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Physics of Astronomy – week 6 – May 2006. Chapter 25: Our Galaxy. RR Lyrae variables. Q: Why are they all about 100 L sun ? A: Horizontal branch pulsators: heating and compressing at roughly constant luminosity (T↑ and R↓).
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Physics of Astronomy – week 6 – May 2006 Chapter 25: Our Galaxy
RR Lyrae variables Q: Why are they all about 100 Lsun? A: Horizontal branch pulsators: heating and compressing at roughly constant luminosity (T↑ and R↓)
The winding dilemma – if star motion caused spiral arms, structures would disappear in just a few hundred million years
Galactic density wave causes traffic jams in interstellar medium
Black hole at the center of MW Orbits of nearby stars show that SagA* has about 3.7 million Msun – very massive X-ray flares detected by Chandra last only 10 minutes, indicating a size of only 1.2 AU – very compact
Looking ahead • Monday: no HW due, no presentations • Tuesday: Bring your finished PowerPoint pages • 3:00 workshop Tues: PowerPoint → Posters • Thursday: bring everything to class - we’ll walk to the van together and leave at 3:00 • Summary: Maxwell’s equations → speed of light “greatest synthesis …more important than the civil war”