Early astronomers could not go into space in order to study stars. The only way they were able to study stars, planets, asteroids and the rest of space was by using telescopes. These telescopes captured light that was emitted from these stars in space. Then it magnified it for us to see in more clear vision. Astronomers were able to use the atomic spectra to study stars and make many discoveries based on atomic spectra analysis.
Galileo was the first astronomer to use a refracting telescope. This telescope consisted of one eyepiece and an objective lens. They both captured the incoming light and bent it into a bright point where the viewer may see the desired object. .
Astronomers used the atomic spectra in order to study stars to determine which elements are within the star or planet. One big example of this is when astronomers and physicists discovered that in our star, when they used the atomic spectra, they found a new spectra not matching any element they knew. Later this was found to match helium. Also they are able to determine if a star is new or old by how much energy is given off and how hot it could be. .
Knowing about the Bohr atom, isolated atoms can absorb and emit packets of electromagnetic radiation having discrete energies dictated by the detailed atomic structure of the atoms. When the corresponding light is passed through a prism or spectrograph it is separated spatially according to wavelength. The corresponding spectrum may exhibit a continuum, or may have superposed on the continuum bright lines, an emission spectrum, or dark lines, an absorption spectrum. As a result, emission spectra are produced by thin gases in which the atoms do not experience many collisions because of the low density. The emission lines correspond to photons of discrete energies that are emitted when excited atomic states in the gas make transitions back to lower-lying levels. A continuum spectrum results when the gas pressures are higher.
