Spectroscopy

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href="/public/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/surveytelescopes/vista/4most/"> 4MOST </a></li><li class=""><a href="/public/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/surveytelescopes/vista/surveys/"> The VISTA surveys </a></li><li class=""><a href="/public/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/surveytelescopes/vista/consortium/"> The VISTA consortium </a></li></ul></li><li class="submenu"><a href="/public/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/surveytelescopes/vst/"> VST <span class="desktop-children topmenu-arrow fa fa-angle-right"></span></a><span class="mobile-children"><span class="fa fa-angle-down"></span></span><ul id="submenu-aim-308" class="submenu-aim sublevel"><li class=""><a href="/public/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/surveytelescopes/vst/mirror/"> The VST mirrors </a></li><li class=""><a href="/public/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/surveytelescopes/vst/camera/"> OmegaCAM </a></li><li class=""><a href="/public/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/surveytelescopes/vst/surveys/"> The VST surveys 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href="/public/teles-instr/lasilla/coude/"> Coudé Auxiliary Telescope <span class="desktop-children topmenu-arrow fa fa-angle-right"></span></a><span class="mobile-children"><span class="fa fa-angle-down"></span></span><ul id="submenu-aim-372" class="submenu-aim sublevel"><li class=""><a href="/public/teles-instr/lasilla/coude/ces/"> CES </a></li></ul></li><li class=""><a href="/public/teles-instr/lasilla/marly/"> MarLy 1-metre telescope </a></li><li class="submenu"><a href="/public/teles-instr/lasilla/09metre/"> Dutch 0.9-metre telescope <span class="desktop-children topmenu-arrow fa fa-angle-right"></span></a><span class="mobile-children"><span class="fa fa-angle-down"></span></span><ul id="submenu-aim-375" class="submenu-aim sublevel"><li class=""><a href="/public/teles-instr/lasilla/09metre/walraven/"> Walraven Photometer </a></li></ul></li><li class=""><a href="/public/teles-instr/lasilla/t70/"> Swiss T70 telescope </a></li><li class="submenu"><a href="/public/teles-instr/lasilla/bochum/"> Bochum 0.61-metre telescope <span class="desktop-children topmenu-arrow fa fa-angle-right"></span></a><span class="mobile-children"><span class="fa fa-angle-down"></span></span><ul id="submenu-aim-378" class="submenu-aim sublevel"><li class=""><a href="/public/teles-instr/lasilla/bochum/bochum-scanner/"> Bochum Scanner </a></li><li class=""><a href="/public/teles-instr/lasilla/bochum/bochum-photometer/"> Bochum Photometer </a></li></ul></li><li class="submenu"><a href="/public/teles-instr/lasilla/danish05/"> Danish 0.5-metre telescope <span class="desktop-children topmenu-arrow fa fa-angle-right"></span></a><span class="mobile-children"><span class="fa fa-angle-down"></span></span><ul id="submenu-aim-381" class="submenu-aim sublevel"><li class=""><a href="/public/teles-instr/lasilla/danish05/danish-two-channel-hb-photometer/"> Two-Channel Hβ Photometer </a></li><li class=""><a 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sublevel"><li class=""><a href="https://www.eso.org/public/science/event-horizon/"> First image of a black hole </a></li><li class=""><a href="https://www.eso.org/public/science/EHT-MilkyWay/"> First image of the Milky Way central black hole </a></li><li class=""><a href="https://www.eso.org/public/science/gc/"> More about the black hole at the galactic centre </a></li></ul></li><li class=""><a href="/public/science/grb/"> Gamma-Ray Bursts </a></li><li class=""><a href="/public/science/archive/"> Science Archive </a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </li> <li><a href="/public/events/">Events<span class="fa fa-angle-down level0-children-arrows"></span></a> <span class="mobile-children"> <span class="fa fa-angle-down"></span> </span> <div class="level1-wrapper"> <div class="level1"> <ul id="submenu-aim-434" class="submenu-aim"> <li class=""><a href="/public/events/press-evt/"> Press Events </a></li><li class="submenu"><a href="/public/events/special-evt/"> Special Events <span 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<div class="container " id="body"> <div class="row no-page"> <div class="col-md-12"> </div> </div> <div class="row page"> <div class="col-md-12 one-column"> <div id="edit-info-block"> <div id="page-edit-success" class="alert alert-success alert-dismissible" role="alert" style="display: none"> <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="alert" aria-label="Close"><span aria-hidden="true">×</span></button> Page saved successfully </div> <div id="page-edit-failure" class="alert alert-danger alert-dismissible" role="alert" style="display: none"> <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="alert" aria-label="Close"><span aria-hidden="true">×</span></button> Couldn't save page :( Please try again. </div> </div> <div class='page-content'> <div id="editable-content"> <h1>Spectroscopy</h1> <h2>If signs of life on another planet are ever discovered, they will be found with a spectrograph</h2> <p>Spectroscopy is one of an astronomer’s favourite tools to help understand the Universe. Planets, stars and galaxies are just too far away to be analysed in a laboratory. Fortunately, very important information about these distant bodies is written in the light we detect with a telescope.</p> <p>But light is not an open book. To be read, light must be split into its different colours (or wavelengths), in the same way that rain droplets disperse the light to form a rainbow. Newton called this rainbow of colours a spectrum, the Latin word for “appearance”.</p> <p> </p> <div class="row"> <div class="col-md-6 col-sm-6 col-xs-12" style="text-align: center;"> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="/public/images/crires_prism-11-02/"><img src="/public/archives/images/screen/crires_prism-11-02.jpg" border="0" width="99%" style="vertical-align: bottom;" /></a><br /> <small><em>A prism splits white light into its components: the colours of the rainbow.</em></small></p> </div> <div class="col-md-6 col-sm-6 col-xs-12" style="text-align: center;"> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="/public/images/aca_3571/"><img src="/public/archives/images/screen/aca_3571.jpg" border="0" width="100%/" style="vertical-align: bottom;" /></a><br /> <small><em>A natural prism, familiar to everybody</em></small></p> </div> </div> <p> </p> <p>The first astronomical application of spectroscopy was in the analysis of sunlight by Fraunhofer and Kirchhoff, in the early 19th century. It was expected that the white light emitted from the Sun would produce a clean rainbow when passing through a prism. But, for the very first time, a pattern of dark lines was also noticed. These unexpected lines were the “fingerprints” imprinted in the light by the different chemical elements interacting with it and are called absorption lines.</p> <p>The beauty of this interaction is that each chemical element or molecule produces a unique signature in the spectrum, a sort of barcode that unequivocally identifies one element from another. By decoding these barcodes, spectroscopy can reveal important properties of any body which emits or absorbs light.</p> <p> </p> <div class="row"> <div class="col-md-6 col-sm-6 col-xs-12" style="text-align: center;"> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="/public/images/sunspectrum-noao/"><img src="/public/archives/images/screen/sunspectrum-noao.jpg" border="0" width="100%" style="vertical-align: bottom;" /></a><br /> <small><em>The barcode of the Sun. A very long spectrum was chopped in small chunks and then displayed one on top of another. <br /> Credit: NOAO/AURA/NSF</em></small></p> </div> <div class="col-md-6 col-sm-6 col-xs-12" style="text-align: center;"> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="/public/images/spectroscopy-oli-6/"><img src="/public/archives/images/screen/spectroscopy-oli-6.jpg" border="0" width="96%" style="vertical-align: bottom;" /></a><br /> <small><em>A star emits light across the spectrum — a continuum. When white light goes through a prism, it forms a rainbow, its spectrum. In the same way, as light from a star goes through the gas of a nebula — or even just the atmosphere of the star — specific colours (or wavelengths) are absorbed by the elements contained in the gas, producing dark lines over the continuum. This is an absorption spectrum. The energy that is absorbed by the gas is then re-emitted in all directions, also at the specific colours characteristic of the elements present in the gas, producing bright lines at certain wavelengths; this is known as an emission spectrum.