Part I: Stars and Stellar Characteristics
Part II: Stars that Go Boom
July 22, 2004
July 22, 2004
Stars and Stellar Characteristics
• Seeing Stars
• Physical characteristics (distance, luminosity, mass, temperature, etc.)
• Life Cycles
• Creation of Elements
• Supernovae and Gamma-Ray Bursts
Topics for the Day
July 22, 2004
What do we know about stars?
July 22, 2004
Case Study: Seeing Stars
In this interactive exercise, we will examine a “case study” of how astronomers study stars
We will use the scientific method to observe, ask questions, then re-observe, modifying our questions and knowledge as our investigation expands
July 22, 2004
Case Study 1: The Stars, Like Sparks of Fire
The Mighty Hunter
July 22, 2004
Case Study 1: The Stars, Like Sparks of Fire
• Stars are points of light• Different brightnesses• Different colors• Different distribution (many
along Milky Way, not many at 90 degrees from it)
• Need distances to get physics, more understanding of their nature
Some possible observations:
July 22, 2004
How far away are the stars?
How can you figure this out, given the tools of the time?
Think of what you know from the first case study, and see if you can apply it.
Case Study 2: The Stars, My Destination
July 22, 2004
Case Study 2: The Stars, My Destination
0.12
0.51.6
2.1
4.7
6.0 10.1
Mag Lights
July 22, 2004
Case Study 2: The Stars, My Destination
• Parallax
• Brightness (relative) [yes! Make blink]
• Colors (redder are farther)
• Size (oh really?)
Need distances to get physics, more understanding of their nature
Some possible methods:
July 22, 2004
Case Study 3: The Lights in the Sky Are Stars
Ogden claims to know the distance to Rigel!
What assumptions has he made? Which are good, which are not?
Is his distance estimate accurate? If not, do you think it’s too big or too small?
July 22, 2004
Case Study 3: The Lights in the Sky Are Stars
• He remembers Rigel’s brightness accurately
• Being inside is same as outside
• Rigel is just like the Sun
Some assumptions:
Rigel is hotter, bluer, and bigger than the Sun. How does this affect his distance?
July 22, 2004
Aside: Parallax Overview
• Parallax is an apparent shift• Given baseline, can determine distance• Gimme a thumbs-up!• My thumb is 2 cm across and 68 cm away from
my eye.• From small angle formula:
Apparent size (radians) = diameter/Distance2 / 68 * (180 / pi) = 1.5º
• So anything the size of my thumb (1.5º) is 34 times its own diameter away.
July 22, 2004
Distances to Stars Parallax : determined by the change of position
of a nearby star with respect to the distant stars, as seen from the Earth at two different times separated by 6 months.
July 22, 2004
Parallax, parsecs and light years
• 1 parsec is defined as the distance at which a star would have a parallax angle of 1 arc-second
• 1 arc-second = (1 degree/3600) = (1 degree/3600) (radians/ 180 degrees ) = 4.85 x 10-6 radians
• 1 parsec = (1.5 x 108 km)/(4.85 x 10-6 ) = 3.086 x 1013 km = 3.26 light years
• 1 light-year is the distance light will travel in one year• 1 light-year = (2.998 x 108 m/s)(86400 s/d)(365 d/y) = 9.46
x 1012 km = 9.46 x 1015 m • A LIGHTYEAR IS A DISTANCE, NOT A TIME!
July 22, 2004
Parallax movie
July 22, 2004
The Nearest Stars
Distance to Alpha Centauri system is~4 x 1011 km or ~4.2 light years or~1.3 parsecs
Parallax is a bit less than
1 arcsecond
July 22, 2004
The Solar Neighborhood
Some stars within about 2 x 1014 km(~ 20 light years)
July 22, 2004
BreakWhat is the closest naked-eye star?
Suppose you observe a star over the course of a year. Due to parallax, in what pattern does it appear to move?
July 22, 2004
430
772
242
721
817
1342915
343
89
Case Study 4: The Absolute Lightness of Being
Stars are far, har har har
July 22, 2004
Absolute vs. Apparent magnitude• Apparent magnitude - How bright does the star appear (from the Earth)? Uses symbol “m”
• Absolute magnitude - the apparent magnitude of a star if it were located at 10 pc. Uses symbol “M”
• Absolute and apparent magnitude are related to the true distance “D” to the star by:
•m – M = 5 log (D/10 pc) = 5 log (D/pc) – 5 OR
•D = 10 pc * 10((m-M)/5)
• Magnitudes seem backwards – the bigger the number, the fainter the star.
