Abstract:
When we look up at the night sky, we are greeted with the immense vastness of our universe. As beautiful as the sky is, our eyes can detect only a small fraction of the light arriving from the universe. Celestial objects can emit energy across the Electromagnetic spectrum, from high-energy gamma rays to low-energy radio waves. Cold gas and dust between galaxies emit low-energy radio and infrared wavelengths, whereas hot gas around black holes can emit high-energy X-rays.
Humanity has observed these objects across different wavelengths of light by inventing various detectors and telescopes. Since different wavelengths of light interact with matter differently, telescopes designed for optical wavelengths cannot be used to observe gamma-rays or radio waves. In this talk, I will introduce different kinds of telescopes used for different wavelengths of light. and discuss the basic principles used to observe different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. I will also shed light on how observations at different wavelengths can tell us a unified story about a celestial object.
Speaker: Garima Rajguru