Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1.1 Introduction
Astronomy is a natural science which deals with the objects outlying beyond the atmosphere of the Earth. In ancient times, observers who lived in the Egyptian and Babylonian eras were able to intuit that there were some objects in nature situated beyond the sky, and worshiped these as Gods. In medieval times people who lived in Europe discovered that these objects are merely constituents of the universe and in 16th century Sir Isaac Newton revealed the basic relationship underlying their motion. In the dawn of the modern age due to the development of science people have realized the complicated truth about the universe. But still there are many questions to be answered, and the most crucial one among them was the question of formation of the universe. According to the some beliefs of religions, the universe was created by their God. Despite the fact, in accordance with the theories of physics universe is an accidental result of an event which is known as Big Bang. Due to Big Bang an enormous amount of energy was released into the newborn universe which created a super-hot dense soup of energy. As the universe grew older the hot dense soup of energy started to cool down and then it triggered the creation of matter according to the Einsteins equation [1] (1.1) These new born matter particles initially possessed great velocities and they are not subjected to any kind of interactions. But as the universe got cooler these particles have bonded between each other in order to produce molecules and dust particles throughout the universe. And after billion years later these particles started creating stars, planets, Nebulas and Galaxies, and still the process is continuing. The stars which glow within the galaxies are born inside the nebulas. The nebulas are large gas clouds and in some
1
occasions the dimensions of such a cloud may encompass several parsecs [1]. And these Nebulas and dust particles are commonly known as the interstellar medium, uniformly distributed throughout the Galaxies. Therefore when a star dies it is often replaced with another one which is in a different position. But for a distant observer outside the relevant Galaxy will not identify any difference in total light received from it. But after finite time in the future this process will terminate. Then all the Galaxies will fade away and if the density of the universe is large enough to contract the universe in to a small region, again another Big Bang will create another universe which will be similar to the existing one, and if the density of universe is less than the critical density, the gravity will not counteract to overcome the ever-growing expansion of the universe, therefore the universe will remain as a dark cold place for infinite period of time. Nevertheless this whole process reveals that the universe controls almost everything in the nature. It implies that gaining profound knowledge of the universe is the key to revealing the destiny of everything.
In contrast though the ISM can be identified as the dust between the Stars, quantitatively the mass confined to the stars is much greater than the mass which distributed through the ISM. Evidently the ISM holds only a fraction of Galaxies total luminous mass, this fraction is' 125% for a spiral, and 1550% for an irregular galaxy [3].
medium represents all the dust and matter placed between stars it is convenient to categorize them into several phases. All these phases are mainly defined by their inherent temperature and density [4]. Coronal gas: Gas that has been shock-heated to temperatures by
blastwaves racing outward from supernova explosions. The gas is collisionally ionized, with ions such as O VI ( present. Most of the coronal gas has
low density, being an appreciable fraction approximately half of the volume of the galactic disk. The coronal gas regions may have characteristic dimensions of around 20 parsecs, and may be connected to other coronal gas volumes. The coronal gas cools over Million year time scales. Much of the volume above and below the disk is thought to be pervaded by coronal gas. It is often referred to as the hot ionized medium, or HIM. H II gas: Gas where the hydrogen has been photo-ionized by ultraviolet photons from hot stars. Most of this photo-ionized gas is maintained by radiation from recently formed hot massive O-type stars the photo-ionized gas may be dense material from a nearby cloud (in which case the ionized gas is called an H II region) or lower density inter cloud medium (referred to as diffuse H II). The Roman numeral II represents that one electron has repelled from neutral Hydrogen atom. When expelled electrons recombined with ions they emit radiation with a wavelength of 656.3 nm which gives the H II nebulas its characteristic red colour. Warm HI: Predominantly atomic gas heated to temperatures around in the local interstellar medium, it fills a significant fraction of the volume of the disk perhaps 40%. Often referred to as the warm neutral medium, or WNM
nearly1% of the volume of the local interstellar medium. Often referred to as the cold neutral medium, or CNM. Diffuse molecular gas: Similar to the cool H I clouds, but with sufficiently large densities and column densities so that be abundant in the cloud interior. Dense molecular gas: These clouds are often dark. In these dark clouds, the dust grains are often coated with mantles composed of and other self-shielding allows molecules to
molecular ices. It is within these regions that star formation takes place. It should be noted that the gas pressures in these dense clouds would qualify as ultra-high vacuum in a terrestrial laboratory. Stellar outflows: Evolved cool stars can have mass loss rates as high as solar masses per year and low outflow velocities less than ,
leading to relatively high density outflows. Hot stars can have winds that are much faster but far less dense. Interstellar Dust: Interstellar dust consists of particles of silicates or carbon compounds, which are relatively small, but have a comprehensive range in size. The largest are 0.5 m in size (i.e. 5 107 m) with nearly 104 atoms, but some appear to have. 100 atoms and thus are not significantly different from large molecules. Dust has a deep observational effect, it absorbs and scatters light. Dust reduces the light of background sources, a process known as interstellar extinction. Examples of this are dark nebulae, and the zone of avoidance for galaxies at low galactic latitudes. Hot Gas Planetary Nebulae: A planetary nebula is like a compact H II region, except that it surrounds the exposed core of a hot, highly evolved star rather than a hot young star. The gas is ejected from the star through mass loss over time.
5
Ultraviolet photons from the star ionise the gas in way similar to HII regions, and the gas emits photons like H II region. Emission processes are similar to H II regions, but the density, temperature and ionisation state of the gas around a planetary nebula can be somewhat different to the H II region. Hot Gas Supernova Remnants: Supernovae eject material at very high velocities into the interstellar medium. This gas shocks, heats and disrupts the ISM. Low density components of the ISM can be significantly affected, but dense molecular clouds are less strongly affected. Hot gas from supernovae can even be ejected out of the galactic disc into the halo of the galaxy.
Table (1.1) ISM phases in Milky Way Galaxy [5]
Component
Molecular clouds 1020 102106 molecular
Temperature (K)
Density (atoms/cm)
State of hydrogen
50100
2050
neutral atomic
H I 21 cm line absorption
Warm Neutral Medium (WNM) 600010000 0.20.5 neutral atomic H I 21 cm line emission
8000
0.20.5
ionized
H II regions
8000
10-210-4
ionized
ionized 10 10
2 4
X-ray emission; absorption lines of highly ionized metals, primarily in the ultraviolet
will be discussed in detail at the end of this chapter. The interior of the Sun can be categorized into 6 regions as follows Solar corona Solar corona is the uppermost layer of the solar atmosphere and it lies around few million kilometers above the solar surface. The temperature of this region is about one million Kelvin therefore it can emit hard X-rays hence this region is responsible for the emission of X-rays from the Sun, nevertheless the density of this region is very much low when comparing to the Earths atmosphere. Chromosphere Chromosphere is a region which lie closer to the solar surface, which has temperature about 10000 K, and this region produces the Ultra Violet (UV) radiation.
Photosphere The visible surface of the Sun is called the photosphere, where the average temperature is about 6000 K. Although the photosphere looks like well defined surface from the Earth, it contains gas far less dense than the Earths atmosphere.
Convection zone This region contains hot gas encircling inside the core of the Sun, where spouts of hot gas rising upward and cooler gas cascade downward into the core of the Sun. These rising gas transfer the energy produced in the core to the upper layers of the solar atmosphere. Due to tremendous temperature the gas encircling in this region consists of fully ionized particles forming a plasma region. And the nature of this plasma is governed by the intense magnetic fields inside the solar core.
Radiation zone In comparison to the convection region radiation zone comprise with calmer plasma region, and the energy is carried out by the photons throughout the region. But the temperature of the region is much intense than the upper layers of the Sun. It is about 10 million Kelvin ( and the region is covered with
X-rays trillions of times more intense than the visible light at solar surface. Solar core The solar core is the source of the Suns energy, it produces energy by using the Hydrogen fusion reaction, in this region the temperature is about 15 million Kelvin (1.5 water, and the density is more than 100 times higher than the
And the pressure is 200 billion times than on the surface of the Earth. However the energy produced inside the core takes approximately 1 million years to reach the surface.
