Phoenix Lander lands at the pole on Sunday !!

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Review lecture today (and posted on the web)
Final Exam:
 10:30am May 28th (Wednesday), SHL 131
Will cover:
 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 15.1, 15.2, 15.3, 16.1, 16.2
Extra Office Hours
 2:00pm – 4:00pm May 27th (Tuesday), SHL 222
 Or email/ come and find me.
 Units are important!!!
• An answer with no units is meaningless
• Getting the units/order of magnitude wrong is not
a minor mistake.
What is the energy, in Joules, of an ultra-violet photon with a
wavelength of 120nm? What is its frequency?

f= c/λ = 3 × 108 / 120×10-9 = 2.5 × 1015 Hz

E=hf = 6.626 × 10−34 × 2.5 × 1015 =1.66 × 10-18 J

Kilo=103 milli=10-3
Mega=106 micro=10-6
Giga=109 nano=10-9
See appendix C3 and appendix C4 in the book
 Summary of Star Birth
• Gravity causes cold, dense,
molecular gas cloud to shrink and
fragment
• Dust relieves thermal pressure by
radiating infra-red
• Collapses into a rotating disk
(conservation of angular
momentum)
• Core of shrinking cloud heats up
• When core gets hot enough, fusion
begins and stops the shrinking
• New star achieves long-lasting state
of balance
What is the energy source that heats a contracting
protostar?
1. Friction
2. Pressure, as the gas and dust are compressed
3. Gravitational potential energy released as the material is
pulled inward
4. Fusion
5. Kinetic energy
What is the energy source that heats a contracting
protostar?
1. Friction
2. Pressure, as the gas and dust are compressed
3. Gravitational potential energy released as the material is
pulled inward
4. Fusion
5. Kinetic energy
If a protostar doesn’t have enough mass to
become a star, it becomes a
1. Failed star
2. Dark star
3. Brown dwarf
4. White dwarf
5. Planetesimal
If a protostar doesn’t have enough mass to
become a star, it becomes a
1. Failed star
2. Dark star
3. Brown dwarf
4. White dwarf
5. Planetesimal
      Low­Mass Star Summary

• Main Sequence: H fuses to He 
in core. (solar thermostat) 

• Red Giant: H fuses to He in 
shell around He core (thermostat 
broken!!)

• Helium Core Burning: 
He fuses to C in core while H 
fuses to He in shell

• Double­Shell Burning: 
H and He both fuse in shells

Not to scale! 5. Planetary Nebula: leaves white 

dwarf behind
 Life stages 
of a low­
mass star 
like the Sun

The Death Sequence of the Sun

Life Track of a Sun-Like Star
 After the Sun becomes a red giant star and makes
carbon in its core, why will it not make heavier
elements?
1. It will have run out of fuel
2. It will be near the end of its life and doesn’t have time
3. It will not be massive enough to make it hot enough for further reactions
4. The heavier elements will all go into a planetary nebula
5. 1 and 2
 After the Sun becomes a red giant star and makes
carbon in its core, why will it not make heavier
elements?
1. It will have run out of fuel
2. It will be near the end of its life and doesn’t have time
3. It will not be massive enough to make it hot enough for further reactions
4. The heavier elements will all go into a planetary nebula
5. 1 and 2
 Life Stages of High­Mass Star

3. Main Sequence: H fuses to He 
in core 

5. Red Supergiant: H fuses to He 
in shell around He core

7. Helium Core Burning: 
He fuses to C in core while H 
fuses to He in shell

10. Multiple­Shell Burning: 
many elements fuse in shells

5. Supernova leaves neutron star or 
Not to scale! black hole behind
Multiple-Shell Burning
• Advanced nuclear
burning proceeds in
a series of nested
shells.
• As each core fusion
stops, the star
expands
• The star is now a
multiple shell-
burning supergiant
• Works as far as iron
 What is different about nuclear reactions of elements lighter
than iron or heavier than iron?

1. Lighter elements give off energy when they fuse, heating the stars
core and keeping gravity from crushing it
2. Heavier elements take in energy if they fuse, taking away heat from
the core, leading to collapse
3. 1 and 2
 What is different about nuclear reactions of elements lighter
than iron or heavier than iron?

1. Lighter elements give off energy when they fuse, heating the stars
core and keeping gravity from crushing it
2. Heavier elements take in energy if they fuse, taking away heat from
the core, leading to collapse
3. 1 and 2
Supernova Remnant

• Energy released by
the collapse of the
core drives outer
layers into space,
forming a supernova
remnant.

