Lecture 1:

Hierarchy of the Structures of the Universe

- Planets (Moons, asteroids, comets are all smaller) created by gravity pulling material
together, really just a byproduct of star formation
- Stars, also created by gravity pulling material together
- Solar system is a star(s) with the planets, moons, etc.
- Stars are grouped together gravitationally into groups called star clusters
- Star clusters and stars are grouped together in galaxies (The milky way) about 400 billion
stars within
- Galaxies are grouped together in galaxy clusters, (The local group)
- Clusters are grouped in superclusters (local supercluster or laniakea)
- The superclusters seem to be connected via filament or web like structures making the
universe (cosmic web)
Distances used in astronomy
- Astronomical unit – average distance of Earth to Sun (1AU = 93 million miles)
- Light year- the distance light travels in one year (63,000 AU = 1 ly) (nearest next star,
Proxima Centauri is 4.3 ly away)
- Parsec = 3.26 light years
- Galaxy size is 100,000 lightyears
- Distance to Andromeda = 2.3 million light years (nearest large galaxy)
Lecture 2:
The Celestial Sphere – Definitions
- North and South Celestial Poles are extensions of the Earth’s Poles
- The Celestial Equator is the projection of the Earth’s equator onto the celestial sphere -
cuts the sky in half
- The Horizon – boundary between Earth and sky
- The Zenith – the point directly over your head
- The Meridian – a line running from north through the zenith to the south
Constellations
- To keep track of the relative position of stars, the were often grouped into constellations
- Now 88 recognized section of ksy
- Every object belongs to a constellation if visible or not
Ecliptic – The path of the Sun, throughout the year, 23 ½ tip to equator, planets too
Vernal and Autumnal equinox – place where the ecliptic and equator meet. Point where sun
goes north/south
Solstice – extreme points of sun
- Summer soltice June 21 sun at highest northern point in sky (summer starts)
- Winter solstice Dec 21 sun at lowest point (start of winter)
Zodiac – band along ecliptic (there are 13 constellations that lie in this band)

Lecture 3:
Earth’s motions
1. Rotation – it turns around in 23 hours 56 minutes – diurnal
2. Revolution (orbit) – it takes 365.2564 days (annular)
3. Precession – 26,000 years for a complete turn
The earth does all three of these motions at the same time

Celestial sphere
- The angle of the elcestial sphere is caused by our latitude ( we are stnading in orem and
tilt the sphere so we are upright)
- The altitude of North Star is equal to our latitude
- Polaris is the North star
- As the Earth rotates, it looks to us as the sky rotates around us
- Up by the celestial pole, they never go below the horizon – circumpolar
Diurnal: As the Earth rotates it faces different directions of the Celestial sphere. As seen from
the Earth, the stars move across our sky. It varies based on where you are on the Earth. In Utah,
most stars rise and set

A Solar Day vs Sidereal Day

- Sidereal Day is defined as a 360 degree rotation of the earth with respect to the stars
- Solar Day is defined as the time it takes for the return to being on the meridian. This is
our 24 hours day.
Lecture 4:
- Polaris is North Star
- The tilt is the same all year long
Northern hemisphere is closer to the sun in January
 - The earth is 3.1 million miles closer to the sun in January than July
- The Earth’s radius is 4000 miles
- The tilt affect on distance is negligible
Precession of the Equinox
- Polar Star changes
- Equinox moves in sky
- Seasons change with respect to orbit or stars in sky

1/23/24:
The value above or below celestial equator is known as the declination

1/25/24: Lecture 6
The moon has phases because the moon orbits the earth and the sun shines light on the earth
and the moon.
Reflection of Sunlight
- We see the moon because it reflects sunlight back to the Earth
- The moon is illuminated by the Sun just like the Earth
- At any time Half the moon is lit up and half is not (dark)
- As the moon orbits we see different illuminated portions
- The moon takes 27.3 days to orbit(?) the earth
- Takes 29 days to fully reset the phases
Synchronous Rotation:
- During the various phases we can look at the feature on the surface of the moon
- If you do you will notice that the same set of features are always facing earth
- Therefore the rotation of the moon occurs at the same rate as the revolution of the
moon about the Earth
- This is called synchronous rotation
The month
- Astronomers define two types of months
- The sidereal month
- This is the time it takes the moon to be in the same position with respect to the
background stars
- This is one true orbit
 - This has a period of 27.3 days
The synodic or Lunar month
- This is the period from new moon to new moon
- This is also the length of a day on the moon
- This period is about 29.53 days
- It takes about 7 days to go from new moon to first quarter, 7 more days to full, then 3rd
then back to new
- The differences between sidereal and synodic is the same as for days-the earth is moving
around the sun and the moon has to go around the earth a little more, so takes longer
Moon phases and when they rise:
New moon – sunrise to sunset
Waxing crescent – midmorning to
1st quarter – Noon to Midnight
Waxing gibbous – Right after noon to right after midnight
Full moon – Sunset to Sunrise
Waning gibbous – it rises later in the night, but up most of it (before midnight to before noon)
3rd quarter – Midnight to Noon
Waning crescent – before sunrise

Eclipses – effect of shadows

Lunar: Moon passes into Earth’s shadow
- There are variations, but less obvious
Solar: Earth passes into Moon’s shadow
- There are variations
Lunar eclipses can be either total, partial, or penumbral, depending on the alignment of the
Sun, Earth, and Moon.
Total lunar eclipses – moon passes into penumbra occurs at full moon
Solar eclipse – the moon’s shadow falls on the earth
- Smaller shadow
- During a new moon
UNIT 2
1/30/24:
PLANETS
- Planets used to be referred to as “wandering stars”
- All seem to lie along Ecliptic
- Mercury and Venus are fast moving – order of weeks, back and forth never far from the
sun (called Morning and Evening)
- Mars, Jupiter, Saturn
- Mars fastest, Jpiter slower, Saturn the slowest
- Usually move from West to East in the background stars
- But occasionally east to west – restrograde motion
- *Uranus and Neptune are not visible by the naked eye, but they are even slower

Retrograde motion
- Watched over time, planets mostly move Eastward with respect to the stars (prograde)
- But for short periods of time they head westward (retrograde)

Eudoxus (408-355 BC)

- Geocentric model (earth centered)
- Cosmology of 27 concentric spheres with Earth at the Center that spin on axis to
describe the motions seen in the sky
- Purely Naturalistic

Aristarchus’ Model (had it right)

- His model put the sun at the center (heliocentric), earth is the third planet
- Model not accepted at the time
- Models must have observables that we can see

Ptolemaic Model
- This was a really good comprehensive model that used mathematics to predict the
locations of the planets. It was very complicated. Each planet had its own set up. It
clearly accounted for retrograde motion though and did predict locations of the planets.
It is the model used for the next 1300 years
New ideas:
Alfonsine Tables (1260) (NSF of day)
Roger Bacon (1220-1292) – experimentation
Nicole Oresme (1330-1382) relative motion effects
William of Occam – 14th c. – Occam’s razor (simpler model is better)
Johannes Regiomontanus (1436-1476) – astronomy observations not matching tables

Tycho – Significant number of planetary observations

Kepler – Determined by matching observations that the planets orbit the sun in ellipses and
follow other laws.
Copernicus – reintroduced the heliocentric model with circular orbits
Galileo – saw that Venus exhibits phases like the Moon among other things
Ptolemy – devised a geocentric model using deferments and epicycles to predict location

Copernicus’ Heliocentric (1543)

 - His model had the sun at the center and the planets orbiting the sun in circles
- Most of the motion (sun and stars) is because the earth is moving
- Stars are really far away so no parallax
- Moon does go around the earth
- Retrograde is because the earth is “lapping” the outer planets
- He also had mathematics to predict the location of the planets, much easier math

Retrograde is like passing a car on the freeway. You’re going faster so the car you pass looks like
it’s going backwards.
Tycho Brahe
- Lived from 1546 – 1601 AD.
- What he contributed to astronomy was an extensive set of precise position
measurements of the planets.
- More data!
Johannes Kepler
- Using the observations from Tycho Brahe, he realized the motion of the planets were
not circles. But ellipses
- Modifies Copernicus’ model to have elliptical orbits in the math.
- Very accurate prediction of planets
- This leads to 3 laws of planetary motion
1. Orbits are ellipses
2. Planet’s speed varies as it orbits the sun (equal areas in equal tie)
3. The orbital period is related to the size of the orbit: P^2 ? a^3

2/1/24:

