AstroQuiz

2023
Study Guide

Gerry Barrow
TTAC AstroClub,
Updated September 2023
 Part 1
Astronomy Terms
and Definitions
Celestial North Celestial
Pole
Sphere

Celestial
Equator

The Celestial Sphere is an

imaginary sphere of
infinite radius centred on
the Earth, on which all
celestial bodies are
assumed to be projected.

South Celestial
Pole
Ecliptic

The Ecliptic is
the path the Sun
traces through
the sky during Celestial
one year. Equator

The Ecliptic

While in reality the Earth

orbits around the Sun, it
seems from the Earth that
the Sun moves through
the sky.
 Vernal and
Autumnal 80

Equinox
60
Vernal
Celestial Equinox
Equator
40

20

The Ecliptic
0

The Vernal Equinox is the

point where the Sun crosses - 20
the Celestial Equator, moving
from south to north. This
occurs in March and marks the
- 40
first day of spring in the
northern hemisphere .
- 60
The Autumnal Equinox occurs
in September, when the Sun - 80
enters the Southern
hemisphere.
 Right
Ascension

RA is the celestial equivalent

of terrestrial longitude.
0 hr East
RA is measured eastward
from the equinox in hours, 1 hr
minutes, and seconds, with 2 hr
3 hr
24 hours being equivalent to
a full circle.
Right
Ascension 80

60
Vernal
Celestial Equinox
Equator
40

20

The Ecliptic
0

- 20

The point where the Sun

crosses the celestial - 40
equator on the vernal
equinox is designated as - 60
zero hour Right
Ascension. - 80
 Declination
80

60
Celestial
Equator
40

Declination is one of the two 20

coordinates of the equatorial
coordinate system, the other
being Right Ascension. 0
Dec is comparable to latitude,
projected onto the celestial
sphere, and is measured in - 20
degrees north and south of the
celestial equator.
- 40
Points north of the celestial
equator have positive
- 60
declinations, while those to the
south have negative declinations. - 80
Summer and
Winter Solstice 80

60

Celestial
Equator
40

The Summer
20 Solstice
The Winter
Solstice
0

- 20
The Summer Solstice is the
time in June when the Sun
is over the Tropic of - 40
Cancer.
At the winter Solstace in - 60
December, the sun is over
the Tropic of Capricorn. - 80
 The Big Bang
In 1929, while working at the Mt. Wilson observatory with the latest
technology, Edwin Hubble determined that the farther a galaxy is from
Earth, the faster it appears to move away.
This notion of an "expanding" universe formed the basis of the Big Bang
theory, which states that the universe began with an intense burst of energy
at a single moment in time — and has been expanding ever since.

Edwin Hubble
1889 -1953

Measurements of the expansion rate of the universe place the Big Bang singularity at
around 13.8 billion years ago, which is thus considered the age of the universe.
Dark Energy

Albert Einstein
1870 -1955

It has been found that the expansion of the universe is actually

accelerating. No one can explain this so it said to be caused by
“Dark Energy”
It was first hypothesized by Albert Einstein in 1917 and was represented by
a term, the “cosmological constant,” that Einstein reluctantly introduced
into his theory of general relativity in order to account for a universe that
was assumed to be static

After the discovery by Hubble that the universe is not static but is in
expanding, Einstein referred to the addition of this constant as his “greatest
blunder.”
 Dark Matter

Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter thought to account for

approximately 85% of the matter in the universe.
Its presence is implied by gravitational effects that cannot be explained
unless more matter is present than can be seen.

The primary candidate for dark matter is some new kind of elementary particle that
has not yet been discovered.
It is called dark because it does not absorb, reflect or emit electromagnetic radiation, and
is therefore difficult to detect.
Interstellar Medium

The interstellar medium is the matter and radiation that exist in the space
between the star systems in a galaxy.
This matter includes gas in ionic, atomic, and molecular form, as well as
dust and cosmic rays.
It fills interstellar space and blends smoothly into the surrounding
intergalactic space.

Interstellar space is the space between the stars in a galaxy.

It's not “empty,” but is as close to an absolute vacuum as you can get.
Molecular Clouds

Molecular Clouds are the coldest, densest clouds in the interstellar medium.
They are made up of dust and hydrogen gas.
They are located primarily in the disk of spiral galaxies and the active regions
of irregular galaxies.

The formation of stars occurs exclusively within molecular clouds

Star Formation

If gas and dust collects and clumps in a molecular cloud it attracts more
material. Eventually the mass, pressure and temperature can increase to the
point where hydrogen gas fuses to form Helium. This thermo nuclear reaction
provides the energy that powers a star.
Protoplanetary Disk A protoplanetary disk is a
rotating circumstellar disc
of dense gas and dust
surrounding the young
newly formed star

The aggregation of such bodies explains the formation

of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago.
 Protoplanets

A protoplanet is a large planetary

embryo that originated within
a protoplanetary disc and has
undergone internal melting to
produce a differentiated interior.

Protoplanets are thought to form out

of kilometer-sized planetesimals that
gravitationally perturb each other's
orbits and collide, gradually
coalescing into the dominant planets.
Vesta – a surviving protoplanet
 Accretion
The accumulation of matter by a star or other celestial object

An accretion disk is a structure formed by diffuse

material in orbital motion around a massive central
body, such as a star or black hole.
Stellar Black Hole

A stellar black hole is a black hole formed by the gravitational

collapse of a star.
They have masses ranging from about 5 to several tens of solar
masses.
 Supermassive Black Hole

A supermassive black hole is the largest type of black hole, with mass on the
order of millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun.
They were created during the Big Bang and lie in the centre of active galaxies.
The Solar System

The Solar System is the gravitationally bound system of the Sun

and the objects that orbit it.

Of the objects that orbit the Sun, the largest are the eight planets.
The remainder are the dwarf planets and small Solar System bodies .
Planets
Planets

A planet is an astronomical
body orbiting a star that is
massive enough to
be rounded by its
own gravity, but not
massive enough to
cause thermonuclear fusion,
and has cleared its
neighbouring
region of planetesimals

Minor planets and comets

have been reclassified
into Dwarf
Planets and Small Solar
System bodies
Minor Planets

A minor planet is
an astronomical object in
direct orbit around the Sun Minor Planets

that is neither a planet nor

a comet.

Minor planets and comets

have been reclassified
into Dwarf
Planets and Small Solar
System bodies
 Dwarf Planets

A Dwarf Planet is a round

celestial body orbiting the Dwarf Planets

Sun but has not cleared its

neighboring region of other
objects

The five major Dwarf Planets are :-

Ceres, the only dwarf planet in the asteroid belt

Pluto
Eris and its moon Dysnomia
Makemake and its moon Ceres
Haumea and its two moons Namaka and Hiʻiaka Pluto
Trans Neptunian
Objects (TNO’s)
A trans-Neptunian object
(TNO), is any minor planet or
Trans Neptunian Objects
dwarf planet in the Solar
System that orbits the Sun at
a greater average distance
than Neptune, which has a
mean distance of 30
astronomical units (AU).

They include Pluto, Haumea, Makemake,

and Gonggong. More than 80 such objects have been
discovered in the Kuiper belt and the scattered disc
Plutoids

Plutoids are round celestial

bodies in orbit around the
Sun at a distance greater
Plutoids
than that of Neptune, and
have not cleared the
neighbourhood around their
orbit

Plutoids are round TNO’s

which have not cleared their
path.

The two known and named

Plutoids are Pluto and Eris

Pluto Eris
Small Solar System
Bodies
A small Solar System
body is an object in
the Solar System that is
neither a planet, a dwarf
planet, nor a natural
satellite.
Small Solar
System bodies

They include comets, asteroids,

and scattered disc objects,
with the exception of the dwarf
planet s and trans-Neptunian
objects.

The orbits of the vast majority

of small Solar System bodies
are located in the asteroid
belt and the Kuiper belt.
Centaurs
Centaurs are bodies which
typically exhibit the
characteristics of
both asteroids and comets.
They are named after the
Centaurs
mythological centaurs that
were a mixture of horse and
human.
Small Solar
System bodies
They revolve around the
Sun in the outer solar
Centaurs
system, mainly between the
orbits of Jupiter and
Neptune.

