|
Picture of the day -
July 23, 2006
Viewing The Sun In "A Different Light"
Click photo to enlarge.
Photo courtesy of NASA.
When we look at
the sun we see a large, brightly glowing ball
that is so bright it can damage our eyes if we look directly at it for
more than a fleeting glance. But the sunlight that we can see with
our human eyes consists of only a small fraction of the various
wavelengths of energy emitted by the sun and other stars!
The sun is a gigantic nuclear furnace that constantly emits energy
in the form of electromagnetic waves. In order of the longest
wavelength to the shortest, these electromagnetic waves include
radio waves, microwaves, infrared light,
visible light, ultraviolet light, X-Rays and
gamma rays. Although we're very familiar with the everyday uses
of most of these electromagnetic ranges, the only one we can
actually see with our naked eyes is visible light - hence its name.
The reason the sun looks so dark in today's picture is because
you're only seeing the ultraviolet portion of the energy that is emitted (through
the magic lenses of scientific instruments). Only the most active
parts of the sun's surface emit significant amounts of ultraviolet
light, so the sun appears mostly dark when everything but the
ultraviolet range is filtered out.
Picture Of The Day Homepage |
Submit
a photo
More Interesting Articles
|
|
|