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Astronomy and Cosmology
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Do emission nebula glow because of ionised or excited electrons?
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[QUOTE="Nathi ORea, post: 6519394, member: 684350"] [B]TL;DR Summary:[/B] Do emission nebulae glow because of ionized electrons or excited ones? I'm trying to figure out why emission nebulae glow. I read various sites such as a NASA website explaining why they shine; 'The massive stars embedded within the nebula give off enormous amounts of ultraviolet radiation, ionizing the gas and causing it to shine.' The Britanica article on emission nebula says; 'It was found that [URL='https://www.britannica.com/science/ultraviolet-radiation']ultraviolet light[/URL] from the [URL='https://www.britannica.com/science/star-astronomy']star[/URL] [URL='https://www.britannica.com/science/ion-physics']ionizes[/URL] nearby [URL='https://www.britannica.com/science/hydrogen']hydrogen[/URL]. The hydrogen [URL='https://www.britannica.com/science/atom']atoms[/URL] emit visible [URL='https://www.britannica.com/science/light']light[/URL] after the [URL='https://www.britannica.com/science/electron']electrons[/URL] and nuclei recombine and the atoms drop to lower energy levels.' My understanding is that we cannot see recombining ionised electrons in hydrogen, only those of the Balmer series which are only 'excited' electrons. Wouldn't any electrons excited or ionized by UV simply reemmit emr in the ultraviolet again which we can't see? Just fyi, I am just an astronomy enthusiast and real technical language and maths I probably won't get. I'd appreciate any help [/QUOTE]
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Astronomy and Cosmology
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Do emission nebula glow because of ionised or excited electrons?
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