Estimates for the number of centaurs in the Solar

System more than 1 km in diameter range from as low
as 44,000 to more than 10,000,000.
There is evidence that Saturn's moon Phoebe may be
a captured centaur that originated in the Kuiper Belt
Near Earth Objects
(NEO’s)

A near-Earth object (NEO) is

any small Solar System
body whose orbit brings it
into proximity with Earth.

By convention, a Solar
System body is a NEO if its
closest approach to the sun
(perihelion) is less than
1.3 astronomical units (AU).
 Potentially
Hazardous Objects
(PHO’s)

If a NEO's orbit crosses

the Earth's, and the object
is larger than 140 meters, it
is considered a potentially
hazardous object (PHO).

Most known PHOs and Pictured here are the orbits of the over 1,000
NEOs are asteroids, but a known Potentially Hazardous Objects (PHOs).
small fraction are comets. These documented tumbling boulders of rock and
ice will pass within 7.5 million kilometers of Earth --
about 20 times the distance to the Moon.
 Constellations Aldebaran
Taurus

Gemini
Orion

A constellation is defined Betelgeuse

as an area of the celestial
sphere.
The whole sky is divided
into 88 constellations.

Eradnus
Monoceros Rigel

Canis Major Lepus

Sirius
Zodiacal
constellations

The Zodiac denotes

an annual cycle of
twelve stations
along the ecliptic,
the apparent path of
the sun across the
heavens through
the constellations
that divide the
ecliptic into twelve
equal zones of
celestial longitude
 The North star Polaris
Precession is presently overhead
the North Pole

Precession refers to a change in the direction of the Earth’s axis, and it’s effects on
astronomical observation. Because of the precession of the equinoxes, the vernal
equinox moves through all the constellations of the Zodiac over the 26,000 year
precession period.
First Point of Ares

Pisces

Ec l
ip t i
c
Vernal
Equinox

Celestial Equator

The Vernal Equinox was originally called the First Point of Ares in 130BC by
Hipparchus. In those days the Sun crossed the celestial equator in the
constellation of Ares.
Due to the precession of the equinoxes, this position has rotated such that the Sun
now crosses the celestial equator in the constellation of Pisces, and is slowly
approaching Aquarius
 Aphelion and
Perihelion

Perihelion
Aphelion
The point on its orbit when the
The point on its
Earth is closest to the sun,
orbit when the
Earth is farthest
Occurs in January
from the sun.
Occurs in July
The Earth’s elliptical
orbit around the Sun

The terms perigee and apogee, refer to orbits

around the Earth
Sidereal Day

Earth points
towards same
distant star
overhead

One sidereal day = 23 h 56 m

Distant star
overhead

Earth points
towards a distant
star overhead

A Sidereal Day is the length of time which passes between a given distant
star in the sky crossing the meridian
Solar Day

Earth points
towards Sun
overhead again 1 Solar Day = 24 hrs

Earth points
towards Sun
overhead

The length of time which passes between the Sun reaching its highest point in
the sky two consecutive times. This is known as a synodic day
Eclipses

Solar
eclipse

Lunar
eclipse An eclipse occurs when a body
disappears or partially disappears
from view, either by an occultation, as
with a solar eclipse, or by passing into
the shadow of another body, as with a
lunar eclipse
Transits and Occultations

A transit occurs when a

smaller body passes in
front of a larger one.

An occultation occurs when

an apparently larger body
passes in front of an
apparently smaller one
 Astronomical Unit (AU)
Earth Jupiter
Mars
Pluto
Saturn Uranus Neptune

1 AU

1 5 9 19 30 39
Mean distances from the Sun (AU)

1 AU

1 Astronomical Unit (AU) is the mean distance between

the Earth and the Sun, and is a convenient unit for
measuring distance in the Solar System.
(1AU = 149,597,870.66 km)
 Distant Star
Parallax background

angle Observed Star

If we observe the position

Parallax of a nearby star against a
angle p distance background, it
would appear to have
moved 6 months later when
the Earth has shifted it’s
position.
This change in view is
known as parallax.
Stars as seen Earth
now

Diameter of
Earth’s Orbit
Stars as seen 6
months later
 Parsec
If we use I astronomical unit (AU) as the base of a
triangle, and the parallax angle is 1 arc second, the
height of the triangle is 1 parsec.

I”

One arcsecond of parallax is one parsec.

I parsec
1 parsec is equal to 3.26 light years, and is the unit
used by astronomers to measure stellar distances.

The
Sun
I au The Earth
 Parsec
The distance to stars can be easily be determined
by measuring their Parallax angles.

The parallax formula states that the distance to a

star D, is equal to 1 divided by the parallax angle, p,
where p is measured in arc-seconds, and D is Parallax
parsecs. p
angle
To find the distance to a star take the reciprocal of D
it’s Parallax angle

D=1/ p
The smaller the parallax angle the further the star.
The
Sun
I au The Earth
Luminosity

The amount of light

emitted by a star
 Lunation

The Moon’s phases arise

because we see
differing amounts of
its sunlit side as it
orbits the Earth.

To put it simply, the

bright part of the
Moon always points
towards the Sun.
Terminator

The boundary between the light

side and the dark side of
a planet or other body.
Libration

Fifty nine percent of

the Moon's
surface is
visible from
Earth due to the
rocking motion
of the Moon.

This is known as
Libration
 Ejecta

Material from beneath the surface of a body such as a moon or planet that
is ejected by an impact and distributed around the surface.
Opposition

Earth
The
Sun
Jupiter

The position of a planet when it is exactly opposite the Sun in the sky,
and is best suitable for observing.
Elongation
Elongation Venus

Mercury

46 o
~23 o

Elongation is the angular distance of a planetary body from the Sun

as seen from Earth.

The maximum elongation for Mercury is between 18° and 28°, while that for
Venus is between 45° and 47°.
These values vary because the planetary orbits are elliptical rather than
perfectly circular.
Eastern and Western
Elongation

Mercury

When an inferior planet is visible after sunset, it is near its greatest eastern
elongation.

When it is visible before sunrise, it is near its greatest western elongation.

Apparition

The appearance in the sky of

a comet, or the period during
which a planet is
observable.
Asterism

A small group of easily recognizable stars, not necessarily forming a

complete constellation.
 Albedo

The albedo of an object is a measure of how strongly it reflects light from light sources
such as the Sun. It is defined as the ratio of total-reflected to incident light.
It is a unitless measure with a range of possible values from 0 (dark) to 1 (bright).

Something that appears white reflects most of the light that hits it and has a high albedo,
while something that looks dark absorbs most of the light that hits it, indicating a
low albedo.
Radiant

A point in the sky from which meteors in a meteor shower seem to

originate.
 Perturbation
When multiple objects, such as
planets or moons, are present in
a system, their gravitational
forces affect each other, causing
slight disturbances in their paths
around a central object, such as
a star.
These perturbations can result in
changes in the object's orbital
parameters, such as its
eccentricity, inclination, or semi-
major axis.
Conjunction

An event that occurs when two or more celestial objects appear close
together in the sky.
Great
Conjunctions

A great conjunction is
a conjunction of the
planets Jupiter and Saturn, when
the two planets appear closest
together in the sky.

Great conjunctions occur

approximately every 20 years when
Jupiter "overtakes" Saturn in
its orbit.

They are named "great" for being

by far the rarest of the conjunctions
between naked-eye planets.
 Part 2
The Solar
System
The Earth
The Earth is shaped like
a sphere and composed mostl
y of rock. Over 70 percent of
the Earth's surface is water.

The planet has a

relatively thin
atmosphere composed
mostly
of nitrogen and oxygen.
 With its abundance of liquid water, Earth
supports a large variety of life forms, including
potentially intelligent species
 The Sun
The Sun is a G-type main-sequence
star based on its spectral class.
Its color is yellow white.
It is an averaged sized star, and is
not part of a binary system.