Galileo Galilei
- 1609 learned of telescope
- Saw phases of Venus (gibbous only can happen in a heliocentric model)
- Venus gets larger and smaller in size as seen from the Earth
- Watched moons of Jupiter follow Kepler’s laws
- Mountains on the moon
- Sunspots on the sun
- Individual stars in the milky way
- Rings of Saturn
Gravity
- Kepler’s laws described the motion of the planets around the sun, without the
understanding behind it
- Kepler believed the sun exerted its “influence” on the planets
- Newton found the fundamental law that controls the motion of the planets
Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727)
Newton’s Laws of Motion
1. Law of inertia: a body will remain at rest or moving in a straight line at a constant speed
unless acted upon by an unbalanced force
2. And object experiences an acceleration when an unbalanced force does act with relation
to the mass of the object (a=F/m)
3. Whenever one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body exerts an equal
and opposite force on the first body
From laws of motion to gravity
- Since the moon turns as it goes around the Earth, there must be a force causing it to
accelerate (1st and 2nd Law)
- The source of that force must be the Earth
- If the earth pulls on the moon, the moon must pull on the Earth (3 rd law)
- That force between the Moon and Earth is gravity.
- The force is attractive, greater if the masses are bigger, less if the objects are farther
apart
Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation
F=G m1m2/r^2
- Any two bodies, or more, attract each other with a force related to masses and the
square of the distance between
- F = gravitation force between two objects
- M1 = mass of first object
- M2 = mass of second object
- R = distance between objects
- G = universal constant of gravitation
- Laboratory experiments have yielded a value for G of
- G = 6.67 x 10^-11 newton x m^2/kg^2
Law of Gravitation
- If I double the mass of one of the objects, the force between them doubles
- If I double the mass of both of the objects, the force between them quadruples (2x2)
 - If I double the distance between the two objects, the force is ¼ as strong. (inverse
square law)
- Mass and Distance have effects on gravity
The sun will pull harder on Uranus than Neptune because Uranus is closer (the closer you are to
the sun, the faster you orbit)
Gravity will pull things together. If multiple rocks were at rest in space gravity will move them
towards each other.
Gravity is a force
- Forces accelerate objects (acceleration is the change in the motion – speeding up,
slowing down and turning)
- Principle of orbits – the moon around the sun
- The moon has a velocity (given when the moon formed)
- The earth keeps the moon from flying straight off into space
- The velocity keeps the moon from falling straight into the earth
What information can we get from gravity’s effects?
- Watching how a moon accelerates around a planet, we can fined the mass of the planet
- If we see a star can accelerated by a planet, we can get the mass of the planet
- Uranus getting slowed down in its orbit around the sun led to the discovery of the planet
Neptune
- Concept of black holes (we can’t see them, but stuff near by is orbiting something…)
- Orbits of stars in the outer rim of our galaxy lead to the concept of dark matter
- And so forth…
Introduce Einstein – general relativity
- End of the 1800s, early 1900s observations of Mercury’s orbit around the sun didn’t
correspond exactly with Newton’s equation of Gravity
- Einstein fine tuned, gave a new law of gravity that works when gravity is stronger (closer
in )
- Think of the universe as a fabric of space and time (spacetime), masses curve that fabric
and things (including light) move through the universe along that curvature.
General Relativity Observed
- Curvature of space – mercury, black holes
- Gravitational lensing – (dark matter lecture)
- Gravitational waves – LIGO
- Time dilation – (interstellar), GPS satellites
Tidal forces are caused by Gravity.
Remember Gravity throughout the rest of the semester
- Gravity will pull objects toward each other
- Formation of stars
- Gravity causes things to orbit
- Discovery of exoplanets
- Measure masses of stars and planets from objects orbiting them
- Mass of galaxies, mass of blackholes in the center of galaxies
- Dark matter
- Gravity extends to the Universe
2/6/24:
What is light?
- Light is an electromagnetic wave (aka electromagnetic radiation)
- This means that anytime an atom vibrates it creates and EM wave. And EM waves
interact with matter
Electromagnetic spectrum
- Newton spread out white light to see it is made up of colors
- There are other parts of the EM spectrum that we can’t see with our eyes (radio,
gamma, x-ray, microwave, UV, IR)
Properties of light
- All EM radiation travels through space at the same speed = speed of light
- The various EM radiations differ from each other by wavelength (frequency and energy)
– blue is a different wavelength than red, than radio, then UV
- Intensity = brightness (how much light)
- Different wavelengths interact with matter differently (need different equipment to see
it)
- Microwaves, x -rays, gamma rays
- Our eyes can only see visible
- Some night vision goggles see IR (aka heat)
Energy of Light – photon model
- Why does UV cause sunburn, when radio does not?
- Light also comes in small bundles called “photons”
- Each photon has a certain wavelength associated with it. And certain amount of energy
- Energy E = hc/A or E=hf
- Shorter wavelength have more energy. Longer wavelength less energy.
Light must be thought of as both a wave and a particle (photon) to describe the properties we
see.
ALL LIGHT TRAVELS AT THE SAME SPEED REGARDLESS OF WAVELENGTH
Smallest to largest wavelengths
- Gamma rays
- X – rays
- Ultraviolet radiation (UV)
- Visible light
- Infrared radiation
- Microwaves
- Radio waves
How does light interact with matter?
- Emission – moving atoms give off light from an object.
- Absorption – matter absorbs the light, the energy goes into the matter
- Transmission – allow light to pass through (glass)
- Reflection/Scattering – light can bounce off matter
Reflection/Scattering
- We see objects because visible light hits them and bounces off and goes into our eyes
- Something looks red because it reflects the red part of the EM spectrum
- Certain elements will reflect certain colors
- Moon and mars reflect different colors because they are different stuff
Scattering – our blue sky
- Certain elements will scatter specific wavelengths of light (all based on the size and
geometry of the atom)
- The particles in the atmosphere scatter the blue light from the sun
A hot dense object’s peak color of light depends on its temperature
- Thermal radiation: hotter objects give off more light at all wavelengths hotter objects
emit photons with higher average energy
- Hot objects emit light that PEAKS at short wavelengths (blue)
- Cool objects emit light that PEAKS at long wavelengths (red)
Thermal radiation
- Hotter the object the more light it gives off
- The hotter the object the more blue it looks
 - Objects may peak in non-visible wavelengths too. Longer wavelength peaks are cooler
objects.
Not all light gets through Earth’s atmosphere.
- The earth’s atmosphere absorbs much of the radiation that arrives from space.
- The atmosphere is transparent chiefly in two wavelength ranges known as the optical
window and the radio window.
- A few wavelengths in the near-infrared also reach the ground
- It blocks gamma rays, x-rays, most of the UV, most of the IR
Spectroscopy
- Spreading out the light by wavelength
- There are three kinds of spectra that we will discuss
- Different types of objects create different types of spectra
Continuous Spectra (hot light)
- Most objects made of stuff will emit continuous spectra
- Because there are a lot of atoms that interact with each other
- Stars give off a continuous spectra
Absorption spectra (both hot light and cold cloud)
- If there is cool gas cloud between us and a continuous spectrum source, some light will
be removed (absorbed) according to the elements present
Emission spectra (hot cloud)
- Thin or low-density hot gas cloud emits only certain wavelengths unique to elements

2/8/24:
Absorption and Emission lines are the same lines just inverted of each other.
Temperature also affects the spectral lines
 - The temperature of the star also affects which spectral lines we’ll be able to see
- This effect can help us get the temperature of the star
Spectroscopy is complicated
What can spectra tell us?
1. Type of object
2. Elements present in the object
3. Temperature of the star
4. The relative motion of the star (velocity)
Spectral lines and wavelengths
- Lines (emission of absorption) are defined by wavelength of light they correspond to
- Spectra lines tell us chemical composition
The relative motion between us and an object will affect the values we measure for the spectral
lines – doppler shift
- Moving towards you the wavelength is shortened – Blueshifted
- Moving away the wavelength is lengthened – redshifted.
- The larger the shift, the faster the object is moving away or towards the Earth.
- Andromeda is coming towards us – the light would be blueshifted because it’s coming
towards us

