An overview of the Chandra mission and goals, Chandra's namesake, top 10 facts.
Classroom activities, printable materials, interactive games & more.
Overview of X-ray Astronomy and X-ray sources: black holes to galaxy clusters.
All Chandra images released to the public listed by date & by category
Current Chandra press releases, status reports, interviews & biographies.
A collection of multimedia, illustrations & animations, a glossary, FAQ & more.
A collection of illustrations, animations and video.
Chandra discoveries in an audio/video format.
Q&A: General Astronomy and Space Science

Q:
I would like to know what the order of the spectrum would look like if we looked at a light made of neon by using a telescope or some other instruments.

A:

Neon Spectra
All elements exhibit characteristic spectral emission lines. The predominant emission lines of a gas, like Neon, are also very sensitive to and dependent on the temperature of the gas. For gas with temperatures of a few thousand Kelvins, most of the lines are emitted in the visible portion of the spectrum, so only an optical telescope would be able to see such gas. The emission lines from gas with temperatures of approximately 100,000 Kelvins fall in the UV portion of the spectrum, and the emission lines from even hotter gas fall in the X-ray portion of the spectrum. In general, telescopes sensitive to higher energy photons see hotter gas.

Back | Index | Next