UV Room

Come in and see our fluorescent minerals in the ultraviolet (UV) room. Watch boring looking minerals shine with color at the push of a button! We have 6 shelves of long wave and 3 shelves or shortwave UV specimens. In addition, we have both longwave and shortwave UV lights available to test your own minerals to see if they get excited under specific wavelength light. Thanks to the Montana Tech Robotics club for help designing our push-button lighting system.

When an atom in a mineral absorbs radiant energy – in this case either short wave (top 3 shelves across) or longwave (bottom 6 shelves) ultraviolet light – the energy causes the atom to become excited. The electrons in the atom move to a higher energy level and then jump back to the level they originated.

When the atoms do this, the result is that energy is released as visible light (wavelengths 400 nanometers to 700 nanometers).

Fluorescence is displayed only by a few known minerals. It is usually caused by impurities in the mineral’s crystal structure.