21 Centimeter Radio Astrophysics: The Sun and the Milky Way

Sara L. Campbell and Javier M. G. Duarte

MIT Department of Physics (Dated: Thursday, October 16, 2008)

In this experiment, we use a parabolic dish antenna to observe radiation from both the blackbody spectrum of the sun and from the 21 centimeter hyperne line of ground state hydrogen in our galaxy. By measuring the temperature of the sun observed as a function of degree oset from its location in the sky, we determine the half-power beam width of the antenna to be 7.260.16o , which is within two standard deviations of the theoretically predicted value. We perform drift scans and 25 point scans of the sun to determine that the brightness temperature of the sun is (4.8 0.2) 104 K, which is in agreement with previous experiments. We then use the telescope to observe the Doppler spectrum of atomic hydrogen in the Milky Way galaxy, obtaining our galaxys rotation curve. The shape of the rotation curve provides evidence for a dark matter halo in our galaxy. Then, given the rotation curve, we deduce the spiral arm structure of the Milky Way. 1. INTRODUCTION 2.1. 2. THEORY

We use a parabolic dish antenna to measure the electromagnetic radiation in the 21 centimeter range. The sun emits blackbody radiation at all wavelengths above a sub-visible wavelength cuto, including the 21 centimeter wavelength range, so we can take measurements of the sun to deduce both optical properties of our telescope and the brightness temperature of the sun. Also, observing 21 centimeter radiation is a particularly powerful way to investigate distant astronomical objects. The 21 centimeter line is from photons emitted by spin-ip transitions in ground state hydrogen. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in our galaxy and is typically present wherever other visible matter is present. 21 centimeter photons have a long wavelength and thus a low energy, so they are not likely to be absorbed and reemitted by atoms that are between the source and the observer. Thus, signals from very distant ground state hydrogen in our galaxy travel to us through clouds of gas and dust relatively undisturbed, and we can use them to deduce the rotation curve and the structure of the Milky Way. First, using some assumptions, we theoretically predict the spin-ip radiation of neutral hydrogen, optical properties of our telescope, and the rotation curve of our galaxy for visible matter. Then, we describe our experiment that uses an antenna to measure the eective temperature of our sources at dierent frequencies in a narrow range, and describe how to set up the apparatus and reduce the data to get relevant information. Finally, we compare our experimental values and graphs to those theoretically predicted, and discuss whether our initial assumptions were correct.

The Spin Flip Transition of Ground State Hydrogen 2.1.1. Energy and Wavelength

The following discussion closely follows Griths[1]. The magnetic dipole moment of the proton is, p+ = gp+ e Sp+ , 2mp+ e S . me e (1)

and the magnetic dipole moment of the electron is, e = (2)

|p+ | |e |, so we use perturbation theory to nd the rst order correction to the energy,
1 Ehf =

0 gp e2 Sp Se , 3mp me a3 0

(3)

where 0 is the permeability of free space and a0 is the Bohr radius. Let S = Se + Sp+ . Then,
2 2 2 2 Sp Se = (S 2 Se Sp )/2, Se = Sp = (3/4) 2

(4)

Spin-spin coupling splits the ground state into two levels, a triplet state, where p+ and e are parallel and S 2 = 2 , and a singlet state, where p+ and e are antiparallel and S 2 = 0. Then, the frequency and wavelength for a photon emitted in the transition from the perturbed state to the ground state are, = E = 1420MHz,, = 21cm. h
2.1.2. Mean Lifetime

(5)