How is this used: Galaxy spectra

- Continuum made from the large numbers of stars.
- Emission lines from very hot gas present somewhere in the galaxy
- Absorption lines form older stars.
- Doppler shift of lines gives us motion of galaxy.
Uranus’ atmosphere composition
 - When wanting to learn what the atmosphere of Uranus was made of. They watched
what absorption lines resulted when the light from a background star passed through
the atmosphere of Uranus.
The sun
- The lower levels of the sun give off the continuous spectrum. The outer layers absorb
some of the light based on the elements present. This was how helium was discovered
first.
Another type of light synchrotron radiation
- A star like object emits light that creates a thermal graph look
- Electrons in a magnetic field emit light that makes a different graph – synchrotron
radiation (lots of light in gamma, x-ray, uv and less in visible, etc.)
- If we see synchrotron radiation it is not from a star, but something that has a strong
magnetic field.
Special radio wavelength
- Called 21-cm
- This is found in the radio wavelengths
- It is made when an electron flips spin
- This is where you have very cold gas (nebulae)
- If we measure the 21-cm lines, we have cold gas (can doppler shift it too)
We see things because of light
- We see things because the light goes into our eyes (which are small)
- Our cornea collects all the light that goes into our eye and makes an image on the back
of our eye
- Lenses, being larger, are hit by more light, combine all that light together to make a
brighter image, we can see fainter things.
How a refracting telescope works
- Objective lens collects the light and brings it all together at the focal point
- The eyepiece lens makes the image larger so we can actually see the shape of the image
we are looking at
- The larger the lens, the longer the focal point. The telescope becomes very long!
Reflecting telescopes
- The mirror collects the light from the sky
- A secondary mirror sends the light outside the telescope tube
- If using our eyes we’ll have an eyepiece lens here to make the image bigger
- Bigger the mirror the more light the telescope can collect
Telescope math
- The larger the mirror or lens the more light from an object it can collect (based on the
diameter squared, 4x larger, 4^2 = 16x more light gathered) 8x larger 8^2 = 64x more
light
- The bigger the telescope the better resolution (discern details)
- So we can see fainter objects with a bigger telescope.
Resolution an added benefit
- Resolution is being able to discern details, separate objects
- Larger telescopes have higher resolution
Magnification
- The ratio of the focal length of the objective to the focal length of the eyepiece
determines the magnification
- It turns out that research telescopes don’t even use eyepieces. So magnification doesn’t
happen
Problems with telescopes
- Spherical Aberration
- When the mirror isn’t built right to bring all the light to the same place – blurry images
- Use additional lens to fix this
- Hubble space telescope had this problem
Detectors – revolution 2 – taking a picture
Record the image and exposure time control
- Eye (1/100th of a second)
- Photographic film (allowed for times exposure, longer shutter speeds) (late 1800s) (not
very efficient though)
- Photomultiplier (count photons, no image)
- Charged couple device (CCD) (better efficiency, better at keeping the light that hits it)
(1969)
Control long exposure length photos – recording the image rather than drawing
2/13/24:
Must knows
- Closest to Earth – sun
- Closest to solar system = Proxima Centauri (too faint to see) (southern sky, part of the
alpha Centauri tri-system)
 - Brightest in the night sky = Sirius (in Canis major, winter)
Apparent magnitudes (how bright they LOOK in the sky)
- How bright do stars look from earth in our night sky
- Apparent brightness or brightness is measured using devices – watts per square meter
- Before devices we had the eye
- Hipparchus and Ptolemy sorted the stars
- Brightest stars in the sky are 1st magnitude
- Half as bright are 2nd magnitude
- Faintest stars visible to the naked eye are 6th magnitude
- This was based on how bright they look in the sky to a naked eye
- Note the larger the number the fainter the star (ranking system)
Scale
- Denoted by “m”
- Quantified in the 1800s
- 1st to 6th magnitude is 100 times difference in brightness (5 mag diff)
- This a logarithmic scale just like the response of the human eye
- Each step in magnitude a 2.512 times brighter (a 1st magnitude star is 2.512x brighter
than a 2nd magnitude star and so forth)
The smaller the number the brighter the star!
Other objects’ apparent magnitude
- Sun = -26.7
- Full Moon = -12.6
- Venus = -4.4
- Eye limit = +6.0
- Pluto = +14.0
- Faintest object HST = +30.0
Absolute magnitude 10 parsecs (how bright they ACTUALLY are)
- If both stars were at the same distance you’d know which is really brighter
- Pick an arbitrary distance that makes the math easier (10 parsec)
- Find the apparent magnitude the star would have at 10pc and compare to each other
(called absolute magnitude)
- M is the magnitude the star would look in the sky (apparent) if it was at 10 parsec
- Parsec is 3.26 trillion miles
- Denoted by “M”
- M is also in inverted number scale (1 is bigger than 2)
- Sirius M = 1.45
 - Vega M = 0.58
- M tells us which is really brighter
- M tells us the same thing as the Luminosity
Luminosity
- Luminosity is the total amount of energy per second a star emits over the whole surface
of the star
- The more luminous a star, the brighter the star is (brighter absolute magnitude)
- Next class we’ll see it’s related to a star’s temperature size
Equation Relating Apparent and Absolute Magnitudes
- Relationship between m and M
- m = M + 5 log (d/10)
- M s are magnitudes and d is parsecs
- So we need to be able to find the distance
Distances
- The second nearest star (Proxima Centauri) is 25.8 trillion miles (1.3 pc) (m=11.01)
- Distance is one of the most important quantities we need to measure.
- The first method we use is some simple geometry
- We use a method called Parallax
- Just like when you hold your finger out and switch which eye you’re looking at it with.
The finger seems to “jump” back and forth
- Only the close star shows parallax. The background stars are too far away and don’t have
parallax. Only close by stars exhibit parallax. Only works for nearby stars.
Stellar Parallax
- Therefore: p = r/d
- If we let r = 1 AU (earth’s orbit)
- And when p = 1 arcsec then d = 1 parsec
- 1 parsec = 206,265 AU
- 1 parsec = 3.09 x 10^13 km (3.26 x 10^23 miles)
- 1 parsec = 3.26 lightyears
- 1 ly = 6 trillion miles
Distance equation
D = 1/p
P = 0.1 arcsec
D = 1/p = 1/0.1 = 10 parsecs
Bernard’s star
P = 0.545
D = 1/0.545 = 1.83
Proxima Centauri (closest star)
P = 0.772 arcsec (largest parallax angle)
D = 1/0.772 = 1.30 parsecs
2/15/24:
Blackbody Curves
- A blackbody is a hypothetical object that is a perfect radiator that absorbs and re-emits
electromagnetic radiation at all wavelengths
- Stars closely approximate the behavior of blackbodies, as do other hot, dense objects
- The intensities of radiation emitted at various wavelengths by a blackbody at a given
temperature are shown by a blackbody curve.
- Note: detectors usually only cover certain wavelengths hence temperature.
Wien’s law gives surface temperature – thermal graphs
- Hotter stars give off more overall light
- Peak wavelength is inversely proportional to temperature
- So looking at the light from an object can give us its temperature
Photometry
- Filter sets only allow certain wavelengths to get to the detector (so we can only measure
the red or the blue etc)
- Stars are measured in temperature. Color = temperature
- Red = cool
- Yellow = medium
- Blue = Hot!
Spectra
- Temperature affects spectrum
- Some lines are thicker
- Some lines disappear (too hot or not hot enough)
- Cecilia Payne – spectral class not by chemical composition since the stars are really
almost entirely made of Hydrogen and some Helium
Spectral type (surface temperature)
- OBAFGKM (smooth transition from one type to another of all lines)
- O is hottest, M is coolest
- Oh Be a Fine Girl, Kiss Me
- Each type is subdivided by a number 0-9
- 0 is hotter than 9
- Sun is G2
Size of a star
- L = 4piR^2 sigma T^4
- Lots of sizes
- Sizes vary greater than temperature
Binary stars – getting the Mass
- There are different types of binaries which can be useful
- Visual binary
- Stars we actually see orbit each other
- Newton’s and Kepler’s laws to get masses
HR Diagram
Main sequences
- Stars are plotted by brightness (L of Mag) and Surface temperature
- It contains the majority of the local stars
- The Sun is a Main Sequence star at about G2
Mass difference along Main Sequence
- Mass goes up as we move up the Main Sequence
- Mass for other areas off main sequence is random and no trend can be seen
O is the most massive type of star
Size on the HR Diagram
- Lower left are smaller stars
- Upper right are the largest stars
- See line of equal radius on HR diagram

