Infrared

A false color image of two people taken in long-wavelength infrared (body-temperature thermal) light.

This infrared space telescope image has (false color) blue, green and red corresponding to 3.4, 4.6, and 12 µm wavelengths, respectively.

Infrared (IR) is invisible radiant energy, electromagnetic radiation with longer wavelengths than those of visible light, extending from the nominal red edge of the visible spectrum at 700 nanometers (frequency 430 THz) to 1 mm (300 GHz)^[1] (although people can see infrared up to at least 1050 nm in experiments^[2][3][4][5]). Most of the thermal radiation emitted by objects near room temperature is infrared.

Infrared radiation was discovered in 1800 by astronomer Sir William Herschel, who discovered a type of invisible radiation in the spectrum beyond red light, by means of its effect upon a thermometer.^[6] Thomson]], 1864: 219

Type species: Gnomidolon biarcuatum (White, 1855), by original designation, (Thomson, 1864: 219).

Synonyms

• Gnomidolon Thomson, 1864: 219, 439; 1867: 160; Lacordaire, 1869: 330; Bates, 1870: 286; 1885: 259; Aurivillius, 1912: 106 (Cat.); Blackwelder, 1946: 568 (Cat.); Martins, 1961: 1; Martins & Chemsak, 1966: 456.

References

• Thomson, J. 1864: Systema cerambycidarum ou exposé de tous les genres compris dans la famille des cérambycides et familles limitrophes. Mémoires de la Société Royale des Sciences de Liège, 19: 1-540.
• Martins, U.R. 1967: Monografia da tribo Ibidionini. Parte I. Arquivos de zoologia, 16(1): 1-320, 180 figs. [1].lon|insigne}}

Name

Gnomidolon [[James Thomson|