Electronic

address: campsoup@mit.edu, woodson@mit.edu

The following discussion closely follows Schlovsky[2]. The expectation value of the rate of spin ip transitions

stars that are formed by gravitational contraction of the cloud material. When a burst of star formation occurs in a molecular cloud, the massive stars heat the surrounding ISM to form a warm region of 104 K. After short lives of a few million years the massive stars explode as supernovas is, that spew into the ISM portions of the heavy elements that have been synthesized by nuclear fusion in their in3 2 2 teriors andA (A, B) = capture S (A, B) explosions. by neutron 4 h during their (6) m m The explosions blow bubbles gA 106 K gas that merge 3m2 c2 of to form an interconnecting network of 3 regions. The hot (7) = and 10 11 hot gas eventually cools 2.696is recycled through molecugA lar clouds in a continuous process that gradually enriches the ISM with the Z>2 elements of which the Earth and where = 1/, A and B are the initial and nal states, we are composed. Dynamical studies show that there and gA = 3. Sm (A, B) is the line strength, also exists dark matter of unknown nature with a mass comparable to or even larger than the total mass of the A|M|B (8) luminous stars.Sm (A, B) = An essential key to the development of modern astrophysicsM is the magnetic moment operatoritsand apwhere was the invention of the spectroscope and plicationL + 2S + I near the turn of the century with photography L + 2S, where L and S |M| = to the orbital and spin nebulae the visible For are the study of stars and hot quantuminnumbers. range of case of ground state hydrogen, S the the spectrum. Comparison of stellar spectra with the m = 3, so line spectra of elements in the laboratory yielded inforA21 = Am (A, B) = 2.85 1015 sec, and the mean mation on of composition and with parallel and lifetime 21 the a hydrogen atom temperature ofcelestial e objects, = A measurement sec 11 million years. This p+ is 21 and 1 3.51014 of wavelength shifts due to 21 the Doppler eect provided determinations of radial velifetime is so long because it is a forbidden transition for locities which revealed (the usual process for an of syselectric-dipole radiation the dynamical propertiesexcited tems such as double stars and the general expansion of electron) and must occur through magnetic-dipole radiathe which has transition probability galaxies. Most of tion, universe inathe motions of distant 105 times smaller. the interstellar medium, however, is too cold to radiate in the visible part of the spectrum and remained undeGiven and its properties largely unknown until fty tectable the extremely low rate of 21 centimeter radiation production, in was midst of World War II, Hendrik years ago. Then, it the remarkable that after a young Van de Hulst predicted the existance ofexamined the theDutch astronomer, H. van de Hulst, the 21 centimeter line in 1944, in 1951 for detecting cosmic radio waves of oretical possibilities Harold Ewen and Edward Purcell were actually able to build an apparatus that in the desome distinct frequency, i.e. a spectral line could ratect portionline. Using long wavelength lightwhich would dio such a of the electromagnetic spectrum for astronomy hasmeasurements of physical our understanding of permit unique advantages, and conditions and radial the universe has greatly beneted from this technology. motions like those available in the visible spectrum. He predicted that the spin-ip transition of atomic hydrogen would produce such a line at a wavelength near 21 centimeters, and Visible Matter Rotation Curve density 2.2. that the unique conditions of low and temperature in interstellar space are such as to allow time for hydrogen atoms, excited by collision to their hyHere triplet an argument for the by radiation to the perne we give state (F=1), to decaylimiting case of the rotation state (F=0).Milky line was large distances away ground curve of the The Way for observed in 1951 by from the galactic center. Visible matter in the in SydEwing and Purcell at Harvard, by Christiansen galaxy is presently modeled to Oort in the Netherlands. aRadio ney, and by Muller and be a central bulge and disk with exponentially decreasing density[3]. Therefore, asobservations at 21 cm soon became a major tool of in the high radius limit, the galaxy should begin to look like tronomy for exploring and measuring the structure of our a radially symmetric mass. A particle at radius R from the galactic center should be in uniform circular motion. We nd the centripetal force and deduce the function of the velocity curve,
A,B

