alleryStart learning →Which astronomer discovered infrared in 1800 by placing a thermometer beyond the red?
AChristian Doppler
BJoseph Fraunhofer
CJames Clerk Maxwell
DWilliam Herschel
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: D. William Herschel
1. Sunlight spread by a prism can be probed color by color with a thermometer.
2. William Herschel put his thermometer past the red end and it still warmed up.
3. Some invisible radiation was arriving there, which we now call infrared.
4. Fraunhofer studied the dark lines in the solar spectrum, a different discovery altogether.
_Source: OpenStax Astronomy (CC BY 4.0), Ch 4 "Earth, Moon, and Sky" and Ch 5 "Radiation and Spectra", section 5.2 The Electromagnetic Spectrum_
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