Other regions
- The upper right is a region of red giants and super giants
- Large stars
- Cool stars
- The lower left is a region of white dwarfs
- Small stars
- Hot stars
Luminosity classes
- Recall spectra is dependent on temperature
- But it appear the spectra can also vary in strength of lines too
- The strengths vary along these groups on HR diagram
- Tells us what type of star
- I supergiants
- II bright giants
- III giants
- IV sub-giants
- V main sequence
- Sun is G2V
 - Betelgeuse is a super giant
2/20/24:
Birth of stars
Some basic rules of gases (nebulas)
- Higher temperature gases are moving around faster
- If gases compress they heat up (move faster) and increase in pressure (hit each other)
Star creation using model stars
- Look at lots of different stars – remember the HR diagram with stars in different places
- Using computer and they physics equations of stars they create models and try ot match
up the stars we see in the sky
- Match up temperature, luminosity, radius, mass, etc.
Birth of stars
- We must start with a large amount of material in a nebula
- Star with gas clouds in the interstellar medium
- Mostly hydrogen and helium
- If we find a dense concentration of material in our dark nebula it is called a giant
molecular cloud
Dark nebula, aka giant molecular cloud
- Dense, cold clouds of gas and dust
- Low temperature is required or else the gas is moving too fast to stay together
- Block light coming from more distant stars
- Appear as dark regions in the sky
- These are the star forming regions
Collapse begins somehow
- Our Gas cloud is too thin to be a star already, but if we can compress it, then gravity can
take over and compress it even more it can make a star.
- Supernova shock wave
- Density waves in the galaxy
- Collision of two interstellar clouds
- Radiation pressure from hot young stars
Enough mass to stay together
- The cloud must be cool to collapse
 - And we must have enough mass to hold on to the fast-moving gas molecules (Jean’s
Mass)
- Mcloud>Mjean is required for collapse
- Within a large cloud there may be many dense cores which meet this criterion
- Each can become a star
Protostars
- When the collapse begins we have a protostar
- These protostars will continue to collect more material by gravity
- The star at this point is a cool sphere of gas several times larger than the solar system
- It will continue to collect material from the surrounding gas, collapse and heat up giving
off infrared light
Birth of a star
- When the core reaches 10 Million K it can fuse hydrogen into helium
- Fusion from the core causes the gases in the core to push back out (radiation pressure)
- Gravity in and pressure out balance out
- It is now in a state of Hydrostatic Equilibrium
- Now it is officially a star (on the main sequence)
Giant cloud – protostar – main sequence
Stars becoming visible
- New main sequence stars are emerging from within the cloud that formed them.
- Nebula is reddish because the stars heat it up (emission spectra result)
Reflection Nebula (left over gas dispersing away)
- Light from young stars scattering off gas that is being dispersed
- Tend to be Blue in color because of scattering blue light
- Example: Pleiades, NGC 6726-7
Time to Become a Star (Main sequence)
- Stars do not from in the same amount of time
- The more massive stars from quicker
- 15 solar mass star takes 20,000 years
- 1 Solar Mass Star takes 20,000,000 years
- More mass, more gravity, collapses faster, gets hotter quicker
Also related to the Mass
- More massive stars
- Have larger sizes
 - Higher surface temperatures (main sequence)
- Are brighter (higher luminosity)
Types of stars out of Nebulae
- Stars of lots of sizes are made out of the same nebula
- Mostly small mass stars are made (no stars less that 0.08 solar masses)
- Some medium mass stars
- Large mass stars are rare (150 solar masses appears to be the upper limit)
Review
1. Started with a giant molecular cloud
2. Something caused it to collapse (blob denser than other blobs) blob that gravitationally
collects material
3. Protostar – sphere (little bigger than star) still inside the nebula
4. Main sequence (H fusion in the core)
How do we know what’s going on?
- We can’t see the core, so how do we know what’s happening?
- We can measure: Temperature, Luminosity, (Energy radiated) mass chemical
composition, size, rotation, magnetic field at the surface
- Combine our understandings of gas (plasma) behavior, energy transfer, plug into the
equations, with some assumptions and see if our assumptions and understanding
actually match what we see at the surface
Creation of energy in the core Hydrogen Fusion
- In the core the sun converts
- 4 H atoms
- To 1 He atom
- The mass difference (m) between H to He is converted into energy (E) using E = mc^2
(Einstein)
- Mass is converted to energy through Nuclear Fusion
- That energy goes out into the star creating a radiation pressure that pushes outward and
is what valances gravity inwards – Hydrostatic Equilibrium
The Sun is about 5 billion years old
Observable for the fusion in the sun
- Neutrinos are plentiful, but hard to detect.
- But we have figured out a way to see a few of them in these underground detectors.
- Seeing these neutrinos is evidence that fusion happens in the center of the sun.
Brown Dwarfs are too small to ever become stars.
2/22/24:
The Sun G2 V
The sun’s layers – photosphere (inner most)
- Often called the surface of the sun
- The deepest layer we can see
- Means literally sphere of light
- 400km thick
- From this layer the sun gives off the continuous spectrum
- Very thing (0.01% the density of the Earth’s atmosphere)
Chromosphere (middle)
- Literally the sphere of color
- 10^-4 times thinner than the photosphere
- Creates the UV light we wear sunscreen for
- Only seen when photosphere is blocked
- Seen as a reddish-pink color (H alpha emission)
- About 2000 km thick
- 4400 K at the bottom
- 25,000 K at the top
Corona (outermost layer)
- Outermost region of the sun’s atmosphere
- Extends several million kilometers from the top of the chromosphere
- This gradually becomes the solar wind
- Creates emission lines
- The gas is extremely thin
- Only visible during a total solar eclipses
Granules (photosphere)
- Convective features
- Bright areas are rising hot gas
- Dark areas are falling cooler gas
- Appear and disappear on cycles of a few minutes
- About 4 million granules cover the surface of the photosphere
- A typical granule is about the size of Texas and Oklahoma combined
- Gives the sun the spotted look
Spicules (Chromosphere)
- Spikes of chromosphere’s material which stick up into the corona
 - Jets of rising gas
- Rise up at 20km/s
- Reach heights of 10,000 km
- Only visible with special filter or during eclipse (reddish)
Sunspots (photosphere)
- Irregularly shaped dark regions in photosphere
- Region about 10,000 km across in the photosphere
- Darkest in the center, lighter at the edge
- This is because the spot is cooler than the surrounding material
- Central – Umbra – 4300 K
- Ring – Penumbra – 5000 K
More solar features
- Plages – bright just before sunspots
- Filaments – dark material arching high up, following the magnetic field lines
- Prominences – filaments seen on the side
- Flares – eruptive events in sunspot groups, send out material into space, escaping the
magnetic field
- Coronal mass ejections – lots of material leaving the sun because of a flare
Magnetic field and sun’s rotation causes the solar activity
- Sunspots occur in a patter: increase and decrease in quantity and location on the sun
over 11 years
- Spectra of light from sunspots shows presence of the magnetic field
The magnetic field wraps up and then bursts out the surface
- Sun has differential rotation and convection
- The magnetic field will wrap up and kinks will break through the surface – these are the
sunspots – where the magnetic field traps some hot gases cooling the surface off
- All this confusion leads to a polar reversal of the sun every 11 years; including the
magnetic reversal the cycle is 22 years
Does it effect the Earth
- 1645-1715 virtually no sunspots – record low temp in Europe and drought in North
America
- 11th and 12th century may have had higher sunspots and weather was warmer
- Solar Activity affects earth, just how and how much is really uncertain
After the Main Sequence – when hydrogen runs out in the core
HR Diagram holds life of stars
 - Stars on the main sequence, stay put where they are – dependent on their mass
- Main sequence stars do get brighter over time, but not hugely different
Remember hydrostatic equilibrium
- Forces will cause acceleration unless they are balanced (gravity pulling you down
balanced by your chair pushing back up on you)
- Gravity is causing the star to collapse (pull together) is balanced by the gas underneath
pushing up
Using up the Hydrogen
- Notice the increase of helium in the core from the fusion
- Increases over time
- Eventually the hydrogen gets used up
Core burns out and shrinks
- Core runs out of hydrogen, now helium core
- Rest of stars is still hydrogen (outer layers of core still do fusion in a shell)
- Star now leaves the main sequence
- Without energy generation the core pressure drops
- With nothing to hold the core up the core begins to collapse from gravity
- In the sun
- Core will reach 1.3 its original radius
- Temperature increases from 15 million to about 100 million K
Outer layers expand and cool off
- Increased core temperature causes the shell of H outside to begin H fusion
- Core is till shrinking
- Shell fusion increases energy production – makes star brighter and expands outer layers
Differences for low mass and high mass stars
- High mass stars start as blue main sequence – turn into blue supergiants
- Low mass stars see a greater affect – red giants
Low mass star becomes a Red Giant
- Core shrinks, outer layers heat up, (greater pressure) and expand from shell H fusion
- Star gets larger and brighter
- Surface temperature goes down (redder star)
- Notice new location on HR diagram
- These stars are called Red Giants
2/27/24:
Helium fusion: Triple alpha process
- Burning of helium in core
- This is called the triple alpha process
- This means combining three helium into a carbon atom
Main sequence: hydrogen fusion in core = 12 billion years
Ascend Giant Branch: H fusion in core = 250 million years
Horizontal Branch (He fusion in core, H fusion in shell) = 100 million years
Hydrogen core fusion – MAIN SEQUENCE
Asymptotic Giant Branch (double shell fusion red giant) – VERY BIG!!
- Core shrinks – heats up
- He shell fusion
- There is still H shell fusion
- Outer layers expand even more
- Low mass stars expand up asymptotic giant branch (AGB)
- Hydrogen shell fusion, core of carbon-oxygen, helium shell fusion
Distinguish between age and stage of evolution
- Stars take the different amounts of years to get through the same stages