ers of galactic structure. Whereas visible light emitted by stars is heavily obscured by interstellar dust, photons with a wavelength of 21 centimeters, emitted in spin-ip 2 transitions of atomic hydrogen in its electronic ground state, reach us from all parts of the Galaxy with little 3. EXPERIMENT absorption. Measurements of the Doppler shifts of the frequency of the 21-centimeter line determine the radial 3.1. components (projectionsBasic Setup of sight) of moonto the line tions of the interstellar medium. Analysis of the Doppler shifts conduct our experiments using the MIT plane (i.e. We in various directions around the galactic Haystack around the Milky Way) reveal the kinematic structure of small radio telescope (SRT), a 7.5 foot diameter parabolic the and receiver. What the telescope actually measures dish galaxy, e.g., the tangential velocity of the matter in the Galaxy as function of the distance the the center, is the antennaa temperature, dened as from power per and, by implication, the geometry of the spiral arms. unit bandwidth received at the antenna divided by Boltzmanns constant. This antenna temperature can be used to calculate or determine other useful values. A computer in the control room runs a Java applet that communi4. EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS cates serially with the controller, which then interfaces with the motors that move the dish and the receiver that 4.1. Antenna & Motors picks up the electromagnetic signal. Figure 1 shows a block diagram of this setup.

RECEIVER

DISH

MOTORS

CONTROLLER

COMPUTER

mv 2 GM m = v(R) = R R2

GM , R

(9)

where G is the gravitational constant and M is the mass of our galaxy, assumed to be 51010 solar masses. There fore, at large radii, we expect the velocity to fall as 1/ R. We will experimentally measure the rotation curve and compare it with this shape.

parabolic dish and receiver designed by Haystack Observatory and sold by Cassi Corporation.2 . It has a focal In the receiver, a feed horn receives the electromaglength of 85.7cm. It has a beam width of approximately netic signal 3 that is reected o the dish. The signal is 7.0 degrees. . The dish is mounted on a two-axis azthen passed through a 24 dB 1400-1440 MHz preampliimuth/elevation mount. It is supported by a aluminum er, and then through a 40 MHz bandpass lter.reect frame constructed from C/Ku band mesh that will The signal then passes through an image surface holes arethat all incident microwave energy if the rejection mixer less multiplies theof the incident wavelength.another synthethan 1/10th signal from the sky with The system is sized local oscillator (LO) signal with frequency selected controlled using a computer running a java applet that in the Java applet. The mixer takes the two signals communicates via serial connection with the controller and outputs a sum frequency signal and aThe microconhousing a Basic-Stamp microcontroller. dierence frequency in turn controls the signals functions, one drive troller signal. Then these motor are passed through another bandpass lter, where the sum frequency signal at a time. A very basic block diagram of the system is is rejected. Therefore, by adjusting the LO frequency, we can look at dierent ranges of frequency near 1420 MHz[4]. After the center frequency is set, the signal is then passed to an analog to digital converter, where itare 2 Complete specications for the antenna, mount and receiver is binned by at www.haystack.edu/edu/undergrad/srt/index available frequency. Finally, the signal is sent serially 3 the computer. Figure antenna a block pattern of the to The rst minimum of the 2 shows diractiondiagram is given 180 (see receiver. digitalany text on optics) by 1.22 d = 7 . Every time we turned on and started using the telescope we took a noise calibration. The calibrator was a diode connected to a dipole antenna attached to the center of the dish that produced an intensity and spectral distribution that was known to mimic a 115 K blackbody. To calibrate, the Java applet took one second of data with the diode on and one second of data with the diode o. Using the dierent relative powers Pon and Po when the diode was on and o, the program calculated the system temperature Tsys ,

FIG. SRT experimental setup. The FIG. 1: Block diagram of the 1: SRT computer interacts with the controller to both move the motors and set the dish position and obtain data from the reThe small radio telescope, ceiver. Image from lab guide[4]. SRT, is a 7.5 foot diameter

Treceiver = Tnoise (

Po ) Tspill Pon Po

(10)

4.2.

