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Astrophysics Notes

Physics

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21 views3 pages

Astrophysics Notes

Physics

Uploaded by

Hillary Roblox
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Motion in the Universe

- A universe is a collection of billions of galaxies

- A galaxy is a collection of billions of solar systems

- A solar system contains stars and planets

- Planets orbit in a circular shape around a star.


- Comets orbit in an ellipse shape around a star. The speed of the comet increases as it
becomes closer to the star.

Star evolution

Life cycle of low mass star


A large cloud of dust and gas particles are call nebula. They are pulled by a gravitational force
and gasses are closer to the center of the ball. The gravitational energy begins to heat them and
emit the radiation. Then the protostar formed. The star generating the energy through fusion of
Hydrogen into Helium. It expands and gravitational pull and thermal expansion are balanced.
The star is stable and becomes a main sequence star. After that there are less hydrogen nuclei
and fusion stops. It compresses the star and increase in temperature. Helium fusion starts and
the star will expand. It is cooler and light energy is emitted and the star turn into the red giant.

The Birth of star

- The nebula cloud of gas and dust particles are draw together by gravitational force
- The gases are formed in a ball and protostar is formed.
- Temperature and pressure increase.
- Hydrogen fusion begin.
- The gravitational force and expansion force are balanced, the star reaches to the stable period.
- Main sequence star is formed.

Stars which have the same mass as Sun

- After the stable period, less hydrogen nuclei present.


- Hydrogen fusion stops.
- The star decreases in size and gravitational forces are the largest force.
- There is helium fusion
- Temperature increases
- The size of star increases many times of its original size.
- Red giant is formed.
- When helium nuclei are less present, helium fusion stops.
- White dwarf star is formed.
- When white dwarf cools, the star becomes black dwarf.

Stars which have greater mass than the Sun

- After the stable period, the star become a red supergiant, unstable star
- It explodes throwing gas and dust into space.
- The explosion is supernova.
- The matter remains form a neutron star or it becomes a black hole

Big Bang Theory

Scientists believe that the universe is expanding with time. In the past, all the matter in the
universe was in one place just before an explosion. This Theory is called the Big Bang Theory.

Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB)

According to the Big Bang theory, the universe is expanding with time and it releases energy.
This energy is releases in the form of wave. The wavelength of this wave is longer than before.
The wavelength is in the microwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum. This microwave
radiation is detected in all directions in the universe. This is known as Cosmic Microwave
Radiation.

What is the milky way?


- The name of our galaxy is the milky way. It is a spiral galaxy.

What is Galaxy?
- Due to high gravitational force many stars form a group called a galaxy.

How does the color of stars tell us about their temperature?

- A very hot star emits more blue in its spectrum and therefore looks blue
- A medium star like our sun looks yellow
- A cooler star appears red.
What are the two factors that brightness of a star depends on?

- The two factors are:


● The distance between a star and the earth.
● The luminosity of the star.

What is a supernova?
- A star which is much larger than our sun expands into a large, red supergiant. After the
stable period, then it contracts and becomes unstable. It explodes throwing dust and gas
into space to form a new stellar nebula. This exploding star is called supernova.

What is a neutron star?

- After the explosion to form supernova of a large red giant star, remaining dust and gas
particles form a very dense star called neutron star.

What is black hole?


- If the neutron star has a mass of five times greater than the sun or more, it collapses
further to become a black hole.

Cosmology
What is the doppler effect?

- The apparent change in frequency is called the doppler effect.


- The doppler effect is the property of all waves.
- Due to doppler effect, the frequency and wavelength of light wave changes and then the
light wave changes its color in its spectrum.

Define redshift and blueshift.

- Redshift indicates that the source of the light wave is moving away from the observer.
Almost all the galaxies emit light with redshift.
- The further away a galaxy is, the greater the redshift and therefore the faster it is moving
away from us.
- The frequency of light decreases and wavelength increases.

- Blue shift indicates that the source of light wave is moving towards the observer.
- The frequency of light increases and wavelength decreases.

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