The Evolving Universe

Smithsonian Institution

Different Kinds of Light and Color

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Our eyes see only a narrow range of the light energy that surrounds us. Hot objects glow in infrared, lightning puts out X-rays, and our Wi-Fi devices beam radio waves at each other. These are all just different colors of light invisible to our eyes.

Stars and galaxies send out these colors, too. So we need different kinds of telescopes to see the different colors of light.