Studying the Sun - Essay Example

Humans are natural inquirers when it comes to the unknown. Civilization has come up with technology, which allows us to examine far and diverse celestial objects. Sometimes, however, observation cannot merely occur at just the visible level. Scientists are interested in the composition of these objects, especially stars due to the fact that nuclear fusion allows them to create denser elements in the core, which can serve as an indicator of how old the star is. One of these methods is through the use of spectroscopy.

Spectroscopy is a method of looking at the composition of a star or other celestial object by observing differences in the electromagnetic radiation patterns that are picked up. Different elements vibrate at different wavelengths; therefore each element shows a different color when a spectrometer is picking it up. This is how scientists can tell what elements are and are not present in a star. This series of lines are unique to each element. For example, helium produces one red line, one yellow line, one green line, three blue lines, and four purple lines.

This pattern is inherent to only helium, therefore it will show/not show up if it is present/not present. Absorption spectra look at the “holes” that are left when that electron is moving up and down energy levels. Basically, both are looking at atomic energy levels, however, they are observing two different effects of energy at the quantum level.