Spectral analysis and Kirchhoff's law of radiation
Análisis espectral y ley de la radiación de Kirchhoff
- Date
- 1859 · confidence high
- Place
- Heidelberg, Germany
- Credited to
- Gustav Kirchhoff; Robert Bunsen
- People
- 👤 Gustav Kirchhoff1824–1887👤 Robert Bunsen1811–1899
- Field
- Communication
What was discovered
Every element emits and absorbs light in characteristic lines, which explains the Fraunhofer lines as absorption in the solar atmosphere; Kirchhoff states that emission and absorption are proportional and poses the black-body problem. Spectroscopy becomes a universal tool.
In 1860 Kirchhoff posed the black body as a theoretical problem that Planck would solve in 1900.
What it led to
- Discovery of elements (caesium, rubidium, helium)
- Astrophysics
- Black-body problem and quantum theory
- Spectral series (Balmer) and the Bohr model
Built on
- Fraunhofer lines in the solar spectrum1814
- Bunsen burner1855
- Observations by Foucault and Stokes
Made possible
- Zeeman effect1896
- Laboratory spectrometer
- Material analysis by spectroscopy