In: Physics
Astronomers know that the two lines, labeled as D1 and D2, are created by electron transitions in sodium atoms. The D1 line is missing photons of wavelength 5895.924 Å. The D2 line is caused by absorption of 5889.950 Å photons. Using their known wavelengths, you will be able to convert pixels in the photograph into real wavelengths by determining a scale factor (i.e., determining the number of pixels per Angstrom)
Calculate: how many Angstroms are there between the D1 and D2 tick-marks?
Wavelength of D1 (in Å) |
Wavelength of D2 (in Å) |
Wavelength Separation Between D1 and D2 |
In the original scale, the separation in length between the peaks will be:
which is the wavelength separation in the original scale.
Let us assume that the scale factor is Q
so, there are Q pixels per Angstrom
now if the number of pixels between D1 and D2 is N (wavelength separation between D1 and D2), then
=> .
from the given pixel positions for D1 and D2, calculate N and use it to determine the scale factor Q.
1 Angstrom = 1 x 10-10 m
so, the number of Angstroms between D1 and D2 will be: