image credit: Courtesy NASA/IPAC; image source; no larger image available
Our Infrared World Gallery
This image shows liquid nitrogen in infrared light. To see what happens when peas are added, and what liquid nitrogen looks like in visible light, visit NASA's Frozen in Liquid Nitrogen. For the basics of infrared, you can visit another NASA site, The Infrared (don't miss the image of a man striking a match). For lots more infrared images from the everyday world, including faces, see Our Infrared World Gallery.
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Discovering Infrared--the Herschel Experiment
Visit Discovering Infrared--the Herschel Experiment to learn how infrared radiation was discovered and to find out how you can perform a similar experiment yourself. When Herschel made a solar spectrum with a prism and shined it on a thermometer, which he placed in different parts of the spectrum, he found the highest temperature just beyond the red, where there was no visible light--yet the intensity of sunlight peaks in the visible. To resolve this discrepancy, see Reconciling the Herschel Experiment.