What our eyes miss in the sky – stargazing beyond the visible light spectrum

Even if you’re able to escape light pollution on a clear night, your view of the Milky Way is still obscured by the Earth’s atmosphere and, of course, limited to the visible light spectrum. Modern telescopes have transformed our understanding of the cosmos not only through their unprecedented deep-space views, but also because they’re able to detect electromagnetic frequencies outside of what we can see with our eyes, occasionally while orbiting beyond Earth’s atmosphere. This revealing video from the American Museum of Natural History guides us through celestial views at several electromagnetic frequencies, demonstrating how specialised telescopes reach beyond the visible spectrum to help demystify the observable Universe.

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