PHYS3080

Distance Ladder Project Report

Mathew Bonanno 42346324 Group members: Matthew Crank, Aqeel Akber, and Muhamad Norazman Abd Rahman

Table of Contents
ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................................... 1 GALAXIES IN THE UNIVERSE ....................................................................................................... 2 CONSTRUCTING THE DISTANCE LADDER .......................................................................................................2 PROPERTIES OF THE GALAXIES IN THE UNIVERSE .......................................................................................3 Types of Galaxies present .......................................................................................................................... 3 Sizes of Galaxies............................................................................................................................................. 4 Mass to Light Ratios .................................................................................................................................... 4 Dark Matter..................................................................................................................................................... 4 Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram................................................................................................................. 5 THE COSMOLOGICAL PRINCIPLE ............................................................................................... 6 ISOTROPY AND HOMOGENEITY ........................................................................................................................6 THE AGE OF OUR UNIVERSE ........................................................................................................ 6 THE FUTURE FOR OUR UNIVERSE ............................................................................................. 7 APPENDIX .......................................................................................................................................... 8

Abstract
This report will cover the discoveries made about the galaxy we reside in. It will cover topics such as constructing the distance ladder, where it is revealed that nearby galaxies are as close as 300pc and as far away as 2000pc, whilst the fuzzy objects are shown to be 104 pc up to 6x105 pc. The typical properties of the galaxies in our universe are also discussed, as well as the presence of dark matter. Both spiral and elliptical galaxies were found, and the spiral galaxies were found to have radii between 30-170pc. We also found mass to light ratios of several galaxies, and all exceeded 16M/L (in solar units), implying the presence of a significant amount of dark matter in our universe. The cosmological principle is also covered, as well as an estimation of the age of our universe, and its possible future. We found that our universe indeed follows the cosmological principle - that the expansion is homogeneous and isotropic and we calculated the age of the universe to be approximately 280 million years.

Galaxies in the Universe

Constructing the Distance Ladder
Our first priority for this project was to construct a distance ladder in order to allow us to properly calculate distances to stars and galaxies alike, as an in depth analysis of galaxies is dependent on the knowledge of distances between galactic objects. The first rung on the distance ladder is stellar parallax. This is a method by which the distance to a star is found by noting its position against the static background in the sky at two opposite points on New Earths orbit around the sun. By measuring this angular shift of the star against the backdrop of the universe we can find the distance to the star by using the relationship:

d=

Where d is the distance to the star, and the symbol represents the angular change in the stars position between the two times of measurement. The double prime denotes that the measurements are taken in arcseconds. This simple relation allows us to calculate distances up to ~10 parsecs. At distances greater than this the angular change in the stars position becomes too small to measure accurately. The next step in the construction of the ladder was to identify the Cepheids that were present in the Universe. They were categorized by the length of their pulsation period. (Completed by Matthew Crank) After the identification of these Cepheids, distances could be calculated to these stars via the parallax method, for the Cepheids that had a parallax angle of greater than 0.01 arcseconds (angles for which the error in the measurements was less than 10%). Once the distances to these close Cepheids were known, their luminosity could be calculated from their measured flux and the newly calculated distance to them via the relationship

1 ''

F=

With F as the sum of the measured fluxes, L the luminosity of the star, and R as calculated via the stellar parallax method. Once their luminosities were calculated, we could construct a plot of the period of a Cepheid against the Luminosity of the Cepheid in order to find a relationship between these two properties of the stars. (Completed by Muhamad Norazman Abd Rahman). The results showed that we had two well defined types of Cepheids, those with a pulsation period of roughly 20hrs and those with a pulsation period of ~65 hours. Both types had very well defined luminosities associated with them. There were vastly more Cepheids in the second group (about 4 times as many) so only Cepheids with this period were used as our standard candle. Cepheids 23 with a period of ~65hrs were found to have a total luminosity of 3.8 10 W . Using this fact we could then calibrate the distances to other nearby galaxies by locating 65hr period Cepheids that were present in them, and using the same flux-luminosity relationship in order to find the distances to the Cepheids. The distance to the galaxy could then be approximated as the average distance to the Cepheids in the galaxy.