Spectral Classes
O B A F G K M
 Sunspots are
temporary phenomena on Sun Spots
the photosphere of
the Sun that appear visibly as
dark spots compared to
surrounding regions.
They are caused by
intense magnetic activity,
which inhibits convection
Sunspots are dark because
they are cooler than the
surrounding photosphere

Sun Spots

Sunspots are quite large, an average one

being about the same size as the Earth.
 The name corona comes from the
Latin word for "crown." During solar The Corona
eclipses, the corona becomes visible,
looking like a crown.

The corona extends about 5 million

miles in space. It gets much, much
hotter the farther it stretches from the
Sun’s blazing surface.

The Corona
 Coronal
Solar
Cycles
Mass The solar magnetic activity cycle is the nearly
periodic 11-year change in the Sun's activity,
Ejections including changes in the number and size
of sunspots, flares, and other manifestations
 Global
Warming

Global warming is the long-term

rise in the average temperature of
the Earth's climate system. It is a
major aspect of current climate
change.

The dominant cause of global

warming has been the emission
of greenhouse gases such as water
vapour, carbon dioxide, methane,
and nitrous oxide
 Effects of Global
With increased carbon dioxide in
Warming include :- the atmosphere, oceans absorb it
and become more acidic.

Extreme weather events

More frequent and intense drought.

Heat waves and forest fires.

Expanding deserts

Polar ice melt

Glacial retreat

Rising Sea Levels

Coastal Flooding

More acidic Oceans

 The
Moon
Diameter: 3476 km
Mass: 7.35 x 1022 kg

Our Moon is quarter the size of the

Earth, and is the fifth largest moon in
the whole solar system.
It is bigger than the ex-planet Pluto.

The only other Moon which is bigger in relation

to it’s parent planet is Charon, which is half the
size of Pluto
 Orbit
The Moon takes 27.3 days to orbit the Earth. It has a nearly circular orbit, which is
tilted about 5° to the plane of the Earth's orbit.

5o
384,400km

Because the Earth is so much

more massive than the Moon,
this point lies within the Earth
To be more accurate, the Moon
itself, 4,670 km from the Earth’s
and the Earth orbit around their
center, which is 75% of the
common center of mass, known
Earth’s radius.
as their barycentre.
Temperature
Because of its low
gravity, the Moon has no
atmosphere.
As such, temperatures
vary widely from 107°C.
in the day to down to
-153°C at the night.

Nightime Daytime

-150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150 One impact crater

recorded a temperature
Degrees Celcius of -238 degrees Celsius,
The coldest temperature making it the coldest
ever recorded on Earth place in our Solar
was -94.7C, in the System.
Antarctic
Maria

This produces the large flat plains

which cover much of the Moon’s
surface.
These are called a mare (plural maria),
latin for sea, because astronomers
once thought such regions might
actually be seas.
The Near side of the
Moon

Since the moon spins

on its axis at the same
time it takes to orbit the
Earth, the same
hemisphere is always
turned towards us.
Scientists call this
synchronous rotation.

We call this half of

lunar surface the
“near side” of the
Moon.
Far
Side
The far side of
the Moon

Luna 3

The first photographs

of the far side of the
Moon were taken by
Luna 3 in September
1959.

Maria are scarce on the far

side because the crust is
thicker there, and so less
lava reached the surface.
 Waxing
Sea of
Serenity Crescent
Moon getting larger
Sea of
Tranquillity

At one time people

Sea of believed that the weather
Fertility on Earth is influenced by
the Moon.
Sea of When the Moon is waxing
Nectar the weather will be fine,
and when it is waning the
weather will be stormy or
generally unpleasant.

This explains why the maria coming into view

on a waxing crescent leading to the first
quarter were given names associated with
good weather.
Ocean of Waning Crescent
Storms Moon getting smaller

Sea of
Rains

Sea of
Clouds

On the other side of

Sea of the lunar disk the
Moisture maria visible on the
waning crescent were
labeled with rainy
names.
Low lands

The Moon’s lowland maria

bear few large craters.
These are the flattened
remains of old craters, or a
few new ones, formed after
the plains were flooded with
lava 2 billion years ago.
New crater

Old crater
High lands

In contrast, the highlands,

which are older, are
saturated with craters of all
sizes, from tiny pits to
huge walled plains over
125 miles across.
 Craters
The origin of lunar craters was a
matter for debate.
The main question was whether
they were produced by volcanism
or by meteoric impact.

Geologist, Dr. Eugene Shoemaker,

was the first to prove that most
craters are caused by impact.
 New crater
Tycho

Image shows the young and

old craters Tycho and
Clavius.

About 100 million years ago,

debris ejected during the Clavius
impact that created Tycho
produced a highly visible
radiating system of light
streaks or rays that extend
across much of the lunar
Tycho
near side
 Old crater
Clavius

With a diameter odf 225 miles,

Clavius is one of the oldest and
largest craters on the Moon's
near side.
Clavius
Clavius crater's own ray
system resulting from its
original impact event would
have faded long ago.

The old crater's worn walls and Tycho

smooth floor are now overlayed
by newer smaller craters from
impacts that occurred after
Clavius was formed.
 Moon
Phases Waxing
(getting larger)

One week later

First Quarter

New
Moon Two weeks
later
Full Moon

Waning
(getting smaller) Three weeks later
Last Quarter
At New Moon, the near side of the moon is in complete shadow.

As it orbits the Earth, the visible area grows, or waxes, from a crescent
via a gibbous phase to a full Moon, when the disc is fully illuminated.

The phases then occur in reverse, as the visible area shrinks, or wanes.
 Tides
Tides are caused by the gravitational interaction between the Earth and the Moon.
The gravitational attraction of the moon causes the oceans to bulge out in the
direction of the moon.

Another bulge occurs on the opposite side, since the Earth is also being pulled
toward the moon and away from the water on the far side.

Gravitational
attraction

High Tide High Tide

Low Tide
 Spring Tides

Spring tides are especially strong tides which occur when the Earth, the Sun,
and the Moon are in a line.

The gravitational forces of the Moon and the Sun both contribute to the tides.

Full Moon New Moon

They occur during the full moon and the new moon.
Neap Tides
Neap tides are especially weak tides.

They occur when the gravitational forces of the

Moon and the Sun are perpendicular to one another
(with respect to the Earth).

Neap tides occur during first and last quarter moons.

 The Moon’s elliptical orbit.

Sometimes the full moon appears larger than normal. This is because the
moon orbits the earth in an elliptical path, so it sometimes it is
significantly closer to us.

Apogee

Perigee

The Moon’s distance varies from 221,463 miles at perigee (closest

approach to Earth) to 251,968 miles at apogee (farthest point).
Super Moon

If the Moon happens to be full during its point of closest approach, we

call that a super moon.

At perigee the Super Moon appears 14 % larger than at apogee.

 Solar Eclipse

penumbra

umbra

Solar Eclipses occur during a new moon, when the Moon comes directly between
the Sun and the Earth

Solar Eclipses are rare at any particular location because totality exists only
along a narrow path on the Earth's surface traced by the Moon's umbra.
Total Solar
Eclipse

Corona
The Sun happens to be
400 times the Moon's
diameter, and 400
times as far away.

That coincidence
means the Sun and
Moon appear to be
about the same size
when viewed from
Earth.
A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon is at perigee, and can cover the entire sun.
This blocks the bright light from the Sun's photosphere, allowing us to see the faint
glow from the corona, the Sun's outer atmosphere.
Partial Solar
eclipse

During a partial
eclipse, the Moon
moved partly between
Earth and the Sun.
Annular Solar
eclipse

When the Moon is at

apogee, it is 11%
farther from Earth and
cannot entirely block Photosphere
the bright light, so
eclipses which occur
near apogee are not
total.

At least two, and up to five, solar eclipses occur each year.

No more than two can be total eclipses.
 Lunar Eclipse

penumbra

umbra
Occasionally, the full Moon moves into the Earth’s
shadow and is eclipsed

This does not happen every full moon because the

Moon’s orbit is inclined 5 degrees to the ecliptic.
 A Blood Moon

“Blood Moon” is sometimes

used to describe a Total
Lunar Eclipse.

