Resources: Worksheet, Ocean Optics Spectrometer, Vernier Spectrum Tube Carousel
Terminology: Spectrum, Spectral Lines, Emission Lines
Tutorials: Using SpectraSuite Software
Demonstrations: Types of emission lies, Emission lines from stars, Binary stars emission lines, Hydrogen transitions
Most of the objects we see in the everyday world are visible because they reflect ambient light into our eyes. Stars on the other hand, generate their own light that we can observe with our eyes. The characteristics of this light can tell us the physical characteristics of the of the star.
Heating a dense gas or material will cause it to glow. The wavelength of this radiation is randomized by collisions in the material and ends up spread across a broad range of wavelengths, but the radiation peaks at a wavelength systematically related to the temperature. The relationship is given by Wien's Law. In the equation below, ‘K’ and ‘m’ are units, not variables.
Tenuous gases that are energized (e.g. by heating or electrical current) release that energy at discrete frequencies. This pattern of spectral lines is unique to each compound. This occurs because electrons in an atom are constrained to specific orbits, each of which has a particular energy. The energy of a photon depends on its frequency, and atoms can only absorb or release photons with energies with the right amount of energy to shift one of their electrons to another available energy level. The wavelengths of some of these photons for hydrogen are shown to the right.
Atoms of different elements, such as helium and nitrogen shown schematically in the drawing to the right, have different allowable energy levels for their electrons. This produces different spectral lines for each atom. These spectral lines can appear as lines of color on a dark background, termed an emission spectrum. If a source of continuum radiation shines through the gas, such as a blackbody like the surface of a star, some of the radiation will be absorbed by the gas and scattered out of the line of sight. This produces a spectrum with dark spectral lines, or an absorption spectrum.
Learning Goals: The goal of this lab is to learn how to examine the spectrum of a star, and how measuring the intensity of those frequencies can reveal things about the star. Students will learn the relationship between color and temperature and will see how the chemical composition of a source can be determined from its emission or absorption line spectrum.
Challenge: Understand the relationship between the temperature of a star and the spectrum it produces.