All cannot live on the piazza, but everyone may enjoy the sun.

- Italian proverb

Three objectives
Determined the chemical
composition of the sun Measured motions of gas on the suns surface and in its atmosphere Detected magnetic fields that drive the suns cycle of activity

Why to study the SUN?

The main reason to study the sun is that life on Earth depends critically on the sun.
Very small changes in the suns luminosity can
alter Earths climate. A slightly larger change might make Earth uninhabitable. Nearly all of Earths energy comes from the sun the energy in oil, gasoline, coal, and even wood is merely stored sunlight.

Why to study the SUN?

Furthermore, the suns atmosphere
of very thin gas extends past Earths position. Changes in that atmospheresuch as eruptions or magnetic storms can have a direct effect on Earth.

What is SUN?
a glowing disk that is 150 million
kilometers (93 million miles) from Earth and has a diameter 109 times Earths. It is a great ball of hot gas held together by its own gravity. The tremendously hot gas inside the sun has such a high pressure . Like a soap bubble, the sun is a simple structure balanced between opposing forces that, if unbalanced,

almost nothing about the sun until the early 19th century.
the German optician Joseph von Fraunhofer
studied the solar spectrum and found it interrupted by some 600 dark lines.
sunlight Earth receives.

These represented colors that are missing from the

 Once you know the distance to the sun, Newtons

Mass & Density

laws show you what the suns mass needs to beto produce the necessary amount of gravitational force to keep Earth and the other planets in their orbits at their observed speeds. can make an easy calculation of the suns density (mass per volume).

If you know the mass and diameter of the sun, you

Mass & Density

The suns mass is equivalent to
333,000 times the mass of Earth. bit denser than water surface to its center.

Its average density is only a little that it must be gas from its

The Atoms Structure

An atom has a massive compact
nucleus containing positively charged protons. These are usually accompanied by electrically neutral neutrons. The nucleus is embedded in a large cloud of relatively low-mass, negatively charged electrons. These particles can also exist and move about unattached to an atom.

Atoms
Charged particlesboth protons
and electronsare surrounded by electric fields that they produce. Whenever you change the motion of
a charged particle, the change in its electric field spreads outward at the speed of light as electromagnetic radiation.

In atoms
The particles inside any objectatoms linked
together to form molecules, individual atoms, electrons inside atoms or wandering looseare in constant motion. cool object.

In a hot object, they are more agitated than in a

You can refer to this agitation as

thermal energy.

In the SUN
The sun is hot. There are plenty of electrons zipping around,
colliding, and changing directions and speeds thereby making electromagnetic radiation. Protons can also make electromagnetic radiation. However, as electrons are less massive, usually it is electrons that do most of the moving around.

HEAT & TEMPERATURE

Heat is one of form of energy that
is transferred when there is a difference in temperature. Temperature is simply a number related to the average speed of the particlesthe intensity of the particle motion.

Temperature Scales
Astronomers and physicists
express temperatures of the sun and other objects on the Kelvin temperature scale.
Zero degrees Kelvin (written 0 K) is absolute zero
(459.7F).(-273 C) This is the temperature at which an object contains no thermal energy that can be extracted. Water freezes at 273 K and boils at 373 K.

Kelvin Scale
it is based on absolute zero and,
consequently, is related directly to the motion of the particles in an object.

Blackbody Radiation
The radiation emitted by an opaque object is called
blackbody radiation.

Blackbody Radiation
There is, however, a wavelength of
maximum intensity at which it radiates the most energy. an object is, the shorter is the wavelength of its maximum output.

Weins law states that, the hotter

Weins law
.

maxT = cons tan t = 2.9 10 Km

Sample Question
The sun has a surface temperature of approximately 5800 K. a. b.
5800 nm 300 nm At what wavelength does the maximum energy radiated by the sun occur?

c. 174 nm d. 520 nm e. 3000 nm

Solution
T=5800 k

b = 2 10

3 3

2 10 max = = 0.0000005m 5800

Stefan-Boltzmann Law
The Stefan-Boltzmann Law states that hotter
objects emit more energy than cooler objects of the same size.

The total area under each curve is proportional to

the total energy emitted. So, you can see that the hotter object emits more total energy than the cooler ones

Stefan-Boltzmann Law
The thermal energy radiated by a
blackbody radiator per second per unit area can be calculated by the formula :

= 5.6703 10 T

8 4

Sample question

How much energy is radiated each second by one square meter of a star whose temperature is 10,000 K? s in the Stefan-Boltzmann law is equal to , a. 5.67 1012 J b. 5.67 108 J c. 5.67 104 J d. 300 nm e. 300,000,000 nm

Solutions

5.6703 10 (10000) = 5.6703 10 j / m s

8 2

Conclusions
temperature determines the color of a glowing
blackbody.

The hotter object has its strongest

intensity at shorter wavelengths. So, it emits more blue light than red and looks blue. The cooler object emits more red than blue light and thus looks red.

Conclusions
Also, the total area under each
curve is proportional to the total energy emitted. So, you can see that the hotter object emits more total energy than the cooler ones

Conclusions
According to Wiens law,
Betelgeuse is cooler than the sun, so it looks red. sun and looks blue.
would appear yellowish.

