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Chapter 17: The stars Red Giants and White Dwarfs

The Solar Neighborhood: Stars

Lecture 22 Chapter 17: The Stars

Lecture 22

17.1 The Solar Neighborhood

Chapter 17: The Stars

Naming the

Remember that stellar distances can be measured using parallax:

Luminosity and Apparent Brightness More on the Magnitude Scale Stellar Temperatures Stellar Sizes: Estimating Stellar Radii The HertzsprungRussell Diagram Extending the Cosmic Distance Scale Stellar Masses Mass and Other Stellar Properties
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distance (in parsecs) =

1 parallax ( in arc seconds)

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Lecture 22

Exercise 1:
A) Show that 1 pc is equivalent to:
=206,265 A.U =3.1x1013 km. =3.3 light year

Chapter 17: The Stars

Stellar motion:
Actual motion of the Alpha Centauri complex:

Lecture 22 Chapter 17: The Stars

B) Nearest star to the Sun: Proxima Centauri, which is a member of a 3-star system: Alpha Centauri complex. If alpha-centauri is 0.77 arc second parallax. Show that it is located at: = 1.3 pc; = 270,000 A.U. ; =4.3 ly

Which components of star velocity we can measure? How?

All stars are in relative motion with respect to each other.

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Stellar motion:
Next nearest neighbor: Barnards Star. (its
parallax is 0.55 arc second. Then how many parsecs=?)

Lecture 22 Chapter 17: The Stars

Lecture 22

Exercise 2:

Chapter 17: The Stars

Barnards Star has the largest proper motion of any proper motion is the actual shift of the star in the sky, after correcting for parallax. These pictures were taken 22 years apart:

1) Barnard star has a parallax of 0.55 arc seconds and was observed to move 228 arc seconds in 22 years. (1ly = 9.5x1012 km) A) Calculate its proper motion in arc seconds/year. B) Calculate its transverse velocity (km/s) 2) Alpha centauris proper motion has been measured to be 3.7/yr. At a distance of 1.35 pc, A) calculate its transverse velocity B) By means of doppler effect, spectral lines of centauri are shifted by 0.0067%. Calculate its radial velocity. C) Determine the true spatial motion of centauri
5 Answers: 1) 10.4/yr, 91 km/s 2). 24 km/s, 20 km/s, 31 km/s 6

Inverse square law:

Lecture 22 Chapter 17: The Stars

Exercise 3:
1.

Lecture 22 Chapter 17: The Stars

2.

3.

If Proton is separated from an electron by distance d, it is attracted by electric force F. How much the new distance between proton and electron so that the force F is reduced by 3.5 times. Calculate the intensity of suns radiation on Venus (0.723 A.U) or solar energy flux in W/m 2. Use luminosity of Sun 4x1026 W. Two identical light bulb of 60W each are placed one at 5 m and the other at 10 m. Determine how many times does the intensity decrease by the farthest one.

Answers: 1) 1.87 d, 7

2) 2680 W/m 2,

3) 4 times 8

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17.2 Luminosity and Apparent Brightness

Lecture 22 Chapter 17: The Stars

Luminosity, L, or absolute brightness, is a measure of the total power radiated by a star. Apparent brightness, l, is how bright a star appears when viewed from Earth; it depends on the absolute brightness but also on the distance of the star:

Therefore, two stars that appear equally bright might be a closer, dimmer star and a farther, brighter one:

Lecture 22 Chapter 17: The Stars

Two stars A & B, with luminosities 2 and 6 times the luminosity of the Sun, respectively are observed here on Earth to have same brightness. Which star is further and by how much?
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If we know a stars apparent brightness or magnitude and its distance from us, we can calculate its absolute luminosity.

Lecture 22 Chapter 17: The Stars

17.3 Stellar Temperatures

Lecture 22 Chapter 17: The Stars

Apparent luminosity is measured using a magnitude scale, which is related to our perception. It is a logarithmic scale; a change of 5 in magnitude corresponds to a change of a factor of 100 in apparent brightness. It is also inverted larger magnitudes are dimmer.
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The color of a star is indicative of its temperature: Red stars are relatively cool, while blue ones are hotter.
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Lecture 22 Chapter 17: The Stars

Lecture 22 Chapter 17: The Stars

O & B - stars are bluesh, they are luminous and they are hottest with surface temperature 20,000 degree and more, Rigel & Mintaka

A - stars are bluesh-white less hot with surface temperature The radiation from stars is blackbody radiation; as the blackbody curve is not symmetric, observations at two wavelengths are enough to define the temperature:
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around 10,000 degree like Vega & Sirius F - stars white-yellowesh and less hot with surface temperature around 7000 like Canopus G - stars are yellowesh with surface temperature around 6000 like our Sun & alpha-centauri K & M - stars are quite cooler with surface temperature range 14 3000 to 5000 K like Betelguese & Barnard star.

