Here. There. Everywhere.

More about Atomic Light Shows.

On Earth, we can use our five senses to learn about the world around us, but the primary way that we learn about more remote phenomena is through our perception of light in its various forms, and most light is produced by collisions of atoms with each other or with electrons.

The wavelength of the light produced by collisions depends on the speed of the colliding atoms, and the structure of the atom, which varies from one element to the next. Room-temperature collisions typically produce infrared light, higher speed collisions produce optical and ultraviolet light, and collisions typical of multimillion degree gases produce X-rays.

For a general introduction to the processes that produce light, see
http://chandra.si.edu/xray_astro/xrays.html

More Info.

Image: Seacoast Signs/J. Ortega

More about Neon Signs.

A good explanation of how neon signs works can be found at:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-do-neon-lights-work

Fun Facts about neon signs.

The concentration of neon signs in Las Vegas is so great that the Las Vegas strip is one of the brightest spots on Earth as viewed from space.
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.rss.html?pid=35581
There is a neon sign museum in Las Vegas with a collection of discard signs called "The Boneyard."
http://www.neonmuseum.org/
Probably the most famous Las Vegas neon sign of all, "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" was created by Betty Willis, a native of Las Vegas and a pioneer neon sign designer who helped create many of Las Vegas' famous signs.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/lasvegas/peopleevents/p_willis.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/13/garden/13VEGA.html

Image: Stan Richard. nightskyevents.com

More about Auroras.

See: http://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/auroras/

Fun Facts about Auroras.

The largest recorded solar storm occurred on September 1-2, 1859. It produced auroras seen around the world, as far south as the Caribbean. Elsewhere, people thought that their cities were on fire.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bracing-for-a-solar-superstorm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859#cite_note-Odenwald-2
Chandra and Hubble have detected powerful auroras on Jupiter that are a thousand times more powerful than those normally observed on Earth.
http://chandra.si.edu/photo/2005/jupiter/

Image: NASA/CXC/NCSU/K.J.Borkowski et al.

More about Supernova Shockwaves.

For a discussion of supernovas, the glowing gas behind supernova shock waves, see the many images in the Chandra photo album:
http://chandra.si.edu/photo/category/snr.html

as well as the discussion in the Chandra field guide:
http://chandra.si.edu/xray_sources/supernovas.html

Supernova Fun Facts.

The rapidly expanding (millions of miles per hour) matter from a supernova creates a remnant of multimillion-degree hot gas and high-energy particles several light years across that glow in radio through X-ray wavelengths for thousands of years.
A supernova remnant contains huge quantities of elements such as oxygen, neon, silicon, sulfur, calcium and iron that were made inside the star and expelled into space. It has been estimated that the Cas A supernova remnant contains enough calcium to make several nonillion (a million trillion trillion) glasses of milk. More on elements in the periodic table: http://chandra.si.edu/resources/flash/periodic_tables.html

Back to Atomic Light Show page

Topics: when atoms collide.