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Astrophysics

Astrophysics. Introduction to the Universe. What is it we can see in the sky?. Our Solar System. Image source: http://web.eps.utk.edu/research/images/SolarSystem.jpg. Planets. Types of planets: Jovian - gas planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus & Neptune Terestrial

william-blevins
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Astrophysics

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  1. Astrophysics • Introduction to the Universe

  2. What is it we can see in the sky?

  3. Our Solar System Image source: http://web.eps.utk.edu/research/images/SolarSystem.jpg

  4. Planets • Types of planets: • Jovian - gas planets • Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus & Neptune • Terestrial • Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars • protoplanets • celestial objects the size of a moon • exoplanets - Exoplanet Overview Image Source: http://www.bcssa.org/newsroom/scholarships/great8sci/Photos/Space_Photos/Solar_SystemB.PNG

  5. Astronomical Unit • When we talk about distances inside the solar system: • Astronomical Unit (AU) : distance between the Earth & the sun or 93 million miles.

  6. Need to know terms: • Revolution: how long it takes a planet to go around the sun. • Rotation: how long it takes a planet to turn once on its axis.

  7. Light Year • Light Year: the distance light travels in one year or 6 trillion miles Trivia: The Sun is so far away that light from the sun takes 8 minutes to reach the Earth, at LIGHT SPEED.

  8. The Inner Planets

  9. The Outer Planets

  10. What is a galaxy? • Large grouping of stars, gas, and dust in space that are held together by gravity. • The largest galaxies contain more than a trillion stars. Smaller galaxies may have only a few million. • Scientists estimate the number of stars from the size and brightness of the galaxy.

  11. Main Types of Galaxies Spiral Irregular Elliptical

  12. Our solar system is located in the outer reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy, which is a spiral galaxy. The Milky Way Galaxy contains roughly 200 billion stars. Most of these stars are not visible from Earth. Almost everything that we can see in the sky belongs to the Milky Way Galaxy.

  13. Barred Spiral

  14. Earth in the Milky Way

  15. Our Sun Our Sun: Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) image of a huge, handle-shaped prominence taken on Sept. 14,1999 taken in the 304 angstrom wavelength - Prominences are huge clouds of relatively cool dense plasmasuspended in the Sun's hot, thin corona. At times, they can erupt,escaping the Sun's atmosphere. http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_21.html

  16. Before we start exploring, let’s talk about distances • The distances between most objects in space are huge, and mind boggling. • Because of the vast distances in space we use 2 measurements.

  17. Our Moon Moon Aglow: Framed by the Earth's horizon and airglow, the full moon floats in the blackness of space in this photo from the Expedition 10 crew on board the International Space Station. http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_290.html

  18. Stars Large body Made of gas: hydrogen & helium Gives off light: Nuclear fusion White Dwarfs: small as Earth Giants: can be 10 to 1000 times larger than Earth The galaxy cluster 1E 0657-56 (known as the Bullet Cluster) lies 3.8 billion light-years away. It's one of hundreds that appear to be carried along by a mysterious cosmic flow. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2008/dark_flow.html

  19. Comets Ablaze with Infrared Light: Siding Spring streaking across the sky, as seen by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. This movie stitches together five frames taken by WISE as it orbited Earth during its ongoing infrared survey of the whole sky. The images span about eight hours of time. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/multimedia/pia12836v.html

  20. Asteroids Spitzer Surveys Dozens of Near-Earth Asteroids: This image, taken by NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission in 2000, shows a close-up view of Eros, an asteroid with an orbit that takes it somewhat close to Earth. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/multimedia/eros.html

  21. Meteors Perseid Power: This bright and colorful fireball meteor flashed through skies over Japan in the early morning hours of August 12. Ending at the upper right, the meteor's trail points down and to the left, back to the shower's radiant point between the constellations of Perseus and Cassiopeia. http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_206.html

  22. Hubble Space Telescope Hubble floating above Earth during servicing mission 3B, March 2002. http://hubblesite.org/the_telescope/hubble_essentials/image.php?image=hst-above

  23. International Space Station A View From Above: Backdropped by a colorful Earth, this full view of the International Space Station was photographed from the Space Shuttle Discovery during the STS-114 Return to Flight mission, following the undocking of the two spacecraft. http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_390.html