RECEIVER

that form the product of two analog waveforms (in NMR these elements are also called phase detectors). Its two inputs and output are related by the trigonometric 3 relationship: 1 1 cos 1 t cos 2 t = cos (1 + 2 ) + cos (1 2 ) (1) 2 2 We make measurements in the galactic plane by holding the galactic latitude constant at 0 degrees (in the Note that both sum and dierence frequencies are plane of our galaxy), and varying the galactic longitude generated o a o mixer. in For our application, we from 0o to 90 in 5 increments, and measuring the anband-pass lter the output and throw away the tenna temperature as a function of frequency at those sum freqency contribution. A balanced mixer is points. The integration time used is 4 minutes at each one in which only the sum and dierence frequenpoint. cies, and not the input signals or their harmonics, are passed, see http://www.haystack.edu/edu/ undergrad/srt/receiver/receiver_circuit.html for more information.
4.2.1. Electronic Noise Calibration
3.4. Galactic Measurements

receiver. Fig. 2 shows a block diagram of the radio receiver and subsequent signal processing stages. Radio Po power arriving from directions close to the axis of the Tsys = Treceiver + Tspill = Tnoise ( ) (11) parabolic antenna is focused by reectionPto an antenna Pon o feed horn. Signals then pass through a band pass lter, low noise pre-amplier and mixer. for baseband signal Calibration is critical for adjusting Thethe ambient sys- is digitized and sent order the controlling comupter over tem temperature inback toto measure a correct antenna a serial RS-232 link. The central frequency of the syntemperature. thesized local oscillator (LO) used in the mixer is user selectable from within the JAVA program. This permits the investigator to look at dierent spectral regions around 1420 MHz.3.2. Correction
One correction that we found before taking data was the tracking error in azimuthal and elevation coordinates. We found this oset by tracking the sun and then varying the oset until the shadow of the receiver on the dish was exactly in the middle of the dish, which meant that the telescope was pointing directly at the sun. The azimuthal and elevation osets that we used for every measurement were -8o and 3.5o , respectively. Finally, for all of our measurements, we set the center frequency to be 1420.4 MHz and we set the frequency bins in mode 4, 156 total bins with 7.8125 KHz spacing. FIG. 3: Feedhorn

FIG. 2: Block diagram of the SRT digital receiver. Signals enter the feed horn, are amplied, and lters and a mixer limit FIG. 2: Receiver the central frequency and the range of frequencies measured. The signal then passes through an analog to digital converter and to the computer.phasing type single sideband scanning The SRT uses a Image from lab guide[4].

Complete details of the SRT calibration are available at http://www.haystack.edu/edu/undergrad/ srt/receiver/SRT_calibration.html. Temperature calibration is performed using a noise diode, whose intensity and spectral distibution is approximately equivalent to a 115 Kelvin blackbody. The electronic noise calibrator is a diode (Noise/Com NC302L) connected to a small dipole antenna attached to the center of the SRT dish. A small (6mA) current is sent through a controlled bulk avalance mechanism, resulting in a wide band of frequencies. The dipole emits the signal which is detected by the receiver. To generate FIG. 3:correct wavelength signal, galactic coordinates. The the Diagram of the denition of the dipole was fabricated observer is located at the sun. Galactic latitude is the angle to be 1/2 wavelength, or approximately 10.5 cm. To between the observers line of sight and the galactic plane. minimize signal the behind the the observers line Galactic longitude isfrom angle betweendipole, the poles are of set 1/4 wavelength, or approximately 5.25 the galactic the sight and the line between the observer and cm, above circular plate at the center of the latitude and a parcenter. The diagram shows that at 0o SRT dish. ticular longitude, the linesoftware from the sun intersects Calibration: The of sight temperature calibration several spiralthe ratio thethe received galaxy. when the noise measures arms of of Milky Way power Image from www.astronomynotes.com[5] then o again. Both of these diode is turned on and power measurmenets will necessarily contain contributions from spillover and sky. The power ratio is given by Treceiver + Tnoisecal + Tspillover + Tsky Pon = Psky Treceiver + Tspillover + Tsky 4.1. The Sun
4. DATA AND ANALYSIS

1 - L-Band probe 2 - Low Noise Amplier 3.3. Solar Observations 3 - Universal Male F to F Coupler 4 - Receiver mounting bracket We took half-power- beam width measurements of the 5 - Video Port Analog signal sun by tracking the sun, then moving o of the sun in 6 - Power and Communication - Digital Signal 1 degree increments, rst in the azimuthal direction and 7 - Band Pass Filter then in the elevation direction, and measuring the an8 - Feed Horn Extension tenna temperature as a function of frequency at those points. The measurement was repeated 3 times. We took brightness temperature measurements of the sun by doing a drift scan, where we aimed the telescope just ahead of the sun and then let the telescope stay stationary while the sun drifted in and out of view. This measurement was repeated 2 times. Also, we performed a 25-point scan, where we measured the antenna temperature for 25 points in a grid around the sun.

