Astro study guide 3

Stellar Remnants

Relevant worksheets: Stellar Evolution (pg 65) (reviewed in class)

(10/25) Explain how a white dwarf's Luminosity & Temp change over billions of years if it is left alone,
and show how its location would change on an H-R diagram.

White Dwarfs are low-mass stars, and if they are left alone, they will fade and cool forever.

If mass transfer adds mass to a White Dwarf, it can become, (1) a Nova, or (2) a Supernova

(10/25) Explain where the different elements in your body and the world around you were created.

Most of the elements of our bodies were formed in stars over the course of billions of years and multiple
star lifetimes. However, it's also possible that some of our hydrogen (which makes up roughly 9.5% of
our bodies) and lithium, which our body contains in very tiny trace amounts, originated from the Big
Bang.

(10/25) Explain why all pulsars are neutron stars, but not all neutron stars are pulsars.

Most neutron stars are observed as pulsars. So, all pulsars are neutron stars, but not all neutron stars
are necessarily pulsars. But most neutron stars appear as pulsars from the proper vantage point – with
their beams aimed at Earth as they rotate – if they are emitting enough radiation to be detectable.

(10/25) Rank neutron stars, black holes, main sequence stars, planets, and white dwarfs in order of
increasing density.

main sequence stars, planets, white dwarfs, neutron stars, black hole

(10/25) Describe what a BH is, how it forms, and its (few) physical characteristics.

Black hole: object with infinite mass but zero size, so infinite density, whose gravity is so great that no
light can escape

o They DO NOT suck other objects toward it if they're outside the event horizon

o Are formed through the following events: High mass star (red supergiant) runs out of gas and dies, Its
outer layers are rejected in a violent supernova explosion, The supernova leaves behind a neutron star
(high density), If the neutron star has >3 solar masses, it will collapse into a . . .Black hole

• Event horizon: place where a black holes gravity sucks objects inward

(10/25) Define event horizon (or Schwarzschild radius), and use the appropriate equation to predict how
it would change if any of the variables in the equation changed.

the distance from the center of an object such that, if all the mass were compressed within that region,
the escape speed would equal the speed of light

Rs = 2GM/(C^2) ; Rs = radius of event horizon, G = gravity, M = mass of black hole, C = speed of light
(10/27) Explain what would happen to Earth's orbit if the Sun turned into a black hole (BH).

The Earth would be unaffected - it would continue in its orbit as though nothing had happened

Milky Way Galaxy

Relevant worksheets: Milky Way Scales (pg 73-76) (done in class), Supermassive Black Hole Danger (pg
79) (on HW10)

(10/27 & HW10) State what is at the very center of our Galaxy, and how it affects the rest of the galaxy.

A black hole: it has little effect on the rest of the galaxy except for the stars very close to it - if it were
removed, for instance, it would have very little effect on the overall shape of the galaxy because it
composes such a small mass relative to the size of the galaxy. Stars orbit the center of mass, which
would not change if the BH were gone

(10/27 & 11/1) Describe roughly the shape of our Galaxy, its size, and our place in it.

• Our galaxy is:

o In a disc shape (it's our galaxy, you know what shape it is)

o It is roughly 200 billion solar masses

o 100,000 light years across (radius of 50,000 light years)

(10/27) Explain how our Sun (and other stars) move(s) in the Galaxy.

Stars orbit the center of mass of the galaxy and rarely crash into each other

(HW9, HW10, 11/1) Explain whether the following statement is accurate or not, and why: "galaxies are
mostly empty space".

True; there is a LOT of empty space between stars in a galaxy

Galaxies & Intro to Cosmology

Relevant worksheets: Looking at Distant Objects (pg 77-78) (on HW) (done in class)

(11/1) Explain why gravity dominates over the competing effect of expansion within galaxy clusters (or
anything smaller: individual galaxies, solar systems, etc.), and why expansion takes over on size scales
larger than galaxy clusters

Galaxy clusters are gravitationally bound together over the competing effect of expansion

(11/1) Explain how we can know what the Universe / galaxies looked like when they were younger.

Lookback time, Galaxy clusters are the largest gravitationally bound systems in the universe

(11/1) Relate object distances, ages (or times), and how old they *appear* to you -- given any two of
these, deduce the third.

Objects farther from you appear younger because it takes longer for their light to reach you
We can tell what galaxies and space used to look like because of lookback time

Ethics in Science

Relevant worksheets: none

(11/3) Identify in which fields of science ethics are relevant

(11/3) Explain what is meant by a “stakeholder” in ethics

(11/3) Describe the importance of each step in the 7-step approach to ethical analysis used in class

(11/3) Apply this 7-step method to analyze an ethical dilemma that might come up in science or
everyday life

Hubble's Law, & the Expanding Universe

Relevant worksheets: Making Sense of the Universe and Expansion (pg 81-84), Hubble's Law (pg 85-90),
Expansion of the Universe (pg 91-92) (all three done in class)

(11/3) Explain the Hubble-Lemaitre Law in words. Be sure to include the two physical quantities it
relates.

