Questions tagged [spectroscopy]
Questions about the measurement of light waves whereby the wavelength is classified by its position in the electromagnetic spectrum.
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When measuring the spectrum of an object at the zenith, is it better to orient the spectroscopic slit N-S of E-W?
If you were to measure the spectrum of an object while it's exactly at the zenith, how should you orient the slit of the spectrograph to minimise atmospheric dispersion? Is North-South or East-West ...
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Using optical fibers in astronomy
Why are optical fibers important in astronomy? I have read on the internet that they find applications in many fields including astronomy and this intrigued me and I would like to know what they are ...
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Why does Hubble's F850LP filter have a different shape than all the others shown in Dr. Becky's video "ALL THE DETAILS on Earendel..."?
It will take some time to read through @Pela's excellent answer to Is there a better explanation of this picture showing the very distant star "Earendel"? and to slowly ease myself into it I'...
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How are absorption cross sections calculated?
I would like to develop a more intuitive understanding of cross sections, in the context of radiative transfer.
I understand that a cross section, $\sigma_\nu$, is a measure of a given atom/molecule's ...
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How exactly does SPHEREx implement 96 spectral bands with a linear variable filter across its focal plane?
JPL's mission page for SPHEREx says:
The mission will create a map of the entire sky in 96 different color bands, far exceeding the color resolution of previous all-sky maps.
Wikipedia's SPHEREx ...
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Radial velocity stability to spectrum shift calculation
I am engineer new to Astronomy and am trying to understand spec of an spectrograph (RV stability = 2m/s). There is a note in document saying "RV shift of 2 m/s is equivalent to a shift of the ...
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How do I find thermal doppler line broadening for a K Ca II line in a star at 3000K? [closed]
If the wavelength of K Ca II is 393,4 nm and the weight of a calcium atom is 6.66e-26 kg, then how do I find Δλ?
This is what I've tried so far:
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S/N binning of 2D spectral galactic data
I have the 2D spectrum of the ellipical galaxy NGC 4697 taken by a long slit spectrograph. The x-direction (horizontal) corresponds to wavelength and the y-direction (vertical) corresponds to distance ...
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What happened to the reemitted photons during recombination?
To my understanding, the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) is light released during the recombination epoch where the formation of neutral hydrogen atoms allowed for a sudden drop in the ...
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Is there a tool to convert N-body RAMSES simulation file formats to GADGET 2 format in Python?
I am looking for a way to convert RAMSES files to GADGET-2 binary files because I want to use the package SimSpin (https://github.com/kateharborne/SimSpin/blob/master/R/make_simspin_file.R) which is ...
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How to interpret this spectrum of the "new DESI Quasar at z = 6.53"; what causes the big edge at about 9150 Angstroms?
I'm not exacty sure why but Scitech Daily's Seeing Dark Energy’s True Colors: DESI Creates Largest 3D Map of the Cosmos includes the graphic and caption below.
It indicates a quasar in a Hubble image ...
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Can I "see" nucleosynthesis in R Geminorum with a small telescope, a plastic diffraction grating and a cell phone? (famous technetium lines)
R Geminorum is a magnitude +6 to +11 variable star notable for the discovery of technetium spectral lines. As the longest lived isotope is only a few million years, this was direct evidence that ...
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Confusion around units for SEDs, and how to tell what I'm looking at
I know that a spectral energy distribution (SED) is a plot of energy versus wavelength or wavelength of light, while a spectrum is a plot of flux density against wavelength, but I'm a bit confused ...
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Could we optically observe metallic hydrogen in space?
As many calculations have been done on whether metallic hydrogen is metastable or not in low-pressure environment, It occurred to me that by the fact that we have not observed any metallic hydrogen so ...
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Why would radio astronomers choose ¹³CO and C¹⁸O spectral lines instead of the most isotopically common combination?
Wikipedia's T Tauri explains that this system is an atypical example of T Tauri stars.
It says:
As typical for the young stars, all three stars of T Tauri system are surrounded by a compact disks ...
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Estimate upper limits on flux values in the case of a non-detection?
I have ALMA data which are non-detections of some spectral lines in a protoplanetary disk. The data is in the form of spectral cubes. I am hoping to estimate an upper limit on the flux of each of the ...
