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Research Assignment
By Peter Kariatlis
The Star Life Cycle
Black Dwarfs.
Black dwarfs do not exist in our universe at the moment. They will
evolve from white dwarfs after cooling over a period longer than the
lifespan of our universe so far.
Fig 1.
Hertzsprung-Russel Diagram
Analysis of the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram (Refer to Above).
The narrow band of clustered stars along the long downward sloping
line is known as zero-age main sequence. Main sequence stars are
located along this line usually. The way the stars are distributed
along this sloping line is by many factors, the most significant factor
is the mass. The heavier stars are hotter and have a higher
luminosity, and are plotted towards the upper left of the ZAMS line,
while the less massive stars are plotted near the lower right, and are
less luminous and have a cooler temperature. The stars that make
up this part of the HR diagram vary in colour, again in correlation to
the temperature and luminosity, with the red/orange stars (also
known as red dwarfs) are at the bottom right (being cooler), while
the blue stars towards the top left (being hotter).
The White Dwarfs are located under the ZAMS due to their low
luminosity, but are typically hot stars. These stars are usually dull in
colour, due to their phase of the star lifecycle, but are hot because
of compaction, but over many billion years will eventually cool and
move lower on the HR diagram. An example of a star in this group is
Sirius B. It is dimmer than the sun, but has an extremely hot surface
temperature.
The sun emits most of its radiation in the following part of the
electromagnetic spectrum, but there are traces of other emissions
either way of the curve here.
Visible light is an emission that comes from the sun, which is a form
of electromagnetic radiation and travels at the speed of light and
can be ‘seen’ by our eyes. About half of the suns emissions (see
graph) are from these waves of the electromagnetic spectrum, and
is considered the most dominant emission from the sun. The
outermost corona of the sun, where temperatures are up to 5 million
degrees is where the visible light emissions come from.
Infrared waves are another emission reaching the earth from the sun
and are identified as a sensation of heat from the sunlight. The sun
is a extremely hot body that emits thermal radiation, due to energy
being released from the reactions within.
Other minor emissions from the sun include, gamma and microwaves
(if they can penetrate the atmosphere).
The source and cause of the solar wind is from the sun’s corona, in
which regions called coronal holes eject these particles, due to the
expansions of gases in the corona. The coronal holes are cooler,
denser areas compared to the rest of the surface of the sun. These
ejections and many other solar phenomena are also known as solar
storms.
The solar wind can bring many effects to the earth. When these
particles are ejected from the sun, they interact with the suns
magnetic field lines, and they carry with them the magnetic field
lines (called IMF or interplanetary magnetic field) that originate in
the solar corona. When these ionized particles hit the earth’s
magnetic field at high speeds, they shape the magnetic field to be
somewhat of a “teardrop” shape (shown below).
The solar wind causes can cause geomagnetic storms which can
cause disruptions to satellite and communication signals and it
reaches the atmosphere can interact with the nitrogen and oxygen
to create the aurora borealis. When the ions interfere with the
ionosphere, this can cause problems with radio communication.
These magnetic storms can also cause power disturbances in power
lines.
Sunspots
Formation
Sunspots are described and seen as dark spots that appear on the
sun’s photosphere. They are cooler areas that have extremely strong
magnetic fields. Sunspots form due to penetration of magnetic field
lines through the photosphere (shown below), the penetration
causes a slow down in radiation and heat (because of the slow down
of plasma activities) therefore dark areas, which usually come in
pairs form, called Sunspots. Sunspots usually line up parallel to the
equator of the sun and have magnetic polarity, hence one is a south
pole and one is a north pole. Sunspots have an eleven year cycle,
which increases and decreases due to reversal of the suns magnetic
field.
Assessment of Effects on Earth
Bibliography
Butler, M. Hopkins, D. Willis, J. (ed.) (2000). Physics 1. Australia:
Macmillan Education Australia Pty Ltd.