When the Earth casts its shadow on a Full Moon the Moon may get an orange glow.
This occurs because blue sunlight is refracted more than red and yellow by the
Earth’s atmosphere, and does not reach the moon.
Totality
From the Moon’s first entry into the
shadow until it has completely re-
emerged can take up to four hours.

The period during which the eclipse is

total can be well over an hour.
 Length of Eclipse

A lunar eclipse lasts longer when the moon is at

apogee. Here the Moon is at the most distant part
of its elliptical orbit and moves slowest.
 Mercury

Mercury is the innermost and

smallest planet in the solar
system, orbiting the Sun once
every 88 days.
Mercury is bright when viewed
from Earth, ranging from −2.0 to
5.5 in apparent magnitude, but is
not easily seen as its greatest
angular separation from the Sun
is only 28.3°. It can only be seen
in morning or evening twilight.

Mercury is heavily cratered, has no

natural satellites and no substantial
atmosphere. It is an exceptionally
dense planet due to the large relative
size of its core.
Surface temperatures range from about
−183 °C to 427 °C,
 Venus
Named after the Roman goddess of love, Venus
is the brightest planet in the night sky, reaching
an apparent magnitude of −4.6.
Because Venus is an inferior planet from Earth, it
never appears to venture far from the Sun: its
elongation reaches a maximum of 47.8°
Water and water vapor are extremely rare on
Venus due to its high surface temperature that
can approach 500 °C
Venus has the densest atmosphere of all the
terrestrial planets, consisting mostly of carbon
dioxide. The atmospheric pressure at the planet's
surface is 92 times that of the Earth. Venus orbits the Sun at an
average distance of about 108
Venus is covered with an opaque layer of highly
million km, and completes an
reflective clouds of sulfuric acid, preventing its
orbit every 224.65 days It also
surface from being seen from space
has the longest day, equivalent
to 243 earth days.
Venus spins in the opposite
direction from other planets so
the Sun rises in the West.
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet
from the Sun in the Solar
System. The planet is
named after Mars, the
Roman god of war. It is
also referred to as the
"Red Planet" because of
its reddish appearance.
Mars is a terrestrial planet
with a thin atmosphere,
having surface features
reminiscent both of the
impact craters of the Moon
and the volcanoes, valleys,
deserts and polar ice caps
of Earth. It is the site of
Olympus Mons, the
highest known mountain in
the Solar System, and of
Valles Marineris, the
largest canyon.
 The Size of Mars
Mars has approximately half the radius The north polar ice cap
of Earth. It is less dense than Earth, contains water Ice
having about 15% of Earth's volume
and 11% of the mass. Its surface area
is only slightly less than the total area
of Earth's dry land.

The lengths of the Martian seasons are

about twice those of Earth's, as Mars’
greater distance from the Sun leads to the
Martian year being about two Earth years
in length.
Martian surface temperatures vary from
lows of about −140 °C during the polar
winters to highs of up to 20 °C in
summers.
Venus Earth

Mercury Mars

The south polar ice cap

is made up of frozen
carbon dioxide
The Moons of
Mars Mars has two small moons
Phobos and Deimos,
believed to be ex Asteroids

Phobos, the larger and innermost of Mars' two moons is closer to its
primary than any other moon in the solar system, less than 6000 km
above the surface of Mars.
It is the darkest moon in the solar system. It is also one of
the smallest moons in the solar system, and is expected to break up
and crash into the red planet within the next 100 million years.
Stickney Crater is the largest crater on the Martian moon
Phobos. Over 9 kilometers across, it is nearly half the
diameter of Phobos itself, so large that the impact that
blasted out the crater came close to shattering the tiny
moon.
Jupiter

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar
System. It is two and a half times as massive as all of the other planets in our
Solar System combined.
 The Great
Red Spot

The outer atmosphere is visibly segregated into several bands at different latitudes,
resulting in turbulence and storms along their interacting boundaries.
A prominent result is the Great Red Spot, a giant storm that is known to have existed
since at least the 17th century.
 Ganymede’s Shadow

This image shows the shadow of Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon. When Jupiter's
moons cross between it and the Sun, they created shadows just like when
the Earth's moon crosses between the Earth and the Sun.
Also like on Earth, if you were in a dark shadow on Jupiter, you would see a moon
completely eclipse the Sun.
 The Galilean Moons
Jupiter has 53 named moons. Others are awaiting official names.
Combined, scientists now think Jupiter has 79 moons.

The Galileans Satellites take their name from Galileo Galilee, the famous
Italian astronomer who discovered them in1610.
Shown in order of increasing distance from Jupiter, They are some of the
largest objects in the Solar System outside the Sun and the eight planets.

Io is that closes of Europa has an icy Ganymede is Callisto is the

the four moons and surface and is the largest most densly
has active sulphur believed to have Moon in the cratered moon
volcanoes, caused deep oceans under Solar System
by tidal heating. its icy surface.
Ganymede

Ganymede is larger than

Mercury and Pluto.

It is thought to have
an ocean layer that
contains more water
than Earth -- and might
contain life.
 Europa

Europa's long curving fractures hint at the subsurface liquid water. The tidal flexing the
large moon experiences in its elliptical orbit around Jupiter supplies the energy to
keep the ocean liquid.

But more tantalizing is the possibility that even in the absence of sunlight that process
could also supply the energy to support life, making Europa one of the best places to
look for life beyond Earth.
 Saturn

Saturn is the sixth planet

from the Sun and the
second largest planet in the
Solar System, after Jupiter
The planet Saturn is
composed of hydrogen,
with small proportions of
helium and trace elements.
The interior consists of a
small core of rock and ice,
surrounded by a thick layer
of metallic hydrogen and a
gaseous outer layer.
The outer atmosphere is
generally bland in
appearance, although long-
lived features can appear. Saturn has a prominent system of rings,
consisting mostly of ice particles with a
smaller amount of rocky debris and dust.
Sixty known moons orbit the planet.
 Major moons of Saturn
sizes and positions

Mimas

Enceladus

Thethys

Dione

Titan, Saturn's largest and the Solar Rhea

System's second largest moon is larger
than the planet Mercury

It is the only moon in the Solar System Titan

to possess a significant atmosphere,
made up of nitrogen with some Iapetus
methane and CO.
 The Rings
of Saturn
F Ring

A Ring

B -Ring

The space between the

A and B rings of
Saturn is known as
The Cassini division
- named after
discoverer, Italian
astronomer
Giovanni Dominico
Cassini.
Titan

Titan, Saturn's largest and the

Solar System's second largest
moon is larger than the planet
Mercury

It is the only moon in the Solar

System to possess a significant
atmosphere, made up of
nitrogen with some methane and
CO.
Mimas

Mimas is a small 400 kilometer-

diameter moon of Saturn.
 Mimas

The 130 kilometer-

diameter Herschel crater, is one
of the larger impact craters in
the entire Solar System.
 Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from
the Sun and the third-largest planet
in the solar system. Though it is
visible to the naked eye it was
never recognized as a planet by
ancient observers due to its
dimness and slow orbit. Sir William
Herschel announced its discovery
on March 13, 1781. This was also
the first discovery of a planet made
using a telescope.
Uranus' atmosphere, while being
composed primarily of hydrogen
and helium, contains a high
proportion of "ices" such as water,
ammonia and methane, along with
the usual traces of hydrocarbons. The Uranian system has a unique
It is the coldest planetary configuration among the planets because its
atmosphere in the Solar System, axis of rotation is tilted sideways, nearly into
with a minimum temperature of the plane of its revolution about the Sun; its
−224 °C.. The interior of Uranus is north and south poles lie where most other
mainly composed of ices and planets have their equators.
rocks.
 Moons of Uranus

Oberon

Like the other giant Titania

planets, Uranus has a Umbriel
ring system, a Uranus
magnetosphere, and
numerous moons.

