The flashcards below were created by user
eboustead
on FreezingBlue Flashcards.
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electronmagnetic radiation
changing electric and magnetic fields that travel through space at the speed of light and transfer energy from one place to another
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wavelength
the distnace between successive peaks or throughs of a wave
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photon
a quantum of electonmagnetic energy; carries an amount of energy that depends inversely on its wavelenth
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spectrum
an array of electromagnetic radiation displayed in order of wavelenth
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nanometer
a unit of distance equaling one-billionth of a meter: commonly used to measure the wavelength of light
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angstrom
a unit of distance: commonly used to measure the wavelength of light
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atmosphere window
wavelength region in which our atmosphere is transparent- at visual, infared, and radio wavelengths
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focal length (for the telescope)
the distance from the lens to the point where it focuses parrallel rays (light coming from very great distances)
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primary lens/mirror
the largest lens or mirror in a telescope
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refracting telescope
a telescope that forms images by bending light with a lens
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reflecting telescope
a telescope that uses a concave mirror to focus light into an image
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chromatic abberation
a distrortion found in refracting telescopes because lenes focus different colours at slightly different distances. which means the miages are surrounded by colour fringes.
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achromatic lens
a telescope lens composed of two lenses ground from two different kinds of glass and designed to bring two selected colours to the same focus and correct for chromatic abberation
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diffraction fringe
Blurred fringe surrounding any image, caused by the wave properties of light. Because of this, no image detial smaller than the fringe can be seen
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spectrograph
a device that seperates light by wavelengths to produce a spectrum
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grating
a peice of material in which numerious microscopic parallel lins are scribed. light encountering a grafting is dispersed to form a spectrum
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cosmic rays
subatomic particles, such as electrons and protons, traveling at nearly the speed of light.
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