Word: ultraviolet
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...abroad where University astronomers are working; others are designed to observe the universe from satellites above the earth's obscuring atmosphere. The following is a report on three of these new electronic instruments, each of which peers through a different window in the electromagnetic spectrum: the infrared, the far ultraviolet, and the radio...
Another "window to the universe, until recently closed to astronomers on earth, lies at the ultraviolet end of the electromagnetic spectrum. The earth's atmosphere absorbs most of the ultraviolet light reaching it from the sun and other stars. A Harvard ultraviolet spectrometer, designed to look closely at the sun from a satellite outside the earth's atmosphere, has already been tested aboard a rocket and following further test, will join a number of other instruments aboard an orbiting solar observatory sometime this year...
...ultraviolet spectrometer, about the size and shape of a window box, will provide new information about the solar flares that erupt now and then from the sun's atmosphere, appearing as tongues of luminous gas flicking outward around sun spots. During a flare, clouds of ionized hydrogen gas--protons and electrons--shoot out, filling interplanetary space with intense radiation. When these clouds encounter the earth and pass through the earth's magnetic field into the polar regions, they produce the northern lights, and cause short-wave radio transmission to fade or black...
...flare is accompanied by a burst of ultraviolet radiation, and the Harvard instrument can record this radiation in two ways. First, it can concentrate on a small spot in the center of the solar disc and record, in about 27 minutes, the intensity of radiation over the whole ultraviolet spectrum. During its other "mode" of operation, the eye of the spectrometer will scan the whole disk of the sun, back and forth, bottom to top, recording at just one wavelength. Each complete scan will take about four and one-half minutes and will provide a crude ultraviolet picture...
...will be watched around the clock by all the souped-up instruments that have been proliferating in the world's observatories. Its face will be studied for signs of unborn sunspots being gestated under the surface. Satellites and other spacecraft will measure all kinds of solar radiation, ultraviolet and X rays, that do not penetrate the earth's atmosphere. The sun's visible spectrum will be dissected for any detectable signs of differences during the quiet period. The great tongues of flame that leap from the sun's surface will be counted and measured...