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What is Hubbles WFC3 "UVIS 47 G200" filter? What is it used for? How to find an example?
Extensive reading for Are the dispersion directions of the prism and the grating in Hubble WFC3 UVIS G280 perpendicular? Can we call this a "grism"? With cross-disparsion? led me to ...
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Are the dispersion directions of the prism and the grating in Hubble WFC3 UVIS G280 perpendicular? Can we call this a "grism"? With cross-disparsion?
Prologue
From Into the UV: A precise transmission spectrum of HAT-P-41b using Hubble's WFC3/UVIS G280 grism:
The UVIS grism, however, comes with several quirks that make it difficult to observe with ...
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Why do space telescopes have GRISMS? Why a grating AND a prism for cross-dispersion in slitless spectroscopy?
https://hst-docs.stsci.edu/wfc3ihb lists the page 8.2 Slitless Spectroscopy with the UVIS G280 Grism which contains details of one of the GRISMs of the Hubble Space Telescope (GRISM = Grating + Prism)....
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Are there any SuperCam spectra available?
A lot of pictures from the SuperCam, the NavCam or the Mastcam onboard the Perseverance rover are available online (for instance on the NASA and JPL websites). Have any SuperCam spectra been made ...
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Optical Observation Calls: How and Where to apply for optical observations?
How and Where to apply for optical observations to support a research project?
I'm involved with research in multifrequency astrophysics and my next project will demand optical (spectroscopy) ...
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Are there any spectral lines with smaller frequencies than the hydrogen line?
The 21 centimeter hydrogen line originates from the hyperfine transition of neutral hydrogen. Are there any bigger wavelengths that originate from this method?
Radio emissions from rotating stellar ...
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Where do Astronomers usually get their wavelengths? Where do they turn to look up standard, accepted values for spectral features?
When identifying isolated observed spectral features or fitting complex observed spectra or even running complex numerical simulations, one needs a reliable, standard table of known wavelengths and ...
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Why would someone choose a lower resolution grating over a higher one when performing spectroscopy?
The higher spectral resolution grating would reduce the spectral range. Besides that, would a higher resolution grating reduce the signal per pixel? I thought I heard someone mentioned this to me a ...
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How is the H II 'region' directly detectable? By Compton or Thomson free-particle scattering? At what wavelengths?
The Wikipedia page on H II regions says that they are 'indirectly' detectable by the detection of doubly-ionized oxygen atoms mixed in.... (I am presuming atoms, not diatomic molecules...)
But are ...
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Are plasma nuclei detectable? By the occasional emission of gamma rays, perhaps?
As stated above....
How often do nuclei stripped bare emit radiation?
Can nuclei be identified by the wavelengths or amplitudes of gamma rays they emit? How about isotopes?
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Vacuum and air wavelengths in spectroscopy
In the SDSS page https://classic.sdss.org/dr7/products/spectra/vacwavelength.html, it is written
Because the SDSS observes many quasars at rest-frame ultraviolet
wavelengths, the data are stored in ...
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Would Atlas Pro's prediction about the color of plant in Kepler-186F work as a biosignature to search for life?
The Atlas Pro video that prompted this question is this.
Tl;dr: it is argued that due to the different spectrum of radiation emitted by Kepler-186 and what is known about the evolution of ...
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Radio SEDs for quasars
Using data from https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/, I can get nice-looking spectral energy distributions for quasars, such as for these two:
but most of their points are in UV to IR range. I'm looking ...
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What are the pros and cons of different types of echelle spectrograph cross-dispersers?
Echelle spectrographs, operating at high resolving power, typically consist of an echelle grating with a low numbers of lines/mm, used with high diffraction orders (often $n=$50-100). To separate the ...
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Why does X-shooter use double passes through prisms for Echelle cross-dispersion instead of gratings?
The catchy title Down-the-barrel observations of a multiphase quasar outflow at high redshift: VLT/X-shooter spectroscopy of the proximate molecular absorber at z=2.631 towards SDSS J001514+184212 ...
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Relationships between G magnitude, Johnson V magnitude, and spectral type of stars?
I'm simulating a population of binary stars for a summer research project. I'm adding uncertainties to my simulated observables such as angular position and radial (line of sight) velocity. I'm using ...