Case Study 4: The Absolute Lightness of Being
July 22, 2004
Stellar Spectral types• OBAFGKMLT (Oh, Be A Fine Guy/Girl,
Kiss Me, Like Totally)
• Describe spectral features of stars
• Linked to temperature (not necessarily mass!)
O B A F G K M L T
July 22, 2004
The Classy Hunter
B8I
M2I B2III
B0I
K5III
A5V
July 22, 2004
After several thousand of years, Ogden finally has several stellar characteristics for a list of stars.
What can he do with this information?
How can he find correlations?
Case Study 4: The Absolute Lightness of Being
July 22, 2004
Classifying Stars
Hertzsprung-Russell diagram
July 22, 2004
Main Sequence
• Stars spend most of their lives on the Main Sequence
• How do they get there?
• What happens when they leave?
July 22, 2004
Life Cycles of Stars
July 22, 2004
Molecular clouds and protostars
• Giant molecular clouds are very cold, thin and wispy– they stretch out over tens of light years at temperatures from 10-100K, with a warmer core
• They are 1000s of time more dense than the local interstellar medium, and collapse further under their own gravity to form protostars at their cores
BHR 71, a star-forming cloud(image is ~1 light year across)
July 22, 2004
Protostars• Orion nebula/Trapezium stars (in the sword)• About 1500 light years away
HST/ 2.5 light years Chandra/10 light years
July 22, 2004
Disks around stars
• There is much evidence of disks with gaps (presumably caused by planets) around bright, nearby stars, such as HD141569 (shown here)
July 22, 2004
Stellar nurseries• Pillars of
dense gas
• Newly born stars may emerge at the ends of the pillars
• About 7000 light years away
HST/EagleNebula in M16
July 22, 2004
Pleiades Star Cluster
• A star cluster has a group of stars which are all located at approximately the same distance
• The stars in the Pleiades were all formed at about the same time, from a single cloud of dust and gas
• Roughly 108 years old D = 116 pc
July 22, 2004
Logan’s Run
You’re such a card…
you should be dealt with.
• Game teaches about star formation
• Build a star before your opponent does!
• Offense and defense based on real star-formation phenomena
July 22, 2004
Lunch! Renewal!
• Insert Doppler Shift Movie
July 22, 2004
Logan’s Run Reflection
• What is star formation?
• What are the different stages of a star’s lifecycle?
July 22, 2004
Composition of the Cosmos
• What are stars made of?
• How do we know?
• What is a tool to determine this?
• How is this tool used?
July 22, 2004
Composition of the Universe
Actually, this is just the solar system.
Composition varies from place to place in universe, andbetween different objects.
July 22, 2004
“What’s Out There?”
A classroom activity that demonstrates the different elemental compositions of different objects in the universe.
Demonstrates how we estimate the abundances.
(Developed by Stacie Kreitman, Falls Church, VA)
July 22, 2004
Top 10 Elements in the Human Body
Element by # atoms
10. Magnesium (Mg) 0.03%
9. Chlorine (Cl) 0.04%
8. Sodium (Na) 0.06%
7. Sulfur (S) 0.06%
6. Phosphorous (P) 0.20%
5. Calcium (Ca) 0.24%
4. Nitrogen (N) 1.48%
3. Carbon (C) 9.99%
2. Oxygen (O) 26.33%
1. Hydrogen (H) 61.56%
July 22, 2004
Spectral Analysis
We can’t always get a sample of a piece of the Universe.
So we depend on light !
July 22, 2004
Spectral Analysis
• Each element has a unique spectral signature:
• Determined by arrangement of electrons.
• Lines of emission or absorption arise from re-arrangement of electrons into different energy levels.
Hydrogen
July 22, 2004
Nickel-odeon Classroom Activity
Spread a rainbow of color across a piano keyboard
(Developed by Shirley Burris, Nova Scotia)
Then, “play” an element
Hydrogen
July 22, 2004
More Musical Elements
Now play another elementHelium
Carbon
And Another
July 22, 2004
Getting a Handel on Water
Oxygen
All together now ...