Miranda

The Moons of
Uranus are Ariel
named after
Shakespearian
Characters
 Rings of Uranus

The planet Uranus has a system

of rings intermediate in
complexity between the more
extensive set around Saturn and
the simpler systems around
Jupiter and Neptune. The rings of
Uranus were discovered on
March 10, 1977.
More than 200 years ago, William
Herschel also reported observing
rings. However modern
astronomers are skeptical that he
could actually have noticed them,
as they are very dark and faint.
Two additional rings were
discovered in 1986 by the
Voyager 2 spacecraft, and two
outer rings were found in 2003–
2005 by the Hubble Space
Telescope.
 Neptune

Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet

from the Sun in the Solar System.
Discovered on September 23, 1846, Neptune
was the first planet found by mathematical
prediction rather than regular observation.
Unexpected changes in the orbit of Uranus
led astronomers to deduce the gravitational
perturbation of an unknown planet.
Neptune was found within a degree of the
predicted position. Its southern hemisphere
possessed a Great Dark Spot comparable to
the Great Red Spot on Jupiter.
Neptune's temperature at its cloud tops is
usually close to −218 °C , one of the coldest
in the solar system, due to its great distance
from the Sun.
Neptune has a faint and fragmented ring
system, which was confirmed by Voyager 2.

Neptune has blue methane winds

blowing at over 1300mph from east
to west across the planet
Neptune’s
Moons Triton

Proteus

Larissa

Nereid

Neptune as it would appear from a spacecraft approaching Triton,

Neptune's largest moon.
Triton is the only large moon in the Solar System with a retrograde
orbit, an orbit in the direction opposite to its planet's rotation.
The Kuiper Belt

The Kuiper belt is a region of the Solar System beyond the planets extending
from the orbit of Neptune (at 30 AU) to approximately 55 AU from the Sun. It
consists mainly of small bodies, or remnants from the Solar System's
formation, composed largely of frozen volatiles (termed "ices"), such as
methane, ammonia and water.
Beyond Neptune
Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) are any objects in the solar system that orbits the sun
at a greater distance on average than Neptune. The Kuiper belt, scattered disk, and
Oort cloud are three divisions of this volume of space.

The term "dwarf planet" was adopted in

2006 as part of a three-way classification of
bodies orbiting the Sun.
Planet Definition
A Planet :-

(a) Is in orbit around the Sun

(b) Has a spherical shape

(c) Has cleared the neighbourhood

around its orbit
Pluto

By definition, a Planet has

to clear the objects in its
neighbourhood.

Because Pluto shares its

orbital neighbourhood
with other icy Kuiper Belt
Objects, it did not meet
this criterion, and was
classified as a Dwarf
Planet
 Pluto’s
Surface

This image was

taken by the
robotic New
Horizons
spacecraft during
its flyby in July
2015.

The textured
jagged landforms
near Pluto’s
equator are made
almost entirely of
methane ice.
Charon

Pluto has five moons. In order of

distance from Pluto, they
are Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos,
and Hydra.

Charon is 1/2 the diameter

of Pluto, making it the largest
satellite relative to its parent body
in the Solar System.
 Current Dwarf Planets

Pluto
Eris
Haumea
The IAU currently recognizes
five dwarf planets

It is suspected that at least

another 40 known objects in
the Solar System belong in
this category.

Makemake
Comets and asteroids are now
referred to as Small Solar System Ceres
Bodies
Haumea has two known moons, Hiʻiaka and
Namaka, named after Hawaiian goddesses.
It has recently been found to have a ring.
 The Oort
Cloud

The Oort cloud is a hypothetical spherical cloud of comets which may lie roughly
50,000 AU, or nearly a light-year, from the Sun. This places the cloud at nearly a quarter
of the distance to Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun. The outer extent of the
Oort cloud defines the gravitational boundary of our Solar System.
Kepler Space Observatory

Designed to survey a portion of Earth's region of

the Milky Way to discover Earth-size exoplanets in
or near habitable zones and estimate how many of
the billions of stars in the Milky Way have such
planets.

Kepler's sole scientific instrument is

a photometer that continually monitored the
brightness of approximately 150,000 main
sequence stars in a fixed field of view.

These data are transmitted to Earth, then analyzed

to detect periodic dimming caused by exoplanets
that cross in front of their host star. Only planets
whose orbits are seen edge-on from Earth can be
detected.

During its over nine and a half years of service,

Kepler observed 530,506 stars and detected 2,662
planets.
 Part 3
Deep sky Objects
Webb's First
Deep Field

The is a Webb view of

the early
Universe toward the
southern constellation
Volans.
The thousands of
galaxies flooding the
field of view may be as
far as 9.5 billion years
away.

The stars with six

visible spikes are well
within our own Milky
Way.
Galaxies A galaxy is a massive,
gravitationally bound
system consisting of stars,
an interstellar medium of
gas and dust, and dark
matter.
It is believed that a
supermassive Black Hole
exists at the heart of every
active galaxy, including our
own Milky Way
 Star populations in the galaxies Population II stars tend to
be found in globular
clusters and the nucleus
of a galaxy. They tend to
be older, less luminous
and cooler than
Population I stars.
They have fewer heavy
elements, either by being
older or being in regions
where no heavy-element
producing predecessors
would be found.

Population I stars are luminous,

hot young stars concentrated in
the arms of spiral galaxies
. The gas from which they
formed has been seeded with
the heavy elements formed from
previous giant stars.
 The Milky Way
100, 000 light years

The Sun is one of the stars in the Milky

Way galaxy; the Solar System includes
the Earth and all the other objects that
orbit the Sun.
Spiral Spiral galaxies consist
Galaxies of a flat, rotating disk
containing stars, gas
and dust, and a central
concentration of stars
known as the bulge.
These are surrounded
by a much fainter halo
of stars, many of which
reside in globular
clusters.
M61

This typical spiral galaxy contains

sweeping spiral arms, cosmic dust
lanes, pinkish star forming regions,
and young blue star clusters.
Barred Spiral
Galaxies

Bar

A barred spiral galaxy is a

spiral galaxy with a central bar-
shaped structure composed of
stars. Bars are found in
approximately half of all spiral
galaxies.
Bars generally affect both the
motions of stars and
interstellar gas within spiral
galaxies
Elliptical Galaxies

M 31

M31, The Andromeda Galaxy

is a spiral galaxy approximately 2,500,000 light-years in
the constellation Andromeda. It appears elliptical
because we are viewing it from the side.
It is the nearest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way.
M31 contains one trillion (1012) stars
Elliptical Galaxies

M 31

The Milkyway

The center of M31 could be on a direct collision course with the center of our
Milkyway galaxy.

If that happens, the two galaxies will become bound, dance around, and eventually
merge to become one large elliptical galaxy over the next few billion years
 Irregular Galaxies
Some galaxies do not have a regular
shape, like a spiral or an elliptical galaxy
Those galaxies are known as irregular
galaxies.

The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is a dwarf galaxy.

It has a diameter of about 7,000 light-years and
contains several hundred million stars.

At a distance of about 200,000 light-years, it is one

of the Milky Way's nearest neighbors. It is also one
of the most distant objects that can be seen with the
naked eye.
The Hubble classification for galaxies The Hubble Tuning Fork
was invented by Edwin Hubble in Classification
1936. Hubble’s scheme divides
galaxies into 3 broad classes based
on their visual appearance.

Elliptical galaxies have

smooth, featureless light
distributions and appear
as ellipses in images. Spiral galaxies consist of a flattened
disk, with stars forming a spiral
structure, and a central concentration
of stars known as the bulge,

Roughly half of all spirals are also

observed to have a bar-like structure,
extending from the central bulge.
These barred spirals are given the
symbol SB.
Quasars

Quasars are very distant

ancient objects, and are
the most luminous,
powerful, and energetic
objects known in the
universe.
They can emit up to a
thousand times the
energy of our entire
Milky Way.

