Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Institute Elective
Course Code : ES490
An Introduction to
Modern Astrophysics,
Carroll & Ostlie
Fundamental
Astronomy
Karttunen et al.
Reference Books
Astrophysics for
Physicists
Arnab Rai Choudhuri
and/or any other introductory book on astronomy.
Module 4 : Formation of Stars
An HST image of the spiral galaxy NGC 3079
The previous slide is a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of a spiral
galaxy in the nearby universe. Our Galaxy might look something like this if
we could take an image of it from outside. In addition to the bright knots of
light in that galaxy, which correspond to stars and star clusters, one can
also see diffuse material spread throughout the disk of the galaxy. In all
galaxies, there is matter present in the space between stars. This matter is
called interstellar medium (ISM).
The ISM in our own Galaxy accounts for ~ 15% of the total visible mass in
the Galaxy. More than 95 % of the total mass of the ISM is in the form of
gas whose primary composition is hydrogen and helium with trace amounts
of heavier elements. The remaining 5% of mass is in the form of dust.
The ISM in our Galaxy (and in other galaxies) exist as a mix of different
densities and temperatures. These are called the phases of the ISM. A phase
refers to a volume of gas at a certain density and temperature. The next two
slides describe these ISM phases.
Different Phases of the ISM
Interstellar Medium in our Galaxy
This composite image is a view of the central 50 pc (~150 light years) of the Galactic center. It
shows the different phases of the ISM in this region of space. The ionized phase of the ISM is
traced in yellow and corresponds to Paschen-alpha emission as seen by the Hubble
Space Telescope, the hot (10
5
10
6
K) plasma traced in the X-ray by the Chandra X-ray
Observatory is shown as the diffuse blue glow and the thermal radiation from warm dust heated by
the radiation from stars is detected in the mid-IR wavelengths by the Spitzer Space Telescope.
Molecular Clouds as Sites of Star Formation
The densest regions of the ISM have particle number densities of
~ 100 - 500 atoms cm
-3
and temperatures of ~ 10 30 K. These
dense regions at very low temperatures are called molecular
clouds. Molecular clouds are giant structures with typical sizes of
50 pc and masses of 10
5
M
yr
-1
) through stellar
winds. Over time, the star itself will evaporate off.
It is estimated that stars with mass greater than ~ 100 M
will not have
sufficient gravitational binding energy to hold-on to their surface layers
against radiation pressures. Such really massive stars will generate energy
through nuclear fusion at a very high rate. The energy produced has to be
radiated out of the star (cannot be stored inside). The rate of energy radiation
(i.e., the stars luminosity) will exceed its Eddington limit. This train of
thought is the basis for an upper limit for the mass of stable stars. This is NOT
a well defined theoretical limit, but has good observational backing. Very few
stars are observed in our Galaxy with masses as high as this for the reason that
such stars will not be stable over long time scales. An example is Eta Carina.
Visit http://messier.seds.org/xtra/ngc/etacar.html for more on the Eta Carina binary
system.
Eddington Luminosity
and finally