The life time and the some remarkable features of stars are indistinguishably dependent on the rate of its Hydrogen burning, in Astronomy sole meaning of burning is referred to the Hydrogen conversion into Helium under nuclear fusion. Primarily the Hydrogen burning rate is depend on the mass of the star, thus for the sake of simplicity the life cycle of stars can be categorized into two major groups Life cycle of low mass stars Life cycle of high mass stars
9
stage, the stars eventually repels their outer layer into the interstellar medium. While this process occurs the dust particles confined in the exterior of the star continuously emits to the space with solar winds. And simultaneously heavy elements (specially carbon) are compiled in the core. Having repelled the outer layer of the star, the remaining tends to burn its very last drop of fuel. In this stage the core mainly consists of carbon [1]. The carbon burning core continuously ejects its interior matter with stellar winds. Thus due to the lower temperatures ranging from 2000 K - 3000 K of these carbon burning stars the carbon atoms tends to create clusters by combined with one another and growing into dust particles. Having blended with the stellar winds the dust particles are flown through the interstellar space and deposited in the interstellar medium. Before low mass star dies it treats one last spectacle, through winds and other processes with ejecting its outer layers into space, makes huge shell of gas expanding away from the inert, and the degenerate carbon core. The exposed core is still very hot and emits intense ultra violet radiation that ionizes the gas in the expanding shell glowing brightly and specified as a Planetary Nebula [9].
10
Figure 1.3: Planetary nebula, Ring Nebula (M57) in Lyra/Hubble telescope image [10]
11
these heavy elements in its core which will cause enormous thermal pressure inside the core. Having completed the burning of Hydrogen star tends to fuse Helium and other heavy elements, nevertheless when in formation of iron due to fusion, will be the catastrophic disaster for the star. Since neither fission nor fusion be subjected to iron, piled up iron in the core will cause rapid increment of mass. Consequently this will initiate the gravitational collapsing into its verge. Then the super hot core starts to shrink up and be exploded, causing massive destruction. This is known as Super Nova [11]. All the heavy elements compiled in the core will burst into space with enormous inherent velocities in magnitude of several thousand kilometres per second. If it was not the interstellar medium these heavy elements would left the galaxy due to their high velocities. These particles emitted by supernova explosion will fly through the space with coherent group of velocities creating hot expanding cloud of debris from supernova explosion is known as Supernova Remnants [12]. When these high velocity particles travel through the ISM will suffer with large number of collisions with the contents of the medium, causing huge decrement of velocities of the intruder particles. Eventually after large number of collisions they tend to rest and merged with the medium. With each collision described above, particles will transfer fraction of its inherent kinetic energy to the medium. This transferring energy is stored as thermal energy. Thus medium tends to increase its internal energy and it will radiate as high frequency X- rays and gamma- rays known as the After Glow [13].
12
Substantially the afterglow is very important event in Astronomy. Usually observations of supernova or its remnants can reveal lot of information about the history of galaxies and the distance between them. The deposition of intruder substances in the ISM is known as the Chemical Enrichment [15]. Despite this process the new born stars and planetary systems will not have heavy materials and also the carbon which necessary to originate the life forms.
13
14
Figure 1.5: Dust clouds in the galactic plane lying in cocoon nebula [16] Due to cold temperatures which are inherent by dust clouds, gravitation starts to pull the gas molecules to concentric regions, in order to create high dense regions relatively to the rest of the gas clouds. If the thermal pressure in a molecular cloud is feeble to counter interact with the compressing force generated by gravity, the cloud be subjected to the gravitational contraction. Due to these gravitational interactions gas cloud starts to form dense lumps in its Interior, these are known as molecular cloud cores [17]. A cloud thus fragments into numerous pieces, each of which will form one or more new stars
Figure 1.6: Star forming cloud of molecular Hydrogen gasses, Eagle nebula [18] 15
Figure 1.7: Spitzer telescopes infrared view of W5, Infrared photograph of protostar [20]
16
be protostars. Observations verify that there are some stars inherited in Eagle nebula forming in a environment similar to the solar system thus this leaves rather high probability to ignite the life forms, hence one can assume Eagle Nebula might be a dwelling for a distant Earth in near future.
18