PX282 - A10 - real spectra
- real spectra do not align perfectly with blackbody curves
image: SDSS
key features
continuum
- produced by dense gas, thermal emission
emission lines
- produced by hot diffuse gas where electrons are forced into higher energy states by temperature and collisions that decay into lower energy states, giving off photons
absorption
- cold(er) gas in front of a source absorbs certain wavelengths
- therefore the material between the light source and the observer is seen
- this is how the composition of a star is determined by matching both the emission and the absorption lines for the transitions of a material
*image: magnus manske/jhausauer *
- electron transitions from different energy levels are represented by lyman, balmer, and paschen series
image: byju's