What is Spectroscopy?

Spectroscopy pertains to the dispersion of an object's light into its component colors (i.e. energies). By performing this dissection and analysis of an object's light, astronomers can infer the physical properties of that object (such as temperature, mass, luminosity and composition).

The Electromagnetic Spectrum

The Nature of Light light acts like a wave. Light has particle-like properties too.light as a a!e. "a!es are disturbances, ripples on the ater, and they possess a certain height (amplitude), ith a certain number of a!es rushing past you e!ery minute (the frequency) and all mo!ing at a characteristic speed across the ater (the wave speed). the distance bet een successi!e a!es is called the wavelength. #he wave speed of a light a!e is simply the speed of light, and different wavelengths of light manifest themselves as different colors$ #he energy of a light a!e is in!ersely-proportional to its a!elength% in other ords, low-energy waves have long wavelengths, and high-energy light waves have short wavelengths. General Types of Spectra two distinctive classes of spectra: continous and discrete. For a continuous spectrum, the light is composed of a wide, continuous range of colors (energies). ith discrete spectra, one sees only !right or dar" lines at very distinct and sharply-defined colors (energies). #s we$ll discover shortly, discrete spectra with !right lines are called emission spectra, those with dar" lines are termed a!sorption spectra. Infrared spectroscopy (&' spectroscopy) is the spectroscopy that deals ith the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum, that is light ith a longer a!elength and lo er fre(uency than !isible light. &t co!ers a range of techni(ues, mostly based on absorption spectroscopy. )s ith all spectroscopic techni(ues, it can be used to identify and study chemicals. ) common laboratory instrument that uses this techni(ue is a *ourier transform infrared (*#&') spectrometer. #he infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum is usually di!ided into three regions% the near-, mid- and far- infrared, named for their relation to the !isible spectrum. #he higher energy near-&', appro+imately ,-.../-... cm0, (..1/2.3 4m a!elength) can e+cite o!ertone or harmonic !ibrations. #he mid-infrared, appro+imately -.../-.. cm0, (2.3/23 4m) may be used to study the fundamental !ibrations and associated rotational-!ibrational structure. #he far-infrared, appro+imately -../,. cm0, (23/,... 4m), lying adjacent to the micro a!e region, has lo energy and may be used for rotational spectroscopy. #he names and classifications of these subregions are con!entions, and are only loosely based on the relati!e molecular or electromagnetic properties. %ntroduction