  24. Astrophysics • the branch of astronomy concerned with the physical and chemical properties of celestial bodies

  25. Terrestrial Planets and Moons Image source: Terrestrial Planets Interiors - http://www.nasaimages.org/

  26. Jovian Planets and Moons Image source: Gas Giant Interiors - http://www.nasaimages.org/

  27. Image source: Moons of the Solar System - http://www.nasaimages.org/

  28. What’s in our Solar System? 1 Sun 8 Planets ( 170 Moons) 5 Dwarf Planets 1 Asteroid Belt Various Comets Meteoroids Asteroids Left over debris (Kuiper Belt)

  29. Introduction to the Universe Globular Cluster • M80 (NGC 6093), • 147 known globular star clusters in the Milky Way galaxy. • about 28,000 light-years away • hundreds of thousands of stars, • about 15 billion years old • range of stellar masses. • more highly evolved than, or in a few rare cases more massive than, our own Sun. • bright red giants, nearing the ends of their lives. Image Source: http://kepler.nasa.gov/multimedia/AnimationsandMore/animations/?ImageID=36

  30. Introduction to the Universe Open Cluster • NGC 265 in the Small Magellanic Cloud. • The image taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys onboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope • The brilliant open star cluster, NGC 265, is located about 200,000 light-years away and is roughly 65 light-years across. • similar age and chemical composition, the effects of other stellar properties are more easily determined than they are for isolated stars. Image Source: http://spacetelescope.org/images/heic0603b/

  31. Introduction to the Universe • Constellations • Historically speaking - pattern in the sky with a pattern • Modern beliefs - internationally defined area of the celestial sphere • Stellar Clusters - very useful in studying stellar evolution • Open Cluster - similar age and chemical composition • Globular clusters - have the same age but cover a range of stellar masses.

  32. Introduction to the Universe • What is a light year? • The distance light travels in a vacuum in one Julian year. (365.25 days) • exactly 9,460,730,472,580.8 km • about 5,878,625,373,183.608 miles (about 6 trillion miles) • about 63,241.1 astronomical units • about 0.306601 parsecs

  33. Astrophysics • IB Physics HL • Dublin Jerome High School • C. Crawford

  34. So how do we start to understand the universe Understanding the places and distances

  35. Introduction to the Universe • It is important for us to know what else there is beyond our solar system • In order to do that, there must be a way to replicate measurements • In order to do that we have to make ourselves a system of identification

  36. Introduction to the Universe • closest star - • Alpha Centauri, located about 4.37 light years away (41.5 trillion km). • closest planet - HD 189733b - 63 ly from sun • status of the voyager 1 and 2

  37. Introduction to the Universe • Read “Mask of the Black god”

  38. Introduction to the Universe • celestial sphere

  39. Introduction to the Universe • View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. • Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. • After that, begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons. http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html

  40. What else is it we can see in the sky? Galaxies!!!

  41. Objects in the sky Galaxies • collection of a very large number of stars • mutually attracting each other through the gravitational force • stay together • number of stars varies between a few million and hundreds of billions. • There approximately 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe.

  42. Objects in the sky Galaxies - Spiral • Spiral galaxies consist of a rotating disk of stars • and interstellar medium • along with a central bulge of generally older stars. • Extending outward from the bulge are relatively bright arms. Image Source: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1006a/

  43. The Milky Way Galaxy Our Sun is just one out of over 200 billion stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way. The Sun is located in the Orion arm of our galaxy about 25,000 light years from the center of the Galaxy. Kepler will be examining over 100,000 stars in our neighborhood of our galaxy in the Cygnus and Lyra constellations. Most of these stars will be somewhere between 500 and 3,000 light years from our solar system. http://kepler.nasa.gov/multimedia/AnimationsandMore/animations/?ImageID=36

  44. Objects in the sky Galaxies - Elliptical • Elliptical cross-section and no spiral arms. • They range in shape from nearly spherical to highly flattened ellipsoids • size from hundreds of millions to over one trillion stars. • In the outer regions, many stars are grouped into globular clusters. Image Source: http://www.calvin.edu/academic/phys/observatory/images/Astr110.Fall2005/Feyen.html

  45. Objects in the sky Galaxies - Irregular • Irregular galaxies have no specific structure. • The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, the nearest galaxies • Image to the right is known as the Bird Galaxy Image Source: http://anneminard.com/2009/04/05/day-72-galaxies-of-salt-and-other-stellar-teaching-moments-from-huntsville-alabama/

  46. Astrophysics • Nebulae

  47. Objects in the sky Nebulae • Nebula is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas and plasma. • It is the first stage of a star's cycle but it can also refer to the remains of a dying star (planetary nebula). • Originally nebula was a general name for any extended astronomical object, • Nebulae often form star-forming regions, such as in the Eagle Nebula.

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