Astrophysics (Index)About

near infrared

(NIR, near-IR)
(electromagnetic radiation in the range of 750-2500 nm)

Near infrared (NIR or near-IR) is infrared radiation adjacent to visible light within the electromagnetic spectrum, with wavelengths 750-2500 nm (all infrared's range being 750 nm to 1 mm, slightly different ranges are also cited for these). The essential difference between NIR and visible light is that NIR's wavelength is just outside the range of human vision and the optical equipment for NIR is largely the same as that for visible light and modern research optical telescopes typically can observe at some or all NIR wavelengths as well. Sources producing visible light generally produce some NIR, and some sources are at distances such that redshift moves their visible light into the NIR band. Among the uses for NIR astronomy is the study of cool stars. Also, of use is that NIR is less affected by dust than visible light: objects hidden in dusty nebulae might be observed in infrared. A disadvantage of NIR observation is that some of its wavelengths are blocked by the atmosphere, and ground observation is confined to a few spectral bands within which the atmosphere is transparent to NIR (atmospheric windows). Observation from a high altitude reduces this issue.


(infrared,EMR,spectrum,band)
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_infrared
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrared_astronomy
http://www.icc.dur.ac.uk/~tt/Lectures/Galaxies/Images/Infrared/Regions/irregions.html
WaveLFreqPhoton
Energy
  
750nm400THz1.7eVbeginnear infrared
2500nm120THz496meVendnear infrared

Referenced by pages:
3D-HST
angstrom (Å)
atmospheric window
BASS
Boötes Field
Calar Alto Observatory
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT)
CIBER
CorMASS
Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS)
Cosmic Dawn Intensity Mapper (CDIM)
Dark Energy Survey (DES)
DAVINCI
DENIS
DKIST
dropout
ESO 3.6m Telescope
Euclid
European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT)
European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope (ESO VLT)
first galaxies
FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey (ZFOURGE)
Gaia
GaiaNIR
Galileo
Gemini Observatory
Gemini Planet Imager (GPI)
Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT)
Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC)
griz photometric system
HARMONI
Hawaii K-band Galaxy Survey
helium 1083 nm line
High Definition Space Telescope (HDST)
Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
I band
infrared (IR)
IRTS
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
JHK photometric system (JHK)
K band
K-type star (K)
Keck Observatory
kilonova (KN)
KMOS
KMOS3D
L-type star (L)
Large Binocular Telescope (LBT)
Liverpool Telescope (LT)
Lowell Discovery Telescope (LDT)
Lucy
LUVOIR
M-type star (M)
Magellan Telescopes
MICADO
Mimir
MKO photometric system
MMT
MMX
Multi-object Optical and Near-IR Spectrograph (MOONS)
Multiwavelength Survey by Yale-Chile (MUSYC)
Munich Near-Infrared Cluster Survey (MUNICS)
NEAR Shoemaker (NEAR)
New Technology Telescope (NTT)
NEWS
NIRCam
NIRPS
NIRSpec
optics
Palomar Testbed Interferometer (PTI)
PanCET
Paschen series
passband
PESSTO
radial velocity method
reflector telescope
Roman Space Telescope (RST)
SIMP
SINS
Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)
SOAR Telescope (SOAR)
SOFIA
Southern African Large Telescope (SALT)
spectral energy distribution (SED)
SPECULOOS
SPHEREx
SPICA
SPIRou
Subaru PFS
Subaru Telescope
SUNRISE
Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG)
tip of the red-giant branch (TRGB)
TripleSpec (TSpec)
Two Micron All-sky Survey (2MASS)
ugriz photometric system
UltraVISTA
University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO)
Uranus Orbiter and Probe
UVCANDELS
William Herschel Telescope (WHT)
WINERED
WINGS
WIYN 3.5m Telescope

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