Rigel, though, is hotter than the

A star with the same temperature as the sun

Sample Question

What is the order of star colors with increasing temperature? a. Red, Yellow, Blue b. Blue, Red, Yellow c. Red, Blue, Yellow d. Yellow, Red, Blue e. Blue, Yellow, Red

Interaction of matter with light

Structure of Atom:

The electrons are bound to the

atom by the attraction between their negative charge and the positive charge on the nucleus.
This attraction is known as the Coulomb force
after the French physicist Charles-Augustin de Coulomb (17361806).

Ionization
A positive ion is an atom with missing electrons
that is, fewer electrons than protons.

To ionize an atom, you need a certain amount of

energy to pull an electron completely away from the nucleus. This energy is the electrons binding energythe energy that holds it to the atom

Energy Levels
The size of an electrons orbit is
related to the energy that binds it to the atom.
If an electron orbits close to the nucleus, it is tightly
bound, and a large amount of energy is needed to pull it away. So, its binding energy is large. An electron orbiting farther from the nucleus is held more loosely, and less energy is needed to pull it away. That means it has less binding energy.

Binding Energy
Nature permits atoms only certain The laws that describe how atoms
behave are called the laws of quantum mechanics.
laws of quantum mechanics.

amounts (quanta) of binding energy.

Much of this discussion of atoms is based on the

Binding Energy
As atoms can have only certain amounts of binding
energy, your model atom can have orbits of only certain sizescalled permitted orbits. These are like steps in a staircase. You can stand on the number-one step or the number- two step, but not on the number-oneand-one-quarter step. The electron can occupy any permitted orbit, but not orbits in between.

Atoms Structure
The number of protons in the
nucleus is unique to each element.
permitted orbits.

So, each kind of element has its own pattern of

Periodic Table
http://www.webelements.com/

Isotopes
Isotopes are versions of a given
element with different numbers of neutrons. Isotopes of an element have almost, but not quite, the same pattern of permitted electron orbits as each other. This is because they have the same number of electrons whereas their nuclei have slightly different masses.

The Excitation of Atoms

Each orbit in an atom represents a So, physicists commonly refer to

the orbits as energy levels.
Using this terminology, you can say that an
electron in its smallest and most tightly bound orbit is in its lowest permitted energy level.

specific amount of binding energy.

The Excitation of Atoms

You could move the electron from one energy level to
anotherby supplying enough energy to make up the difference between the two energy levels. It would be like moving a flowerpot from a low shelf to a high shelf. The greater the distance between the shelves, the more energy you would need to raise the pot. The amount of energy needed to move the electron is the energy difference between the two energy levels.

The Excitation of Atoms

If you move the electron from a

low energy level to a higher energy level, you can call the atom an excited atom.
That is, you have added energy to the atom in
moving its electron. If the electron falls back to the lower energy level, that energy is released.

The Excitation of Atoms

An atom can become excited by

collision.
If two atoms collide, one or both may have electrons
knocked into higher energy levels. This happens very commonly in hot gaswhere the atoms move rapidly and collide often.

The Excitation of Atoms

Another way an atom can get the

energy that moves an electron to a higher energy level is to absorb a photon (packet) of electromagnetic radiation.

The Excitation of Atoms

Only a photon with exactly the right amount of
energy corresponding to the energy difference between two levels can move the electron from one level to another. If the photon has too much or too little energy, the atom cannot absorb itand the photon passes right by. As the energy of a photon depends on its wavelength, only photons of certain wavelengths can be absorbed.

The Excitation of Atoms

The figure shows the lowest four

energy levels of the hydrogen atom along with three photons the atom could absorb.

The Excitation of Atoms

The longest-wavelength (reddest)

photon has only enough energy to excite the electron from the first to the second energy level.

The Excitation of Atoms

However, the shorter-wavelength

(higher-energy, bluer) photons can excite the electron to higher levels.

The Excitation of Atoms

A photon with too much or too little

energy cannot be absorbed.
As the hydrogen atom has many more energy levels
than shown, it can absorb photons of many different wavelengths.

The Excitation of Atoms

Atoms, like humans, cannot

exist in an excited state forever.

The excited atom is unstable and must eventually
usually within 10-6 to 10-9 secondsgive up the energy it has absorbed and return its electron to a lower energy level. The lowest energy level an electron can occupy is called the ground state.

The Excitation of Atoms

When the electron drops from a

higher to a lower energy level, it moves from a loosely bound level to one more tightly bound.
The atom then has a surplus of energythe
energy difference between the levelsthat it can emit as a photon.

The Excitation of Atoms

The sequence of events in the figure

shows how an atom can absorb and emit photons.

The Excitation of Atoms

Jumps of electrons from one orbit

to another are sometimes called quantum leaps.
In casual language, that term has come to mean a

huge change. Now, you see that it represents a very small change indeed. The quantum leap represents a change of electron motionso, electromagnetic radiation is either released or absorbed in the process.

The Excitation of Atoms

Each type of atom or ion has its

unique set of energy levels.