(2)

Tnoisecal is the temperature the electronic noise calibrator As shown in P is the power measurement with our radiates and gure 4, the half-power beam width ofthe calon telescope was shown to be 7.29 0.16o in the azimuthal ibrator on. The value of Tnoisecal was determined by the direction. The errors in the eective temperature were manufactuere in comparison with an independent vane assumed to be mainly statistical and were calculated to calibration method. be the standard deviation of the three measured values. Our measured value is within two standard deviations of the theoretical Rayleigh criterion BW = 1.22 D 180 7o . The 30 minute drift scan of the sun is shown in gure 5. The errors in the eective temperature were assumed to be mainly statistical and were calculated to be the standard deviation of the three measured values. The plot of the 30 minute drift scan should correspond to a rst order Bessel function of the rst kind, which has shape similar

4
110

100
100

Teff()=T0 e(0) /(2 )+ Tsys

T0 = 64.1 0.3 Tsys = 34.2 0.3 0 = 0.29 0.01 = 3.35 0.02

90
90

Antenna Temperature [K]

80
80

70

2 1

= 0.37

2 = 7.29 0.16
Antenna Temperature [K]

70 60 50 40 30 8 4 2

60

50

2 = 0.14 1

40

30 15 10 5 0 5 10 15

Azimuthal Offset [degrees]

FIG. 4: Half-power beam width of our telescope in the azimuthal direction, found to be 7.29 0.16o .

0 2 8

Angular Offset [degrees]

to that of a Gaussian distribution. So, a Gaussian was t to the data. After the vertical oset was accounted for, the Gaussian was found to have amplitude 64.1 0.3o K. While the reduced chi squared value 0.14 indicates a good t, the residuals of the middle part of our data appear to be correlated. This indicates that the Gaussian was a good approximation, but we could have tted to a dierent function that better followed the curvature. Given this antenna temperature, we can calculate the temperature of the sun by the following relation involving the relative solid angles: Tsun = Tantenna dish , where sun sun = (6.80.2)10 5[6] is the solid angle of the sun and antenna = 4(sin BW )2 = (0.051 0.002) is the solid an2 gle subtended by the antenna as determined by the halfpower beam width. Therefore, Tsun = (4.8 0.3) 104 K. This value is within one standard deviation of 4.7 104 K, the value measured by Christiansen and Warburton. A contour map of a 25-point scan of the sun is shown in gure 6.

FIG. 5: 30 minute drift scan of the sun, with Gaussian t and residuals. The antenna temperature was found to be 64.1 0.3o K, corresponding to a brightness temperatore of (4.8 0.2) 104 K.
40
6

50

45

Antenna Temperature [K] 40

35

40

Elevation angle offset [degrees]

35

45
50

55 60
65 70

45

80

80

75

65

55 60
70

45

50

60

60
55

50

40

45

10

35
10

40

Azimuthal angle offset [degrees]

4.2. 4.2.1.

The Milky Way Data Reduction

FIG. 6: Contour plot of 25 point scan of the sun. Values listed are the antenna temperatures at the various points.