Hydrogen
Water
July 22, 2004
Elemental, My Dear Watson
So stars have heavy elements.
Where did they come from?
… and how did they get here?
July 22, 2004
HR Diagram again as a reminder
Hertzsprung-Russell diagram
July 22, 2004
Main Sequence Stars• Stars spend most of their lives on the “main sequence”
where they burn hydrogen in nuclear reactions in their cores
• Burning rate is higher for more massive stars - hence their lifetimes on the main sequence are much shorter and they are rather rare
• Red dwarf stars are the most common as they burn hydrogen slowly and live the longest
• Often called dwarfs (but not the same as White Dwarfs) because they are smaller than giants or supergiants
• Our sun is considered a G2V star. It has been on the main sequence for about 4.5 billion years, with another ~5 billion to go
July 22, 2004
Solar Power• The Sun is powered by nuclear fusion
reactions in its core
• The gravity from the Sun’s mass squeezes the nuclei together so that they can overcome electrostatic repulsion and fuse
… but high pressure and temperature encourage
impact
Electrostatic repulsion stops impact
July 22, 2004
Solar Power• Hydrogen nuclei fuse to Deuterium and then Helium,
releasing about 7 MeV each• The released radiation keeps the Sun from collapsing due
to its own gravity• Energy comes from conversion of mass: E=mc2
Start with 4 protons under enormous
pressure and temperature
End up with a “normal” helium nucleus,
two gamma rays, two positrons and
two neutrinos
Several Reactions
July 22, 2004
Pro Fusion or Con Fusion?
• The core of the Sun is 15 million degrees Celsius
• Fusion occurs 1038 times a second• Sun has 1056 H atoms to fuse• 1018 seconds = 32 billion years• 2 billion kilograms converted every second• Sun’s output = 50 billion megaton bombs per
second
July 22, 2004
1018 seconds is a long time…
but it’s not forever.
What happens then?
Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me
July 22, 2004
A Red Giant You Know
July 22, 2004
The Beginning of the End: Red Giants
After Hydrogen is exhausted in core...Energy released from nuclear fusion
counter-acts inward force of gravity.
Core collapses, and kinetic energy of collapse
converted into heat.
This heat expands the outer layers.
Meanwhile, as core collapses, Increasing Temperature and Pressure ...
July 22, 2004
More Fusion !
At 100 million degrees Celsius, Helium fuses:
3 (4He) --> 12C + energy
(Be produced at an intermediate step)
(Only 7.3 MeV produced)
Energy sustains the expanded outer layers of the Red Giant
July 22, 2004
Stellar evolution made simple
Stars like the Sun go gentle into that good night
More massive stars rage, rage against the dying of the light
Puff!
Bang!
BANG!
July 22, 2004
How stars die• Stars that are below about 8 Mo form red giants
at the end of their lives on the main sequence• Red giants evolve into white dwarfs, often
accompanied by planetary nebulae• More massive stars form red supergiants• Red supergiants undergo supernova
explosions, often leaving behind a stellar core which is a neutron star, or perhaps a black hole (more in later lectures about these topics)
July 22, 2004
Red Giants and Supergiants
Hydrogen burns in outer shell around the core
Heavier elements burn in inner shells
July 22, 2004
Aside: Planetary nebulae• Planetary nebulae
are not the origin of planets
• Outer ejected shells of red giant illuminated by a white dwarf formed from the giant’s burnt-out core
• Not always formed HST/WFPC2Eskimo nebula5000 light years
July 22, 2004
Fate of high mass stars• After Helium exhausted, core collapses
again until it becomes hot enough to fuse Carbon into Magnesium or Oxygen.
12C + 12C --> 24Mg
OR 12C + 4H --> 16O
• Through a combination of processes, successively heavier elements are formed and burned.
July 22, 2004
Heavy Elements from Large Stars
• Large stars also fuse Hydrogen into Helium, and Helium into Carbon.
• But their larger masses lead to higher temperatures, which allow fusion of Carbon into Magnesium, etc.
July 22, 2004
Supernova !