L 4 R

The next and final rung in the distance ladder was finding a means to measure distances to the fuzzy objects that were present in the cameras. These objects were found to be clusters of galaxies. A method similar to the one used for the Cepheids was used to find the distances to these objects. The calibration made use of the X-ray sources in the universe. First, there were assumptions that were made in order to progress further with the distance ladder. The first assumption was that all of the X-ray sources were of the same intrinsic brightness. This seems like a rather unrealistic assumption initially, but with such a limited number of X-ray sources in the universe it seems reasonable to assume that the sources only form from a very particular process, or set of conditions. Following this train of thought it does not seem unrealistic to think that all of these sources, if they are indeed all the same type of object, will have very similar values of intrinsic brightness. The next assumption that was made was that the number of X-ray photons collected by the camera is proportional to the luminosity of the object. This is a far more logical assumption to make. Finally, to actually start calculating the final rung in the distance ladder, an X-ray source was found in a nearby galaxy (one that we had already calculated the distance to via the Cepheid period-luminosity relationship). After finding the approximate distance to the source, we could then use the ratio of photon counts between this X-ray source and a second source with a smaller count. The theory behind this process is as follows:

N photons F

N1 F1 L1 4 R 2 2 = = N 2 F2 L2 4 R12
2 N1 R2 = 2 N 2 R1

In this set of equations, the assumption of equal luminosities allows the cancellation of the luminosity ratio, L1/L2. So, from the ratio of the photon counts we can calculate the distance to a second X-ray source. Using this method distances all the way out to the furthest fuzzy objects that contained X-ray sources can be found. (Completed by Aqeel Akber and Matthew Crank) Upon completion of the distance ladder we can say that nearby galaxies are up to ~2000pc away, whilst the fuzzy objects range from ~0.05-0.6 Mpc. So we can say the size of the observable universe is approximately 0.6Mpc in radius.

Properties of the Galaxies in the Universe

Types of Galaxies present
In order to determine the nature of the nearby galaxies, a plot of the Doppler shifts of the galaxies was completed. It showed quite obviously the presence of both spiral galaxies and elliptical galaxies. The spiral galaxies had quite prominent disks, and once these spiral galaxies were identified it allowed further analysis into their properties specifically.

Sizes of Galaxies
From the distance ladder, it was simply a small exercise in trigonometry to calculate the absolute size of the nearby galaxies in our universe. There were inescapable uncertainties, however, in these calculations. The method used to find the size of these galaxies involved measuring their angular size (which typically involved little error), and then using trigonometry to calculate the linear size of the galaxy based on the angle and its distance from us. The distance to a given galaxy was estimated by the average distance to 65hr period Cepheids that appeared to reside within the galaxy. This distance approximation is where the large error creeps into the method, because whilst we can accurately determine the distance to a given Cepheid, there is no guarantee that the average distance to the Cepheids in a particular galaxy is a good indication of the distance to the galaxy itself, especially when the galaxies are quite close (500-1500pc). Because of the (relatively) small distances involved, the size of the galaxy is almost comparable to the distance to the galaxy. This results in a large uncertainty in the exact sizes of the galaxies, but the values presented are accurate enough to provide a decent idea of the average size of the nearby galaxies. The sizes of galaxies in our universe were quite small. Typically they had radii around ~70pc, but some had radii as low as 30pc while some were as large as 120pc.

Mass to Light Ratios

Once the absolute sizes of the galaxies were found, it was relatively easy to create the rotation curves for the spiral galaxies that were close to edge-on from our point of view. Taking the average radial velocity of a given galaxy and subtracting it from the radial velocities of the stars in the galaxy gave the rotational velocity of the stars in the galaxy. This simply has the effect of separating the rotational component of the radial velocity from the component of the radial velocity that arises from any motion the galaxy might have towards or away from us. Once this was calculated, a plot of the rotational velocity against the orbital radii of the stars was constructed. This analysis was completed for every nearby galaxy that was close to being edge-on in our universe. (Completed by Matthew Crank and myself, example plots contained within the appendix) Once these plots were completed, it was possible to calculate the mass to light ratios for the galaxies we had analyzed. Keplers laws state that the orbital speed of an object about a central mass is proportional to the square of the rotational velocity times the orbital radius, i.e.:

m=

( v(R))2 R
G

Using this formula and the aforementioned rotation curve, we could deduce the outermost star in the galaxy and its approximate rotational velocity. From this we could find the mass inside the stars orbit, or, in other words, the mass of the galaxy. Given the mass of a galaxy and its luminosity, we can determine the mass to luminosity ratio, a value that can show interesting aspects of the galaxy. We found mass to light ratios ranging from ~16-120M/L (in solar units). These values are quite large, and as such they imply that there is a very large proportion of matter in the galaxy that is not emitting light of any sort.