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Error of bisector method
How to determine the error of bisector velocity span? I have found the article below, but I do not know what all quantities mean. What is the number of lines in the mask? How to find out x? How to ...
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Why doesn't the Sun produce an emission spectrum?
I have read that the reason why the Sun produces an absorption spectrum is because the temperature drops as you go away from the center, such that as the various layers of the atmosphere of the sun ...
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Why is He I 6678.151 line used for investigating variations in Be stars?
Why is He I 6678.151 line used for investigating variations in Be stars? I mean, for instance, asymmetry and radial velocity. Many thanks
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H alpha - double peak (Be star)
What is the double peak in this case, please? What does the third mean? Many thanks
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Where to find all spectroscopic data about 28 CMa?
I am searching all available spectroscopic data (and particularly wavelength interval) of 28 CMa in the constellation Canis Majoris to measure radial velocities. Which database should I use?
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Any examples of a gas object temperature from Doppler broadening along one axis turning out to be wrong because velocity spread was not isotropic?
Discussions under Mass of the stellar cluster (not the whole galaxy) lead me to mention that when an actual temperature is inferred from a Doppler-broadened line profile (rather than just a linewidth ...
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How would one estimate the rotation period of a star from its spectrum?
The figure is shown; the measurements were taken on two consecutive observing nights. The Ordinate is the flux normalized to continuum and the abscissa is the wavelength scale. You can see the "...
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What effect does stellar granulation to have on a chemical analysis of a star's spectrum?
The spectrum from stellar granules will obviously be for hotter gas, while the spectrum from the lanes between them will be for cooler gas.
Does this "average out" so that an average ...
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Astrophysical particle spectroscopy; narrow-line particle sources (charged or uncharged) for things other than photons? Have any been detected?
Is Cosmic Ray Astronomy a thing?
Is there an equivalent of the red shift effect for cosmic rays?
have got me thinking and under this answer I've commented:
That's a good point; there aren't as many ...
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Is threre a relation between relative or absolute error and standard deviation for ratio of power spectra?
I have to compute the variance on this ratio, that is to say on the observable $O$ :
$$O=\left(\frac{C_{\ell, \mathrm{gal}, \mathrm{sp}}^{\prime}}{C_{\ell, \mathrm{gal}, \mathrm{ph}}^{\prime}}\right)=\...
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Why does Earth have a dip in the CO2 absortion spectrum from 14 to 16 micron?
This paper shows that there is a dip in the CO2 absorption spectrum of Earth. In essence the trough of the absorption of CO2 for Earth is cut into two separate troughs instead of 1 large trough. Why ...
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What is the significance of the velocity resolution in spectral line observations using radio interferometry?
I've always struggled to conceptualize the term "velocity resolution" in spectral observations. In principle, it is simple to calculate. For example, one can take the spectral width and ...
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Why are the wings of many strong lines, including hydrogen lines and most metal lines, stronger in Dwarfs than in Supergiants?
What is the reason? Is it because Dwarfs have higher surface gravity (log g), in turn related to pressure, than Supergiants so there is more contribution from van der Waals and Stark broadening?
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How to remove radial velocity effects of an exoplanet from the host star spectra?
I have a spectra of an M dwarf and I would like to remove the Doppler shift effects due to a known exoplanet, with known planetary parameters, from the whole spectra of the star. I have shifted/...
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What leads an observer to choose a narrow slit over a wide one (and vice-versa) when observing?
In spectroscopy, a wide slit will lead to lower spectral resolution while too narrow of a slit will reduce incoming flux from the object. From what I read, it appears as though there is always a ...
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What happens to the Fourier Transform of the Measured Spectrum?
What happens when you double the width of the entrance slit of a spectrograph, in turn letting in twice as much light, would there be an improvement in the Fourier transform of the measured spectral ...
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Spectrograph Arrangement, Noise, and Fourier Domain [closed]
If the transform of a line profile extends out to the Nyquist frequency such that we cannot see the noise level, what could we change in our spectrograph arrangement that would allow us to see the ...
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How much does the equivalent width of a line change by the introduction of 5% scattered light?
How much does the equivalent width of a line change by the introduction of 5% scattered light? We know the equivalent width is defined as $W = \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \bigg(\frac{1-F_{\nu}}{F_c}\bigg) ...
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