July 22, 2004
Supernova Remnants: SN1987A
a b
c d
a) Optical - Feb 2000Illuminating material
ejected from the star thousands of years before the SN
b) Radio - Sep 1999c) X-ray - Oct 1999d) X-ray - Jan 2000The shock wave from
the SN heating the gas
July 22, 2004
Supernova Remnants: Cas AOptical
X-ray
Radio
July 22, 2004
Elements from Supernovae
All X-ray Energies Silicon
Calcium Iron
July 22, 2004
Crab nebula• Observed by Chinese
astronomers in 1054 AD
• Age determined by tracing back exploding filaments
• Crab pulsar emits 30 pulses per second at all wavelengths from radio to TeV
movie
July 22, 2004
Crab nebula
Radio/VLA Infrared/Keck
July 22, 2004
Crab nebula
Optical/HST WFPC2Optical/Palomar
July 22, 2004
Crab nebula and pulsar
X-ray/Chandra
July 22, 2004
Not all explosions are created equal
July 22, 2004
The Terrestrial Zoo
July 22, 2004
The Cosmic Zoo
• Need to categorize the objects seen• By sorting into different categories,
distinguishing characteristics are found• Potentially misleading differences can be
determined• Further investigation can reveal
the nature of the phenomenon
July 22, 2004
Classifying Astronomical Events• In this activity, you will be given twenty
cards showing different types of bursts• Pay attention to the lightcurves, optical
counterparts and other properties of the bursts given on the reverse of the cards
• Fill out the accompanying worksheet to explain the reasoning behind your classification scheme
July 22, 2004
Pick a Card…
July 22, 2004
Aitoff Projection & Galactic Coordinates (1)
July 22, 2004
Aitoff Projection & Galactic Coordinates (2)
July 22, 2004
Aitoff Projection & Galactic Coordinates (3)
July 22, 2004
Let’s get busy!
July 22, 2004
Sorting out the Cosmic Zoo
• How many groups did everyone get?
• What was your reasoning?
• What are the characteristics of the cards in your groups?
• What types of events do you think could be producing these different events? (Phil reword)
July 22, 2004
Aitoff answer key
July 22, 2004
What makes Gamma-ray Bursts?
• X-ray Bursts• Properties• Thermonuclear Flash Model
• Soft Gamma Repeaters • Properties• Magnetar model
• Gamma-ray Bursts• Properties• Models• Afterglows• Future Mission Studies
July 22, 2004
X-ray Bursts
• Thermonuclear flashes on Neutron Star surface – hydrogen or helium fusion
• Accreting material burns in shells, unstable burning leads to thermonuclear runaway
• Bursts repeat every few hours to days• Bursts are never seen from black hole binaries (no surface for unstable nuclear burning) or from (almost all) pulsars (magnetic field quenches thermonuclear runaway)
July 22, 2004
X-ray Burst Sources
• Locations in Galactic Coordinatesbursters non-bursters Globular Clusters
• Most bursters arelocated in globularclusters or near theGalactic center• They are therefore relatively older systems
July 22, 2004
Soft Gamma Repeaters
• There are four of these objects known to date• One is in the LMC, the other 3 are in the Milky
Way
LMC
SGR 1627-41
July 22, 2004
Soft Gamma Repeater Properties
– Superstrong magnetic field: B~1014-15 G
– NS spin period seen in bursts ~5-10 sec,
– No orbital periods – not in binaries!
– 4 well studied systems + several other candidate systems
– Several SGRs are located in or near SNRs
– Soft gamma ray bursts are from magnetic reconnection/flaring like giant solar flares
– Lx = 1042 - 1043 erg/s at peak of bursts
Young Neutron Stars near SNRs
July 22, 2004
SGR 1900+14• Strong burst
showing ~5 sec pulses
• Change in 5 s spin rate leads to measure of magnetic field
• Source is a magnetar!
July 22, 2004
SGR burst affects EarthOn the night of August 27, 1998 Earth's upper
atmosphere was bathed briefly by an invisible burst of gamma- and X-ray radiation. This pulse - the most powerful to strike Earth from beyond the solar system ever detected - had a significant effect on Earth's upper atmosphere, report Stanford researchers. It is the first time that a significant change in Earth's environment has been traced to energy from a distant star. (from the NASA press release)
July 22, 2004
Gamma Ray Burst Properties
– Unknown magnetic field
– No repeatable periods seen in bursts
– No orbital periods seen – not in binaries
– Thousands of bursts seen to date – no repetitions from same location
A cataclysmic event of unknown origin
July 22, 2004
The GRB GalleryThe GRB Gallery
When you’ve seen one gamma-ray burst, you’ve seen….one gamma-ray burst!!
