that tachyons are theoretical particles which always travel at or above the speed of light. That means that when one passes us, we see two images, a blue shifted ...
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1answer
87 views
Are there any ways in which the light time difference between the center and the edge of the solar disk is noticeable?
In the ABC News video New space discovery has astronomers buzzing at about 02:30 Dr. Hakeem M. Oluseyi explains that the shortness of FRBs (before dispersion) suggests a compact source size and ...
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1answer
106 views
Can light be curved due to heavy gravitational force?
Lets suppose there is a huge planet having large amount of gravitational pull, then will the light passing through the planet get attracted towards it.
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2answers
244 views
What is the difference between albedo, absolute magnitude or aparent magnitude?
What is the difference between albedo, absolute magnitude or aparent magnitude? I can’t really tell what’s the difference between them.
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2answers
102 views
What is the difference between the way light travels in a gravitational field and the way it travels through an expanding universe?
A photon is travelling through space. As it travels, the space through which it travels is expanding
Does this describe
A - a photon travelling from a distant galaxy to earth
B - a photon travelling ...
6
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3answers
173 views
Universe isn't infinite theory
Forgive me if any of my terminology is off I am no physicist but I have wondered about this question for a while.
I have read in various books that if the universe was infinite, and uniformly created ...
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2answers
71 views
Why is it that night has a almost a bluish tint to it instead of red?
From my understanding/been told, the color red has the ability to travel the farthest in our atmosphere, being the reason why we have red sunsets and such. But with this in mind, why is it that at ...
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5answers
14k views
If light has no mass, why is it affected by gravity?
Light doesn’t accelerate in a gravitational field, which things with mass would do, because light has a universally constant velocity. Why is that exception?
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0answers
48 views
Can you go blind if you look at the sunrise and sunset? [duplicate]
Everyine knows its dangerous to look directly at the sun, but can you look safely at sunrises and sunsets without going blind? Because the uv radiaton and the light is much weaker. Or is it still very ...
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2answers
285 views
What fraction of starlight, seen from Earth, is actually reflected light?
Thanks to reflected starlight, many planets and comets in the Solar System have been visible to humans since long before the development of modern astronomy.
Some of the starlight from outside the ...
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1answer
181 views
Is there enough light to grow plants in the ocean of Europa?
What is the underwater temperature of Europa?
I know Jupiter emits infrared light but does it emit any light able to support plant life of any type on near by Moons? Can under water volcanic activity ...
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1answer
217 views
What is the underwater temperature of Europa?
If Europa has an oxygen atmosphere with a water mantle, is it possible that there could be life under the crust of Europa ice on the ocean where it is warmer? What could be the temperature under the ...
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1answer
311 views
Are there any examples where the transverse doppler effect is applied in astronomy?
Are there any astronomical examples where the transverse doppler effect(Horizontal doppler effect) is applied (Derives a meaningful result)?
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1answer
156 views
How does V838 Monocerotis look today? Any subsequent light echo images, or is the party over?
This answer to the question V838 Monocerotis “light-echo” images morphed into nice video, but why so few original images? contains the following information below. There are other answers and more ...
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1answer
95 views
Light pollution and apparent magnitude of objects in solar system
Dust along the ecliptic scatters light, causing “light pollution” throughout the orbital plane of the solar system. If an object like, say, the sun's corona, had its brightness measured from above the ...
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2answers
82 views
Source of mirror reflectivity data
I am trying to find a source of mirror reflectivity versus wavelength for the typical protected overcoat Aluminum mirrors used in astronomy. I need this to cover the whole visible range (300-1200nm) ...
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0answers
38 views
What is the advantage of taking monochrome photographs in standard lenses
I've readen "When photographing faint objects monochrome photos will resolve more than RGB pics"
Is this really a thing? If yes, how?
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2answers
80 views
Existence of a “reflecting” star [closed]
Wasn't even sure about what the title should be, but I had a thought and I wonder whether it may be possible or not.
Is it possible that there is a star which acts as a mirror and reflects back the ...
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1answer
147 views
Looking at ourselves with a powerful telescope?
Could a small curved mirror and/or lens in Earth's orbit be aimed at a different hemisphere from where you are be be viewed with a powerful telescope to see the ground through the mirror? Would a more ...
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1answer
597 views
Does Time Exist for Photons? [closed]
If time slows down the closer you get to the speed of light, does it follow that time does not exist for photons. Do photons - even if they travel across billions of light years of space - arrive at ...
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1answer
99 views
What unit is used for region Surface brightness in DS9?
The value of the surface brightness is in what unit? I hope it is in Rayleighs. Is that true?
