Answer to Question #73259 in Optics for Adnan Rafi

Question

In what way are the laser light and star light similar in ways they are different?

Answer 1

Starlight obviously comes from a much larger source but it isn’t concentrate, it is very spread out. So, say you shine a laser on a piece of paper and let starlight hit paper, you can burn through the paper with the laser because on that specific exact spot on the paper there are more photons hitting than the starlight. But put a magnifying glass under sunlight, and you concentrate it and can get fire. The wavelengths are different too. All light is a form of electromagnetic radiation, some more harmful than others, and most invisible to our eye. Starlight contains tons more of the harmful kind than lasers.