What is a Star? Wednesday, October 8 Next Planetarium Shows: Tonight 7 pm, Thurs 7 pm

toward Light source moving toward you: wavelength is shorter (blueshift). away Light source moving away from you: wavelength is longer (redshift). Doppler shift review:

Size Size of Doppler shift is proportional to radial velocity: Δλ = observed wavelength shift = λ-λ 0 λ 0 = wavelength if source isn’t moving V = radial velocity of moving source c = speed of light = 300,000 km/sec

Example: Hydrogen absorbs light with λ 0 = nm. You observe a star with a hydrogen absorption line at λ = nm.

What is a star? Examples of stars: SunBetelgeuse

What is a star? A large, hot, luminous ball of gas.

“Why do stars shine?” Stars are dense (Sun is 40% denser than liquid water). Stars are opaque (you can’t see to the Sun’s center). Stars are hot.

What happens when a dense, opaque object becomes hot? It emits light.

“ HOT” What do I mean by “ HOT” ? 90°F 9980°F212°F

At the submicroscopic level: atoms in a gas

hot Object is hot when the atoms of which it’s made are in rapid random motion. Temperature Temperature: measure of typical speed of the atoms. absolute zero Random motions stop at absolute zero temperature.

Kelvin = Celsius Water boils: 373 Kelvin (K) Water freezes: 273 K Absolute zero: 0 K Room temperature: ~300 K Surface of Sun: ~5800 K

Different elements respond in different ways to changes in temperature.

At high density & low temperature, hydrogen is a gas of molecules. Molecular hydrogen = H 2 = two H atoms bonded together (This assumes there’s no oxygen for the hydrogen to bond with.)

At low density & low temperature, hydrogen is a gas of atoms. Much of the interstellar gas in our Galaxy is atomic hydrogen. density ≈ 10 atoms/cm 3 T ≈ 100 K

ionized At high density & high temperature, hydrogen is an ionized gas. Much of the Sun’s interior is ionized hydrogen. Sun’s center: density ≈ 150 tons/m 3 T ≈ 15 million K

all A blackbody is an object that absorbs all the light that hits it. continuous Heat a blackbody: it emits light of all wavelengths (a continuous spectrum). only on temperature Wavelength at which spectrum peaks depends only on temperature. blackbody. A star is an approximate blackbody.

Blackbody spectra 21,100°F 10,300°F 4900°F

inversely Wavelength of peak emission for a blackbody is inversely related to temperature.

Examples: You: Sun’s surface: 9400 nm (Infrared) 500 nm (Visible)

2 am tomorrow, looking east

Another example: taking the temperature of a star! red Betelgeuse is red. blue Rigel is blue. (Hard to see colors with the naked eye – binoculars help!)

Betelgeuse: Rigel: 2900 K (4800°F) 14,500 K (26,000°F)

The Sun’s actual spectrum: Close to a blackbody, but not perfect. Perfect blackbody Intensity

Friday’s Lecture: Reading: Chapter 3 What is a Galaxy?