List of light sources
- This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
A GIF of atmospheric lightning, which can be a spectacular source of illumination.
This is a list of sources of light, including both natural and artificial sources, and processes and devices that emit light. In this list, light is considered to be electromagnetic radiation that is visible to the human eye, and not blackbody radiation in the more general sense. The list is also limited to sources of light, as opposed to objects such as the Moon that provide light by reflection.
Natural
The Sun
Emission nebula and stars
Starry sky crossed with the Milky Way and a shooting star
Celestial and atmospheric light
- Astronomical objects
- Sun (sunlight, solar radiation)
- Starlight (Stars forming groups such as star clusters and galaxies and indirectly lighting nebulae)
- Bright star (list)
- Deep sky objects including quasars, accretion discs around black holes, blazars, magnetars, misc. nebulae, pulsars
- Supernova / nova / hypernova
- Milky Way
- Atmospheric entry (via ionization and/or heating; can be man-made, also)
- Meteors
- Meteor showers (articles, list)
A very bright meteor - Bolide/Fireball
- Earth-grazing fireball
- Lightning (Plasma (physics))
- Aurorae
- Čerenkov radiation (from cosmic rays hitting atmosphere)
- Noctilucent clouds
Terrestrial
A bioluminescent fungus
- Bioluminescence
- Luciferase acting on Luciferin - found in glowworms (Arachnocampa and Phengodidae), fireflies (Lampyridae), and certain bacteria
- Aequorea victoria (a type of jellyfish)
- Antarctic krill
- Parchment worm (Chaetopterus), which exhibits blue bioluminescence despite having no light sensitivity
- Cavitation bubbles
- The common piddock (Pholas dactylus)
- Foxfire, one of up to 71 known species of luminescent fungus
- Glowworm
- Sonoluminescence
A volcano
- Incandescence
- Lava
- Volcanic
- Volcanic eruption (lightning, heated material)
- Radioluminescence (man-made)
- Triboluminescence (also man-made)
- Piezoluminescence
- Earthquake light
Nuclear/high-energy related
Direct chemical
- Chemoluminescence (lightsticks)
- Luminol reacting with oxidizer
- Thermite reacting with iron(III) oxide
- Fluorescence
- Phosphorescence
- Chemical explosives
Electric powered
Some common electric lamps, with their color temperatures
A 230-volt incandescent light bulb, with E27 (Edison 27 mm) screw base
Filament of an incandescent closeup
Electron-stimulated
- Cathodoluminescence
- Cathode ray tube (CRT monitor)
- Electron stimulated luminescence (ESL light bulbs)
- Crookes tube
Incandescent lamps
See also: Incandescence
Electroluminescent (EL) lamps
Main article: Electroluminescence
- Light-emitting diodes
- Organic light-emitting diodes
- Polymer light-emitting diodes
- Solid-state lighting
- LED lamp
- AMOLED
- Light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs)
- Electroluminescent sheets
- Electroluminescent wires
- Field-induced polymer electroluminescent (FIPEL)[1]
Gas discharge lamps
A General Electric NE-34 glow lamp, manufactured circa 1930.
- Induction lighting
- Fluorescent lamp
- Compact fluorescent lamp
- Tanning lamp
- Black lights (Wood's lamp)
- Geissler tube
- Moore tube
- "Ruhmkorff" lamp
- Hollow-cathode lamp
- Excimer lamp
- Neon and argon lamps
- Dekatron
A dekatron in operation - Nixie tube
- Dekatron
- Plasma lamp
- Xenon flash lamp
High-intensity discharge lamps
Main article: High-intensity discharge lamp
- Carbon arc lamps
- Ceramic discharge metal-halide lamp
- Hydrargyrum medium-arc iodide lamp
- Mercury-vapor lamp
- Metal-halide lamp
- Sodium-vapor lamp
- Sulfur lamp
- Xenon arc lamp
Lasers
- Ruby laser
- Gas laser
- Semiconductor laser
- Chemical laser
- Dye laser
- Metal-vapor laser
- Solid-state laser
- Ion laser
- Quantum well laser
- Free-electron laser
- Gas dynamic laser
Combustion
A small fire in a backyard fire pit.
Nuclear
- Cyclotron radiation
- Synchrotron light; see also synchrotron radiation
- High altitude nuclear explosion
- Bremsstrahlung
- Čerenkov radiation
- Radioluminescence
- Sonoluminescence
Other
An operating "fusor"
From space, an entire city emitting light
- Electrodeless lamp
- Black-body radiation
- Liter of Light
- Landscape light
- Explosion
- Fusor
- Floodlight
- Hybrid solar lighting
- Laser diode
- Nonlinear optics allows for many processes that create visible light from other wavelengths of light which may or may not be visible
- Safelight
- Sulfur lamp
- Synchrotron light; see also Synchrotron radiation
- Scintillation (physics)
- Sunlight
- Supercontinuum
- Spark (fire)
- Electric spark
- Tanning lamp
- Li-Fi
- Light pollution
- Lighthouse
- Lightship
- Strobe beacon
See also
- List of plasma (physics) applications articles
- Photometry (optics)
- Spectrometer
- Luminous efficacy
References
External links
- A CD spectrometer Color spectrographs of common light sources
- The Double Amici Prism Hand-Held Spectroscope in Practice - Dozens of raw visible spectra of a wide variety of light sources.
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