- Main sequence
- 15 solar mass star is MS for 15 million years
- 1 solar mass star is MS for 12 billion years
- They could both be 20 million years old, but one is a Supergiant and one is a main
sequence star
Death of the star (Final state) depends on the initial mass of the star
- Low mass is less than 4 solar masses – Our Sun (1 solar mass)
- High mass is greater than 8 solar masses
- Middle masses are harder to pin down exactly what will happen and will do something
between the two
The end of stars smaller than 4 solar masses
- The AGB star is unstable
- The core of these stars will not get high enough to fuse Carbon or Oxygen
- The hydrogen and helium shells go through stages of being dormant and active
(shrinking, heating, igniting, enlarging, on again, off again)
- These bursts of energy are called thermal pulses
- There is carbon in shells too
 - Up to 40% of star is ejected
- The hot core emits ultraviolet radiation which excites the gas in the expanding
atmosphere – glows
- This excited shell of gas is called a PLANETARY NEBULA
- About 30,000 in the Milky Way alone
- Expanding at 10-30 km/s
- Can reach 1 lightyear in diameter (10,000 years)
- Can only exist for about 50,000 years before fading away
- Has nothing to do with planets
- These objects return heavy elements back to space
What about the Core
- The exposed core is called a White Dwarf
- About the size of the Earth
- Density of 10^9 kg/m^3
- It is not really a star
- It glows because it is hot and will eventually fade away
- It is composed almost entirely of Carbon and Oxygen
- This material is locked up in the core and will not be returned to the interstellar medium
Why doesn’t the core shrink?
- One might think the core would shrink until it could burn the Carbon and Oxygen
- However, the densities are very high in this core
- In this environment electrons resist being pushed together to counteract gravity
- This is called Electron Degeneracy
- Electron degeneracy balances gravity
- But the more massive the smaller the white dwarf (degenerate matter)
- However there is a limit to the amount of mass electron degeneracy can hold up but
these stars aren’t too big
The Chandrasekhar Limit (core)
- Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar studied white dwarf stars
- He placed an upper limit on the mass which could be supported by electron degenarcy
(or gravity will keep shrinking the core)
- 1.4 Solar Masses (maximum mass of a white dwarf)
- This is known as the Chandrasekhar Limit
On to the Massive Stars
-massive stars go through all the same steps, running out of H, doing H shell fusion, He core
fusion, running out of He in core, doing He shell fusion (double shell fusion)
- They just follow a different path on the HR diagram
More core fusion for stars over 8 solar masses
- Above 8 solar masses Neon Fusion fuses neon into oxygen and magnesium
- Oxygen fusion produces silicon and magnesium, phosphorus, and sulfur
- Silicon Fusion produces nuclei from sulfur to iron and nickel
- Between each phase is a new red (giant phase and another shell fusion results (core
shrinks, hearts up, outer layers expand on and on)
- Through this whole time there is also neutron capture
- Mass loss near surface too
Last element created is Iron
- Once the star reaches an iron core there is no further chance of fusion
- Iron cannot fuse to give off energy regardless how hot it gets
- Nothing to stop gravity, core continues to shrink and get hotter
What happens to the Iron Core?
- There is nothing to stop gravity collapsing and core heats up
- Gamma rays cause photodisintegration – separate atoms to protons, electrons, neutrons
(uses energy) (<1 second)
- Core continues to collapse (squishing everything)
- The pressure becomes so high that electrons are pushed into protons to form neutrons
- This creates a sea of neutrons and a bunch of neutrinos
- After ¼ second the core reaches nuclear density
- In the Deep Core:
- Iron -> Protons, electrons, neutrons -> just neutrons (neutrinos given off)
The Type II Supernova Explosion
- That’s as far as the material can be compressed, it now becomes rigid - neutron
degeneracy
- Outer core hits hard inner core – bounce back
- Meanwhile the material above the core is falling in as the internal structure disappeared
- This material can reach speeds up to 15% of the speed of light
- Outer material hits core bounce – goes ouward
- This explosive rebound blasts the material out into space as a Supernova explosion
Supernova is very bright
- The star brightness by a factor of 10^8 of about 20 magnitudes
- Up to 96% of the star is blasted into space
- This is a Type II Supernova
 - When Betelgeuse goes Supernova it may be 10x brighter than the full moon, but it won’t
be bigger
- Then it fades away over a few months
2/29/24:
Neutron Star Hypothesis
- The idea of neutron stars began in the 1930s by Fritz Zwicky and Walter Baade
- Gravity collapsed the more massive core until it turned into neutrons
- Neutron degeneracy stops the collapse of gravity
- Neutron stars are small, only about the size of a city (10km radius)
Radio signals from Space
- Too hard to find in the 1930s so people really just ignored the idea of neutron stars
- In 1967 Jocelyn Bell found radio pulses
- The pulses were regular at intervals of 1.3373011 seconds
- Nothing to that point in time had been so regular
- The first theory was LGM’s (Little Green Men)
- Some concluded that we had made first contact with aliens
Support from radio astronomy
- They became known as Pulsars
- The first publication of pulsars was not very well received in 1968
- One of the pulsars helped solve the problem
- Pulsar found in the center of the Crab Nebula
The Crab Nebula
- Yang wei-T’e saw an object brighter than Venus in the evening sky
- Later modern astronomers found a Nebula (supernova remnant) at the same location
- From the expansion rate they determined that the star exploded in around 1054 AD
Supernova – nebula – pulsar (all connected to each other)
Pulsars and Neutron Stars
- Very hot and rotating rapidly
- These objects have strong magnetic fields
- The magnetic field causes beamed radiation from the north and south magnetic poles of
the neutron star
- If the beams sweeps past the Earth we see the pulse
- Lighthouse effect
- Therefore pulsars are line-of-sight variable neutron stars
- Pulsars are found in Supernova remnants
 - Pulsars are a neutron star remnant
Neutron Stars Details
- The concept of neutron stars was just too weird for most people
- Nuclear Densities of 10^17 kg/m^3 (rock is 10^3)
- A 2 solar mass core would be 80 km in diameter
- A 1 solar mass core would be 30 km or the size of San Francisco
- Escape velocity from the surface would be 0.5c
- Thimble full of material would weigh 100 million tons
Limit of Neutron Stars
- From theory we know that Neutron Degeneracy can only hold up cores up to 3 solar
masses
- Currently there is no other force known to stop cores greater than 3 solar masses from
continuing to collapse all the way to a point
- This leads to the idea of Black holes
- Current theory says that cores larger than 3 solar masses will become black holes
Core Limits
- White dwarfs up to 1.4 solar masses
- Neutron Stars up to 3 solar masses
- Black holes greater than 3 solar masses
NOTE: we are talking about the CORE of the stars, remember they lost their outer layers by
planetary nebula or supernova explosion
Black Holes
- The core left behind after the supernova remnant is massive enough that the
gravitational pull of the object on itself is stronger that any other force in nature to
counteract it
- Collapse continues util you have no more size (singularity)
Why is it called a Black Hole?
- The necessary speed to escape an object’s gravitational pull is called escape speed
- Speed proportional to mass squared/square root of radius
- Keep mass constant, smaller radius makes escape speed higher
- But the speed of light (c) is the speed limit of the universe, nothing can go faster than c
- So not even “light” (of any type) can get away from this “Black Hole”
Can you Escape a Black Hole?
 - There is a distance around the mass where the escape speed is more than the speed of
light = Schwarzschild Radius
- Nothing, not even light can get away
- Light is also affected by gravity!!!
- This applies only within The Schwarzschild Radius (event horizon)
- Is equal to 3 km x mass(in solar mass units)
- Sun is 3 km
- Earth mass is 1cm
- If you are outside the event horizon, you feel a strong gravity, just like you would from
any object of that mass, but you are not sucked in.
The bending of starlight
- The bending of starlight is a prediction of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity
- Seen during the 1919 total solar eclipse
- Curvature of spacetime is real
On to black holes
- What if the curvature is an infinitely deep funnel in spacetime?
- Anything falling into the well doesn’t come back out
- All other information is lost inside
- Outside of the well we can see the curvature, “feel” the effects like any other object’s
curvature
Size of a Black Hole
- The “edge” of a black hole is called the event horizon (where the escape speed = speed
of light)
- The radius is Schwarzschild Radius = 3km x mass in solar masses
Inside a Black Hole
- Currently we assume all the matter collapses to a SINGULARITY inside with
Schwarzschild Radius
- The physics and Math say that once inside you cannot move is space, BUT you can move
back and forth in TIME
- General Relativity says extreme curvature, Quantum Mechanics says spacetime should
fluctuate chaotically
- We really just don’t know
X-ray Binaries
- Sometimes the companion star loses material towards the neutron star or black hole
companion
- As material approaches the neutron star or event horizon it gets really hot and gives off
x-rays
- Normal stars do not give off x-rays
- These x-ray sources are the core remnants and depending on the mass, they are neutron
stars (up to 3 solar masses) or black holes (greater than 3)
Gamma ray bursters
- They seem to be in all directions of the sky indicating outside the milky way
- As technology improved we’re able to associate many gamma ray bursts with supernova
explosions
- Gamma ray bursts are a huge amount of energy
- Current theory relates them to the creation of the black hole in supermassive stars (100
solar masses) that happens just before the supernova part (hypernova since they are so
big)
- This is so much energy, we don’t want one to happen near by, very destructive
- But they are happening daily in the universe
- Black holes may be more common than we thought!
More about black holes
- Centers of galaxies may have supermassive black holes – formation process of these is
speculative
- Some intermediate black holes in starburst galaxies at 10-100 solar masses
UNIT 4: large scale structure of the universe