Thus, each type absorbs and emits

photons with a unique set of wavelengths.
As a result, you can identify the elements in a

gas by studying the characteristic wavelengths of light absorbed or emitted.

The Excitation of Atoms

Note that the wavelengths (colors) emitted and
absorbed by leaping electrons are determined not by the starting or ending energy level of the jumpbut by the difference between the levels.

The Excitation of Atoms

The process of excitation and

emission is a common sight in urban areas at night.

A neon sign glows when atoms of neon gas in the
glass tube are excited by electricity flowing through the tube.

The Excitation of Atoms

As the electrons in the electric current

flow through the gas, they collide with the neon atoms and excite them.
As you have learned, immediately after an atom is

excited, its electron drops back to a lower energy level. It emits the surplus energy as a photon of a certain wavelength. The visible photons emitted by the most common electron jumps within excited neon atoms produce a reddish-orange glow.

The Excitation of Atoms

Street signs of other colors,

erroneously called neon, contain other gases or mixtures of gases instead of pure neon.

The Doppler Effect

The Doppler effect is an apparent

change in the wavelength of radiation caused by relative motion of a source and observer.
Astronomers use it to measure the speed of
blobs of gas in the suns atmosphere toward or away from Earth, as well as speeds of entire stars and galaxies.

The Doppler Effect

When astronomers talk about the

Doppler effect, they are talking about small shifts in the wavelength of electromagnetic radiation.
However, the effect can occur for waves of all types
for example, sound waves. You probably hear the Doppler effect in sound every day without realizing what it is.

The Doppler Effect

The pitch of a sound is

determined by its wavelength.

Sounds with long wavelengths have low pitches. Sounds with short wavelengths have higher
pitches.

The Doppler Effect

You hear the Doppler effect every

time a car or truck passes you, and the pitch of its engine noise or emergency siren seems to drop.

The Doppler Effect

Its sound is shifted to shorter wavelengths and higher
pitches while it is approaching. pitches after it passes by.

The sound is shifted to longer wavelengths and lower

The Doppler Effect

Understanding the Doppler effect for

sound lets you understand the similar Doppler effect for light.

The Doppler Effect

Imagine a light source emitting

waves continuously as it approaches you.

The light will appear to have a shorter wavelength,
making it slightly bluer. This is called a blueshift. A light source moving away from you has a longer wavelength and is slightly redder. This is a redshift.

The Doppler Effect

The terms redshift and blueshift are

used to refer to any range of wavelengths.
The light does not actually have to be red or blue. The terms apply equally to wavelengths in the

radio, X-ray, or gamma-ray parts of the spectrum. Red and blue refer to the relative direction of the shiftnot to actual color.

The Doppler Effect

Also, note that these shifts are much too small to
change the color of a star noticeably.

However, they are easily detected by changes in the

positions of features in a stars spectrum such as spectral lines.

The Doppler Effect

The Doppler shift, blue or red,

reveals the relative motion of wave source and observer.

You measure the same Doppler shift if the light
source is moving and you are stationary or if the light source is stationary and you are moving.

The Doppler Effect

The amount of change in

wavelength depends on the speed of the source.

A moving car has a smaller sound Doppler shift
than a jet plane. A slow-moving star has a smaller light Doppler shift than one that is moving at high velocity. You can measure the speed of a star toward or away from you by measuring the size of the Doppler shift of its spectral lines.

The Doppler Effect

Note that the Doppler shift is

sensitive only to the part of the velocity directed away from you or toward you.
A star moving perpendicular to your line of sight
would have no blueshift or redshiftbecause its distance from Earth would not be decreasing or increasing.

This is called the radial velocity (Vr).

The Doppler Effect

Police radar guns use the

Doppler effect to measure the speeds of cars.

The police park next to the highway and aim their
hair dryers directly along the road. This is because these can measure only radial velocitieswhereas the police want to measure your full velocity along the highway.

Calculation of observed radial velocity

The equation is :

f VR = C f f = 1420.4 MHz C = 3.0 10 m \ s

8

Sample Question
What is the radial velocity of Arcturus? Is it coming
towards us, or going away from us? Look at the line which appears in the Sun at about 882.4 nm. In the spectrum of Arcturus, it appears at about 882.55 nm. shift (Arcturus - Sun) = 882.55 nm - 882.4 nm = 0.15 nm 0.15 nm radial velocity = (0.15/ 882.4)* (300,000 km/s) 882.4 nm = 50 km/s So Arcturus was moving AWAY from us at about 50 km/s when the spectrum was taken.

The Spectrum

Sample Question

The Hd line has a wavelength of 410.2 nm when observed in the laboratory. If the Hd line appears in a stars spectrum at 410.0 nm, what is the radial velocity of the star? a. 146 km/sec away from the observer. b. 146 km/sec toward the observer. c. 6.0 107 m/sec away from the observer. d. 6.0 107 m/sec toward the observer. e. The radial velocity of the star cannot be determined from this information.

Solution
410.0 410.2 8 speed = ( ) 3.0 10 = 146.3m / s 410.2 Moving towards