Chapter 27

Stars and
Galaxies

What is a Star?
Star: A body of gas that gives off
a tremendous amount of radiant
energy in the form of light and
heat

How Do We Know?

What is Light?

A form of electromagnetic radiation which

is energy that travels in waves
>Electromagnetic radiation is arranged in
a continuum called the electromagnetic
spectrum

Continuous Spectrum: all visible colors

(wavelengths)
Emission Spectrum: Lines of specific colors
(wavelengths)
Absorption Spectrum: all visible colors with
specific wavelengths removed forming dark lines

Examples of Spectra

Big Bang Theory

15 billion years ago

Universe compressed
into infinitely small
spacePrimordial
Atom
Exploded with sudden
burst of energy
Created small, super
dense, extremely hot
universe
Expanded in all
directions
As things cooled,
matter clumped
forming stars and
galaxies
100 million years after
big bang stars
started to form

Evidence supporting
Big Bang Theory

Remnant of initial
heat--Cosmic
Microwave
Background Radiation
discovered in 1965
that fills the entire
universe
Abundance of
Hydrogen and Helium
The size of galaxies
relative to their
positions.

And Evidence
from the
Doppler Effect

Edwin

Hubble (Hubbles Law) showed that there is Redshift of star

spectrums which shows that galaxies are moving away from us

Light and the Universe

Light Yearused as a measurement of
the great distances in space
A light year is the distance that a ray of
light can travel in a year, or:
A light year is 5,865,696,000,000 miles
(9,460,800,000,000 kilometers).
A star or a star systems distance from
earth is measured in light years.

Parallax

A change in an objects direction

due to a change in the observers
position.

Astronomers also use parallax to

calculate the distance to the stars.

Parsecshort for parallax

secondis a special unit of
distance for a stars distance from
earth.
> 1 parsec = 3.258 light years

Why Do Stars Twinkle??

The scientific name for the

twinkling of stars is stellar
scintillation (or astronomical
scintillation)

Stars (except for the Sun)

appear as tiny dots in the sky

As their light travels through

the many layers of the Earth's
atmosphere, the light of the
star is bent (refracted) many
times and in random directions

This random refraction results

in the star winking out (it looks
as though the star moves a bit,
and our eye interprets this as
twinkling)

Characteristics of Stars
Size: anywhere from 20km to 1 trillion
km in diameter
Mass: the amount of matter

Color: stars can be red, blue, white,

orange or yellow
Composition: contain different elements
determined using spectra

Characteristics of Stars
Temperature: Blue is the hottest
(35000C)
Red is the coolest
(3000C)
Yellow (our sun)
(5500C)

Luminositythe actual brightness of a star

Depends on size and temperature

Apparent MagnitudeA measure of how

bright a star appears to be on earth
the lower the number, higher the brightness

Does not measure how bright a star actually is

Absolute MagnitudeA measure of how

bright a star would be if all Stars were at
the same distanceten parsecsfrom
Earth

Magnitudes
-26.5

-30

We can not see

dimmer than +6
with naked eye

-2
-20

-10

3 6
0

Brighter

10

20

30

Dimmer
Our
Sun

Sirius

Polaris/North
Star
Brightest in
the sky from

Apparent Magnitude
v.
Luminosity

Star 1

Star 2

High luminosity

Low luminosity

Far from earth

Close to earth

= lower
apparent
magnitude

= higher
apparent
magnitude

Hertzsprung-Russel Diagram

Relationship between the absolute magnitude

(luminosity) and the temperature of stars.
Spectral Class
designates the color of
stars
>depends on temperature
>Hottest to the coolest
>Blue to White to
yellow to orange to Red

Kinds of Stars
super giants- largest of all stars, very
luminous
red giants- cooler, large, very luminous

dwarf stars- less luminous, red, orange or

yellow
white dwarf- very faint, small and dense

Variable Stars- vary in

brightness over regular periods or cycles
2 types:
A. pulsating
change in brightness as they
contract (brighter)
Or
expand (dimmer)

Example: cepheid- yellow supergiant

B. nonpulsating
Eclipsing Binary
2 stars of unequal brightness
that revolve around each
other
brightness depends on
which one is in front of the
other

Pulsars
star that releases light and radio waves in
pulses
may be the neutron star formed in a
supernova
it looks like it pulses because it is rotating,
like a searchlight

 A star begins its life in a cloud of cold

gas and tiny-grained dust called a
NEBULA.

Parts of the Nebula begin to condense

due to some outside forcea
shockwavewhich acts upon it.

Due to gravity, the gas and dust pockets

continue to condense and their
temperature increases.

Eventually, parts of the Nebula begins to

glowPROTOSTARS are formed.

Gravitational contraction of the

Protostars continues causing them to
become hotter and brighter.