Quasars are believed to be powered by accretion of

material into supermassive black holes in the nuclei of
distant galaxies.
More than 200,000 quasars are known.
Nebulae

Nebulae are areas of space containing dust

and gas.
Dark nebulae stand out because they block
out background stars.
Reflection
Nebula

Star emits
visible light
Scattered
blue light
reflected
from gas
and dust

Reflection nebulae
appear blue because
dust grains reflect
blue light more
efficiently than red.
Dust is observed
as a Reflection
Nebula
The Iris Reflection
Nebula

The dominant color of the Iris reflection

nebula is blue, characteristic of dust
grains reflecting starlight.
 Emission
Nebula

Excited
Bright star electrons re-
emits ultra- emit red
violet light visible light

Light passes
through cold
hydrogen gas
and ionizes it
Gas is observed
as a red Emission
Nebula
An emission nebula is a cloud of ionized gas (i.e. a plasma) emitting light of various
colors. The most common source for ionization are high-energy photons emitted
from a nearby hot star.
Due to the prevalence of hydrogen in interstellar gas, many emission nebulae
appear red due to the strong emissions of the Balmer series
 The Pelican The Pelican Nebula is an
Emission Nebula emission nebula 2,000 light-
years away in the
constellation Cygnus, the
Swan
 The Lagoon Nebula

The Lagoon Nebula. M8, is a giant interstellar cloud in the constellation Sagittarius.
It is classified as an emission nebula, and as an H II region.
The life cycle of a
medium sized star

The core of the

star collapses to
form a white
dwarf

As a medium The outer

sized star ages, it gases are
cools and blown off
becomes a red like a bubble
giant
The gaseous shell is called
a Planetary Nebula
A planetary nebula is an
emission nebula Planetary Nebulae
consisting of a glowing
shell of gas and plasma
formed by certain types
of stars when they die.
They are a relatively
short-lived
phenomenon, lasting a
few tens of thousands
of years, compared to a Cat’s
Eye
typical stellar lifetime of
several billion years.
Ring

Butterfly

Retina Southern Ring

Supernova The core of the
Remnants star collapses to
form a pulsating
neutron star
As a massive
star ages, it
cools and
becomes a
supergiant

The outer atmosphere

is blown off in a huge The ashes of the
explosion called a supernova are called
supernova Remnants
The Crab Nebula (M1)

The Crab Nebula is located in the constellation Taurus. It is the remnant of a

massive star that exploded.
The supernova explosion was witnessed on Earth in the year 1054.
The Spinning Pulsar of the Crab Nebula

At the core of the Crab Nebula lies a city-sized, magnetized neutron star spinning 30
times a second. Known as the Crab Pulsar, it is the bright spot in the center of the
gaseous swirl at the nebula's core. With more mass than the Sun and the density of
an atomic nucleus, the spinning pulsar is the collapsed core of the massive star
that exploded.
The Horsehead Nebula

The Horsehead Nebula lies

1,500 light years distant
towards the constellation of
Orion.
 The Bubble Nebula

Above and left of the Bubble's

center is a hot, O-type star,
several hundred thousand
times more luminous than the
Sun.

A fierce stellar wind and

intense radiation from that
star has blasted out
the structure of glowing
gas against denser material in
a surrounding molecular
cloud.

The intriguing Bubble Nebula

and associated cloud complex
lie a mere 7,100 light-
years away toward the
boastful
constellation Cassiopeia.
The Cartwheel Galaxy

The double cluster is located

in the constellation Sculptor
The Orion Nebula (M42)
The Trapezium

Near the heart of the Orion Nebula are

these four hot, massive stars known as
the Trapezium.
The Andromeda Galaxy (M31)

The Andromeda Galaxy is the most distant

object easily visible to the unaided eye.
Even at some two and a half million light-
years distant, this immense spiral galaxy,
spanning over 200,000 light years, is visible
as a nebulous cloud in the constellation
Andromeda.
 The Cat’s Eye Nebula

The Cat’s Eye Nebula is located in the constellation Draco

It is one of brightest and most highly detailed planetary nebula known, composed of
gas expelled in the brief phase near the end of life of a Sun-like star.
The nebula's dying central star may have produced the outer circular concentric
shells by shrugging off outer layers in a series of regular convulsions.
1The Double Cluster

The double cluster is located

in the constellation Perseus
Omega Centauri

Globular star cluster Omega Centauri, is some 15,000 light-years away. The cluster
is packed with about 10 million stars much older than the Sun within a volume about
150 light-years in diameter. It's the largest and brightest of 200 or so known globular
clusters that roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy.
Globular Star Cluster 47 Tuc

Globular star cluster 47 Tuc lies about 13,000 light-years away. The tightly packed
globular cluster is home to a star with the closest known orbit around a black hole.
M13: The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules

The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, is one of the brightest globular star
clusters in the northern sky.
At a distance of 25,000 light-years, the cluster hundreds of thousands of stars
crowd into a region 150 light-years in diameter.
The Virgo Cluster is the nearest galaxy
cluster, with up to about 2,000 member
galaxies.
The Tarantula Nebula

The Tarantula Nebula is

located in the Large
Magellanic Cloud
The Hamburger Galaxy

The Hamburger Galaxy is

located in the constellation
Leo
The Seven Sisters (Pleiades, M45)

The Pleiades, M45,is located in

the constellation Taurus

The Pleiades were the seven

daughters of
the titan Atlas and the sea-
nymph Pleione
The Sombrero Galaxy (M104)

The Sombrero Galaxy is located

in the constellation Virgo
The Ring Nebula (M57)

The Ring Nebula is located in

the constellation Lyra
The Southern Ring Nebula

NGC 3132, the Southern Ring Nebula is a planetary nebula, the death shroud of a
dying sun-like star some 2,500 light-years from Earth. Composed of gas and dust the
stunning cosmic landscape is nearly half a light-year in diameter, explored in
unprecedented detail by the James Webb Space Telescope.
The Trifid Nebula (M20)

The Trifid Nebula is located in

the constellation Sagittarius
The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51)

The Whirlpool Galaxy is

located in the constellation
Canes Venatici
The Rosette Nebula

The Rosette Nebula is located

in the constellation
Monoceros
 The Veil Nebula is roughly
The Veil Nebula circular in shape and covers
nearly 3 degrees on the sky
toward the constellation of
Cygnus.

The supernova remnant lies

about 1,400 light-years away.
The Retina Nebula

The Retina Nebula is located

in the constellation Lupus
The Butterfly Nebula

The Butterfly Nebula is

located in the constellation
Scorpius
The ‘Pillars of Creation’

The Pillars of Creation are

located in the Eagle Nebula
The Witch Head Nebula

The Witch Head Nebula is

located in the constellation
Orion
 Part 4
Comets, Asteroids
and Dwarf Planets
Formation of
the Solar
System

5 billion years ago, the sun

and planets condensed from
a large cloud of rock, ice and
gas.
 Crater
Formation
For the next billion years, the
planets, including the Earth
and Moon, collided with the
remaining debris, creating
the craters on the Moon and
much of the water on Earth.
Today, the remaining rock
and ice can be found in the
asteroid belt, between
Mars and Jupiter, and in
the Kuiper belt and Oort
cloud, beyond the orbit of
Neptune.
 Asteroids are material left over
The Asteroids from the formation of the solar
system. One theory suggests that
they are the remains of a planet
that was destroyed in a massive
collision long ago.

More likely, asteroids are material

that never coalesced into a planet. In
fact, if the estimated total mass of all
asteroids was gathered into a single
object, the object would be less than
1,500 kilometers across -- less than
half the diameter of our Moon.
 Potentially Hazardous
Asteroids

Pictured here are the

orbits of the over
1,000
known Potentially
Hazardous Asteroids
(PHAs).

