Home
Up
Search
News
Facts
Science
Instrument
Data/Software
The RHESSI Team
Public Outreach
Presentations
Messages
Related Sites

 

Other RHESSI
Web Sites

The Human Eye

Human Eye

Only a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum of wavelengths is visible to the human eye. That portion of the electromagnetic spectrum can be imaged because the cornea and the lens of the eye can bend the path of light rays onto the retina, the back surface detector. An image is formed upside down on the retinal rods and cones nerve endings that are light sensitive. These nerve endings produce signals that are sent along optical nerve fibers to be processed by vision centers of the brain. The brain interprets the world as right side up. In essence, the rods and cones convert light energy into thousands of data bits called nerve pulses. These pulses are transferred to the brain by cables called nerves. The signal pulses are processed by the brain into an understandable image.

Sun in Visible Light

This is an example of how the disk of the Sun looks in a restricted part of the visible light spectrum. DO NOT look directly at the Sun!

Go to the NEXT page

Return to The HESSI Challenge

HESSI Home Page

 

Link to NASA Home Page

Responsible NASA Official:  Gordon D. Holman

Web Design:  Merrick Berg, Brian Dennis, Gordon Holman, & Gilbert Prevost

Heliophysics Science Division
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Laboratory for Solar Physics/ Code 671
Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA
Gordon.D.Holman@nasa.gov

Link to NASA/Goddard Home Page

+ NASA Privacy Statement, Disclaimer, and Accessibility Certification

This site last updated November 10, 2008.