In astronomy, what is optical depth?

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In astronomy, what is optical depth?

In: Physics

Anonymous 0 Comments

Simply put, how far you’re able to see into a surface in a certain frequency.

A quick example would be clouds or nebulae. They are optically thick when you’re looking through them in visible wavelengths (what we see with our eyes), but they are optically thin in the infrared, and we can basically see right through them.