These documented
tumbling boulders of
rock and ice are over
140 meters across
and will pass within
7.5 million kilometers
of Earth -- about 20
times the distance to
the Moon

Although none of them will strike the Earth in the next 100 years -- not all PHAs have
been discovered, and past 100 years, many orbits become hard to predict.
 Asteroid Data

Name Radius (km)

Ceres 466
Vesta 265
Pallas 261
Asteroids are rocky and metallic objects Hygiea 215
that contain little or no volatile Davida 168
substances. They orbit the Sun but are Interamnia 167
too small to be considered planets. They Europa 156
are now classified as Small Solar Sylvia 136
System Bodies. Eunomia 136
Psyche 132
Ida 58
Asteroids range in size from Ceres, Mathilde 28
which has a diameter of about 1000 Eros 18
km, down to the size of pebbles. Gaspa 17
Sixteen asteroids have a diameter
of 240 km or greater.
Ceres

Ceres is the largest object in the

asteroid belt between Mars and
Jupiter, and the only dwarf planet
located in the inner solar system.
 Ahuna Mons is the largest mountain on Ceres, the largest known
asteroid in our Solar System.
One hypothesis holds that it is an ice volcano that formed after a large
impact on the opposite side of the dwarf planet.
 Vesta

Vesta is the second largest asteroid

with a diameter of 326 miles.

It is surpassed only by Ceres, which is

classified as a dwarf planet.
 The Asteroid Belt

Asteroids have been found inside Earth's orbit to beyond Saturn's orbit. Most,
however, are contained within a main belt that exists between the orbits of
Mars and Jupiter.
This belt is now estimated to contain between 1.1 and 1.9 million asteroids
larger than 1 km in diameter, and millions of smaller ones
 Trojans and
Centaurs
Jupiter Trojan asteroids are a
population that share an orbit
with Jupiter, but do not
collide with it because they
orbit in one of the
two Lagrangian points of
stability which lie 60° ahead
of and behind the planet.

Centaurs are an unstable class

of minor planets that behave
with characteristics of
both asteroids and comets.
Centaurs have transient orbits
that cross the orbits of one or
more of the giant planets.
Meteoroids Much of our
understanding about
asteroids comes from
examining pieces of
space debris that fall to
the surface of Earth.
Asteroids that are on a
collision course with
Earth are
called meteoroids.

When a meteoroid strikes our atmosphere at high velocity, friction causes

this chunk of space matter to incinerate in a streak of light known as a
meteor. If the meteoroid does not burn up completely, what's left strikes
Earth's surface and is called a meteorite.
Fireballs

Large Meteors are called bolides or fireballs..

They are capable of exciting green emission from oxygen
atoms while passing through the tenuous atmosphere at
high altitudes.
Meteor showers

A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of

meteors are observed to radiate, or originate, from one
point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by
streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering
Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds on parallel
trajectories.
The Perseids

The Perseids are a prolific meteor shower associated with

the comet Swift Tuttle. The meteors are called the Perseids
because the point from which they appear to hail lies in the
constellation Perseus.
They peak in mid August
 Meteorites

Of all the meteorites

examined, 92.8 percent are
composed of silicate (stone),
and 5.7 percent are
composed of iron and
nickel; the rest are a mixture
of the three materials.

Stony meteorites are the

hardest to identify since
they look very much like
terrestrial rocks.
The Kuiper
Belt

The inner
solar
system
Gerard Kuiper
Dutch Astronomer
1905-1973

The Kuiper belt lies beyond the

orbit of Neptune.
It contains millions of icy
objects, including the dwarf
planets Pluto and Eris, which
circle the sun in elliptical orbits.
The Oort
Cloud

The solar system

Jan Hendrik Oort The Oort Cloud is a

Dutch Astronomer spherical region
extending more than one
1900-1992 light year beyond the
Kuiper belt, containing
billions of icy objects.
 A comet is an icy, small Solar
System body that, when passing
Comets close to the Sun, warms and begins
to release gases, a process called
outgassing. This produces a visible
atmosphere or coma, and
sometimes also a tail

The blue color of the ion tail is

dominated by recombining carbon
monoxide molecules, while the
green color of the coma surrounding
the head of the comet is created
mostly by a slight amount of
recombining diatomic
carbon molecules.
 A comet with an orbital period of
less than 200 years is known as a
short-period comet or a ‘periodic
comet’.

Single-apparition comets pass

through the Inner Solar
System only once
 Halley’s Comet

Sir Edmond Halley was the

first to understand the
periodic nature of comets.
In 1705, he deduced that
bright comets, seen in
Edmond Halley
1456,1531,1607 and 1682,
English Astronomer
were really the the same one,
1656-1742
orbiting the Sun every 76
years. He predicted that it
would return in 1758.

Halley’s comet remains the

only short term comet visible On Christmas day of the year, the comet
to the naked eye which can appeared, and was named after him.
be seen twice in one lifetime. Unfortunately, Halley died in 1742 and
never saw his prediction come true.
Albedo

Cometary nuclei reflect only

about 3% of reflected
sunlight (asphalt reflects
7%), making them one of the
darkest objects in the solar
system.

The very darkness of

cometary surfaces enables
them to absorb the heat
necessary to drive their
outgassing processes.
 Perturbation

Because of their low masses, and

their elliptical orbits which
frequently take them close to the
giant planets, cometary orbits are
often perturbed. This causes
variations in their orbital paths
and periods.

Jupiter is the source of the greatest perturbations, being more

than twice as massive as all the other planets combined, in addition
to being the swiftest of the giant planets
 Comet
Shoemaker-Levy 9

For 5 days in July 1994,

the world watched as
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
broke into 21 pieces and
slammed into Jupiter at 40
miles / second.

The energy released was

the equivalent of a nuclear
bomb exploding every
second for 13 years.
Earth Impact

65 million years ago, the Earth was

struck by a large comet, which landed The meteorite's
in the Yucatan Peninsula. estimated size
was about 6 miles
in diameter.
Chicxulub
Crater

The impact would have

caused some of the
largest mega-tsunamis
in Earth's history.

The emission of dust and

particles caused
environmental changes
close to a nuclear winter,
during which the surface
of the Earth was totally
covered by a cloud of dust
for several years.
Dinosaur Extinction

Dinosaurs went extinct about 65 million years

ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period, after
living on Earth for about 165 million years.
 Iridium

Iridium

Luis Alvarez and his son Walter found Iridium is frequently found in
the rare element Iridium in a layer of meteorites, suggesting that the soot
soot on the Cretaceous / Tertiary (K-T) was formed by global fires after a major
boundary, 65 million years ago asteroid impact.

Paleozoic Mesozoic Cenozoic

600 Million 500 400 300 200 100 0

Tertiary
Cretaceous
Dr. Eugene
Shoemaker

By studying the Barringer Crater in the Arizona desert. Geologist Dr. Eugene
Shoemaker proposed the idea that sudden geologic changes can arise
from asteroid strikes and that asteroid strikes are common over geologic time
periods. Previously, craters were thought to be remnants of extinct volcanoes – even
on the Moon.
Evidence of
Asteroid
Impacts in
Space

Saturn’s Moon
Hyperion

The surface
of Mercury
 Dwarf Planets

A dwarf planet is a planetary-

mass object that does not
dominate its region of space as
a true planet does, and is not
a satellite. It must be round and
orbit the sun.

Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Haumea and

Haumea
Makemake are the five IAU-
Pluto Makemake
accepted dwarf planets.

Ceres

Eris
 Exoplanets

Exoplanet Kepler-186f is the first Earth-size planet

orbiting a star in the "habitable zone" -- the range
of distance from a star where liquid water might
pool on the surface of an orbiting planet.
 K2-18

K2 -18 has been found

to contain a
significant amount of
water vapor in the
atmosphere. It lies
about 124 light years
away toward the
constellation Leo.
The exoplanet is
significantly larger
and more massive
than our Earth, but
orbits in the habitable
zone of its home star.
 Part 5
Light and Spectra
 Sir Isaac Newton
mirror 1642 - 1726

For many centuries there was doubt as to whether light was a wave or a particle.
Newton’s corpuscular theory of light held that light is composed of tiny particles, or
corpuscles, emitted by luminous bodies.

This could explain such features as light's ability to travel in straight lines and
reflect off surfaces.
Light passing through Christiaan Huygens
2 narrow slits (1629 –1695)
In 1678, Christiaan
Huygens observed that an
expanding sphere of light
behaves as if each point
on the wave front were a
new source of radiation of
the same frequency and
phase.

