Introduction to Astrophysics

Instructor-
Golam Dastegir Al-Quaderi
Professor
Department of Physics, DU

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 Saha Equation
• Observational Strengths of Spectral Lines:
• The observational data for the strengths of
spectral lines show strong temperature
dependence.
• Also, with the change of surface temperature,
the spectral types of the stars also change.
• As the temperature changes, different
spectral lines become prominent at different
temperatures of spectral types.
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 Saha Equation
• Variation of strength of spectral lines with
temperature/spectral type:

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 Saha Equation
• The smooth variation of spectral line strengths
with spectral types indicate that there are only
minor differences in the composition of stars.
• Using Saha equation, the spectral line strength
could be determined/computed and comparing
with the observed spectra, the spectral type and
composition of the stars could be determined.
• The first person to determine the composition of
the stars in this way was Cecilia Payne-
Gaposchkin (1900–1979).

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 Saha Equation
• Her 1925 Ph.D. thesis at Harvard, Cecilia
calculated the relative abundances of 18
elements in stellar atmospheres.

• .
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

From C. Payne’s thesis, Harvard 1925 5

 Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
• Late in the nineteenth century and in the early
twentieth century, advances in telescope
design and photographic emulsions were
becoming mature.
• Astronomers were able to take spectral
images of stars which revealed their
composition and they could determine the
distances of the closer stars through their
angular displacements (parallax) as the Earth
orbited the Sun.
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 Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
• Depending on the temperature of the matter
at the star's surface starlight will have a
characteristic color.
• Starlight is comprised of a variety of colors or
wavelengths.
• Its perceived color is the band of wavelengths
where most of the emission is concentrated.
• To measure the color index, astronomers have
used color filters.
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 Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
• Astronomers historically have measured the
color of a star by the difference in its
brightness (magnitude) in two images, one
with a blue filter (𝐵) and another with a visual
filter (𝑉). (i.e., 𝐵 = 𝑚𝐵 , 𝑉 = 𝑚𝑉 ).
• This difference, denoted (𝐵 − 𝑉), is a crude
measure of the temperature.
• The bluer the object, the smaller 𝐵 will be
(small magnitudes mean greater fluxes).
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 Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
• Hence small or more negative (𝐵 − 𝑉) means
bluer and hence hotter temperature.

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www.ucolick.org/~woosley/lectures_fall2012/lecture6.12.4x.pdf
 Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
• In 1911, the Danish astronomer Ejnar
Hertzsprung (1873‐1967) plotted a
color‐magnitude diagram, discovering the
distinction between main sequence and
giant stars while studying the Hyades cluster.
• The color of the stars were determined by the
ratio of brightness from two filters, and
apparent magnitudes were normalized to
absolute magnitudes.
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 Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
• Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Norris Russell:

Ejnar Hertzsprung Henry Norris Russell

www.birmingham.ac.uk/documents/college-eps/physics/...hrdiagram-workshop-presentation.pdf 11
 Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
• Two years later, the American astronomer
Henry Norris Russell (1877‐1957), using similar
techniques, was able independently to
distinguish between giant and main sequence
stars.
• HR Diagrams:
• The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram or HR-diagram
of a group of stars is a plot of their bolometric
absolute magnitudes (or luminosities) versus
their color index (or temperatures).

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 Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
• Basics of the HR Diagram:

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 Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
• Basics HR Diagram:

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 Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
• The x‐axis is in Kelvin, but sometimes
stellar color or spectral class is used. The
y‐axis is in units of the Sun’s luminosity,
but absolute magnitude is employed very
often.
• The current versions of the Hertzsprung‐
Russell (HR) diagram utilize one or more of
the three (temperature/color index/spectral
class) in the x‐axis and luminosity/absolute
magnitude in the y‐axis.
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 Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
• HR Diagram of nearby stars from Hipparcos:
• Absolute visual
magnitude vs. (B-V).
• For 4477 stars, the
color indicates star
density on the plot.
• 1 red point = 10 stars
• Sun = 0.65, 4.83

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 Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
• Types of Stars on the HR Diagram:

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 Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
• Main Sequence HR Diagram:

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 Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
• Types of Stars in the HR Diagram:
• Main Sequence Stars: The ordinary hydrogen‐
burning dwarf stars like the Sun are found
in a band running from top‐left to
bottom‐right called the Main Sequence.
• Giant Stars: Giant stars form their own
clump on the upper‐right side of the
diagram.

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 Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
• Super Giants: Above them lie the much
rarer bright giants and super-giants.
• Dwarf Stars: At the lower‐left is the band
of white dwarfs ‐ these are the dead cores
of old stars which have no internal energy
source and, over billions of years, they
slowly cool down towards the bottom‐right
of the diagram.

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 Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
• Evolution of Stars:

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 Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
• The movie showed the evolution of the stars
in Leo IV, a dim dwarf galaxy in the halo of our
Milky Way galaxy.
• The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope
measured the ages of these faint stars in Leo
IV and two other similar galaxies, dubbed
ultra-faint dwarf galaxies.
• stars in all three galaxies are more than 13
billion years old, almost as old as the 13.7-
billion-year-old universe.
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