University of Glasgow Department of Physics and Astronomy Astronomy 2 Session 2007 - 2008 Class Test - April 17th 2008

Model Answers Question 1 The 21 cm emission line of neutral hydrogen finds its origin in the transition between two energy states of neutral hydrogen in its ground level configuration. These two energy states correspond to two possible alignments of the electron spin with respect to the proton spin. When the two spins are parallel, the energy of the system is higher than when they are antiparallel. When neutral hydrogen is naturally (ie in the absence of collision) going from the excited state to the lower energy state, a photon is emitted at a wavelength of 21 cm, corresponding to the difference in energy between the two states. This line is a useful tracer of moving matter for several reasons: - neutral hydrogen in its ground level configuration is highly abundant, so this line is very bright despite its low transition probability - neutral hydrogen is cold in the interstellar medium, so there is little thermal broadening, therefore Doppler shift and rotational broadening can be easily measured - interstellar dust is optically thin at 21 cm, so the line is virtually not absorbed a) The measured frequency is larger than the rest frequency, so the line is blue-shifted and M31 is approaching us. b) The speed along the line of sight is given by v = c /0 = 2.99x108*(1421.39-1420.41)/1420.41 = 2.07x105 m s-1 c) M31 is a rotating spiral galaxy, so the line is broadened mainly by the Doppler rotational broadening mechanism. Natural broadening is negligible because of the low transition probability (forbidden line), collisional broadening is negligible because of low densities, thermal broadening is negligible because of low temperatures. d) From the line width one can determine the rotational speed of the material along the lineof-sight relative to the rotational speed of the Sun around the Galactic centre. Question 2. a) Flux = (number of photons)(energy per photon) (obs. time)(efficiency)(aperture area) number of photons = 3087 energy per photon = hc/ = 3.6110-19 J observation time = (560) = 300 s efficiency = 0.2 aperture area = D2/4 = 1.33 m2 so F = 1.40 10-17 J s-1 m-2

b) The signal-to-noise ratio for the measurement will be N1/2 where N is the number of photons

received, so SNR = 55.6. The uncertainty in the flux is therefore F/55.6, i.e., F = 2.52 10-19 J s-1 m-2 r.m.s.

c) Neglecting the difference in photon energies in the B and V band, the B-V colour index of a
star is defined as . So the colour index is about 0.19 . The colour index will depend on zenith angle because of differential absorption in the atmosphere of the two wavelengths. In the absence of cloud, this can be attributed to Rayleigh scattering of the light from air molecules (scattering power -4). We expect the source to redden with increasing zenith angle, so Fb/Fv should decrease. The colour index as defined will therefore increase with zenith angle.