Lecture 22 Chapter 17: The Stars

17.3 Stellar Temperatures

Lecture 22 Chapter 17: The Stars

Spectral classes
Here are their spectra:

Characteristics of the spectral classifications:

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17.3 Stellar Temperatures

Lecture 22 Chapter 17: The Stars

17.4 Stellar Sizes

Lecture 22 Chapter 17: The Stars

Stellar spectra are much more informative than the blackbody curves. There are seven general categories of stellar spectra, corresponding to different temperatures. From highest to lowest, those categories are: OBAFGKM Ooh! Be A Fine Girl Kiss
Me

For the vast majority of stars that cannot be imaged directly, size must be calculated knowing the luminosity and temperature:

Giant stars have radii between 10 and 100 times the Suns. Dwarf stars have radii equal to, or less than, the Suns. Supergiant stars have radii more than 100 times the Suns.

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17.4 Stellar Sizes

Lecture 22 Chapter 17: The Stars

More Precisely 17-2: Estimating Stellar Radii

Lecture 22 Chapter 17: The Stars

Stellar radii vary widely:

Combining the Stefan-Boltzmann law for the power per unit area emitted by a blackbody as a function of temperature with the formula for the area of a sphere gives the total luminosity:
(S.I. formula)

If we measure luminosity, radius, and temperature in solar units, we can write

L = R2 T4
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(ratio formula in solar units)

Solar units L = 3.91026 W, R = 6.96105 km , T = 5800 K 20

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Exercise 4: Calculating Stellar Size

2 4

Lecture 22 Chapter 17: The Stars

17.1 The Solar Neighborhood

The 30 closest stars to the Sun:

Lecture 22 Chapter 17: The Stars

L (in solar luminosities) = R ( in solar radius) T ( in units of 5800K).

Radius of Sun: 700,000 km
1.

Luminosity of the Sun= 4 1026 W

2.

Aldebaran has luminosity 1.287x1029 W and effective temperature 4000 K. a) Calculate Stellar radius (38 R) b) indicate the position of Aldebaran in the H-R diagram (Fig 17.14 & 17.15). What kind of star is it: main sequence, red giant, blue giant, dwarf? c) surface temperature of Aldebaran is less than the Sun, but it is much more luminous! Explain. Sirius B has luminosity 9.75x1024 W and temperature 27260 K. Calculate its radius. (0.01R) What kind of star is it?
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Model of distances: Sun is a marble, Earth is a grain of sand orbiting 2 m away Nearest star is another marble around 500 km away (as far as Toronto) Solar system extends about 100 m from Sun; rest of distance to nearest star is basically empty
Using the parallax techniques astronomers can measure up to 30 pc (100 ly) on Earth and using Satellites up to 200 pc. Even so, the vast majority of stars 22 in our Galaxy are far more distant.

17.1 The Solar Neighborhood

Naming stars:

Lecture 22 Chapter 17: The Stars

Lecture 22

17.1 The Solar Neighborhood

Chapter 17: The Stars

Brightest stars were known to, and named by, the ancients (Procyon by greeks, Beleguese by arabs and many other names like Rigel (the foot), aldebaran (the follower), deneb (the tail)etc) In 1604, stars within a constellation were ranked in order of brightness, and labeled with Greek letters (Alpha Centauri, Beta orion)= Bayer scheme In the early 18th century, stars were numbered from west to east in a constellation (61 Cygni)= Flamsteed catalog

As more and more stars were discovered, different naming schemes were developed like Henry Drapper catalog HD and smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory catalog SAO. However, there are confusion of naming and some overlap. Like Betelguese is known as 58 Ori (flamsteed), alpha Orion (Bayer), and also HD39801 and SAO 113271. Now, new stars are simply labeled by their celestial coordinates

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