Final section Flashcards
Galileo and the early days
Galileo saw individual stars in the milky way
–could everything that was seen though telescopes be part of the milky way? - was milky way actually the entire universe?
Nebula
Planetary nebula, supernova remnants, dark nebula, emission nebula, reflection nebula
In mid-1880s there was another class of nebula examined
Looked at a set of nebula catalogued by William Herschel
-these were strange objects with a spiral shape - became known as SPIRAL NEBULA
Two camps about spiral nebula
Lord rose
-followed Immanuel Kant’s idea of “island universe’ far beyond the Milky way - not very well accepted
Others
-spiral nebula were just another form of nebula in the milky way - more accepted view
caused a major division in astronomy
Debate into the 1920s
April 1920 - National academy of science in Washington DC held a meeting to settle the debate
- –known as the Shapley-curtis debate
- –two astronomers invited to debate the subject
Harlow Shapley
- –young astronomer
- –famous for his recent determination of the size of the milky way (100,000 lightyears)
- –thought spiral nebula were small objects scattered around inside the milky way
- -similar to globular clusters that he had studied
Heber Curtis
- –older, experience astronomer
- –believed in the island universe model
- –said the spiral nebula were large rotating systems of stars far away from the milky way
Entrance of Edwin Hubble
Hubble was a lawyer by trade
- -left his law practice to follow love of astronomy
- –studied in Chicago then Cali
- –1823 he examined the largest of the spiral nebula, the Andromeda Nebula
From two separate photographs he thought he had found a nova
- upon further examination he found that the object was actually a cepheid variable
- –over next few months he found several cepheids
- –knew of the work of Henrietta Leavitt on Cepheids in the SMC
- –discovery of Cepheids inM31
Distance of M31
Hubble used the period-luminosity relation to find the absolute magnitude of the cepheids
- today we know he used the wrong relation - Leavitt had only one relation for all cepheids
- but there are two separate period-luminosity relations
- -however his results were close enough
Current number put M31 at 2.2 million lightyears
- this was far beyond the size of the milky way determined by Shapley
- the debate was ended
Spiral nebula to spiral galaxies
Spiral nebula are now known as spiral galaxies
- Of which the milky way is just one
- there are now known to be billions of galaxies in the universe
The earth’s place in the milky way
What is earths place in the universe - as usual earth stars at the center of things
- –for a long time the sun was thought to be at the center of the milky way
- –story beings in 1780s with William Herschel (who discovered Uranus)
The earth’s place in the milky way
What is earths place in the universe - as usual earth stars at the center of things
—for a long time the sun was thought to be at the center of the milky way
Story beings in 1780s with William Herschel (who discovered Uranus)
- –to find center of Milky way Herschel counted stars in different directions
- –selected 683 regions around the sky
- –he believed that the highest concentration of stars would be toward the center
- –his date was almost completely constant over all 683 regions
- –therefore he concluded that the sun was the center of the milky way
Kapteyn’s attempt
Jacobus Kapteyn was dutch astronomer
- –he studied the brightness and proper motion of a large set of stars
- –he concluded that the milky way was 55,000 lightyears in size with the sun at the center
- –we now know BOTH men were WRONG
- the reason why didn’t become clear until 1930s
Trumpler’s discovery
1930 Robert Trumpler was studying star clusters
- –he noticed that some clusters appeared fainter than they should have
- –he rightly concluded that space is not a perfect vacuum and is filled was dust and gas which scatters light
- –this scattering called INTERSTELLAR EXTINCTION
- –this extinction meant that Herschel and Kapteyn were only seeing the local stars
The globular clusters
in 1910s Harlow Shapley looked out of the plane to see the globular clusters
Shapley and the globular clusters
in 1910s Harlow Shapley looked out of the plane to see the globular clusters
- -he found RR Lyrae variables which he felt were just another type of Cepheid
- -he used the absolute magnitude of stars on the horizontal branch to find the distance of 93 globular clusters
- -the clusters were not centered on the earth
Shapley found that the globular clusters were centered around a point in the direction of Sagittarius
- -this he correct concluded was the center of the milky way
- –some of the clusters were around 100,000 lightyears from the sun therefore he concluded this was the size of the milky way
- -now we need to examine the overall shape of the milky way
Infrared observations
Used to study the location of interstellar dust
- starlight heats the dust to 10 to 90 K
- a blackbody of this temp emits strongest in the far infrared
- in 1983 the IRAS (infrared astronomical satellite) scanned the sky in the far infrared
- in 1990 the COBE satellite scanned the sky in the near-infrared to see the stars
Size of the Milky way (disk, central bulge, halo)
Parts of the milky way:
Disk
—between 100,000 and 160,00 lightyears in diameter
—up to 3000 lightyears thick
central bulge
- -around the nucleus
- –6500 lightyears in diameter
Halo
—the globular clusters trace out the halo population
The halo
This is the spherical distribution of older stars
- old, metal-poor, pop II stars
- cooler stars, so Halo is more reddish in color
- -globular clusters contain only 1% of halo stars
- -most of halo is individual stars - orbit in paths tilted at random angles - from our perspective they are moving at high speeds - therefore they are called high-velocity stars - in reality we are the high-velocity star
The bulge region
This is a region in the center of the milky way
- contains both Pop I and Pop II stars
- appears reddish bc it contains many red giants and red supergiants
- the bulge is slightly peanut shaped which might suggest that the milky way is a barred spiral
The disk
Home of the sun at about 26,000 lightyears from the nucleus
- these are all pop I stars
- this region appears blueish bc of the hot O and B stars that are found in the disk
- since we have O and B stars the disk must be a younger pop of stars
- there must also be current star formation occurring in the disk
More than one disk
The thick disk
- –more metal rich stars than halo
- -3000 lightyears thick
- -faster moving stars
the thin disk
- -most metal rich stars
- -1000 lightyears thick
A closer look at the disk
We know the disk has current star formation
- this implies clouds of hydrogen gas
- we can’t find this gas in the optical, but we can look to radio astronomy
- we use the 21 cm line to find cold clouds of hydrogen gas
- this 21 cm line is created by a spin flop of the electron in the hydrogen atom
- the slight diff in energy is emitted as 21 cm radiation
The spiral of arms
Traces of the 21 cm line show the milky way to be a spiral galaxy
we find four major spiral arms in the milky way
- –the sagittarius arm
- -the centaurus arm
- –the cygnys arm
- -the perseus arm
- ——side arm is called the Orion arm - sun is on a little extension of the orion arm
The spiral of arms
Traces of the 21 cm line show the milky way to be a spiral galaxy
we find four major spiral arms in the milky way
- –the sagittarius arm
- -the centaurus arm
- –the cygnys arm
- -the perseus arm
- ——side arm is called the Orion arm - sun is on a little extension of the orion arm
Galaxy rotation
In a solid body rotation the outer part rotates with a higher velocity than the inside
- for orbits that obey Kepler’s law the outside star orbit with a slow velocity
- -observations show that stars near the sun all orbit at the same velocity
- —–this means stars inside move around much quicker
Galaxy rotation
In a solid body rotation the outer part rotates with a higher velocity than the inside
- for orbits that obey Kepler’s law the outside star orbit with a slow velocity
- -observations show that stars near the sun all orbit at the same velocity
- —–this means stars inside move around much quicker