Topic E1: Introduction to the universe Night Sky

E1 Introduction to the universe: night sky

On a clear night, you can see around 5000 celestial objects in the night sky. Almost all objects you see by naked eye belong to our home galaxy Milky Way. You can see the Moon, stars, constellations, planets, galaxies, and satellites on the night sky (and, if you are lucky, comets, shooting stars). As the Earth rotates around its axis, celestial stars, constellations, and planets move on the sky (Topic E1.5 diurnal motion, see ESAs simulation diurnal motion). As the Earth revolves around the Sun, stars and constellations change their place on the sky (Topic E1.5 annual eects, see ESAs simulation annual eects).

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Topic E1: Introduction to the universe Constellations

E1 Introduction to the universe: constellations

A stellar constellation is a group of stars that appear to form a pattern in the night sky. 88 of constellations have special names such as Hercules, Orion and Ursa major. Stars in a constellation seem to be close to each other as viewed from the Earth, but usually they are not. Denition of Constellation A constellation is a group of stars in the sky that appear to be near to each other, but in reality are not.
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Topic E1: Introduction to the universe Stars

Topic E1: Stars

Star A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. Because the stars appear to form a sphere around the Earth, the night sky is called the Celestial Sphere. In reality there is no sphere, and the stars are actually at dierent distances from the Earth. All of the stars visible to the naked eye in the night sky belong to our home galaxy the Milky Way. On a clear night at autumn time in Jyvskyl, you may see the Milky Way as a faint band of the most distant stars extending over the sky.

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Topic E1: Introduction to the universe Stars

Topic E1: Formation of Stars

Stars were formed in the early universe, and are still formed, from molecular clouds in interstellar space. Gravity pulls the matter particles in a molecular closer to each other. When enough matter has concentrated, the pressure and temperature of matter rise, and a protostar is formed. A protostar is an early stage in the evolution of a star. It is mostly made of hydrogen plasma, and its surface temperature varies in the range of 3000 K to 4000 K. When the temperature and pressure of a protostar rise high enough, hydrogen fusion starts at the core of the protostar. A new star is born. It is possible that instead of one, even hundreds of thousands of stars are formed from the same molecular cloud.
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Topic E1: Introduction to the universe Stellar Clusters

Topic E1: Stellar Clusters

Denition of Stellar Cluster A stellar cluster is a group of stars that are physically near to each other in space. Stellar clusters are systems of stars that are held together by gravity. Some of the nearest stellar clusters, such as the Pleiades and Hyades in the constellation of Taurus, are visible to the naked eye. Open clusters are loosely clustered groups of stars, which usually contain fewer than a few hundred stars. They are often very young. Globular clusters are tightly bound groups of hundreds of thousands of very old stars. There are about 150 globular clusters in the Milky Way. Because globular clusters were born in the early universe, they may used in the estimation of the lower boundary of the age of the universe.
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Topic E2: Stellar radiation and stellar types

Topic E 2.1: Stellar radiation energy source

A star radiates an enormous amount of energy every second to all directions in space. Most of the energy is radiated as electromagnetic radiation, but also particles such as protons and electrons are emitted. In a main sequence star such as the Sun, the energy released is a result of nuclear fusion reactions inside the star, where hydrogen nuclei fuse into helium in a process called proton-proton cycle. In a stable star, there is an equilibrium between outward radiation pressure and inward gravitational pressure.

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Topic E2: Stellar radiation and stellar types

Topic E 2.2: Black body

To understand the radiation properties of stars, we rst need to study the physics of black bodies. Denition of black body A black body is an ideal object which absorbs and emits electromagnetic radiation at all wavelengths. A black body is an ideal emitter of radiation. Usually, they are not black. The name refers to the capacity of receiving and emitting all wavelengths of radiation. An important property of black bodies is that their emitted energy spectrum depends only on the temperature of the object, not on the material. This is known as the black body radiation. Stars, and many other real objects, are nearly black bodies.
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Topic E2: Stellar radiation and stellar types

Topic E 2.2: Black body spectrum

Figure 1. Experimental blackbody spectrum for temperatures 3000 K, 4000 K ja 5000 K, and the one predicted by classical physics (from Wikimedia Commons).
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Topic E2: Stellar radiation and stellar types

Topic E 2.2: Black body spectrum

Figure 1. The peak intensity shifts to the left (wavelength decreases) as the surface temperature increases. At the same time, the intensity graph gets narrower, and the width of the peak decreases (from Wikimedia Commons).
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Topic E2: Stellar radiation and stellar types

Black Body Radiation

If you look at constellation Orion on a clear winter night, you see stars Betelquese and Rigel. As you can see, Betelquese appears reddish and Rigel bluish. The colours of the stars can be understood in terms of black-body radiation. As the surface temperature of a star changes, the colour of the star changes as well.