Dark Matter
The discoveries in the previous section naturally lead to the question of whether or not dark matter exists in our universe. The answer to this question is most likely. With such high values of the mass to luminosity ratios, we can reasonably expect that the extra mass present in the universe is dark matter. There is simply too much matter that can

not be accounted for in terms of star mass, and so we naturally expect there is a relatively large amount of dark matter present in our universe.

Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
In order to gain knowledge of the composition of galaxies in our universe, we created Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams for some sample galaxies. They showed the typical main sequence of stars, as well as some white dwarf stars, and also many stars on the instability strip of the diagram. An example diagram is shown below:

H-R diagram
0 0 -2 -4 -6 -8 -10 -12 -14 Log(Luminosity) Log(Blue Ilux/Total Ilux) -0.2 -0.4 -0.6 -0.8 -1 -1.2 -1.4 -1.6

The two colours on the plot represent two sets of stars. The first (red) are the stars with a parallax of greater than 0.01, whilst the blue are all the other stars. (Completed by Matthew Crank)

The Cosmological Principle

The cosmological principle states that an expanding universe should expand both isotropically and homogeneously; isotropy refers to the expansion being constant regardless of the direction you are looking in, and homogeneity refers to the expansion being constant at every point in the universe. So, the cosmological principle states that the expansion of the universe should be constant at every point in space, and in every direction in space.

Isotropy and Homogeneity

Our universe was determined to follow the cosmological principle. Once the distances to the fuzzies were known (Calculated by Matthew Crank and Aqeel Akber) we could easily construct a Hubble diagram (Completed by myself). This diagram is a plot of the distance to a fuzzy object (regardless of which camera it was in) against its radial velocity. The plot is shown below:

Radial Velocity against the Distance to Fuzzy objects

2500 Radial velocity 2000 1500 1000 500 0 -500 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 Distance (Mpc) 0.5 0.6 0.7 y = 3450.9x - 15.79

There were three fuzzy objects that were clear outliers, and they were removed from the plot in order to get a better fit for the points that clearly followed a linear trend. As the plot shows, there is an incredibly strong correlation between a fuzzy objects distance from us and its radial velocity away from us. This gives us a Hubble constant of ~3450.9 This is the evidence that visibly shows that our universe is expanding isotropically and homogeneously. This is obvious from the strong linear fit. Since the points were taken from every camera and because of the fit, we can suppose that the expansion is the same in every direction. The plot itself shows that the expansion is constant with distance, and by these two observations we know the expansion will be constant at every point in space.

The Age of our Universe

The Hubble diagram also gives us one more interesting piece of information: it allows us to approximate the age of the universe assuming a constant expansion. The gradient of this plot is essentially units of inverse time. By taking the inverse of the gradient we can find the approximate age of the universe. The gradient is shown on the plot above.

m[kms 1 Mpc 1 ] = 3450.9 1 Mpcs 1 = m km 3450.9 Mpc 3 1019 km s 3 10 7 year

This small calculation tells us that the age of the universe is approximately 280 million years, which seems quite reasonable given the distance to the farthest fuzzy objects and their current radial velocities. This assumes that the expansion of the universe has remained approximately constant over its whole lifetime, which appears to be a reasonable assumption, however we are unsure as to how valid the assumption is. (Completed by myself)

1 = 2.8 10 4 1012 [years] = 2.8 10 8 [years] m

The Future for our Universe

Assuming the expansion of our universe remains constant, and that it has remained so up until now, we can formally state that our universe began with a big bang about 280 million years ago, and it should continue to expand indefinitely at its current rate.

Appendix
This table shows the characteristics that were determined about the spiral galaxies present in our galaxy. (The ones close to edge on) Galaxy Mass (kg) Luminosity ~Radius (pc) Mass/Luminosity M/L (Solar name (W) (kg/W) units) BA03 6.4e34 1.1e29 75 1.29e6 116 BE04 6.9e34 1.3e29 60 4.98e5 99 RD05 2.5e34 3.1e29 60 8.10e4 16 RC05 5e34 2.1e29 40 2.33e5 37 RA05 1.0e35 5.2e29 55 1.96e5 31 FC01 5.8e34 2.7e29 110 2.7e5 42 FE03/4 1.4e35 3.7e29 50 3.8e5 59

What follows is an example rotation curve for a particular galaxy:

Rotation Curve for nearby galaxy RC05

60

50

Radial Velocity (km/s)

40

30

20

10

0 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50

Distance from the centre of the Galaxy (Parsecs)