Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 346 1 v Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Near-infrared light is dominated over much of the Milky Way by old, cool, low-mass stars, with extra emission from young stars and hot dust in active regions. Because interstellar dust attenuates it much less strongly than optical light, near-infrared surface brightness and star counts are useful tracers of stellar mass and the obscured Galactic bulge and bar.