SCI 154 notes

black hole discovery→ Region of space do intense that no matter nor radiation can
(1915) escape

Astronomical Unit (AU)→ The average distance from the Earth to the Sun= 1 AU
➔ VENUS to sun = 1.72 AU
➔ MARS to sun = 0.52 AU
➔ MERCURY to sun = 0.39AU
→AU=1,5x108 km.

Light year (Ly): The distance light travels in one year at c=3x105 km/s.
1Ly = 63000 AU = 9,5x1012 km.

Full circle is 360o. 1o divided into 60 parts gives arcminutes (‘). 1’ divided into 60 parts gives
arcseconds(“). 1parsec = 3,26 Ly = 3,1 x 1013 km
= the distance to star whos parallex is 1 arcsecond

pattern recognition is considered the separation point between sentient and non-sentient beings

Copernicus→ 1543 AD –earth revolving around sun -- Heliocentric model

◼ Galileo galilei
◼ Johannes kepler
◼ Aristarcus

Johannes Kepler 1609→ proved that the planets moved around the Sun in elliptical orbits, rather
than perfect circles.

Galileo 1610 → discovered four moons of Jupiter using the telescope he created.

Astronomer William Herschel and his sister Caroline created Herschels Map, this map revealed the
shape (disc) and size of the Milky Way, he discovered Uranus

Edwin Hubble—said the universe is expanding / discovered other galaxies ,which were previously
other nebulae, moving away from us – supported big bang
Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (CMB) → discovered by two Bell Telephone employees in
1964 accidently
CMB acts as a snapshot of the universe

Extrasolar Planets → found outside our solar system → 3000 discovered since 1988

Defined group of stars → Constellation → 88 official ones

Less formally defined groupings → asterisms. Eg Big Dipper, is part of the constellation Ursa Major
(the Great Bear).

Claudius Ptolemaeus 140 → describe the brightness of stars using the magnitude scale.
Hipparchus compiled the first known star catalog, and he may have used the magnitude system in
that catalog.
Magnitude scale:
Brightest stars are first-magnitude stars and fainter stars are second-magnitude.
–1.46 →brightest star, sirius
6 →the faintest visible to the human eye.
two stars that differ by five magnitudes have a flux ratio of exactly 100. Therefore, two stars that
differ by one magnitude must have a flux ratio that equals the fifth root of 100 which is
approximately 2.51
Flux a = ( 2.51) ^ (magnitude b – magnitude a)
Flux b

Precession→ Celestial poles and equator were slowly moving across the sky, this motion is caused
by a toplike motion of Earth

Chapter 3
Cycles of the Sun and Moon
Earths rotation on axis—day and night
Orbit around the sun – year – 365.26
Spins like a top at and anlge of 23.4 degrees around its orbit → seasons
ecliptic → path of the Sun against the background of stars is called the, projection of the earths orbit
in the sky.
The Sun, traveling 360° around the ecliptic in 365.26 days, travels about 1° eastward in 24 hours,
about twice its angular diameter.

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are all easily visible to the unaided eye and look like stars,
but Uranus is usually too faint to be seen, and Neptune is never bright enough.

A horoscope is just a diagram showing the location of the Sun, Moon, and planets around the ecliptic
and their position above or below the horizon for a given date and time.

Milankovitch hypothesis — that small changes in Earth’s orbit, precession, and inclination affect
Earth’s climate and can cause ice ages.
Evidence -- Oceanographers drilled deep into the seafloor to collect long cores of sediment from
different depths in the cores and determined the age of the samples and the temperature of the
oceans when they were deposited on the seafloor

The Moon is about 0.5° in angular diameter(equal to sun), and it moves eastward a bit more than
0.5° per hour. In 24 hours, it moves 13°.

The Moon always keeps the same side facing Earth

The changing shape of the Moon as it passes through its cycle of phases is produced by sunlight
illuminating different parts of the side of the Moon you can see.

Umbra → region of total shadow.

Penumbr→region where the Sun peeking around the edge of Earth
A lunar eclipse can occur at full moon if the Moon moves through the shadow of Earth
Chapter 4 and 5
ARISTOTLE – PLATO’s student
Plato concluded that all motions in the heavens must be made up of combinations of circles turning
at uniform rates – UNIFORM CIRCULAR MOTION.
Aristotle argued the earth layed at the centre of the universe – GEOCENTRIC UNIVERSE.
Ptolemy created a model for Aristotle :
Contained epicycle- small circles the earth followed
Contained deferent – bigger circle the epicycle slid around

Astronomers believed earth did not move because they saw no parallax—the apparent motion of the
object cause by the motion of the observer.

