How to Tell What a Distant Star Is Made Of

Every atom has a different ladder. So you'll have photons that are sort of imbued with different energy based on the way this electron has jumped down from the ladder. And so we can tell what distant stars and distant planetary atmospheres are made out of just by looking at the color of the light, the frequency of the light that they emit. Is this kind of how classic neon lights work? You can fill a glass tube with various chemicals or different atoms then once you put some energy into it, it produces a different color.