The

Solar spectrum
The hot dense centre of the sun emits a con1nuous spectrum The cooler outer layer of the sun, the Heliosphere, absorbs some of the light at specic energies Looking at the absorp1on spectrum we can nd out what the Sun is made of

The Solar spectrum

The Sun emits primarily in the visible spectrum but also at other wavelengths Much of the UV radia1on from the Sun is absorbed by the atmosphere
The Sun at X-ray wavelengths

The Sun at UV wavelengths

Stars and planets

Stars are massive enough to trigger nuclear fusion at their cores they produce their own light Planets are not massive enough to generate their own light but can reect the light of their host stars Minimum mass required to start nuclear reac1ons at core:
8.3% M (Solar masses, about 87 1mes the mass of Jupiter)

Brown Dwarf stars are failed stars

they cannot generate enough pressure at their cores to start fusion (Between 13 and 80 Jupiter masses)
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Redshift
Light waves from a moving source experience a rela1vis1c Doppler shiV in frequency The speed of light is always constant but the frequency (and wavelength) changes v 1 + Classical Doppler equa1ons do not apply c 1 z= v RedshiV formula: z = 0 1
0
c

Blueshift

Distances to stars
Parallax: dierence in the apparent posi1on of an object viewed along two dierent lines of sight As the Earth orbits the Sun, the posi1on of nearby stars shiVs against the background Distance to star = (Earth-Sun distance) / (parallax angle) = 1 AU/p 1 parsec = 3.26 ly = 3.09 1013 km =1.921013 miles
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Brightness of stars
Parallax: dierence in the apparent posi1on of an object viewed along two dierent lines of sight Main sequence 7ng Hetrtzsprung-Russel diagram Apparent brightness: how bright a star appears to be Absolute brightness: how bright a star actually is (calibrated for a distance of 10 parsec)
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Brightness, Luminosity, Magnitudes

Magnitudes measure how bright stars are
logarithmic scale the lower the magnitude, the brighter the star apparent magnitude: the magnitude the star appears to have absolute magnitude: the magnitude the star would have at a distance 10 parsec away from the Earth

Luminosity: the amount of energy escaping the stars surface per second
(measured in erg/sec) 1 erg = 10-7 J = 624.15 GeV
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Apparent Magnitude -26.7 -12.6 -4.4 -3.0 -1.6 +3.0 +5.5 +6.0 +9.5 +13.7 30
Brighter

CelesBal Object Sun Full Moon Venus (at brightest) Mars (at brightest) Sirius (brightest star) Naked eye limit from city Uranus (at brightest) Naked eye limit Faintest objects visible with binoculars Pluto (at brightest) Faintest objects observable by HST

Fainter

Example
At its brightest, Venus has a magnitude of -4. How much brighter does Venus appear to us in comparison with the dimmest stars visible to the naked eye? [naked eye magnitude limit: +6]

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Comparing the brightness of two stars

dierence in apparent magnitudes of two stars:
" I1 % m2 m1 = 2.5log $ ' # I2 &

Light intensity obeys an inverse square law

1 I 2 r
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Comparing the brightness of two stars

Assume a star has

log x p = p log( x )

apparent magnitude and brightness m, i at a distance d from the Earth (in parsec) absolute magnitude and brightness M, I at distance 10 pc
"I% m M = 2.5log $ ' #i&

#1 & 2 2 # & d m M = 2.5log % 10 ( = 2.5log % ( % 1 2( $ 10 ' $ d '

"d% "d% m M = 5log $ ' M = m 5log $ ' # 10 & # 10 &

m-M is called the distance modulus of the star

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Example

"d% m M = 5log $ ' # 10 &

The apparent magnitude of the Sun is -26.73. Calculate its absolute magnitude. [distance of the Sun from the Earth = 1.496 108 km = 4.848 10-6 pc]

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Stellar ClassiAication

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Stellar ClassiAication
Wiens Law: maxT = 3 10 3
max = peak intensity (in m) T = temperature (in K)

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The Hertzsprung-Russel (H-R) diagram

Stefans Law:
L = 4 R 2 T 4
Luminosity L (W ) R = star radius = 5.6710-8 Wm-2K-4 T = temperature (K)

Sol

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Example
The Suns luminosity (power output) is 3.941026 W. Antares, in the constella1on of Scorpio, is a red supergiant star that is 57,500 1mes more luminous than the Sun and its radius is 883 1mes the radius of the Sun . What is its surface temperature (in K)? 2 4 Stefans Law L = 4 R T Surface temperature of Sun = 5778 K

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Stellar evolution
Stars are born in interstellar gas clouds The clouds collapse under gravity and form protostars Protostars accrete more gas from the cloud and eventually switch on (fusion begins at their cores) How long a star lasts for depends on its ini1al mass That determines how fast it burns up its nuclear fuel Star life1me = (ini1al amount of fuel) / (consump1on rate)

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Stellar evolution

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White dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes

White dwarfs are star remnants that can no longer support fusion reac1ons
They radiate away remnant heat and cool o with 1me becoming fainter

Neutron stars are whats leV aVer a supernova explosion

very dense and compact they cannot collapse further (neutron degeneracy pressure) pulsars are neutron stars

Black holes are formed when very massive stars collapse at the end of their life cycle
not even light can escape their gravita1onal pull we can infer their presence from their gravita1onal interac1on with other stars
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To Do
Read sec1on 21 from the book [Astronomy and Cosmology] Homework Assignment wk11: revision problems (see blog) Hand it in no later than 4:00pm Wednesday 3rd Apr - LATE WORK WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED

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