The latest instrument on the Gemini South Telescope, or GHOST, has captured the first optical image showing the full spectrum of light emitted by a star It’s called HD 222925, with amazing resolution.
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Jennifer Lutz, Director of Gemini . Observatory“This is an exciting landmark for astronomers around the world who rely on South Gemini to study the universe from this exceptional vantage point in Chile, and once this next-generation instrument is operational, GHOST will be an essential component of astronomers’ toolbox.”
The light that we can actually see is emitted from the stars, filled with hidden details that describe the distant sun.
It can tell us whether a star is moving by how light travels from one end of the spectrum to the other, while differences in brightness can reveal internal oscillations, which can be analyzed by seismologists.
The full spectrum of a star also reveals what it’s made of, which in turn can be used to find out all sorts of things about it, like the age of the star and where it formed. This is because different elements absorb and re-emit light differently. When astronomers look at a star’s spectrum, they can look for brighter and fainter wavelengths, and use that information to determine which elements are in the star’s atmosphere.
Spectroscopy revealed most of the elements ever seen in a star’s atmosphere, a massive 65 – mostly heavy elements that can only form in very energetic events, such as a neutron star collision or a supernova.
This means that HD 222925, probably from a cloud that was rich in these elements in the first place, is classified by the death of the stars that preceded it.
And new photos from GHOST haven’t revealed anything new about the star — until now.
GHOST is expected to be able to provide fascinating insights into stars that have been identified as interesting targets by telescopes and other surveys, and to provide us with many stars, broken down into their component wavelengths.