JOHANNES KEPLER
worked with Tycho in the late 16th century.
LAW 1 -that planets move in elliptical orbits around the Sun
LAW 2 -a line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times, meaning that a
planet moves faster when it is closer to the Sun and slower when it is farther away
LAW 3 -The square of the orbital period of a planet is proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis
of its orbit
The Rudolphine Tables—Emperor Rudolf 11—published is 1627- predict positions of the planets

GlILEO GALILEI – published book with three major discoveries -Sidereus Nuncius
1st discovery –Saw the moon had craters and mountains
2nd discovery -- the Milky Way was made up of myriad stars too faint to see with the unaided eye
3rd discovery – four moons of Jupiter and the moon moved around jupiter
After book published discovered: VENUS

ISAAC NEWTON
1st An object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an
external force.
2nd The force acting on an object is equal to its mass times its acceleration (F = m x a).
3rd For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
The Law of Universal Gravitation states that every point mass attracts every other point mass in the
universe by a force pointing in a straight line between the centers-of-mass of both points, and this
force is proportional to the masses of the objects and inversely proportional to their separation
- An object in orbit is continuously falling towards the center of the object it is orbiting but
maintains its distance due to its orbital velocity.
- Circular orbits require circular velocity and can be used for geosynchronous satellites
theory of gravity -- ocean tides on Earth. the Sun's gravity also affects tides- spring (very high tides)
during full/ new moon and less-extreme neap (very low tides) tides occurring at first- and third-
quarter moons.

CHAPTER 5
Light is made up of electric and magnetic fields
Radiation -- anything that radiates from a source, eg high-energy particles emitted from radioactive
atoms
travels through space at a speed of 3 x 10 ^8 m/s
wavelength-- distance between peaks of the wave is called the
frequency—the number of waves that pass a stationary point in 1 second
lamda= c/v
photon --A particle of electromagnetic radiation
The amount of energy a photon carries is inversely proportional to its wavelength. Shorter
wavelength photons carry more energy, and longer-wavelength photons carry less energy
wavelength of light using nanometer (nm) units,
Refracting and Reflecting Telescopes
Either: (1) a lens refracts (“bends”) the light passing through, or (2) a mirror reflects (“bounces”) the
light off its surface.
primary lens --main lens in a refracting telescope
primary mirror - main mirror in a reflecting telescope
eyepiece -- is used to magnify the image
focal length -- distance from a lens or mirror to the image it forms of a distant light source
Short-focal-length lenses and mirrors must be strongly curved, and long-focal-length lenses and
mirrors are less strongly curved.
shorter-wavelength light bends more than longer wavelengths
chromatic aberration—colour separation
achromatic lenses-- Telescope designers can grind a telescope lens with two components made of
different kinds of glass, and thereby bring two different wavelengths to the same focus - -
optical telescopes-- Telescopes that collect visible light
radio telescopes – gathers radio waves
“seeing” – refer to the amount of image blurring due to atmospheric conditions
Star twinkles are caused by turbulence in Earth’s atmosphere, and a star near the horizon, where you
look through more air, will twinkle and blur more than a star overhead
The Hubble Space Telescope, named after Edwin Hubble, was launched in 1990 and is the most
successful observatory in history with a 2.4 m mirror and replaced by the James Webb pace
Telescope (JWST) which will carry a 6.5-m mirror.
Photometers- sensitive light meters
photographic plate - first device used by astronomers to record images of celestial objects
CCDs are both ^
spectrograph.—
active optics-- a technique to adjust the shape of telescope optics slowly, compensating for effects of
changing temperature as well as gravity bending the mirror when the telescope points at different
locations in the sky
Adaptive optics -- uses high-speed computers to monitor the distortion produced by turbulence in
Earth’s atmosphere and rapidly alter some optical components to correct the telescope image,
sharpening a fuzzy blob into a crisp picture
Interferometry-
Cosmic rays -- subatomic particles traveling through space at tremendous velocities.

Atoms and spectra

Joseph von Fraunhofer -- spectrum of the Sun – 600 dark coloured lines missing from the sunlight
Earth receives

isotopes -- Atoms that have the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons
Ionized -An atom(now ion) that has lost or gained one or more electrons and the atom is left with a
net positive charge.
electron’s binding energy-- the energy that holds it to the atom
permitted orbits—orbits of certain size due to the certain amounts of binding energy
atom’s ground state.an electron in its smallest and most tightly bound orbit is in its lowest permitted
energy level
an excited atom --move an electron from a low energy level to a higher energy level, through
collision/ absorbing a photon – cannot be in this state forever

photosphere-- visible surface of the star, its.

light from stars --acceleration of charged particles usually electrons
temperature -- to the average speed of the particles
temperature of a star = temperature of the gases in the photosphere = temperatures on the Kelvin
temperature scale

why hot object glows

hotter an object is, the more motion in its particles including electrons they collide with each other,
and it accelerates and part of the energy is carried away as electromagnetic radiation.

Blackbody radiation -- radiation emitted by a heated (cool) object

a violent collision can produce a short wavelength (high-energy) photon
Stefan-Boltzmann law. -- the hotter object emits more total energy than the cooler objects
Wien’s law--hotter object emits more blue light than red and cooler object emits more red than blue

spectrum of a star is formed as light passes outward through the gases near its surface
three important aspects of Spectra:
three kinds of spectra: (i) continuous spectra; (ii)absorption or dark-line spectra and (iii) emission or
bright-line spectra, which contain emission lines (kirchhofs law)
Photons are emitted or absorbed when an electron in an atom makes a transition from one energy
level to another.
display spectra as graphs of intensity versus wavelength
Doppler effect is the apparent change in the wavelength of radiation caused by the motion of the
source. It measures the relative motion between Earth and the star
radial velocity, Vr-- Doppler shift is sensitive only to the part of the velocity directed away from you
or toward you

family of stars
stellar parallax (p) -- the shift of the star observed across a 1 AU (not 2 AU) baseline.
intrinsic brightness -- total amount of light the star emits
absolute visual magnitude (MV) -- apparent visual magnitude it would have if it were 10 pc away
luminosity (L) of a star -- total energy the star radiates in one second
Payne discovered that: (1) the chemical composition of the Sun is like the composition of other stars,
(2) spectra actually provide information mostly about the temperatures of stars, and (3)stars with
similar spectra must have similar temperatures.

Balmer thermometer works because the strength of the Balmer lines depends on the temperature of
the star’s surface layers. Both hot and cool stars have weak Balmer lines, but medium-temperature
stars have strong Balmer lines. That is because the Balmer absorption lines are produced only by
atoms with electrons in the second energy level
spectral classes, or types, still used today: O, B, A, F, G, K, and M (hottest to coldest)
L dwarfs -- cooler and fainter than M stars
T dwarfs are an even cooler and fainter type of brown dwarf than L dwarfs
brown dwarfs-- objects smaller than stars but larger than planets
Hertzsprung–Russell (H–R) diagram -- graph that separates the effects of temperature and surface
area on stellar luminosities and enables astronomers to sort and classify stars according to their sizes
Giant stars --larger and have more surface area than main-sequence stars of the same temperature
supergiant stars – thousand times the Sun’s diameter
spectroscopic parallax -- distances can be estimated from the star’s spectral type, luminosity class,
and apparent magnitude in a process
binary stars, pairs of stars that orbit each other. one star is more massive than its companion, then
the more massive star is closer to the center of mass and travels in a smaller orbit
visual binary system-- e two stars are separately visible in the telescope. Only a pair of stars with
large orbits can be separated visually.
spectroscopic binary system -- light from both stars and contains spectral lines from both,
astronomers can sometimes tell that there are two stars present and not one
eclipsing binary system -- stars repeatedly block each other’s light from our point of view, the total
brightness of the point of light periodically decreases
**luminosities, temperatures, sizes, and masses of stars
mass–luminosity relation—the more massive a star is, the more luminous it is
formation and structure of stars
interstellar extinction-- distant stars (redder) appear fainter than they should for their distances and
luminosities
interstellar absorption lines-- absorption lines must be produced instead by atoms located between
the stars and Earth.
Molecular clouds -- atoms are joined together to form molecules in the densest, coldest interstellar
clouds
interstellar dust-- dust particles

NEBULAE
H II regions -- clouds of gas ionized by the ultraviolet radiation from nearby hot stars. “emission
nebulae “because the ionized hydrogen produces visible-wavelength photons that make the regions
glow with a characteristic pink color
nearby stars are not hot enough to ionize the hydrogen in a nebula, it may still be visible as a
reflection nebula, produced when light is scattered by tiny dust particles mixed in with the gas
.At visual wavelengths, dark nebulae are visible where dense clouds of gas and dust are silhouetted
against background regions filled with stars or bright nebulae.

