Launchpad: Infrared Astronomy on Mauna Kea
Discover how NASA's Infrared Astronomy telescope on Mauna Kea helps astronomers use different wavelengths of light to make the invisible visible. Learn about the Doppler Effect and heat signatures of faraway objects.
Discussion and writing prompts
1. Many objects and processes in space cannot be fully understood using visible light alone. How does observing the universe in infrared light allow astronomers to gather information that may be hidden or difficult to detect with visible-light telescopes? Choose an object or region that astronomers study using infrared light, such as a star-forming cloud, a cool planet, or a distant galaxy. Explain what infrared observations might reveal and why that information would be difficult to obtain using only visible light.
2. The observatories on Mauna Kea are located at a high elevation, above much of Earth’s atmosphere and water vapor. Why does the location of a telescope affect the quality and type of data it can collect?
3. Astronomers use many types of electromagnetic radiation to study the universe. Why might scientists combine infrared observations with information collected using visible light, radio waves, X-rays, or other forms of light?
Background Information
NASA Space Place Explore the Electromagnetic Spectrum (webpage, grades 3-8) ADDED RESOURCE
Grades 3 through 8
- NASA Space Place Explore the Electromagnetic Spectrum (webpage)
Grades 3 through 12
- NASA Milky Way Panorama from Mauna (webpage)
Grades 6 through 12
Grades 9 through 12
- NASA Hubble Multimedia (webpage)
- NASA Infrared Astronomy (webpage)
- NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (webpage)
- NASA NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii (webpage)
Activities
Grades 2 through 8
- NASA The Science of Color (webpage)
Grades 3 through 12
- NASA Infrared Zoo (interactive)
Grades 5 through 8
- NOAA/NASA Understanding Infrared Light (pdf)
Grades 9 through 12
- University of California, Berkeley Light Detectives: Using WISE Data to Identify Brown Dwarfs and ULIRGs (pdf)
- Cool Cosmos Infrared Lesson Plans (webpage)