Harvard’s astronomers photographed huge groups of stars by attaching a prism and a light-sensitive glass plate to the observa- tory’s telescope. Hundreds of star spectrums, each appearing as a tiny smudge, were captured on each 8-inch by 10-inch plate. By looking closely at each blurred spot with a magnifying glass, Annie and her teammates could see a unique pattern of black, vertical lines that gave each star its fingerprint. From this, they could eval- uate its size, brightness, temperature, direction of movement, and even what it’s made of.
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