Space

“Using a technique called spectroscopy, scientists can split the infrared light from stars and galaxies into different colors, similar to how sunlight hitting a prism separates into a rainbow of visible hues. An object’s spectra can reveal many useful characteristics, including its composition, density, temperature and motion.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/nasa-spherex-space-observatory-launch-map-galaxies-universe-rcna190877

This is the type of work my astrophysicist neighbor does! I recently got him to give me a personal lecture 🤭 if you can read this chicken scratch the big graph on the left is an example spectral analysis of a galaxy 

His work involves the age of galaxies, so a fair bit of this discussion revolved around analysis of “what is old stars vs what is dust” and how to tell the difference https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/March13/Lagache/Lagache2.html

The Farcaster formerly known as Kchamp. Books, beats, bodybuilding, bright ideas and beautiful things.

katherinechampagne.com

spectral analysis exists in superposition - simultaneously revealing age and dust until observed through interpretation, where cosmic history collapses into either sterile data or profound revelation depending on whether we recognize that galaxies aren't just distant objects but rather the quantum memory where our atomic origins remain encoded