July 22, 2004
Distributions in the Sky
• How do we see object’s distributed in the sky?
• What does this tell us about those objects?
July 22, 2004
GRB the Third: The Plots Thicken
Sometimes, the distribution of objects can tell you a lot about them
July 22, 2004
Two Views of the Universe
Isotropic In the Milky Way
Which do your plots look like?
July 22, 2004
CGRO/BATSE Gamma-ray Burst Sky
This is the realdistribution of 2704 as seen bythe BATSE instrument on board CGRO
July 22, 2004
Near or Far?
Isotropic distribution implications:
Silly or not, the only way to be sure was to find the afterglow.
Very close: within a few parsecs of the Sun
Very far: huge, cosmological distances
Sort of close: out in the halo of the Milky Way
Why no faint bursts?
What could produce such a vast amount of energy?
A comet hitting a neutron star fits the bill
July 22, 2004
Breakthrough!
In 1997, BeppoSAX detects X-rays from a GRBafterglow for the first time, 8 hours after burst
July 22, 2004
The View From Hubble/STIS The View From Hubble/STIS
7 months later
July 22, 2004
On a clear night, you really On a clear night, you really cancan see see forever!forever!
990123 reached 9th magnitude for a few moments!
First optical GRB afterglow detected simultaneously
July 22, 2004
GRB the Fourth: Beam me Up
• So we got the distance, so we’re all done, right? Right?
• Oops. The energy needed is a tad high
• So can we still save the day?
July 22, 2004
GRB the Fourth: Beam me Up
Insert Aurore’s images of sphere of lightAnd light house
July 22, 2004
GRB the Fourth: Beam me Up
Gimme an “M”! Gimme an “E”!Gimme a “G”!
Megaphone!
July 22, 2004
Spin the Flashlight!
Note that the beam can only be seen by a few people at once.
What can we learn from this?
July 22, 2004
The Supernova ConnectionThe Supernova Connection
GRB011121
Afterglow faded like supernova
Data showed presence of gas like a stellar wind
Indicates some sort of supernova and not a NS/NS merger
July 22, 2004
Hypernova
• A billion trillion times the power from the Sun• The end of the life of a star that had 100 times
the mass of our Sun
movie
July 22, 2004
Iron lines in GRB 991216
Chandra observations show link to hypernova model when hot iron-filled gas is detected from GRB 991216
Iron is a signature of a supernova, as it is made in the cores of stars, and released in supernova explosions
July 22, 2004
Catastrophic Mergers
• Death spiral of 2 neutron stars or black holes
July 22, 2004
Which model is right?Which model is right?
The data seem to indicate two kinds of GRBs
• Those with burst durations less than 2 seconds• Those with burst durations more than 2 seconds
Short bursts have no detectable afterglows so far as predicted by the NS/NS merger model
Long bursts are sometimes associated with supernovae, and all the afterglows seen so faras predicted by the hypernova merger model
July 22, 2004
Gamma-ray Bursts
Either way you look at it – hypernova or merger model
GRBs signal the birth of a black hole!
July 22, 2004
Gamma-ray Bursts
Or maybe the death of life on Earth?
No, gamma-ray bursts did not kill the dinosaurs!
July 22, 2004
Reflection and Debrief
July 22, 2004
Reflection and Debrief
• Now what do we know?
• What are the big ideas here?
• What do our students need to know?
• Is there anything else we need to know?
• Misconceptions
(take notes)
July 22, 2004
Reflection and Debrief
• What are some effective ways to teach students about galaxies?
• Standards???
(take notes)
July 22, 2004
END OF SLIDES!!!!!!!!!
All slides after this are spares, removed from original show
July 22, 2004
How to study Gamma rays?