Getting distance to objects is important

- Method 1: parallax
- Method 2: spectroscopic parallax (using spectral types to estimate the luminosity of
stars)
 - Method 3 – period-luminosity relation – as some stars evolve, they go through a stage
that causes them to change in brightness in a periodic, repeatable, manner. The time for
the brightness to change was found to be related to luminosity.
- Period is the time it takes for the brightness to change (go through the cycle)
The Milky way
- Total size from visible edge to visible edge is 100,000-150,000 light years
- Solar system is about 25,000-30,000 light years out from center
- Center in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius
3 parts of the milky way
- Center – central bulge
- Elongated and not spherical like a football
- There’s a black hole at the center
- Lots of bright red stars – red giants and super giants
- Disk area of the galaxy
- Younger more recently formed stars
- Lots of star formations hot blue in the spiral arms
- The Halo
- Globular star cluster
- The outmost of our galaxy
- Red giants in globular clusters but not supergiants
- Old and formed billions of years ago
- Our sun is a later generation star – 1
Disk
- About 160,000 lightyears in diameter
- Up to 2000 lightyears thick
- Flattened distribution – 2000 ly thick
- It contains young (new) and old stars
- This region appears bluish because of the very bright O and B stars that are found in the
disk
- It contains lots of gas so there is star formation
- Circular orbits (differential) in plane
Central Bulge
- Around the nucleus
- May have bar
- 6500 lightyears in diameter
- This is a region in the center of the milky way (6500 ly) – football shape
- Contains both new and old stars
 - Contains gas and dust (more to inner region)
- Appears more reddish than disk because it contains many red giants and red supergiants
- A lot of random motion, but some rotation about center
Halo
- The globular cluster trace out the halo population
- This is the spherical distribution of older stars
- They are old, Metal-poor, second generation stars (pop II)
- Cooler stars, so the halo is more reddish in color
- No gas and dust hence no recent star formation
- Random motion through the galaxy
Finding the spiral arms
- Recent star formation implies hydrogen gas clouds
Stars in the disk give us a value of the mass of the milky way
- The disk rotates in the same direction
- We can measure the speed of the orbit and from law of gravitation, calculate the mass
required to create the system
- Solar system orbits the center of the galaxy in a nearly circular orbit
- 25,000 lightyears in radius
- And a period of 220 million years
- Is traveling at 790,000 km/h
- Mass inside the sun’s orbit is 9.0 x 10^10 solar mass
The Missing Mass: Dark Matter
- Since the velocities don’t drop off there must be a lot of mass to the outside of the Sun –
over 10^12 solar masses
- However, we can’t see the mass (in any wavelength)
- Visible matter is only 10% of what is out there
- Therefore the matter is dark or dark matter
- 90% of the Milky Way is this dark matter halo
- We also see image distortion (gravitational lensing) caused by massive stuff in the way
- This is not dark nebula (which can be “seen” by radio)
Dark Matter Halo extends to 100-200 kpc (326,000 – 652,00 ly)
What is dark matter?
- Does not give off any light, has gravitational effect
- MACHOs (dim, star-sized objects)
- Massive neutrinos
 - WIMPs (relatively massive subatomic particles, heavier than protons)
Clusters of Galaxies
- Galaxies are gravitationally bound together in clusters or groups
- Clusters have more galaxies (thousands) and center is dominated by large Ellipticals
- Groups have fewer galaxies (10-100s), no concentration in center, dominated by Spiral
galaxies
The Milky Way’s Local Group
- The milky way is part of a cluster known as the Local Group
- This group has about 50-80 members that span about 10 million light years
- This includes:
- The milky way (big spiral)
- The andromeda galaxy (M31) (big spiral)
- M32 and M33
- The small magallanic cloud (SMC) AND Large Magallanic cloud (LMC)
- Many dwarf ellipticals (new ones found recently)
- Has no large elliptical galaxies
Must know
- Andromeda is our next nearest large galaxy
- Local Group – milky way’s group of galaxies
Large Clusters
- The nearest cluster is the Virgo Cluster (rich)
- Contains about 2000 visible members
- May contain 10,000 (2,000) members
- 50-70 Million lightyears away
- 9 million lightyears in diameter
- Center dominated by three giant elliptical galaxies
Galaxies are a unit held together by gravity in the universe
Galaxy comes from ancient Latin meaning milky or milk
Spiral Nebula to Spiral Galaxies
- The spiral nebula are now known as spiral galaxies of which the milky way is just one
- There are now known to be billions of galaxies in the Universe
- What’s a galaxy: A galaxy is a huge collection of gas, dust, and billions of stars and their
solar systems, all held together by gravity.
4 Different Types of Galaxies
 - Galaxies come is a variety of shapes and sizes
- Edwin Hubble classified the galaxies into four broad categories called morphological
types
- Ellipticals, spirals, barred spirals and irregulars.
Structure of Elliptical Galaxies
- Smooth distribution of stars throughout
- Elliptical galaxies have hot interstellar gas and dust, which means we don’t see current
star formation
- Hence, we see very few young stars in elliptical galaxies
- They are composed mostly of old, red Population II stars
- Visually elliptical galaxies generally appear redder than spiral galaxies
Sizes of Elliptical Galaxies
- Elliptical galaxies cover a large range of sizes
- They range from Giant Elliptical Galaxies (cD) with 10^13 Solar Masses to Dwarf Elliptical
Galaxies with 10^5 Solar Masses
- Globular clusters have a different organization from elliptical galaxies. Either its own kind
of galaxy, or a star cluster
Spiral and Barred Spiral Galaxies
- They have the same parts as the Milky Way: bulge, disk, and halo
- Spiral arms have lots of cold gas clouds that allows current star formation so we can find
hot, bright stars (O type main sequence)
- In general, spiral galaxies tend to be bluer than elliptical galaxies
- Spirals can be subclassified, but we won’t
Irregular Type (Irr)
- No fixed shape (SMC and LMC)
- Probably caused by collisions
- Have lots of star formation too
Other types of odd galaxies
- Dwarf spheroidals
- Dwarf irregulars
Supermassive Black Holes in the center of most galaxies
- All large galaxies are believe to have a supermassive black hole in the center
- Some are larger (billion of star masses) some are smaller (millions of sollar masses)
- Black holes anchor the galaxy, they don’t gravitationally control the whole galaxy (all the
stars play a role)
Dark Matter surrounds all galaxies
- Every galaxy is believed to be inside a dark matter halo
- Range of 50-90% of mass of galaxies (hard to get value for ellipticals)
- Dark Matter Halos will become necessary in the formation of galaxy sized objects in the
universe, but we still don’t know what it is
3/19/24:
Back to distance
Parallax – nearby stars
Spectroscopic parallax – stars that don’t exhibit parallax in milky way
P-L relation of variable stars (cepheids) – milky way, near-by galaxies
Tully-fisher – rotation rate to luminosity – spiral galaxies we can measure spectral features
Type la supernova – white dwarf explodes because material added onto it from a binary star –
nearby and distant galaxies
How bright they are – how bright they look – distance
Dark matter on a cluster level
- The internal motion of the galaxies inside a cluster are too fast for the luminous matter
seen
- Dark matter helps hold things in place
- Gravitational lensing from behind too
Look Back Time and Age
- Recall the universe is 14 billion years old
- The farther away a galaxy is, the further back in time we are seeing this galaxy
- A galaxy with a look-back time of 13 billion years, we are seeing it when it was around 1
billion years old – early galaxy
- A galaxy with a look-back time of 1 billion years, we are seeing when it was 13 billion
years old – later galaxy
The need for dark matter
- Gravity depends on mass and distance
- If we can’t see something, but can see its gravitational affect, we can get a value for its
mass
3 observations of dark matter
- Gravitational Lensing
 - Galaxy motion within clusters
- Spiral galaxy rotation curve velocities
What is dark matter?
- MACHOS – massive compact halo objects
- WIMPS – weakly interacting massive particles
- Wimps are the preferred source for dark matter
Dark matter here to stay
- The acceptance of dark matter has allowed astronomers to make advances into
simulating creation galaxies
- We may not know what dark matter is, but we are learning about tis characteristics
- Normal matter gives off heat when it collapse, dark matter doesn’t
- As a result it doesn’t collapse as much
Cosmology
- Cosmology is the study of the universe
- It is the study of
- The creation
- Evolution
- Nature
- And the content of the universe
Assumption: cosmological principle
- Homogeneous*
- Every region is distributed like every other region (laws same)
- Isotropic*
- If you look in different directions, you see the same things
- *together these two constitute the cosmological principle
- There is no special location in space (no edge, no center)
Expanding universe
- Anything held together by gravity, those “objects” are not getting larger because of the
expanding universe
- Stars and the solar system are not getting larger
- Just like the paper clips on a string, the universe is expanding, but not the objects
themselves
Cosmological redshift of light as it travels through an expanding universe
- A photon travels through space
 - As it travels, space, expands and the photon’s wavelength is stretched out this causes
the photon to be redshifted
- This form of redshift is called the cosmological redshift – as seen with quasars (denoted
by z)
- It is not the same thing as a doppler shift but it looks the same on the spectrum and
using Hubble law we get distance
- We are talking about vast distances, like quasars light
Expanding universe
- Remember it is SPACE that is expanding, not objects within that space
- The universe is bigger today than it was in the past
- The expanding universe doppler redshifts the spectral lines because the distant galaxies
are moving away from us
Has the expansion been the same over the history of the universe? Nope
- Observations using type Ia (white dwarf) supernova explosions show that the universe is
actually expanding faster now than it did in the past
- Gravity would slow it down
- Dark energy is theorized to make it go faster
- We do not know what Dark Energy is
Intro to the Big Bang
- We can imagine a time right after the big bang, our observable universe was like a black
hole with infinite density existing at a point
- COSMIC SINGULARITY
- Time is meaningless before the Big Bang
- Time is a part of the expanding Universe after the Big Bang
- Space doesn’t exist outside the universe
- When the universe began, that was the beginning of space and time
Current best age of the universe is 13.7 +/- 0.2 billion years
Cosmic light horizon
- The cosmic light horizon can be explained by what light in the universe has currently
reached us.
- Think of galaxies that are so far away that the light hasn’t reached us yet. They’re
beyond our cosmic light horizon because we haven’t seen them yet.
- This can explain why we believe our universe is expanding

