Spectrographs: Dissecting the Colors of Light

A spectrograph is an instrument that splits light into its component colors, or spectrum.
It works like a high-tech prism, revealing hidden details in starlight.
Spectrographs show unique spectral lines, fingerprints of chemical elements.
They help astronomers measure a star’s temperature, composition, and velocity.
The Doppler shifts in spectra reveal the motion of stars, galaxies, and even exoplanets.
Modern spectrographs can detect stellar wobbles as small as 1 m/s—walking speed!
They are essential for studying galaxies, black holes, and cosmic expansion.
Space telescopes like Hubble and Webb carry spectrographs for detailed analysis.
Different designs, like echelle spectrographs, capture wide wavelength ranges with high precision.
Spectrographs turn faint beams of light into rich data, unlocking the physics of the universe.