Rainbow Fingerprints (VIDEO)

University of Sydney

Caption

Every astronomical object has a unique spectrum, or "rainbow fingerprint," that allows astronomers to determine its contents, age, formation history, movements through space, temperature and more!

The AAO continually builds innovative spectrographs for the 4-meter AAT and UK Schmidt Telescopes to collect spectral data of hundreds of thousands stars and galaxies.

This video, first published in 2015, shows the path the light from distant astronomical objects follows through the telescope's optics in order to split the light up into its rainbow spectrum.

Credit

AAO and Dr. Amanda Bauer

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