Observations – Helium Abundance

 - Everywhere we look the ratio of Hydrogen to Helium is 3:1 (even in the oldest stars) –
this had been a problem before the Big Bang model gave a solution
- Stars are 75% hydrogen and 25% helium with a little shift of a few percent otherwise
- At 15 minutes the universe had expanded and cooled off so Helium fusion STOPS
- And since any other fusion requires it to be even hotter, no more fusion will happen until
stars are present in the universe.
Observations – cosmic microwave background
- This observable was predicted and then discovered by accident by Penzias and Wilson
- There is a microwave light all over the universe.
- Not very bright, but in all directions of the universe
- The universe was born uneven which allows gravity to collect and things like galaxies to
form
What is the density of the Universe?
- From observations it appears that the Universe is extremely FLAT and has nearly the
critical density, a seen by WMAP
- The universe must be at the critical density
- Matter (visible and dark) is only 32% of the critical density
Where’s the missing density?
- Matter (regular and dark), radiation neutrinos only accounts for 32% of the density of
the universe
- What is making up the missing stuff – Dark Energy – no gravitational effects, no radiation
(that’s 68% of the stuff in the universe) – Only effects seen on large scale
- Seems to be an antigravity – no attractive
- Doesn’t change density as universe expands
Physics of the Universe
- Photons converted into particle-antiparticle pairs and vice versa
- E=mc^2
- The early universe was full of particles and radiation because of its high temperature
The four forces of Nature
- Strong force – holds protons and neutrons together.
- Electromagnetism – atoms and molecules
- Weak force – participates in radioactive decay.
- Gravity – stars and galaxies
- In the universe today these forces are distinct
- Grand unified theory (GUT) merge weak, EM and strong
Test question:
- The universe is rapidly expanding
- Theorized to have started with the big bang
- Made up of 25% helium and 70% hydrogen
- Made up of dark matter, dark energy, light, and smthn else
- Seemingly flat curvature
The Cosmic History
Conditions of the Early Universe
- The universe was small, everything is close together, interacting easily
- The universe was HOT, high energy photons (gamma rays)
- As the universe expands it will cool off, the photons’ energies will go down
- The universe will change fundamentally as it expands (photons, atoms, etc.)
Way to view the Eras.
- Planck Era 10^-43 seconds
- lack a theory to describe conditions in this era
- Time and space may have been all mixed together during this time
- All four forces may have been combined
- The universe is so dense, so hot, so unlike anything we can duplicate here, lots of high
energy photons
- Our current physics isn’t able to understand this type of environment
- GUT era (inflation era) 10^-38 to 10^-10 seconds
- two forces are though to have operated during the GUT era: gravity and the GUT force
- Grand Unified Theory
- As the universe cools the Strong separates from Weak and EM, putting a lot of energy
into the universe causing the Universe to get quite a bit bigger, really fast (inflation)
- Electroweak era 10^-38 seconds to 0.001
- elementary particles appeared spontaneously from energy, but also transformed rapidly
back into energy.
- There are the three forces: Gravity, Strong and Electroweak
- Particle creation in rampant during this time
- Particle annihilation is almost immediate.
- Universe is like a soup of photons and particles switching back and forth
- Particle era 0.001 seconds to 5 minutes
- Four fundamental forces now distinct
- Photons turning into all sorts of particles and their anti-particles (if it’s a particle you’ve
heard of, it’s made here – electrons, quarks, gluons, etc.)
- Energy of photons determines the type of particles
- As universe expands, the photons’ energies go down, can’t make the particles
- Particle annihilation gets rid of all the antimatter, left with some matter (must have been
unbalanced since we have matter)
- Nucleosynthesis era 5-15 minutes
- Up to 5-15 minutes
- This is where the protons link with neutrons to make deuterium, to make helium
- The expanding universe limits the number of neutrons created (too large a universe, no
more creations of neutrons)
- This neutron limit inhibits deuterium creation and hence helium
- The ratio predicted by the calculations is what is seen in the universe (3:1)
- Once universe is too cool, no more fusion
- Nuclei era 15 minutes to 380,000 years
- After 15 minutes we have nuclei and electrons running around, but not connected to
each other yet
- The photons don’t allow atoms to form for any amount of time (remove the electrons
from the nuclei), photon don’t travel without encountering matter – foggy
- But the universe is still expanding, the light is redshifting (less energy) and at 380,000
years it no longer interacts with matter – complete atoms can form
- Photons no longer interact with matter
- At 380,000 years the light in the universe is Orange in color
- This orange light becomes the Cosmic Microwave Background
- Era of atoms (dark ages)
- Electrons and Nuclei join to make Atoms
- The only light present at this time is what becomes CMB
- At 380,000 years, those atoms of the universe are spread out all over
- Fluctuations seen in the Cosmic Microwave Background are places where gravity can pull
stuff together
- Those fluctuations don’t expand as fast as the rest of the universe (gravity), allowing the
lumpiness to become more pronounced
- 100 million years those fluctuations stop expanding and start contracting (dark and
normal matter)
- By about 100-400 millions years first stars forms
- The light from the stars is blocked by the H gas in space, about 800 millions years this
“fog” lifts
- Models suggest stars have mass of 30-300 solar masses (live fast and die in supernovae)
- Maybe small galaxies form at 400 million years too
- Era of stars and galaxies (800 millions years to 8 billion years)
- First galaxies are seen at about 1 billion years
- Small irregular galaxies
- Remember the universe is small, these galaxies are close together and crash into each
other often, rapid star formation
- Mergers from this point on create larger galaxies
 - Gravity pulls these galaxies into clusters in the filament structure of the Universe over
the next few billion years
- Era of dark energy
- At about 6 billion years no new galaxies are formed
- The galaxies continue to merge, evolve into normal galaxies, pull into the filament
structure of the universe (cosmic web)
- At about 8-9 billion years the universe’s expansion stars to accelerate
- Eventually everything not bound by gravity (anything larger than a cluster of galaxies)
will be pushed away from each other
The universe is too cool to do helium fusion to carbon
UNIT 5 – SOLAR SYSTEM
Terrestrial planets
- Higher average density
- Smaller in size
- Not as massive
- Rocky surfaces
- Mountains, craters, volcanos
- Mercury, Venus Earth, and Mars
- Closer to the sun
Jovian (gas giants)
- Rings systems
- Lower average density
- Higher mass
- Many satellites
- No surface
- Gaseous (H and He)
- Liquids inside
- Clouds belts zones
- Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
Formation of the solar system
- Nebular or disk method theories
- Age of the solar system (4.56 billion years)
- In the beginning there was a cloud of gas and dust, the solar nebula (spinning)
The nebula began to collapse and formed two parts
- A central concentration
- A disk (temp of 50K)
 - As the protosun collected material and compressed, the material heated up and went on
to heat to the surrounding material in the nebula
The solar nebula is made up of Rocks, Metals, Hydrogen, Compounds (water, ammonia) and
Hydrogen and Helium gases.
To create “planets” we have to start with solid objects. Those objects will crash into each other
to make larger solid objects.
Accretion
- The solid pieces (dust grain sizes) start to crash into each other and become larger
pieces. Larger pieces collect (accrete) more material and become even larger – gravity at
work here. Over a few millions years these formed objects about 100km in diameter
called planetesimals
- Planetesimals collided to form Protoplanets
Too hot inside
- If you look at the temp inside Mercury’s orbit, it is too hot even for rocks to exist.
- Rock-Metal condensation Line
- No solids, no “planets”
The frost line
- The frost line is the dividing line where inside it is too hot for the hydrogen compounds
to be solid but where beyond water, ammonia and methane are found as solid (ices)
What about the H and He gases?
- They are found throughout the whole nebula at the beginning. As the sun heats up, the
gases move faster and moves to farther away from the sun (outer part of the solar
system)
Time of Formation
- This process takes about a few hundred million years to create planets
- Current best estimate is 4.5682 billion years old
- Planets have been evolving over time.
Solar Nebula Hypothesis
- Rocky planets close in, gaseous further out
- All planets in same plane
- Other objects following same trends
- Can we see this in various steps outside the solar system?
Not on Jovian Planets
 - Near collisions may have been common Capture of Moons
- Sling-shot effect out of solar system or in different orbit
- Jovian planets would have moved
- Solar system formation is more complicated that first thought
Planets
1. Uranus has a rotational axis that is tilted so much it lies nearly in the plane of its orbit
2. Venus is the planet with the highest average surface temperature
3. The planet that orbits closest to the Sun is Mercury
4. The only rocky planet to have more than one moon is Mars
5. Jupiter is the jovian planet that orbits closest to the sun
6. Most of the surface of Earth is covered with liquid water.
7. Neptune is about 30 times as far from the Sun as our own planet
8. The planet with the lowest average density is Saturn
Terrestrial Planets
Four processes that affect planetary surfaces:
- Impact cratering (from space_
- Tectonism (geological activity)
- Volcanism (geological activity)
- Erosion (comes from atmosphere)
CRATERING on planets and satellites is the result of impacts from interplanetary debris
- When an asteroid, comet, or meteoroid collides with the surface of a terrestrial planet
or satellite, the result is an impact crater
- Not constant over time
- All planets were targets
Tectonism
- The motion of the surface of the planet (lithosphere) to produce features (and the
mechanism that produces that motion)
- Plate tectonics on the Earth
Volcanism
- When magma (molten rock) comes from the crust or mantle portion of the planet to the
surface (lava)
- Volcanoes (fissures, shield, composite)
- Depending on how runny the lava, different situations
- On Earth associated with tectonics
- Volcanic rock is called Basalt
Erosion
- The wearing down of high spots and filling in the low spots – leveling things out
- Water, wind, solar wind (small effect)
- (requires an atmosphere)
Terrestrial Planets’ Surfaces
- Mercury: Craters, Scarps (tectonism)
- Venus: Volcanoes
- Earth: Volcanoes, mountains (tectonics), Valleys and Canyons (erosion)
- Moon: Highlands (craters), Maria (volcanic)
- Mars: Volcanoes, Canyon (tectonism)
Terrestrial Planet Model
- The more mass a planet has, the more internal heat (pressure) that drives geological
activity for longer
- The smaller the planet, the faster it would cool of after formation
- There is still some internal heating by radioactive decay
- Mercury and Moon – no activity
- Mars p no recent activity
- Earth and Venus – geologically active
TERRESTRIAL ATMOSPHERES
The greenhouse effect
- Solar energy is the energy source for the atmosphere
- In the greenhouse effect, some of this energy is trapped by infrared absorbing gases in
the atmosphere, raising the surface temperature
All the planets’ original gasses
- When a planet is forming, gases are released when the surface cools from a molten to a
solid state (a process known as volcanic degassing. These gases should become the
atmosphere.
- All the planets started with H2O, CO2 and N2, Sulfur compounds
Where did the gases go?
- Mercury: too small and too hot to have any permanent atmosphere
- Venus: planets held onto CO2, made planet hotter, H2O flies off, N2 and Sulfur still there
- Earth: H2) condenses into Oceans, CO2 into oceans and rocks, CO2 turned into O2 by
plants, Sulfur into rocks too
- Mars: too small to hold onto much, H2O freezes into ices and into dirt, CO2 also freezes,
sulfur into rocks too
Result of Terrestrial Worlds
- History time line
- Formed from collision
- Heated and differentiation – rock crusts and iron cores
- Heavy bombardment form craters
- Cooled – size important – volcanic degassing
- Volcanic activity or tectonics (past and present)
- Changing atmospheres
- Experiments gone wrong (except for Earth)
MERCURY
- The surface is generally rolling plains – volcanic
- With long cliffs called scarps
- Result of expansion and contraction early on
- One of the largest features is the Caloris Basin, 1300km in diameter
- Remnant of large impact that penetrated the crust
- This shook the planet it was such a big collision
- *slow rotation
- Mercury is almost tidal locked to the Sun like the Moon is to the Earth (elongates the
planet)
- Three rotations to every two orbits (3:2 resonance)
- Result: a full solar day on Mercury takes two Mercury years
- Mercury’s slow rotation has other results