Figure 7 shows the raw data output from the telescope for the 85o galactic longitude. During the 4 minutes the telescope collects data at a particular galactic location, it takes many individual frequency spectra. Also evident in the raw data is a noise oor of 40 K. This noise oor was dierent at each galactic longitude. We found that if we considered the Earth elevation angles corresponding with these galactic longitudes, the noise was generally greater at lower elevations, as the antenna had to receive signals through more atmospheric interference and closer to terrestrial black body and radio radiation sources. We can also see high, short peaks. We assumed they were terrestrial, as a wave packet tends to

disperse as it travels, so such sharp peaks could not have traveled from distant sources. Also evident is the eect of the passband ltering in the receiver, as the temperature falls o sharply at fringe frequencies. Because we saw little signal at the edge frequencies that were just barely passed through the lter, we used the temperatures of the rst and last frequency to pass through the lter as the left and right oor values. We then averaged the left and the right oor to obtain the mean oor, and took their standard deviation to nd oor . For each frequency, we averaged the dierent temperature values that were measured over the 4 minute integration time, and we took their standard

40

45

45

65 70

50

35

50 55

85 90

40

85

60

75

80

0 75 7 65

55

40
35

5
Raw Frequency Spectrum at l = 85
70

Velocity Spectrum at l = 85
25

60

20

Antenna Temperature (K)

Antenna Temperature (K)

1419.8 1420 1420.2 1420.4 1420.6 1420.8 1421 1421.2

50

15

40

30

10

20

5
10

0
0 1419.6

Frequency (MHz)

100

50

50

100

Recessional Velocity Relative to LSR (km/s)

FIG. 7: Raw data at 85o galactic longitude. Relevant features include the noise oor, sharp terrestrial peaks, and passband ltering.

deviation to nd their statistical error.

FIG. 8: Reduced data at 85o galactic longitude. Averaged raw data with noise oor removed and frequencies limited to those fully passed by the bandpass lter is shown. Error bars are drawn for statistical uctuations. Temperature is plotted as a function of velocity.

4.2.2.

Velocity and Spiral arms

The nal step in reducing our data to a form that we can use to nd the rotation curve is to convert the measured frequencies into velocities. Photons emitted by the spin-ip transition of neutral hydrogen have a frequency of 1420.4 MHz. However, in the plot shown, there are signals spanning a range of frequencies. This is because the 1420.4 MHz light is Doppler-shifted. We determine the recessional velocities corresponding to the various frequencies relative to our local standard of rest (LSR) using the classical Doppler shift equation and subtracting the velocity of our sun with respect to the LSR VLSR , V = 0 c VLSR . 0 (12)

of sight and the points of the galaxy we observe. We will observe the maximum recessional velocity when the line of sight between our LSR and the observation point is tangent to the path of circular motion. Therefore, we can pick out these maximum recessional velocities and use the tangent property to constrain as shown in gure 9 to 90o . To pick the maximum velocity at various galactic longitudes, we select the rst data point having antenna temperature T such that T T < oor + oor , because that is the threshold at which we can no longer distinguish our signal from noise. This selection method is illustrated in gure 10. The maximum velocities V we found may be expressed as, V = Vrot + Vdisp , (13)

Now we have converted our raw frequency spectra into an integrated velocity spectrum. Our reduced data for 85o galactic longitude is shown in gure 8. Also in gure 8 we notice 3 wide, distinct peaks in the velocity spectrum. This means that at 3 locations along our line of sight, there are 3 regions of matter moving together. This is evidence for spiral arms of the Milky Way. Recall gure 3. We are seeing three arms, each arm moving at a dierent velocity.
4.2.3. Rotation Curve

Now we seek to plot these velocities as a function of R, the distance from the galactic center. In our model, we assume that matter rotating in our galaxy obeys uniform circular motion. Figure 9 shows the geometry of our line

Vrot is the velocity we are interested in; it is the velocity at which that part of the galaxy is moving with respect to the galactic center. Vdisp is the dispersion velocity due to random turbulence within that part of the galaxy. We nd a nominal value for Vdisp by pointing the telescope at a blank part of the sky and nding the velocity spread, shown in gure 11. We consider the distance between the two points where the packet intercepts the (oor + oor line) as the velocity spread and nd = 31.325 km/s. We subtract /2 from the maximum velocities found to obtain the average maximum velocities. Using the corrected maximum velocities, we plot the rotation curve of the Milky Way. Using simple trigonometry based on the fact that the line of sight is tangent to the circle about the center of the galaxy with radius R, we nd R = R0 sin l, where R0 = 8.0 0.5 kpc[4] is the distance from the center of the galaxy to the sun and l

6
Blank Sky Velocity Dispersion
9 data 8 floor + !floor mean floor

Antenna Temperature (K)

" = 31.325

!1

!100

!50

50

100

Recessional Velocity Relative to Sun (km/s)

FIG. 11: Determination of the velocity spread for velocity dispersion correction.

