Where does light come from? Your first thought is probably the Sun—and you’re right. But what about at night? You might say the Moon, yet the Moon does not create its own light. It simply reflects sunlight. That leaves the stars as our true nighttime source of light. Each star is part of a galaxy, like the one shown in this image, so when you see the night sky twinkle, you are really looking at galaxies across space.
Scientists call light electromagnetic radiation (EMR), a term that comes from the work of James Clerk Maxwell, a Scottish physicist. The name combines electricity and magnetism because all EMR begins with moving electrons that create magnetism. Light is just one type of EMR. The rainbow colors we see with our eyes make up only a tiny fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum, shown here as the purple bar beneath the galaxy.
A light wave has two features: its length and its up-and-down oscillation, like the wiggles drawn coming out of the galaxy. The distance from one wave top to the next is its wavelength. Different types of light have different wavelengths, and their sizes can be compared to everyday objects—mountains for radio waves, bacteria for ultraviolet light, and atoms for X-rays. Beyond visible light, galaxies also shine in the infrared, ultraviolet, X-ray, and even gamma-ray ranges.
The most astonishing fact is this: long before humans built radios, the only radio waves on Earth came from distant galaxies. Today, we add to that cosmic chorus with our own man-made EMR—broadcasting music, phone calls, and data across the planet.