• The core becomes a

neutron star or a
black hole
The distance of the red supergiant Betelgeuse is approximately
427 light-years. If it were to explode as a supernova, it would
be one of the brightest stars in the sky. Right now, the brightest
star other than the Sun is Sirius, with a luminosity of 26 LSun
and a distance of 8.6 light-years.
How much brighter than Sirius would the Betelgeuse
supernova be in our sky if it reached a maximum luminosity of
8.0×109 LSun ? L
b=
4πd 2
8.0 × 109 Lsun
bSN =
4π ( 427 )
2

26 Lsun
bsirius =
4π ( 8.6 )
2

bSN
=
(8.0 × 109 26 )= 1 .2 × 10 5

bsirius ( 427 8.6) 2

 Hubble
Ultra
Deep
Field
Elliptical
EllipticalGalaxy
Galaxy

Irregular Galaxies Spiral Galaxy

Disk Blue-white color
Component: indicates ongoing
stars of all star formation
ages,
many gas
clouds

Spheroidal
Component:
bulge and
halo, old
stars, Red-yellow color
few gas indicates older star
clouds population
Elliptical
Galaxy:
All spheroidal
component,
virtually no disk
component.
Very little dust
or cool gas.

Red-yellow
color indicates
older star
population.
Irregular Galaxy: Neither spiral nor Blue-white color
elliptical. More common at large indicates ongoing
distances (in the early Universe) star formation.
Spheroid Hubble’s galaxy classes Disk
Dominates "Tuning Fork" diagram Dominates
Which type of galaxies have a disk, bulge, and
halo?

1. Spiral
2. Elliptical
3. Irregular
4. Barred Spiral
5. 1 and 4
Which type of galaxies have a disk, bulge, and
halo?

1. Spiral
2. Elliptical
3. Irregular
4. Barred Spiral
5. 1 and 4
How do we measure the
distances to galaxies?
Standard candles:
You measure a star's apparent brightness to be 1.0×10-12 watt/m2.
The star has the same spectral type and luminosity as the sun.
How far away is it?

LSun=3.8×1026 Watts

L
b=
4πd 2

L 3.8 ×10 26
d= = = 5.5 ×10 m
18

4πb 4 × π ×1×10 −12

but sun-type stars are not very bright....

Step 3

Apparent brightness
of star cluster’s main
sequence tells us its
distance. (Many stars
give a more accurate
answer than just one)

Hyades distance
known from parallax

Pleiades must be
sqrt(7.5)=2.75 times
further
Hubble’s law: velocity = H0 × distance
H0=22 km/s/Mly
 Redshift of a
galaxy tells us
its distance
through
Hubble’s law:

velocity
distance = H0

Example: the redshift of a galaxy indicates it is moving away at

66,000 km/s. What is its distance?
v 66,000 km/s
d= = = 3,000 Mly
H 0 22 km/s/Mly
Hubble’s law: velocity = H0 × distance
H0=22 km/s/Mly

Hubble’s constant tells us the age of the

universe because it relates velocities and
distances of all galaxies.

Distance km/s km/s

Age = H 0 = 22 6 = 22 6
Velocity 10 ly 10 × (3 × 105 ) years
1 106 × (3 × 105 ) years
Age = = = 1.36 × 1010 years
~ 1 / H0 H0 22 km/s
 Galaxy Evolution
• How do we observe the life histories of
galaxies?
— Deep observations of the universe are
showing us the history of galaxies because
we are seeing galaxies as they were at
different ages.
• How did galaxies form?
— Our best models for galaxy formation
assume that gravity made galaxies out of
regions of the early universe that were
slightly denser than their surroundings.
 Galaxy Evolution
• Why do galaxies differ?
— Some of the differences between galaxies
may arise from the conditions in their
protogalactic clouds (spin, density).
— Collisions can play a major role because
they can transform two spiral galaxies into
an elliptical galaxy.
 Chapter 16
Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and
the Fate of the Universe
 Unseen Influences

Dark matter: An undetected form of mass that emits little or

no light but whose existence we infer from its gravitational
influence

Dark energy: An unknown form of energy that seems to be

the source of a repulsive force causing the expansion of the
universe to accelerate
 Contents of Universe

• “Normal” matter: ~ 4.4%

— Normal matter inside stars: ~ 0.6%
— Normal matter outside stars: ~ 3.8%
• Dark matter: ~ 22%
• Dark energy: ~ 74%
Spiral galaxies all tend to have flat rotation curves
indicating large amounts of dark matter.
The visible
portion of a
galaxy lies
deep in the
heart of a
large halo of
dark matter.
 Two Basic Options

• Ordinary Dark Matter (MACHOS)

— Massive Compact Halo Objects:
dead or failed stars in halos of galaxies

The
• Extraordinary Dark Matter (WIMPS) Best
— Weakly Interacting Massive Particles: Bet
mysterious neutrino-like particles