Finally, fusion takes place in the center

of a protostar, halting gravitational
condensation, and a star is born.

Stellar Masses

Expressed as multiples of the mass of the sun

ONE SOLAR MASS

1 solar mass is approximately 2 X 1030 or

approximately 330,000 Earth masses

Solar Mass determines life stages of a star

Life Stages of Stars

With Solar Masses less than
8 Solar Masses

Main Sequence Star (Our Sun)

>90% of all stars
>The star is stable
>Burns Hydrogen gas to Helium in its
core through nuclear fusion
> The energy released causes the
star to shine.
>Stars spend about 90% of their
active lifetime as main sequence
stars.
Red Giant
>The star begins to run out of fuel
and the core begins to shrink
>Helium turns into Carbon
>Rapid burning of helium causes outer
layer to puff out, cooling the star
>The star turns red

Planetary Nebula
>Outer layers are ejected
as core continues to shrink
>Shell of hot gas
>Core is exposed

White Dwarf
>Low mass core continues to shrink
creating a white dwarf
>Surrounded by the Planetary
Nebula

Stars Evolution
Greater than 8 Solar Masses

Hydrogen fuses more quickly and

when a star starts to die, iron nuclei
are formed
Star swells to 100 times diameter of
the sunSuper Giant
Iron nuclei absorbs energy and core
quickly and suddenly collapses
Explodes into a brilliant burst of
lightSuper Nova
Leaves behind core
>neutron star(<15 solar masses)
dense mass of neutrons
**When 1st formed, will spin into a
pulsar (pulsations of radiations
in regular intervals)
> Black Hole(>15 solar masses)
a concentration of mass great
enough that the force of gravity
will not allow anything to escape

Star Systems

Closest star system to us is Alpha Centauri

which is 4.3 light years away.
The actual star is Proximi Centauri (Alpha
Centauri C--4.2 light years away), a red dwarf
that cannot be seen with the naked eye
This is a multiple star system. Most are
binary.

Novas & Supernovas

Believed to only happen in binary-stars
systems.
Gases from one star hit the surface of
another and cause a nuclear type
explosion.
Supernova is a brilliant burst of light that
follows the collapse of the iron core of a
massive star.

Super Nova

Star Clusters

There are larger groups

of stars, called clusters.
These are relatively
unorganized collections
of stars. (Galaxy)
Open Clusters
Not organized- 100s of
stars
Globular Clusters
Spherical, round100,000s of stars

We live in a star clusterthe Milky way it is a Spiral

Galaxy
Spiral galaxies are
galaxies with a central,
dense area and spiraling
arms (which are often
sites of star formation).

Other Galaxies

There are several types of galaxies the three main ones

are:
Spirals are easily identified by their main components.
They are in the shape of a flat disk with a bright central
nucleus and spiral arms that extend out from the
nucleus.
Ellipticals are different from spirals in that they have
very little (or no) gas and dust. They have only stars
which are concentrated near their centers
Irregular galaxies have a chaotic appearance, with
large clouds of gas and dust mixed with both old and
young stars at random. They have no apparent spiral
arms or nuclear bulge. Irregulars are generally faint.
They make up probably about 25% of all galaxies.

Nebulae
Seen only in infrared
Huge clouds of dust (1%) & gas (99%)
This is where most stars are born.

Stellar nursery is a
nebula ( a large cloud of
hydrogen gas in space) in
which star formation is
occurring

Galaxies
Major features if the universe
-100 billion galaxies-each with-100 billions
stars.
3 types of galaxies
1. Spiral
2. Elliptical
3. Irregular

3 Types of Galaxies
1. spiral- nucleus with arms extending out
most galaxies are this type

Milky Way is spiral

2. elliptical- oval/ disk shaped

3. irregular- smaller, fainter less common

Constellations

Polaris (North Star)

Found at the end of the handle
of the Little Dipper (asterism)which makes up the
constellation Ursa Minor (Little
Bear)
Also can be found for using the
pointer stars in the Big Dipper
(asterism)-which makes up the
constellation Ursa Major (Big
Bear)
Also used for navigatiional
purposes

Quasars

Quasars: give off radio & X-waves. They are the

most distant objects in space. Give off
tremendous amounts of energy.
Quasars give off enormous amounts of energy they can be a trillion times brighter than the Sun!
Quasars are believed to produce their energy
from massive black holes in the center of the
galaxies in which the quasars are located.
Because quasars are so bright, they drown out
the light from all the other stars in the same
galaxy.

The Constellation, Orion

There are 88
constellations or sky
divisions
The constellations
change position with
each season
Some constellations
only come up during
certain seasons,
some not at all
Some never change
position due to their
position to the
polescircumpolar

Constellation of Orion
is seen during winter