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Explorations an Introduction to Astronomy Thomas T. Arny | ||||||||
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Chapter 3, Figure 14
Figure
3.14
Gas between an observer and a source of light that is hotter than the gas creates an absorption-line spectrum. Atoms in the gas absorb only those wavelengths whose energy equals the energy difference between their electron orbits. The absorbed energy lifts the electrons to upper orbits. The lost light makes the spectrum darker at the wavelengths where it is absorbed.
