Why Infrared Astronomy Is Important
Friday, January 15, 2010 - 00:42
in Astronomy & Space
Simply put, the reason why infrared astronomy is so important is because 1) it enables us to peer through the veil of interstellar dust, which blocks light in the visible wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is able to do this because light in the infrared regions pass right through interstellar dust, completely unaffected, thus enabling us to see objects whose light would normally be blocked from our view (e.g. Herbig-Haro objects, stars orbiting the supermassive black hole of our Milky Way, Sagittarius A*, etc.) and read more