Figure : Constellation Orion.

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Topic E2: Stellar radiation and stellar types

Topic E 2.3: Luminosity

Stefans Boltzmanns Law states that the total energy radiated per unit surface area of a black body per unit time, is directly proportional to the fourth power of the temperature of a black body. Denition of Luminosity Luminosity of a star is the energy the star radiates per one second. The luminosity of a star is directly proportional to the surface temperature T , and surface area A of the star.

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Topic E2: Stellar radiation and stellar types

Topic E 2.3: Luminosity

Luminosity The luminosity of a star is
L = AT 4

(1)

where = 5.67 108 W m2 K4 is the Stefan-Bolzmann constant, T is the surface temperature of the star in kelvins, and A is the surface area of the star. The luminosity of a star is the radiation power of the star. The unit of luminosity is 1 W (1 watt). Luminosity does not depend on the material constituents of a star, only its temperature and surface area.

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Topic E2: Stellar radiation and stellar types

Topic E 2.4: Brightness

Since stars are spherical, we may assume that they emit electromagnetic radiation uniformly to all directions in space. Far enough from a star, the star can be regarded as a point-like source of spherical waves. The radiated energy is spread uniformly on the sphere of surface area A = 4d 2, where d is the distance to the star. We can measure the incident radiation power P from a star in a laboratory. If a detector has a surface area a , then the radiation power received by the detector is
a a L. P = L = 2 A 4 d

assuming that there are no energy losses as radiation travels through space to the detector.
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Topic E2: Stellar radiation and stellar types

Topic E 2.4: Brightness (cont.)

Denition of apparent brightness b The apparent brightness of a star is the radiation power per unit area of detector. Apparent brightness b The apparent brightness of a star is
L b= 4 d 2 where L is the luminosity of the star, and d the distance to the star.

(2)

The unit of apparent brightness is 1 W m2. The apparent brightness of a star gives the received radiation energy per second per unit area of detector.

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Topic E2: Stellar radiation and stellar types

Surface Temperature and Color of a Star

According to Wiens displacement law, the surface temperature of a star T can be determined from its electromagnetic spectrum. The intensity of the radiation peaks at the wavelength max from which the surface temperature of the star can be calculated. As the surface temperature increases, the intensity maximum shifts towards smaller wavelengths. As a result, hotter stars appear bluish, and cooler stars appear reddish. For example, Betelguese and Riel are stars in constellation Orion. Rigel appears blue because it is a blue super giant with surface temperature of 12100 K. Its apparent magnitude is m = 0.12 (sixth brightest star). Betelguese appears red, because it is a red giant with surface temperature of 3500 K. It is one of the largest and most luminous stars known. Its apparent magnitude is m = 0.42 (eight brightest star).
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E3: Stellar distances E3: Magnitude scale

Apparent Magnitude m
The Greek astronomer Hipparchus (190 BCE - 120 BCE) classied stars into six classes from 1 (brightest) to 6 (barely visible) according to how bright each star appeared in the sky. This old classication by Hipparchus is the basis for the modern classication of stars according to their apparent magnitude. Denition of Apparent Magnitude Apparent magnitude of a celestial body is a measure of its brightness as measured by an observer on Earth. The apparent magnitude depends on the intrinsic luminosity of the star, and distance to it. A low luminosity star closer to Earth may appear brighter than a high luminosity star further away from the Earth.
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E3: Stellar distances E3: Magnitude scale

Apparent Magnitude m (cont.)

Apparent magnitude scale is constructed such that a magnitude 1 star is 100 times brighter than a magnitude 6 star. As a result, two successive magnitude classes correspond to the ratio of 1001/5 2.512 in respective apparent brightnesses. For example, if star A has an apparent magnitude of m = 2, and star B has an apparent magnitude of m = 3, the apparent brightness of star A is b A = 2.512b B. If star B had an apparent magnitude of m = 5, the apparent brightness of star A is bA = 2.512(52) bB = 2.5123 bB 16bB. Measured values of apparent magnitude range from m = 30.8 (apparent magnitude of the Sun) to approximately m = 30 (faintest celestial objects visible to best instruments such as the Hubble telescope). The brighter the celestial object appears, the lower the value of its apparent magnitude.
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