Shedding a New Light on the Universe
What If We Could See Infrared Light?
How different would the world look if we could see infrared, or IR light? Well, for one thing, we would be able to see our hand in front of our face in the dark! Our bodies actually emit IR light, which we experience as heat. If we could see in the IR, everything that gives off heat would suddenly be apparent to us, even if there were no visible light! Since our eyes cannot see in the IR, something like night vision (or infrared) goggles can be used to see differences in temperature and to assign different brightnesses or false colors to the different temperatures or energies of IR light. This provides a picture that our eyes can interpret.
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If we looked at a person with infrared goggles, we would see something similar to the image on the left showing a Jet Propulsion Lab engineer holding a lighted match. The image is color-coded to show differences in temperature. The flame and the engineer's palm (a place where warm blood vessels are close to the surface of the skin) are warmer than his glasses. This shows how infrared images show heat energy and its distribution. |
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