FIG. 9: Diagram from Kraus [6]. We constrain to 90o by picking the maximum velocity along each line of sight, as this must be the tangent velocity.
Velocity Spectrum at l = 85
25 measured data floor + !floor 20 mean floor

Antenna Temperature (K)

Maximum Velocity 15

10

in the angle, because due to the half-power beam width spread, we cannot localize objects exactly. The experimentally measured rotation curve is shown in gure 12, along with the Keplerian rotation curve. If our galaxy is described by this visible matter distribution, the rotation curve should approach the Keplerian rotation curve for large R. However, we see that the velocity approaches a constant value at large R; it does not fall as 1/ R. Therefore, something in this visible matter description of our galaxy is incomplete. The most commonly accepted theory is that in addition to visible matter, which interacts electromagnetically and we can easily observe, there is another kind of matter called dark matter that is extremely dicult to detect, because it only interacts gravitationally. Another theory is MOND, or Modied Newtonian Dynamics, that suggests that our theory of gravity is but a limiting case of a more general gravitational law that causes dierent interactions based on the length scale.

0 !100 !50 0 50 100

5.
Recessional Velocity Relative to LSR (km/s)

CONCLUSIONS

FIG. 10: Method for selecting the maximum velocity in our spectra. We pick the rst point with error bars within a standard deviation of the noise oor. Shown for galactic longitude 85o .

is the galactic longitude. We nd the velocity errors by taking two dierent scans of sky on two dierent days and nding the standard deviation of the two velocity measurements at each radius. We nd the velocity error by propagating the error in R0 with the 7.26/2o error

We have used radio astronomy to measure the halfpower beam width of our telescope to be 7.26 0.15o , within 2 of the theoretically predicted value of 7o and the temperature of the sun to be (4.80.2)104 K, within of the previously measured value of 4.7 104 . We have also used radio astronomy to show evidence for the spiral arms of the Milky Way galaxy and to measure its rotation curve. The rotation curve shows evidence for the existence of dark matter. The shape of the lower radius section of our rotation curve does not quite match that from other sources, though we recognize that our small radius data was the noisiest, due to its location in the sky. Errors in our measurements were from statisti-

7
Rotation Curve of the Milky Way Galaxy
250

200

Velocity (km/s)

150 data data data Keplerian Rotation Curve

cal uncertainties, limited telescope resolution, and noise from other sources. Another source of error which may have aected our results is that the output from the Java applet may have been misinterpreted or incorrect. This experiment shows how powerful long-wavelength astronomy can be for looking far across our galaxy, as we could get results close to those in the literature with our relatively small apparatus.

100

50

Distance from Center of Galaxy (kpc)

FIG. 12: Rotation curve of the milky way galaxy.

[1] D. J. Griths, Introduction to Quantum Mechanics (Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005). [2] I. Schlovsky, Cosmic Radio Waves (Harvard University Press, 1960). [3] W. Dehnen and J. Binney (1997). [4] S. Sewell, 21-cm Radio Astrophysics (2008). [5] URL http://www.astronomynotes.com. [6] J. D. Kraus, Radio Astronomy (Cygnus-Quasar Books, 1986), 2nd ed.

Acknowledgments

S. Campbell gratefully acknowledges Javier D.s equal contribution to the execution and analysis of this experiment and thanks Professor David Litster, Daniel Furse, Regina Yopak and Emily Edwards for their help and advice. S. Campbell would also like to thank Professor Litster for the use of his Java program SRTparse.