The atmosphere gets in the way of the universe’s most amazing objects

Earth’s atmosphere thankfully provides air for us to breathe, but when trying to study interesting objects in space it causes all sorts of problems, writes Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

By Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

EARTH’s atmosphere is pretty wonderful. As well as being a scientific curiosity, it is also the reason that life on our planet thrives in the way that it does. I am thankful for this, but as someone who studies the sky, the atmosphere also presents me with a problem: it blocks out some of the light frequencies that I want to use to study the incredible objects that populate the universe. It can also distort the light that isn’t blocked, creating disadvantages for doing astronomy using telescopes based on Earth.

That is why the atmosphere is the primary reason …