Long Wave Infrared -LWIR-Thremally Emitting

  Long Wave Infrared-LWIR 8 -12µ is often used for thermal imaging detection. And human radiation peaks at about 10µ.

.

.

.

Thankfully, there are many more applications in the Long Wave IR that are not associated with war.  The 8-12µ transparency window is of particular importance to the Astrophysicist for three main reasons:  It is considered an atmospheric window and, this light, does pass through the hydrocarbons in the atmosphere relatively well.  Not only that, the dimming effect is extraordinarily low at 3.32. The Earths atmospheric radiation peak is, also, at about 10µ.  Although this peak does interfere with ground based telescopes, "it is clear", that this is the exact same frequency the Astrophysicist would want to image in order to detect Exoplanets in the Universe.

.

.