How do you do scientists determine the temperature of planets or stars?

Astronomical Temperatures are usually estimated from spectroscopic measurements. The spectroscope was invented in 1859 by two German scientists, Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff. It was first used to analyse the elements in a Substance Heated to Incandescence. Each element gave off characteristic wavelends of visible light. Bunsen used the device to identify two new elements, caesium and rubidium.

It was later found that presence of certain elements in distant heavenly bodies, and their corresponding temperature, clock be analysed by the same color yardstick, and by spectral lines, the Patterns Created by the emission and absorption spectra of the elements in stars and other heavenly bodies.

Over the year, scientists refined their classification of stars. Astronomers Today take the entreion electromagnetic spectrum Into account, not just visible light. In General, Cooler Objects Give Off Radiation of Longer Wavelengths while hotter objects give off shorter wavelends. Infrared Telescopes Sent ITO Space Measure The Wavelengths Shorter Thans of Visible Light and X-Ray And Gamma Ray Telescopes are trained on Longer and Hotter Astronomical Sources.

First published in April 2008