I’ve written many times about the power of looking at different wavelengths of light to study different properties of the universe. From a visualization standpoint, there are other techniques that give you additional power when imaging. More than just the wavelength of light you’re using to show the detail, you can choose the range of wavelengths to bring forward certain features while suppressing others. The aptly-named spaghetti nebula, shown above, is a great example of this. A supernova remnant that covers the constellations Taurus and Auriga, the nebula is very large in the sky, covering three full moons worth (love that unit...
I’ve seen images from the Sun in all different wavelengths of light. It looks very different across the electromagnetic spectrum, with some wavelengths making up more of the Sun’s total energy output than others. What’s always striking to me is seeing the images of the Sun that show its structure, including the strange and beautiful features of plasma that dance across it’s surface. A recent APOD captures just such a concept. This image shows the Sun in Hydrogen Alpha, a wavelength of light at 656 nanometres. This is from the ionization of Hydrogen, where the electron is excited and transitions...
Twenty Years of exoplanet research has seen incredible advances in detecting planets orbiting distant stars, as well as their size, orbit period, orbit distance, and even atmospheric composition. But the next step in understanding exoplanets is to learn about their magnetic fields. We know that many exoplanets should have magnetic fields. It makes sense, since nearly every world in our own solar system has some sort of magnetism. But for the first time, an international team of Astronomers, led by Kristina Kislyakova of the Space Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, have discovered a way to detect magnetic fields...