STAR BIRTH IN MOLCULAR CLOUDS :

A red shock wave approaches an interstellar gas cloud
Shock wave passes through and compresses the cloud
Motion continues after the shock waves pass
The densest part of the cloud become gravitationally unstable
Contraction regions of the gas gives birth to a star
Shock waves that can trigger star formation are common in the interstellar medium
freefall collapse—early stage of forming a star - small cloud of gas begins to contract, gravity causes
the atoms to fall toward the center, gaining speed as they go
protostar-- stellar-mass object that is compressed and hot enough to be opaque to the radiation it is
emitting internally but not yet compressed and hot enough to be able to generate energy by nuclear
fusion, as would a mainsequence star. It shines with energy released gravitationally, from a
combination of matter falling inward to the protostar plus slow contraction of the protostar itself

**making stars from interstellar medium

cocoons-- enveloping clouds that hide the forming protostar from view
The visible nebula is only a small part of a vast, dusty molecular cloud. Visual and infrared
observations reveal small dusty clouds of gas called Bok globules
A single very hot and short-lived O star (in trapezium) is responsible for producing the ultraviolet
photons that ionize the gas and make the nebula glow
Infrared observations reveal clear evidence of active star formation deeper in the molecular cloud
behind the visible nebula.
Many of the young stars in the Orion Nebula are surrounded by disks of gas and dust
Star formation is contagious -- if a gas cloud produces massive stars, those massive stars ionize the
gas nearby and drive it away. Where the intense radiation and hot gas pushes into surrounding gas, it
can compress the gas and trigger more star formation.
birth line --locations in the H–R diagram of protostars that have become detectable at visible
wavelengths because their cocoons have disappeared
Young Stellar Objects (YSOs) or pre-main-sequence stars – when a star crosses the birth line and
becomes visible, it continues to contract and move toward the main sequence at a pace that
depends on its mass
. Star formation regions contain types of stars so young they must have formed recently
Infrared observations reveal the complicated shapes of starforming clouds that are strongly affected
by radiation and winds from nearby massive, luminous stars
Young stars tend to have very active, hot coronae and chromospheres, making them prominent X-ray
sources
disks evidently cause bipolar flows that push into the surrounding ISM and produce glowing nebulae
called Herbig–Haro. These disks can form a planet

An association is a widely distributed star cluster that is not held together by its own gravity—its
stars wander away as the association ages
T association -- T Tauri stars in the orion constellation --low-mass pre-mainsequence objects
OB associations -- extended groups of more massive O and B stars
stable balance between weight and pressure is called the principle of hydrostatic equilibrium
The law of energy transport says that energy must flow from hot regions to cooler regions either by
conduction, convection, or radiation
stellar model—a mathematical description of the inside of a star
zero-age main sequence (ZAMS) -- . Stars begin their stable lives fusing hydrogen on the lower edge
of this band
nova, an eruption on the surface of a stellar remnant, or a supernova, the violent explosive death of
an aging massive star
A main-sequence star generates its energy by nuclear fusion reactions that combine hydrogen to
make helium. The flood of energy produced by the hydrogen-fusion shell pushes toward the surface,
heating the outer layers of the star and forcing them to expand dramatically

The flood of energy produced by the hydrogen-fusion shell pushes toward the surface, heating the
outer layers of the star and forcing them to expand dramatically
The mass of a star determines its fate, with massive stars exploding in supernovae and lower-mass
stars dying quietly. A main-sequence star generates energy through nuclear fusion of hydrogen, but
when the hydrogen is depleted, the star evolves rapidly. The core contracts and heats up, causing
unprocessed hydrogen to fuse in a shell around the core, making the star expand into a giant or
supergiant. The expansion cools the star, causing it to move to the right in the H-R diagram

When the gas inside a star becomes compressed to high densities, it becomes degenerate matter,
which resists compression and has a pressure that does not depend on temperature. This can affect
the evolution of a star, and it becomes important when stars collapse into white dwarfs or when the
cores of giant stars become so dense that they are degenerate. This situation can produce a cosmic
bomb.

