Florexan Malanday Pason BEED 2A

Chapter 13-2

March 22, 2016

Measuring the Properties of Galaxies

Distance
The distances to galaxies are so large that it is not convenience to express them in lightyears, parsecs, or even kiloparsecs. Instead, astronomers use the unit megaparsec (Mpc), or 1
million pc. One Mpc equals 3.26 million ly, or approximately

2 x 1019 miles.

To find the distance to a galaxy, you must search among its stars for a familiar object of
known luminosity. Such objects are called distance indicators.
Because their period is related to their luminosity, Cepheid variable stars are reliable
distance indicators. If you know the period of the stars variation, you can use the periodluminosity diagram to learn its absolute magnitude. By comparing absolute and apparent
magnitudes, you can find its distance.
Even with the Hubble Space Telescope, Cepheids are not visible in galaxies much
beyond 80 million ly (25 Mpc), so astronomers must search for less common but brighter
distance indicators and calibrate them using nearby galaxies containing visible Cepheids.
Planetary nebulae have proven to be very useful distance indicators, which is surprising
considering how faint their central star is. The central stars of planetary nebulae seem faint
because they are very small; and, in spite of their high temperature, their small surface area
makes them faint. They also seem faint because they are very hot and radiate most of their
energy in the ultraviolet. However, the planetary nebula absorbs this ultraviolet radiation and
reradiates it as a visible emission lines, and astronomers have been able to calibrate the
brightness planetary nebulae by studying nearby galaxies, such as the Andromeda Galaxy.
When a supernova explodes in a distant galaxy, astronomers rush to observe it. Studies
show that type Ia supernovae, those caused by the collapse of white dwarf, all reach about the
same absolute magnitude at maximum.
Over a century ago, laboratory scientists referred to a standard candle as a source of a
known amount of light. Astronomers still use the term for distance indicators of known
luminosity. Cepheids, for instance, are good standard candles for finding distance.
At the greatest distances, astronomers must calibrate the total luminosity of the galaxies
themselves. For example, studies of nearby galaxies show that an average galaxy like our Milky
Way Galaxy has luminosity about 16 billion times the suns. If astronomers see a similar galaxy
far away, they can measure its apparent magnitude and calculate its distance. Of course, it is
important to recognize the different types of galaxies, and that is difficult to do at a great
distances.
The most distant visible galaxies are toughly 10 billion ly (3000 Mpc) away, and at such
distances you see an effect akin to time travel, When you look at a galaxy millions of light-years
away, you do not see it as it now but as it was millions of years ago when its light began the
journey toward Earth. Thus, when you look at a distant galaxy, you look back into the past by an
amount called the look-back time, a time in years equal to the distance to the galaxy in light
years.
The look-back time to nearby objects is usually not significant. The look-back time
across a football field is a tiny fraction of a second. The look-back time to the moon is 1.3
seconds, to the sun only 8 minutes, and to the nearest star about 4 years. The Andromeda
Galaxy has a look-back time of a galaxy. But when you look at more distant galaxies, the lookback time becomes an appreciable part of the age of the universe. Thus, when you look at the

most distant visible galaxies, you are looking back 10 billion years to a time when the universe
may have been significantly different.

Guiding Words
A Cepheid variable is a type of star that pulsates radially, varying in both
temperature and diameter to produce brightness changes with a welldefined stable period and amplitude.
Calibrate - To check, adjust, or determine by comparison with a standard
A planetary nebula, often abbreviated as PN or plural PNe, is a kind of
emission nebula consisting of an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas
ejected from old red giant stars late in their lives.
Faint - So weak as to be difficult to perceive
Radiate - To issue or emerge in rays or waves
The Andromeda Galaxy, also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224, is
a spiral galaxy approximately 780 kiloparsecs (2.5 million light-years) from
Earth.
A supernova is an astronomical event that occurs during the last stellar
evolutionary stages of a massive star's life, whose dramatic and
catastrophic destruction is marked by one final titanic explosion.
A type Ia supernova is a type of supernova that occurs in binary systems
(two stars orbiting one another) in which one of the stars is a white dwarf.
Collapse - To fall down or inward suddenly; cave in.
Alignment gives astronomers the opportunity to measure the
Properties of Galaxies.