Astronomy Flashcards
Karl Schwarzschild
-radius at which a stat would become “dark”
John Michell
- a large enough mass in a small enough space would result in a dark star
- escape velocity > c
Georges LeMaitre
- father of Big Bang theory
- backwards thinking
- universe originated at one point
- packed in a very small point
Event horizon
How close you can get before light can’t escape
What’s inside the event horizon?
Newton: very dense mass
Relativity: Spacetime collapses to a singularity
Closest star to earth
Proxima Centauri
Most common stars
Red dwarf
Low atmospheric pressure is what type of star
Giant
Sun spectral class
G2
False colour image
An image in visible light so we can see it
Brown dwarf
Failed star
- low temp
- like Jupiter
- star w/o fusion
Solar cycle
- 11 years
- solar max/min
- driven by magnetic field
- variation in solar activity
Pulsar
- fast spin
- forces charged particles to travel magnetic field
- neutron star
General relativity
Gravity = acceleration
-Spacetime + curves/dips
Special relativity
Speed of light is constant
Everything else adjusts (time dilation and length contraction)
Blue straggler
Young blue star in old globular cluster
Binary star
Pair of stars orbiting each other
Globular cluster
Blob of stars close together
Cepheid variable stars
- change brightness
- gas pressure builds up = star expands
- pressure released = star contracts
Speed of light in a vacuum
300 000km/s
Type 1a supernova
- white dwarf sucks H (g) from companion
- gains so much mass its unstable
- explodes
Proof of Big Bang theory
CMB
Abundance of H, He, Li
Universe is expanding (hubble’s law)
Structure of universe and galaxies
Hubble’s law
All galaxies are moving away from us
Farthest galaxies are moving the fastest
Big Bang theory
Universe originated at a single point
Black holes
Singularity
Event horizon
Light can’t escape
Singularity
Point of infinite density
-maybe stopped with quantum mechanics
Fusion (main sequence)
H-> He
Medium mass star life
Nebula Blue giant Main sequence ~10 billion years~ Red giant White dwarf + planetary nebula Black dwarf (theory)
Giant star life
Nebula Blue giant ~10 million years~ (H, He, C, O, Si, Fe) BOOM -neutron star -black hole
Dwarf star life
Nebula Blue giant Red dwarf ~100 billion years~ White dwarf Black dwarf (theory)
How do we know how old the universe is?
- Radioisotopes (half lives)
2. Nuclear fusion (know what should be there, compare to what’s actually there)
Parsec (in LY)
3.258LY
Parallax
ApParent shift in position because earth moves
Farther = smaller parallax
1 LY in km
- 5x10^12
9. 5 trillion