Helium fusion
giant star fuses hydrogen in an expanding shell, causing its core of helium to contract and grow hotte
after hydrogen fusion
three helium nuclei collide to form carbon in the triple-alpha process
produces carbon, oxygen, neon, and magnesium, and slow-cooker processes form heavier elements

star clsuters
open clusters and globular clusters
shape of a star cluster’s H–R diagram is governed by the evolutionary paths the stars take
Red dwarfs, which have masses between 0.08 and about 0.4 solar mass
small masses, consume their hydrogen fuel slowly, and are totally convective
medium-mass stars like the Sun eventually become hot enough to ignite helium but do not get hot
enough to ignite carbon.

When medium-mass stars like the Sun become giants, their atmosphere cools and becomes more
opaque, leading to outward pressure that can expel their outer atmosphere in surges, forming
planetary nebulae. It must contract into a white dwarf

White dwarfs are the remains of medium-mass stars that have exhausted their nuclear fuel and
collapsed into a small, dense object. first white dwarf discovered was Sirius B, the faint companion of
Sirius A.
Adding mass to a white dwarf can cause it to shrink, and if its mass reaches about 1.4 solar masses,
its radius will shrink to zero, a phenomenon known as the Chandrasekhar limit

Binary stars can transfer mass from one star to the other through the Roche lobes, which depend on
the mass and distance between the stars. The inner Lagrange point is important for mass transfer,
where matter can escape from a star and be captured by the other star. Mass transfer can affect the
evolution of stars, such as in the Algol paradox, where a lower-mass star can leave the main
sequence before a higher-mass star due to mass transfer. In such a scenario, the higher-mass star
evolves into a giant, fills its Roche lobe, and transfers matter to the low-mass companion, causing the
higher-mass star to become a main sequence star and the low-mass companion to become a giant.
Top of Form

accretion disk -- When matter flows from one star to another, it forms a whirling disk due to
conservation of angular momentum. In this disk, the gas becomes very hot and shifts its angular
momentum, allowing the innermost matter to fall into the star. If the star is a white dwarf, the gas
forms a rapidly rotating whirlpool called an accretion disk, which can become very hot and emit X-
rays. When enough matter accumulates on the white dwarf, it can produce a vast explosion called a
nova. This explosion blows the surface off the white dwarf and makes it very luminous. After the
explosion, the debris cloud expands, cools, and thins over a period of weeks and months, causing the
nova to fade from view.

Sun will eventually die in about 8 billion years by becoming a giant star, which will be about 100
times larger than it is now. o big that it may completely engulf Earth or at least evaporate Earth's
oceans, drive away its atmosphere, and even vaporize much of its crust. Earth's orbit will grow larger
as the Sun's mass decreases the sun will then collapse into a white dwarf

Nuclear fusion in massive stars

Massive stars are too big to become white dwarfs. They burn hydrogen in their cores and expanding
into giants and ignite helium and carbon in their cores and shells. The temperature becomes hotter
and hotter, allowing them to fuse heavier elements like carbon, oxygen, neon, and magnesium to
make silicon and sulfur and produces iron. Massive stars need to burn through their fuel quickly to
support their great weight, and this, combined with other factors, causes the heavier fuels to fuse at
increasing speeds.

supernova explosion of massive stars

When a massive star runs out of nuclear fuel, its iron core contracts and the energy production
declines, the contraction of the iron absorbs energy and it contracts faster and faster until it collapses
inward in less than a tenth of a second and blasts the outer layers of the star out into space. The core
of the star becomes either a neutron star or a black hole. The collapse of the core produces a lot of
energy, and this energy is what creates the supernova explosion.

Classifying supernova
massive star runs out of fuel-- collapse and explode in a supernova. Type II supernovae have
hydrogen lines because massive stars that contain lots of hydrogen. Type I supernovae do not have
hydrogen lines -- white dwarf gains mass from a companion star and suddenly fuses in a violent
explosion, or when a massive star loses its outer layers and collapses. The Crab Nebula is a young
supernova remnant that is still expanding and has a delicate appearance. Supernova remnants can
heat up and sweep up more gas to produce nebular remains that can generate radio and X-ray
radiation and even trigger star formation.

MaiIN SEQUENCE STARS – REASONIN WITH NUMBERS

SOMETHING ABOUT THERMOSTAT
Kinds of star clusters
Type one and two supernova