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An interesting thing happens when you take the infrared light from an object, like this planet-forming disk, and spread out the light by wavelength into a spectrum. You sometimes get these regularly spaced peaks in brightness.

It turns out that this comes from the vibration of molecules, like carbon monoxide (CO).

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📷 https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2023/152/01HFPT98RKZYQKV2YP2S6HNDZ3

#astronomy #chemistry #space