What is Light? | European Southern Observatory

What is Light? | European Southern Observatory

ChasingStarlight 5: Your eyes are fine-tuned by thousands of years of evolution to see what is called visible light. However, this makes up only a tiny fraction of all the light out there. 

Although invisible, the light you cannot see plays a significant role in your life, from helping you communicate over long distances, having safe plane landings in the fog or getting your broken bones checked.  

When it comes to space, entire new realms are uncovered by this invisible light. Join European Southern Observatory (ESO) astronomer, Suzanna Randall, in the latest episode of Chasing Starlight and discover what different types of light reveal about the Universe. 

00:00 Introduction

02:06 Why do we see only a part of the electromagnetic spectrum?

02:38 What can we observe with optical telescopes?

03:40 What can we observe in the infrared?

04:59 What about the low energy part of the spectrum?

Video Credits:

Directed by: L. Calçada, M. Kornmesser, M. Wallner 

Hosted by: S. Randall   

Written by: S. Randall, B. Ferreira

Editing: M. Kornmesser, L. Calçada   

Videography: A. Tsaousis

Animations & footage: ESO, M. Kornmesser, L. Calçada, NASA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI), The Planetary Society, ZDF, VLA/NRAO/AUI/NSF, NASA/Spitzer/JPL-Caltech, ESA, Hubble (STScI), XMM-Newton/ESA, NASA/Chandra/CXC, C. Malin, N. Risinger, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, A. Boley, A. Kritsuk and M. Norman, the Advanced Visualization Laboratory at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, S. Guisard, ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Wong et al., Igor Chekalin, J. Pérez M.-R. Cioni/VISTA Magellanic Cloud survey, Digitized Sky Survey 2 and ESO/Nogueras-Lara et al. 

Additional footage:

BBC, Rise of the Animals: Triumph of the Vertebrates

Presenter: D. Attenborough

Director: D. Lee

Series Producer: A. Geffen

Web and technical support: G. Bazin, R. Shida   

Scientific consultant: P. Amico, J.C. Muñoz Mateos 

Promotion: O. Sandu

Filming locations: ESO Supernova 

Produced by ESO, the European Southern Observatory (eso.org)

Duration: 7 minutes, 29 seconds

Release Date: Sept. 28, 2023

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