Introduction to Galaxies Types of Galaxies The Milky Way Dark Matter April 2, 2003 Introduction to Galaxies Types of Galaxies The Milky Way Dark Matter http://www.hep.fsu.edu/~tadams/courses/spr03/ast1002/Lecture040203.pdf

Messier Objects 1784 – Charles Messier Identified 103 objects in the he was a comet hunter Identified 103 objects in the sky which were not stars these were fuzzy objects he identified them so they would not be mistaken for comets These were actually galaxies, globular clusters and such far away Now a very useful list of interesting objects for amateur astronomers to look at M1 – Crab Nebular

Looking at Distant Objects Objects look different depending on how they are viewed We are unable to “walk around” an object which is millions of lightyears away So we have to try to interpret what we see compare to objects oriented differently

Looking at the Dark Sky A picture of a dark patch of the sky using the Hubble Space Telescope

Galaxies Galaxies are large collections of stars millions and billions of stars The Milky Way is our own galaxy There are hundreds of billions of galaxies in the Universe Millions to hundreds of billions of stars in each galaxy

Types of Galaxies Three main types of galaxies Spiral Elliptical based on shape Spiral rotating disk (with arms) Elliptical oval disk of stars more chaotic motion Irregular none of the above

Active Galactic Nuclei Some galaxies have supermassive black holes at the center If material is falling into the black hole, enormous amounts of energy are released accretion disk Can shine with a luminosity of 1-100 million Suns! Quasars are a type of AGN

Think of walking around before a football game Galaxy Collisions Occasionally galaxies collide don’t actually slam into each other Passage of one galaxy through/near another causes major “stirring” due to gravity Causes new activity star formation, AGNs,… Think of walking around before a football game

Looking at the Milky Way Viewed as a bright band of stars across the sky Galactic center appears in the southern part of the sky (from the northern hemisphere Much of the Milky Way is blocked by dust dark band through the middle of the Milky Way But we can study it in longer wavelengths e.g. radio waves

Spiral Galaxies Spiral arms are a natural consequence of some rotations If gas/dust in a disk are rotating with the same speed, stuff further out will take longer to go around it will lag behind

Pieces of a Spiral Galaxy Disk Arms Bulge barred? black hole Halo Globular clusters

Globular Clusters Groups of old stars in the galactic halo may have around 500,000 stars may be around 15 lightyears across Formed before the galaxy or at very early stages Orbiting the galaxy No new star formation going on Useful for studying the distribution of material in the galaxy from gravity

Rotation Speeds of Galaxies

Rotation Speeds of Galaxies For spiral galaxies, stars farther out should be moving slower But we see them all moving with the same speed! Dark Matter! must have an explanation

What is Dark Matter? Dark matter is material we can’t see We have various evidence the Universe has lots of matter we can’t see rotation speeds of galaxies movement of global clusters around galaxies Two primary theories MACHOs – MAssive Compact Halo Objects planets or brown dwarfs or low-mass black holes unlikely, people are looking, have seen a few, but not enough WIMPs – Weakly Interacting Massive Particles new type of elementary particle

A Great Question The nature of dark matter is one of the great questions of astronomy Could have very important implications on our understanding of the Universe something is out there which we do not understand could radically change how we think about many things Pay attention to this issue in the coming decades…

Studying Star Clusters Clusters of stars formed at the same time of the same materials Studying them tells us about the life of stars plot where stars fall on H-R diagram Looking at many clusters tells us how stars leave main sequence

Summary Galaxies are large collections of stars three types/shapes hundreds of billions of galaxies Spiral galaxies have structure Milky Way is a spiral galaxy Globular clusters Dark matter from rotational velocities of stars in galaxies