</em></small></p> </div> </div> <p> </p> <p>Spectrographs are fundamental pieces of astronomical instrumentation and they are far more sophisticated than a prism. Instead of a simple rainbow, the output is a spectrum in which the light is much more dispersed than in a rainbow. The spectra are recorded on a CCD detector and finally saved in computer files for further processing and analysis. The spectrum of a star or any astronomical object not only reveals the presence of certain chemical elements, but also informs about the prevailing physical conditions, such as temperature and density. Spectra can also tell us about motion: by using the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppler_effect">Doppler effect</a>, the speed of a star or a galaxy with respect to the Earth can be measured. This effect is used to <a href="/public/science/exoplanets/">discover extrasolar planets</a>, and a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redshift">similar effect</a> allows astronomers to measure the distances to galaxies. Spectra also contain information on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_field">magnetic field</a> present in the object, the composition of the matter and much more.</p> <p>Most of the telescopes at <a href="/public/teles-instr/">ESO’s observatories</a> have spectrographs or have a spectroscopic mode. They cover different ranges of wavelength (from the near-ultraviolet to the mid-infrared) and offer different spectral resolutions (the higher the spectral resolution, the stronger the dispersion of the light, and the smaller the details of the spectrum that can be detected).</p> <p> </p> <div class="row"> <div class="col-md-6 col-sm-6 col-xs-12" style="text-align: center;"> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="/public/images/eso0920a/"><img src="/public/archives/images/screen/eso0920a.jpg" border="0" width="100%" style="vertical-align: bottom;" /></a><br /> <small><em>Illustration of a spectrum taken by <a href="http://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/vlt/vlt-instr/x-shooter/">X-shooter</a>. This instrument can take simultaneous spectra of an object over a broad range of colours (or wavelengths), from ultraviolet to infrared.</em></small></p> </div> <div class="col-md-6 col-sm-6 col-xs-12" style="text-align: center;"> <p style="text-align: center;"><a href="/public/images/eso1002d/"><img src="/public/archives/images/screen/eso1002d.jpg" border="0" width="84%" style="vertical-align: bottom;" /></a><br /><small><em>Most spectrographs select the light to be split using a slit, which can be long or very short, or even just a small hole. Only that light is sent to the spectrograph (</em>not<em> shown here), and produce a spectrum of that slit.</em></small></p> </div> </div> <p> </p> <p>Some spectrographs at the <a href="/public/teles-instr/paranal/">Very Large Telescope</a> in Paranal produce high-resolution spectra like <a href="/public/teles-instr/vlt/vlt-instr/uves/">UVES</a> and <a href="/public/teles-instr/vlt/vlt-instr/crires/">CRIRES</a>; others obtain spectra of many objects at the same time like <a href="/public/teles-instr/vlt/vlt-instr/flames/">FLAMES</a> and <a href="/public/teles-instr/vlt/vlt-instr/vimos/">VIMOS</a>; and a few, like <a href="/public/teles-instr/vlt/vlt-instr/kmos/">KMOS</a>, <a href="/public/teles-instr/vlt/vlt-instr/muse/">MUSE</a> and <a href="/public/teles-instr/vlt/vlt-instr/sinfoni/">SINFONI</a>, can even take spectra over their whole field of view (see Integral Field Spectroscopy).</p> <p>At the <a href="/public/teles-instr/lasilla/">La Silla Observatory</a>, the instruments installed at the <a href="/public/teles-instr/lasilla/ntt/">New Technology Telescope (NTT)</a>, <a href="/public/teles-instr/lasilla/ntt/efosc2/">EFOSC2</a> (and its predecessor <a href="/public/teles-instr/lasilla/ntt/emmi/">EMMI</a>) and <a href="/public/teles-instr/lasilla/ntt/sofi/">SOFI</a> are also spectrographs. But <a href="/public/teles-instr/lasilla/36/harps/">HARPS</a>, installed on the <a href="/public/teles-instr/lasilla/36/">ESO 3.6-metre telescope</a>, is certainly one of the most famous for its leading role in the detection of exoplanets.