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NASpectroscopy, it’s spectacular!
Spectroscopy is the study of how light interacts with matter. Right now, the Japanese-led XRISM (pronounced “crism”) telescope is doing X-ray spectroscopy to study some of the most energetic objects in the universe.
Just as optical light splits into different colors when passed through a prism, X-ray light also has different wavelengths. The Resolve instrument on XRISM does spectroscopy by measuring the energies of X-rays and comparing them to the “cosmic barcode” of each element. This allows us to better understand what high-energy objects, like black holes and neutron stars, are made of. Check out the “Spectroscopy, Explained” link in our bio to watch the full video!
XRISM is led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, in partnership with @NASA and with contributions from the @europeanspaceagency.
Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Music: “Jungle Bounce,” Siddharth Nadkarni [ASCAP], Universal Production Music
Video description:
0:00 A woman with dark hair, Sophia Roberts, sits at a table. The background has purple hexagons outlined in black under a screen showing bands of rainbow light.
0:05 The woman picks up a glass triangular prism and shows it from multiple angles.
0:09 A diagram showing multiple parallel lines, representing light, intersecting with a triangle from the left and fanning out the other side.
0:10 A white line follows the diagram on the left and becomes a rainbow on the right side of the triangle.
0:18 A hand adjusts a triangular prism to disperse the white light coming from the top of the screen into a rainbow at an angle.
0:26 Cut back to Sophia talking.
0:37 The view pans down a black screen with a band of white light coming from the top right at an angle and light in a rainbow spectrum coming from the middle of the image to the bottom right.
0:42 Head-on view of a dispersed rainbow shifting from left to right as the prism is turned.
#XRISM #JAXA #ESA #Space #Xrays #Spectroscopy #Prism #Rainbow
@nasauniverse
