The visible light spectrum of the star Altair

2022-11-10 - This is the visible light spectrum of the star Altair, which lies about 16.7 light-years from Earth. The picture of the spectrum (top) appears as a nearly continuous rainbow with a few dark lines representing light that has been absorbed by hydrogen found in the star's atmosphere. Astronomers can turn this spectrum into a graph (bottom) that shows how bright the star is at different wavelengths, or colours. The hydrogen absorption lines are still visible here as dips in the star's brightness at specific wavelengths. (Credits: Canadian Space Agency, NASA)

This infographic includes the visible light spectrum of the star Altair, depicted in two ways.

The picture of the spectrum (top) appears as a nearly continuous rainbow with a few dark lines representing light that has been absorbed by hydrogen found in the star's atmosphere.

Below this, the spectrum is graphed. The Y-axis is labelled Brightness. An arrow pointing to the word Brightness specifies that this axis might be labelled intensity, counts, flux, power, absorbance, transmittance, or reflectance. The X-axis is labelled Wavelength (nanometers), and an arrow pointing to this text specified that this axis is often labeled wavelength, but can also be labeled as energy or frequency.

Three major dips in the data on the graph are all labelled Hydrogen. An arrow pointing to the word Hydrogen specifies "Astronomer's interpretation: Peaks and valleys are labeled with the elements and compounds that caused them."