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Showing results for tags 'spectroscopy'.
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I started thinking about analyzing light from distant stars ([spectroscopy] comments took me to wikipedia and the Extremely Large Telescope and the canceled-but-brilliantly-backronymed Overwhelmingly Large Telescope), and realized it all came down to photons. Which got me to think- if one were analyzing the atmosphere of ProximaB 4 light-years away, how many photons are you *actually* talking about that pass through the detector each second? Millions? Thousands? Furthermore, how would this change, if I were looking at a - say supernova in the Andromeda Galaxy 250,000 times farther away? My layman's thinking of light says the farther away you get - like a fire hose- the less light is emitted at an angle which touches your detector. Do astronomers count, or care about, photons? - & do you need a minimal quantity to do spectroscopy, or (i wouldn't believe it) is *one* photon enough?
