Skip to main content

No Night Darkness in the Infrared

Human beings perceive objects by seeing in the "normal" optical range. This is purely an evolutionary imperative. Evolution could just as easily given us eyes that work in the infrared to know what is going on around us. If this was the case we would experience no night at all. The night sky would be just as clear as the sky in the day.

At night the sky would be lit by hydroxyl molecules emitting infrared light in the form of a mass of narrow emission lines. It would be like daylight, though a few stars could be seen along with the Sun and the Moon.

Telescopes operating in the infrared get over this problem by using limited apertures and special filters. These filters use a photonic lantern system to move the light into parallel tracks. A Bragg filter reflects out the tracks and lets wavelengths between lines through. Many IR telescopes are in space where such a filter is unnecessary. The space telescopes beam data back to Earth.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Science

Popular posts from this blog

Consuming More Tea and Coffee Prevents Diabetes - Doubtful

Claims about consuming certain things to improve health are way off beam. Every now and then supposed new research shows that if you eat this or don't eat that your health will improve. Years late we discover that the "experts' were totally wrong and your health was actually damaged. This happened with margarine, milk, eggs and so on. What is the latest? Well, apparently drinking up to three cups of coffee or tea each day reduces the risk of getting diabetes. Look around. Do you see people who drink these beverages regularly with diabetes? You sure do. There are thousands of them. The University of Sydney says “If such beneficial effects were observed in interventional trials to be real, the implications for the millions of individuals who have diabetes mellitus, or who are at future risk of developing it, would be substantial.” Their trials must be wrong. Surely millions of regular drinkers who have diabetes are thinking, "Why me? Why have I got the disease&qu

Anthropology Has New Theory on Australian Aboriginals

New theory on Australian Aboriginals - Anthropology. Australian Aboriginals split from Eurasians and moved south into the dry continent. Twenty thousand years later the world warmed up and Australia was cut off from its northern neighbors. This is the latest theory.  But when Europeans initially came to Queensland there were two types of native people. Each was a distinct genetic pool. One was like Papua New Guineans. The other was very slight and shorter. It is the latter that predominates today. Papua New Guineans Australian Aboriginals Some scientists still hold that there was only one move out of Africa. This is an unsustainable supposition. The doors for movement were always open. Australian Aboriginals were quite unique. It seems that they were the first to leave Africa. There is also the question of Tasmanian Aboriginals who were wiped out by arriving Europeans. There is no evidence of them now. They could not light fires. The flames had to be stolen f

Happy Cow

"Yes, I am content." ✿ Funny Animal Photos contented cow field Adventure Australia Funny Weird Things Articles News Reviews ● ⌘   Vista Computer Solutions Blog   ⌘ ✤ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   . . . . . . . . . . cow content happy good life free field paddock green grass milk dairy COW NOT LEAVING HOME