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Glossary term: Infrarrojo (IR)

Description: La luz infrarroja es una radiación electromagnética con longitudes de onda mayores que las de la luz visible, pero menores que las de las ondas de microondas y las ondas de radio. La luz infrarroja tiene longitudes de onda que oscilan entre los 700 nanómetros y un milímetro, mientras que la luz visible tiene longitudes de onda de entre 400 y 700 nanómetros aproximadamente. Por lo tanto, la luz infrarroja es invisible para el ojo humano y solo puede verse con cámaras especiales. Los cuerpos térmicos con temperaturas que van desde unas decenas hasta varios miles de kelvin, como las nubes moleculares en el espacio, el cuerpo humano o las enanas marrones, tienen su pico de emisión electromagnética en la luz infrarroja.

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Term and definition status: The original definition of this term in English have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher
The translation of this term and its definition is still awaiting approval

The OAE Multilingual Glossary is a project of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) in collaboration with the IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach (OAO). The terms and definitions were chosen, written and reviewed by a collective effort from the OAE, the OAE Centers and Nodes, the OAE National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAECs) and other volunteers. You can find a full list of credits here. All glossary terms and their definitions are released under a Creative Commons CC BY-4.0 license and should be credited to "IAU OAE".

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The space shuttle is shaped like a stubby airplane with a grayscale image on the left and blue-red colorscale on the right

Infrared Reentry Analysis: Shuttle Orbiter Columbia

Caption: A composite image of the Space Shuttle Columbia's reentry, captured by NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory. The right hand side of the image was taken in infrared light with the left hand side taken in visible light. The image reveals the intense heating patterns encountered during descent. The temperature scale for the infrared image goes from violet at the coolest end to red at the hottest. We can see here that the wing and tail of the space shuttle are glowing the brightest, indicating that they are the hottest.
Credit: NASA with minor adjustments by wikicommons user Ke4roh credit link

License: PD Public Domain icons