- Temperature of the surface facing the sun is 700 K (800 degrees F)
- The terminator is at 425 K (305 F)
- The dark side is 100 K (-270 F)
- Temperature range is 600 K (1080 F)
- Earth range is 11 K (20 F) (greenhouse effect isn’t so bad)
- Mercury’s really doesn’t have an atmosphere
- There is very little there (really nothing)
- Na, O, He, K, H
- No erosion effects on surface
VENUS
- *Venus rotates the wrong way
- Venus rotates slowly in a retrograde direction with a solar day of 117 Earth days and a
rotation period of 243 Earth days
- There are approximately two Venusian solar days in a Venusian year
- It may even be slowing down rotation…
- Results of Venera 13 on Venus
 - Basalt rocks similar to ones found on the Earth and Moon (volcanic)
- Others resembling granite – ancient crust
- Results from Magellan
- Magellan used radar echo ranging to peer through the clouds
- Nevus lacks craters – younger surface 500 million years
- Geologically active
- Surface of Venus
- - 80% volcanic plains and rolling hills
- Two main continents (only 8% of planet)
- Ishtar terra (size of Australia)
- Aphrodite terra (size of Africa)
- No water around them, just higher up
- High point is maxwell montes (14km high)
- Very few impact craters – only big ones
- Shield volcanoes (pancake or lava volcanoes)
- Surface replenished every 300-500 million years
- No evidence of plate tectonics, maybe flake tectonics
- More on Venus’ atmosphere
- - 96% carbon dioxide
- 4% nitrogen
- Sulfur dust
- Sulfur dioxide
- Hydrogen sulfide
- Yellowish, yellow-orange clouds
- Clouds of concentrated sulfuric acid
- Maybe from volcanic eruptions
- *It’s hot on venus
- Most efficient greenhouse effect in solar system makes it hot on Venys
- Surface temperature of 733 K (860 F)
- Temperature almost constant over entire surface of venus
- Surface pressure 90-98 atm (as if under 1km water)
MARS
- Mars has two different terrains North and South
- North is lower and smoother, but does have volcanoes
- South is higher elevation, more craters
- *Volcanic regions (extinct)
- Tharsis region: 4 big shield volcanoes – 5-6km above
- Arsia mons, Pavonis mons, ascraeus mons, Olympus mons
- Largest volcanos is Olympus mons
- 340 miles wide, 15 miles high
 - 24 km (mauna kea is 8km above ocean floor)
- Collapsed caldera at the summit is as large as the entire Hawaiian island chain
- *Canyon areas (rift valley)
- Between the two hemispheres
- Parallels the equator
- Valles marineris
- 3000km in length
- On Earth it would run from New York to Los Angeles
- Up to 6-8km deep
- Up to 600km across
- 300km long
- Formed by crustal motion (almost plate tectonics)
- Moons of Mars
- mars has two moons
- Phobos (fear) and deimos (panic)
- Named after the horses that draw Mars’ chariot
- Look like two asteroids
- Orbit over the equator
- Both are tidal locked to mars
- Phobos
- Larger moon (28x23x20 km)
- Orbits in 7h 39m
- Will cross the sky in 5.5 hours
- Orbits at 6000 km (earth’s moon is at 376,380 km)
- Deimos
- Smaller moon (16x12x10 km)
- Orbits at 20,000 km
- Almost in a synchronous orbit
Mars atmosphere
- Started out similar to Earth’s
- Current atmosphere
- 3% nitrogen
- Almost no oxygen
- 95% carbon dioxide
- 2% other gases (argon)
- Very thin – average pressure 0.007 atm
- Very inefficient greenhouse effect
- Average surface temperature is 218 K (-67 F)
- Large dust storms
Mars’ polar regions
- Water ice
- Large amounts of carbon dioxide ice (dry ice)
- Polar regions change during seasons
JOVIAN PLANETS
Predominant element in Jovian planets is hydrogen
Internal structures
- Interiors balance between pressure and temperature – gasses to liquids, rocky core at
center.
- Jupiter and Saturn have pressures great enough to have liquid metallic hydrogen
*The “surface”
- there is no solid surface to walk on – higher and higher pressure long before rocky core
- The visible “surface” is actually the tops of its clouds (thick clouds beneath)
- Jupiter has Zones, Belts, Great Red Spot, white and brown ovals
- Saturn – less pronounced cloud features
- Uranus and Neptune – clouds and belts seen in Infrared
- Differential rotation
- Very strong winds (over 500 km/h, Saturn up to 1690 km/h)
*The visible cloud patterns
- The great red spot
- First observed by Robert hooke in 1664
- Counter-clockwise rotation
- Giant hurricane 40,000 x 14,000 km
- 3 earth could fit side by side inside storm
*Non-naked eye planets
- Uranus was found when William Herschel (1781) found a fuzzy object not on the star
charts
- Neptune was found in 1846 when two independent astronomers noticed Uranus did not
follow Newtonian gravity unless there was something pulling on it. Found in ½ hour
when comparing to star charts (Adams and LeVerrier)
*Special about Uranus
 - When Voyager 2 encountered Uranus its rotation axis pointed at the Sun (angle of 98
degrees to plane)
- Retrograde Rotation (stars set in east)
- Maybe cloud features are angles to sun?
Other interesting info
- Jupiter was hit by a comet in 1994
- Uranus was discovered in 1781 when William Herschel was making a sky survey for a
new star catalog and found that a new “star” was in the field of stars
- Neptune was predicted by variations on Uranus’ orbit and found in 1846, again a new
“star” found in a field of stars
*Rings surround all the Jovian planets
- Jupiter’s rings not seen until 1979 by Voyager 1
- Uranus’ found in 1977
- Neptune’s aren’t all complete
- Small, dark material
History of the Rings
- In 1610 Galileo was the first to observe Saturn
- Saw two lumps on opposite sides of the planet
- Disappeared in 1612, Reappeared in 1613
- In 1655 Christiaan Huygens observed Saturn with a much better telescope
- Suggested that Saturn was surrounded by a thin flattened right
- Disappearance due to tip of ring with respect to Earth
- 1675
- Optics had improved further
- Giovanni Cassini identified a dark division in the ring
- Now called the Cassini Division
- Separated the ring into A ring and B ring
- By mid-1800s
- Astronomers had found the C ring
- Now we also know of D, E, F, and G rings
- And the encke division
*The Rings
- 200,000 km across
- As this an 200 m in some places (1km)
- Think snowball sized ice and ice covered rocks
Moons of the solar system
 - Jupiter’s Io (from Galileo probe)
- Io suffers tidal effects from Jupiter and other moons and is volcanically active – colors
from sulfur, sulfur dioxide frost and sulfurous salts of sodium and potassium
- Eruptions caught on film, random placing of volcanoes rules out plate techtonics
- Tidal heating caused by gravity with Jupiter
- Pulls from other moons adds to it
- *Saturn’s Encelauds
- Surface is covered in ice, very reflective
- Has crater free areas
- Ice volcanoes release light material caught in image
- *Neptune’s Triton
- Orbits planet in opposite direction – probably captured
- Thin atmosphere of Nitrogen and methane
- Tidal heating effects
- Grooves are cracks allowing under ice to surface – tectonics?
- Nitrogen volcanoes seen by Voyager 2 – dark areas form
- *Jupiter’s Europa
- Lack of craters indicates a geologically active moon – probably from tidal effects
- Probably contains a large salt water ocean under the surface – occasionally breaks
through.
- Perhaps contains organic material – best hope for extraterrestrial life
- Showing evidence of eruption, or surface changing thickness
- *Saturn’s Titan
- Titan is 45% water ice and 55% rock
- Has thick Nitrogen atmosphere (more than Earth)
- Lack of craters
- Radar infers smooth areas – methane lakes (that evaporate and get replenished from
underneath?)
- Also methane rain and rivers
- Similar to primordial Earth
SMALL SOLAR SYSTEM BODIES
Asteroids, TNOs, Comets
Minor Planets
- Objects that all orbit the sun but are little and not naked eye visible (exception of comets
if they’re close)
Primordial Material
- Asteroids, Meteoroids, and Comets are probably material leftover from the planetismal
stage of formation – original solar nebula cloud stuff
 - Planets and moons have gone through chemical differentiation, so the material is
chemically different (heating)
- Asteroids translates to star like. They’re not star like, but they look like it.
- Asteroids are rock and metal and form inside the frost line
- Meteoroid – left behind remnants of comets
- Meteor – when the meteoroid hits the earth’s atmosphere and burns up
- Meteorite – survives earth’s atmosphere and hits the surface
Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) or Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs)
- Beyond Neptune (sub-grouped into Kuiper belt objects, plutino, scattered disk objects,
detached objects, sednoids)
Anatomy of TNOs
- In the outer solar system we have a lot more ices involved
- Ices require lower temperatures to be molten, easier to be geologically active (ice
geology)
What is a comet
- Dirty snow ball
- This fits the current model of the nucleus
- A few kilometers across
- Made of:
- Water
- Carbon dioxide
- Ammonia
- Methane
- A little bit of dust mixed in
- Temperatures in the outer solar system keep this ball frozen
- Heats up near sun
- Ices are vaporized and dust is liberated
- The gases glow as a fuzzy ball called the Coma
- About 1 million km in diameter
- Outside the coma is a larger sphere of hydrogen called the ‘Hydrogen Envelope’
- 10 million km in diameter
- Not visible to the naked eye
- The coma material is then pushed back by the Solar wind and radiation pressure to form
the tail
- The tail can extend for over 1 AU
- Making comets the largest objects in the Solar System
- There are actually two tails
- Dust tail – dust particle lagging behind comet in orbit
 - Ion tail
- Directly away from the Sun
- Bluish tail in photos
- Made of ions pushed by the solar wind
Where do comets come from
- Short period (under 200 years)
- Kuiper belt
- Outside Neptune
- In disk
- Long period
- Oort cloud
Exoplanets (extrasolar planets)
- Direct imaging: actual visual identification of the planet
- Astrometry – watching the star move (miniscule) because of gravitational pull (aka
wobble)
- Radial velocity* (doppler shift) – watch the spectral lines from the star shift back and
forth
- Transit method ** - planet dims star’s light
- Gravitational microlensing – bending of star light
Extrasolar systems
- Estimate 70% of all stars have at least one planet
- There are over 500 systems with multiple planets
- Estimated that stars are more likely to have Earth or Super Earth sized planets, Jovian
sized planets are rare
More than 2 types of planets
- Terrestrial
- Jovian
- Hot Jupiters
- Super Earths
- Water Worlds (all the way through)
- Light Density
Rethinking Solar System formation
- Nebular Hypothesis will not make big planets close to star
- Modify the process – Migration of Planets in a gas filled protosystem cause migration of
planets
LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE
Life on Earth
- Carbon atom (easily bond with other atoms)
- Organic molecules are found in meteorites and cometary spectra
- DNA makes up what we are
- Amino Acids make proteins make us
- Liquid water is most crucial
Life off Earth
- This is the field of exobiology or astrobiology
- Many alien life forms have been created for television and movies
- These are mostly humanoid life forms
- However, we must consider even bacteria as life in the Universe (andromeda strain)
Extremophiles
- Is life capable of existing in cold, dark places
- Survive high UV
- Deep in ocean by heat vents – live on sulfur
- Deep caves – sulfur
- Possibly similar to early life forms
Where to look for life in the Solar System
- Europa – water ocean under the ice kept liquid by tidal effects
- Enceladus – also water under the surface (eruption)
- Mars
- Water ice in poles and under the surface and localized volcanic heat
- Soil of mars has water in it (not muddy or wells, but still some water)
- Ancient water on the surface? (fossils)
Intelligent life
- Exoplanets:
- Orbiting stars with a long life span
- G type or cooler so star is around for a long time/
- Large stars die too quickly
- Earth sized planets (not too big, not too small) – with a surface and atmosphere
- In star’s habitable zone
The Habitable Zone
- Habitable zone is determined as the distance from the star where liquid water exists
- Not too close (hot) or too far (cold)
 - For our sun the zone is 0.95 – 1.37 AU
- Can be calculated for other types of stars, closer for cooler stars, farther away for hotter
stars
Type of star and planet
- Solar Mass type Main Sequence stars (long, stable, existences)
- Terrestrial (or Super Earth) type planets – solid surface, big enough for atmosphere and
geologic activity (warm)
- Jovian planets have been found in Habitable Zones, but wrong type of planet
Exam to know:
Lots of pictures – tell the difference between various celestial objects
Cosmic address
Earth – solar system – (star cluster) – galaxy – local group – local super cluster – the universe
Cosmic web
Hercules has an hour glass shape in the sky – some say key stone – arc to Arcturus then go left
to corona borealis then a little more left to Hercules which looks square.
Know forever
- Andromeda galaxy
- Sirius
- Proxima Centauri
- Polaris
- 13.7 billion -the universe
- 4.6 billion years – the earth
- Local group
- Milky way
People to know forever
- Hubble – gave us distance to andromeda galaxy, shapes of galaxies, expanding universe,
- Kepler – figured out planet orbit the sun in ellipses also laws of planetary motion
- Copernicus – heliocentric solar system (reintroduced it)
- Galileo – astronomical observations with a telescope. Falsified geocentric system
- Newton – laws of gravity