New Method of Researching Invisible Light is Developed

Originally designed by physicists at Rutgers University, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and the State University of New York in Buffalo, the nano-sized electronic circuit which is 100 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair is able to detect light in the far infrared spectrum.

What this enables researchers to do is trace faint amounts of light from the universes earliest stars. As they move further away from us, stars approach speeds close to that of light itself. The light that they emit is strongly red induced. Since the earth’s atmosphere absorbs far infrared light, conventional current telescopes cannot detect these early stars.

The hot electron nanobolometer measures the heat produced through absorption of photons and is said to be 100 times more sensitive than that of previous bolometers. The new device is slated to be able to detect as little as one photon of far infrared light which will give researchers the opportunity to analyze the earliest stages of star and galaxy formation.