A ball of gas 93 million miles away—the Sun—sends energy to us in the form of light and heat. Without it, we’d be nowhere. But what exactly is light? What exactly is heat? What can they do?
Light comes at us as waves—waves of electric and magnetic fields. That’s why the scientific term for light waves is electromagnetic radiation. Radiation is a way of transferring energy from one place to another. In addition to the light we see, electromagnetic radiation includes infrared, ultraviolet, microwaves, radio waves, and X-rays. These forms of electromagnetic radiation help us get many jobs done.