• Absorbed by the Earth’s atmosphere
• Use rockets, balloons or satellites
• Can’t image or focus gamma rays
• Special detectors: crystals, silicon-strips GLAST
balloon test
July 22, 2004
HETE-2
• Launched on 10/9/2000
• Operational and finding about 2 bursts per month
July 22, 2004
Swift Mission
• Burst Alert Telescope (BAT)
• Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT)
• X-ray Telescope (XRT)
To be launched in 2003
July 22, 2004
Swift Mission
• Will study GRBs with “swift” response• Survey of “hard” X-ray sky• To be launched in 2003• Nominal 3-year lifetime• Will see ~150 GRBs per year
July 22, 2004
Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope
• GLAST Burst Monitor (GBM)
• Large Area Telescope (LAT)
July 22, 2004
GRBs and Cosmology
• GRBs can be used as standard candles, similar to Type 1a supernovae
• However, the supernovae are only seen out to z=0.7 (and one at z=1.7), whereas GRBs are seen to z=4.5, and may someday be seen to z=10
• Schaefer (2002) has constructed a Hubble diagram for GRBs, using the cosmological parameters from supernova data. When more burst redshifts become available (e.g., from Swift), the parameters can be determined independently
July 22, 2004
White dwarf stars
• Red giants (but not supergiants) turn into white dwarf stars as they run out of fuel
• White dwarf mass must be less than 1.4 Mo
• White dwarfs do not collapse because of quantum mechanical pressure from degenerate electrons
• White dwarf radius is about the same as the Earth• A teaspoon of a white dwarf would weigh 10 tons• Some white dwarfs have magnetic fields as high as 109
Gauss• White dwarfs eventually radiate away all their heat and end
up as black dwarfs in billions of years
July 22, 2004
Periodic Table
16O + 16O 32S + energy4He + 16O 20Ne + energy
Light Elements Heavy Elements
4 (1H) 4He + energy 3(4He) 12C + energy 12C + 12C 24Mg + energy4He + 12C 16O + energy28Si + 7(4He) 56Ni + energy 56FeC-N-O Cycle
July 22, 2004
Making a Neutron StarMaking a Neutron Star
July 22, 2004
Neutron Stars
• Neutron stars are formed from collapsed iron cores• All neutron stars that have been measured have
around 1.4 Mo (Chandrasekhar mass)
• Neutron stars are supported by pressure from degenerate neutrons, formed from collapsed electrons and protons
• A teaspoonful of neutron star would weigh 1 billion tons
• Neutron stars with very strong magnetic fields - around 1012-13 Gauss - are usually pulsars due to offset magnetic poles
July 22, 2004
Neutron Stars: Dense cinders
Mass: ~1.4 solar massesRadius: ~10 kilometersDensity: 1014-15 g/cm3
Magnetic field: 108-14 gauss Spin rate: from 1000Hz to 0.08 Hz
July 22, 2004
The End of the Line for Massive Stars
• Massive stars burn a succession of elements.
• Iron is the most stable element and cannot be fused further.– Instead of
releasing energy, it uses energy.
July 22, 2004
Supernovae• Supergiant stars
become (Type II) supernovae at the end of nuclear shell burning
• Iron core often remains as outer layers are expelled
• Neutrinos and heavy elements released
• Core continues to collapse
Chandra X-ray image of Eta
Carinae, a potential supernova
July 22, 2004
Cas A• ~320 years old• 10 light years across• 50 million degree shell
Radio/VLAX-ray/Chandra
neutron star
July 22, 2004
X-ray Burst Source Properties
– Weaker magnetic dipole: B~108 G– NS spin period seen in bursts ~0.003
sec. – Orbital periods : 0.19 - 398 h from X-ray
dips & eclipses and/or optical modulation
– > 15 well known bursting systems– Low mass companions– Lx = 1036 - 1038 erg/s
Neutron Stars in binary systems
July 22, 2004
X-ray EmissionX-ray Emission
• X-ray emission from accretion can be modulated by magnetic fields, unstable burning and spin
• Modulation due to spin of neutron star can sometimes be seen within the burst
July 22, 2004
The first Gamma-ray Burst
Discovered in 1967 while looking for nuclear test explosions - a 30+ year old mystery!
Vela satellite
July 22, 2004
Compton Gamma Ray Compton Gamma Ray ObservatoryObservatory
• Eight instruments on corners of spacecraft• NaI scintillators
BATSE