</p> <p>The next generation of spectrographs, like those planned for the <a href="/public/teles-instr/elt/">Extremely Large Telescope (ELT)</a>, will go beyond anything we can currently achieve. Among the things we cannot do today, astronomers expect to be able to look for possible traces of life in the atmospheres of exoplanets similar to Earth. If signs of life are ever discovered on another planet, it’s most likely that the instrument involved will be a spectrograph.</p> <h3>Science highlights</h3> <p>ESO spectrographs provided key data to significant discoveries in different fields of astronomy:</p> <ul> <li><a href="/public/science/top10/">ESO Top 10 Astronomical Discoveries</a></li> <li>Solar System bodies, exoplanets and brown dwarfs: see <a href="/public/teles-instr/vlt/vlt-instr/crires/">CRIRES</a> science highlights; </li> <li>Exoplanets: see <a href="/public/teles-instr/lasilla/36/harps/">HARPS</a> science highlights; </li> <li>Stellar populations: see <a href="/public/teles-instr/vlt/vlt-instr/flames/">FLAMES</a> science highlights; </li> <li>Cosmology: see <a href="/public/teles-instr/vlt/vlt-instr/uves/">UVES</a> science highlights; </li> <li>Supermassive black hole in the centre of the Milky Way: see <a href="/public/teles-instr/vlt/vlt-instr/sinfoni/">SINFONI</a> science highlights; </li> <li>Galactic evolution: see <a href="/public/teles-instr/vlt/vlt-instr/vimos/">VIMOS</a> science highlights.</li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>  <div class="row footernote"> <div class="col-xs-12 col-md-3"> <a href="mailto:information@eso.org">Send us your comments!</a> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 col-md-3"> <a href="/public/outreach/newsletters/esonews/">Subscribe to receive news from ESO in your language</a> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 col-md-3"> <a href="https://www.cdn77.com">Accelerated by CDN77</a> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 col-md-3"> <a href="/public/about-eso/privacy/">Terms & Conditions</a> </div> </div> <link href="/public/archives/djp/css/extras.d3e54451ebbb.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> <script type="text/javascript">var MEDIA_URL = "/public/archives/"</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/public/archives/djp/js/main.04a7335af5a0.js" charset="utf-8"></script> </div>  <div id="social-share" class="hidden-print"> <div class="link facebook" data-toggle="tooltip" data-placement="right" title="Share on Facebook"> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/technology/spectroscopy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><i class="fa-brands fa-facebook-f" aria-hidden="true"></i></a> </div> <div class="link twitter" data-toggle="tooltip" data-placement="right" title="Share on X/Twitter"> <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/technology/spectroscopy/&text=Spectroscopy&via=ESO" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><i class="fa-brands fa-x-twitter"></i></i></a> </div> <div class="link pinterest" data-toggle="tooltip" data-placement="right" title="Share on Pinterest"> <a href="https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/technology/spectroscopy/&media=&description=Spectroscopy" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><i class="fa-brands fa-pinterest-p" aria-hidden="true"></i></a> </div> <div class="link print" data-toggle="tooltip" data-placement="right" title="Print"> <a href="javascript:window.print()" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><i class="fa fa-print" aria-hidden="true"></i></a> </div> <div class="link email" data-toggle="tooltip" data-placement="right" title="Share by email"> <a href="mailto:%20?subject=ESO — Spectroscopy&body=https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/technology/spectroscopy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><i class="fa-regular fa-envelope" aria-hidden="true"></i></a> </div> </div> <script> $('[data-toggle="tooltip"]').tooltip(); </script> <input type='hidden' name='csrfmiddlewaretoken' value='Z5rKqw9kyVSQ0e2p7bnEAEMS8l4f48C0Eb4GRpRwtvaTnZPhInN5liJa2QiwtVCI' /> </body> </html>

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