How do electrons produce visible light?

An atom’s electron absorbs energy and becomes energized, or excited. When this happens, the excited electron moves from its ground state (normal position around the nucleus) to an excited state (position farther from the nucleus. 2. The excited electron emits the energizing energy as photons of visible light.

How does the sun produce visible light?

Visible light, for example, comes from the photosphere (or surface) whereas most infrared light comes from the lower chromosphere just above. Much of the high-energy UV and X-ray photons come from the Sun’s outer atmosphere (called the corona).

How is infrared light produced?

Since the primary source of infrared radiation is heat or thermal radiation, any object which has a temperature radiates in the infrared. Even objects that we think of as being very cold, such as an ice cube, emit infrared. The warmer the object, the more infrared radiation it emits.

Does the Earth emit visible light?

The Earth emits mostly longer wavelength infrared radiation that we cannot see. Sunlight made up of visible light passes through the atmosphere on the way into Earth, but the greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere absorb infrared radiation going out to space.

Why do we see visible light as the dominant wavelength that is produced by the sun?

THE SUN’S CORONA The Sun is the dominant source for visible-light waves our eyes receive. The outer-most layer of the Sun’s atmosphere, the corona, can be seen in visible light. But it is so faint it cannot not be seen except during a total solar eclipse because the bright photosphere overwhelms it.

How do we see infrared light?

We can sense some infrared energy as heat. Our eyes cannot see these infrared waves but instruments that can sense infrared energy—such as night-vision goggles or infrared cameras–allow us to “see” the infrared waves emitting from warm objects such as humans and animals.

What would happen if there was no visible light?

Without light, our eyes would not be able to see images of anything. Aside from sight, there are other important uses for visible light. We concentrate visible light to make lasers to use in everything from surgery, to CD players to laser pointers.