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[jackshoegazer]

So, I've got a question for you: eyes on planet Earth have evolved to pick up what we call the visible spectrum, approximately 400-700nm.  This happened because of the particular frequencies that are emitted from our sun.  Now, imagine a sun that emits a totally different set of ranges on the spectrum.  If intelligent life evolved on a planet around that sun and their eyes evolved to pick up different wavelengths, say way up in the 1400-2000nm range, what would they see if they came to Earth?  What would they look like to us?  What would we see on their planet?

No, I'm not stoned.

We're covering the electromagnetic spectrum in both chemistry and climate, so I've been thinking about this quite a bit this week.

I need to get some lunch and read up on photo developing, which we will be doing in photography today.

Thus far, I am only enjoying my photography and weight-training classes.  My sciences can suck a bag of dicks.  It's mostly the instructor's fault in both classes.  I love the material, but the operandus modi of the teachers makes me want to pull out my hair, weave it into a nice rug, and lay down and take a nap on it.

Playing with the spectrophotometer was pretty cool though.

Comments

[tyskkvinna.livejournal.com]

I would love to see a planet that has a totally different spectrum... to start, to see what kind of plants and animals evolved on this land, since our sun's spectrum is so important to life in general.

I see slightly outside of the normal human spectrum. Just very slightly - closer towards 850nm. I discovered this doing spectrum studies when I studied radio astronomy in university. A lot of the things considered infra-red looked very weird to me, versus what pictures said it looked like. I've also discovered that I'm more acutely aware of the ultraviolet side of things, but I think that has more to do with training.

I think it would be fascinating to make a room using nothing but light outside of our visible spectrum. And the different ways to see it. If we wanted to visit our friends on the different spectrum planet, we'd surely need some kind of goggles/glasses to help see things... But oh my god... how everything would be different. So very different. So many things are strictly dependent upon the spectrum.

[fannyanns.livejournal.com]

maybe it would be like if french people watched The A-Team.

?

I got nuthin. glad you're enjoying your classes. (sorry about science. how do you make that stuff boring?)

[hellocthulhu.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, not sure if there are any stars that don't emit any light on the visible spectrum. Astronomical objects, sure, but quasars don't exactly have planets.

[shortcakeness.livejournal.com]

My best friend in college, Sarah felt the same way about geology... she used to come back from class and write "I <3 geology like a hot spoon in my eye." on my whiteboard.

[mysterysquid.livejournal.com]

Great question...fair bit of research to do it justice though.

That'd be far infrared, right? Anything with a high metabolism is going to glow, for starters.

There's emission and absorbtion spectra to consider too.

[kiwikat.livejournal.com]

The instructor can really make or break a class, I've noticed. That's why I'm both very glad and very sad that mine are so short...

I'm glad you're enjoying photo and weights, though! I figured those would both (hopefully) be highly rewarding for you.

[jesuslovesbono.livejournal.com]

what is a spectrophotometer and how do you play with it?

[super-elmo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't know either, but I think getting to use a gadget called a spectrophotometer is probably the coolest part of being a sciency person. I bet it's some sort of alien detection ray.