The farther away a galaxy is, the faster it is moving; describes the speed at which objects move in an
expanding universe

(11/3) Sketch a simple graph to illustrate the Hubble-Lemaitre Law relationship between the
aforementioned physical quantities.

(11/3) Identify the equation that relates those two aforementioned physical quantities, and state how
the constant in that equation relates to the graph.

(11/3 & 11/8) Explain what a uniformly expanding space implies about the center of the universe.

There is no center, it is all expanding in all directions from every point

(11/8) Identify the equation for calculating the age of the Universe assuming a constant expansion rate.

Age of universe t = 1/Ho figure the rest out using the aforementioned units, Universe is ~14 billion years
old
(11/8) Describe how the age of the Universe would be different if the expansion rate were still constant,
but (a) slower, or (b) faster.

A: older, b: younger

(11/10) Describe how the age of the Universe would be different if the expansion rate were changing
with time

If the recession speed of galaxies was slower in the past, the average recession speed, up till now, would
be less than present value, & the true age of the Universe, calculated from d/vave, would be greater
than the age calculated assuming the present value had remained constant, d/v0

Galaxy Evolution

Relevant worksheets: Size & Scale (pg 71) AND add two items: "J. Galaxy, and K. Galaxy Cluster"

(11/10) Describe what happens when galaxies "collide".

They don't actually "collide" - or, at least, the objects within them have a VERY low chance of that. The
objects within reshuffle in terms of orbit and relative position, however, and some objects may be
ejected completely

(11/10) Explain why galaxies colliding and the universe expanding are not contradictory.

Because... gravity.

(11/10) Identify the power source that makes quasars shine.

Shining so brightly that they eclipse the ancient galaxies that contain them, quasars are distant objects
powered by black holes a billion times as massive as our sun

(11/10) Identify the primary difference between a supermassive black hole in a quasar and the one at
the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

• Quasars: supermassive black hole that is powered by accretion, which gives off high luminosity

o We see quasars as when they were young because they are typically very far away from us
(REDSHIFTED)

• The supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy is not a quasar it isn't accreting, and therefore
is not luminous and isn't a quasar

Dark Matter & Dark Energy

Relevant worksheets: none

(11/15) Explain how Doppler shift can be used to measure the mass within and around galaxies.

Higher velocity, higher mass; we can use Doppler shift to measure rotational velocity from there, we can
use our equations and plug in to find mass

(11/15) Explain how gravitational lensing can be used to measure mass.

(11/15 & 11/17) List four possible scenarios for the expansion of the universe with time, represent each
on a graph of average galaxy spacing vs. time, and identify the one supported by current observations.

1. Recollapses: Universe reaches maximum "size", then recollapses, ending in "Big Crunch"

2. Slows forever: perfect balance of gravity and expansion; never quite stops expanding, but slows
forever

3. Expands forever, slows negligibly from gravity, but dark energy eventually overruns it, causing a "Big
Rip"

4. "Big freeze" - universe eventually gets so cold (absolute zero) that it stops expanding because no new
stars can be formed (run out of material); favored theory

5. "Big bounce" - Big Bang, followed by Big Crunch, producing another Big Bang, continuing forever

(11/17) Describe the effect of dark energy on the expansion of the universe, and the effect this will have
on its ultimate fate.

Tends to accelerate the expansion of the universe

the expansion rate of the universe initially slows down, due to the effects of gravity, but eventually
increases, and the ultimate fate of the universe becomes the same as that of an open universe

The Big Bang

Relevant worksheets: The Big Bang (pg 93-96)

(11/17 & 11/29) Describe five pieces of observational evidence supporting the Big Bang.

1. Expansion of the universe

2. No objects older than the universe

3. CMB

4. Helium fraction matches predictions (75% H, 25% He, trace others)

5. Night sky is dark

(11/17 & 11/29 & Discussion 13) Identify which one is widely considered most compelling / important,
and why.

CMB (cosmic microwave background), Peaks in microwaves; the remnant of the beginning of the
universe

(11/17) Explain why the night sky being dark used to be considered a paradox, and why it is not a
paradox anymore.
It used to be a paradox because it contradicted the belief that the Universe was eternal and static. If this
were true, the sky would be filled with stars and would appear bright at night.

(11/17 & 11/29) Describe how the temperature of the Universe has been changing with time, and how
we know what it is now.

It has been cooling; using Wien's law (T = .0029 m*K / peak wavelength), we can calculate it

(11/29) Explain where the cosmic microwave background radiation came from.

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is leftover radiation from the Big Bang or the time when the
universe began. As the theory goes, when the universe was born it underwent rapid inflation, expansion
and cooling.