He argued in favor of the

wave nature of light.
Diffraction and Interference
 If light was a wave it would
need a medium to propagate,
like sound waves through air or
water. As such, a hypothetical
medium called the
luminiferous ether was
suggested as the carrier of
light waves.

Sun

The ether was assumed

to have some very
unusual properties, e.g.,
being massless but
having high elasticity.
 To test the presence of this ether Mirror
Michelson and Morley devised an Mirror
experiment which compared a
source light with itself after being
sent in different directions.
A change in phase would prove the
existence of the ether.

Mirror
Coherent
light source

Semi silvered
Mirror
Interferometer

Albert Michelson
(1852 – 1931)
Detector
The null result, published in 1887, was the Edward Morley
first clear demonstration that something was (1838 – 1923)
seriously wrong with the ether concept.
 Einstein solved the mystery, once
and for all.
He showed that light can exhibit
both wave-like and particle-like
behavior.

A particle moving at the speed of

light behaves like a wave. Albert Einstein
(1879 – 1955)

High speed electrons

Einstein's explanation of wave-particle duality is closely tied to his work on the

photoelectric effect, which he proposed in 1905.
For this he was awarded the Noble Prize for Physics in 1921.
According to Einstein, light is composed of discrete packets of energy called
photons.
When light of sufficient energy (frequency) strikes the surface of a material,
individual photons can transfer their energy to electrons in the material.

Li g n
ht o
t on s
r
ra c
e i
ys
El iss
em

- - - - - -
Released electrons can flow in
- -
the material as an electric
- - - - - - -
current.
Silicon is a semiconductor material often used to
convert light into electricity.
Energy
Levels

N=3

Neils Bohr’s used Max

Planck’s quantum theory` to
explain the emission of light
from a heated hydrogen atom
N=2
Max Planck Neils Bohr
(1858 – 1947) (1885 – 1962)

When an atom is heated electrons

absorb energy and jump from one
quantum level to another.
N=1

Photon
N2 to N1
Proton in
Nucleus
Electron
When they return they release energy in
the form of discrete packets (quanta)
light energy called photons
Photons are elementary particles or packets or energy that carry
electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves.
They have no mass or charge, and move at the speed of light
It takes about 8 minutes and 20 seconds for light from the sun to reach the Earth

Like all stars, the sun is made

entirely of Plasma.
 At high enough
temperatures all the
electrons can be stripped
from the atom to form
positively charged ions.

The
Electron
Atom
Neutrons

Positive
charged ion

Protons

This mixture of ions and electrons is called plasma.

It is the most abundant form of matter in the Universe
 Solar Filament

Plasma has properties quite unlike those of solids, liquids, or gases and is
considered to be a 4th state of matter.
The presence of charge carriers makes the plasma electrically conductive so
that it responds strongly to electromagnetic fields.

In the influence of a magnetic field, plasma may form structures

such as filaments and flares.
 On the Sun, plasma is
heated to tens of millions
of degrees, accelerating
electrons, protons, and
heavier ions to near the
speed of light. Solar
Flare
This can give rise to Solar
Flares, which are powered
by the sudden release of
magnetic energy stored in
the corona.

They produce radiation across the electromagnetic

spectrum at all wavelengths, from radio waves to
gamma rays.
 A coronal mass ejection (CME) is an unusually large release
of plasma and magnetic field from the solar corona. They often follow solar
flares and are normally present during a solar prominence eruption.
Coronal Mass Ejections send electrons and ions into space, impacting on the Earth’s
magnetosphere and causing visible aurorae.
 In the 1920s, British astrophysicist Sir Arthur
Eddington proposed that the energy source of
the sun was nuclear fusion of hydrogen nuclei
(protons) into helium.

This concept was based on Einstein's theory of

relativity and the mass-energy equivalence
principle, which Eddington applied to stars'
energy generation. Sir Arthur Eddington
(1882–1944)
In nuclear fusion, hydrogen atoms combine to form helium, liberating vast amounts of
energy.
This process is what powers the sun and other stars.

During fusion, the total mass of the resulting nucleus is slightly less than the sum of
the masses of the individual nuclei before fusion.
This "missing" mass is converted into energy in accordance with Einstein's equation.
 Nuclear fusion takes
place in the core of the
sun, where the
temperature reaches 15
million Co

The Core

These are the extreme

conditions required for
Hydrogen atoms to fuse
together
 Hydrogen
positron
proton +

neutrino
p

p
p
Deuterium
(Heavy Hydrogen)
proton
Fusion

Two hydrogen nuclei (protons) are squashed Helium

together due to the high temperature and
pressure in the star's core. photon

p
One proton is transformed into a neutron. p
p
The proton and neutron combine to form a
nucleus of deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen
containing one proton and one neutron). deuterium Helium 3
Light Helium

proton
Another proton collides with the deuterium
nucleus, creating a helium-3 nucleus
(two protons and one neutron)
Nuclear fusion of hydrogen Millions of the these explosions are
is what powers going off in the core of the sun every
thermonuclear bombs. second.
 Energy produced in the
core rises through the
sun’s layers, eventually
reaching the Photosphere.

It is the layer from which

most of the Sun's visible
light and other
electromagnetic radiation,
including ultraviolet and
infrared, are emitted. Photosphere

Sunlight is a complex mixture of different types of electromagnetic radiation

and particles emitted from the photosphere.
Solar radiation consists of photons across a broad spectrum of wavelengths, from radio
waves to gamma rays.

Radio Waves Micro Waves Light X Rays

Long wave Medium wave Shortwave Micro Waves Infra Visible Ultra X Gamma
Red Violet Rays Rays

103 102 101 1 m-3 m-6 m-9 m-12

Wavelength
(metres)
Radio waves have relatively long wavelengths and low frequencies compared to
other types of electromagnetic waves.

Radio telescopes are

specialized instruments
designed to detect and
collect radio waves from
space.

These telescopes consist

of large, parabolic
reflectors or arrays of
smaller antennas that
gather the incoming radio
waves and focus them
onto a detector.
 Microwaves have relatively short wavelengths and higher frequencies within the
electromagnetic spectrum. They have revealed important information about the early
universe through the observation of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB).

The CMB is the afterglow of the Big Bang and provides insights into the universe's early
stages.
 Infrared observations are vital for
studying objects and processes in
space.

Since many astronomical objects emit

more infrared radiation than visible
light, studying them in the infrared can
reveal details that are otherwise
obscured by dust and gas.

Infrared telescopes, such as the Webb

Space telescope, are used to observe
celestial bodies, star-forming regions,
and distant galaxies.
 It is now accepted that light is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength
that is visible to the human eye

Electromagnetic Radio Micro Visible X Gamma

Spectrum Waves Waves Light Rays Rays

metres 103 m m-2 m-5 m-8 m-10 m-12

Infra Red Ultra Violet

780 nm The wave length of light is measured in nanometres, 1×10 −9 m 400 nm

 White light is a
mixture of light of
various colors, each
with its own specific
wavelength and
energy.

When all the colors

of visible light are
combined in the right
proportions, they
create what our eyes
perceive as white
light.

The colors of the visible spectrum, in order from shortest to longest

wavelength, are:
Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red
Visible Spectrum
We can see these colours because cone-shaped
cells in our eyes act as receivers tuned to the
wavelengths in this narrow band of the spectrum.
Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet

750 650 570 510 500 445 390

Nanometers

Hubble is the visible light telescope in

NASA's Great Observatories program.
Ultraviolet radiation comes from a
hotter region of
the electromagnetic
spectrum than visible light.

The Sun’s UV radiation

White dwarf

Space-based ultraviolet telescopes are used to view activity on the Sun and other hot
objects like white dwarfs..
 Absorption
As white light passes through a gas, energy is
Spectra absorbed from the light by electrons, leaving
gaps at certain frequencies.

Energy
Levels

N=3

N2 to N3
Absorption
lines
N=2
N1 to N3

Electrons
Diffraction
grating
N=1
Gas
molecule
 Absorption Spectra As sunlight passes through the Sun’s
of the Sun atmosphere, various elements absorb
certain colors of light.
These dark patterns of lines within
spectra can be used to identify the
atoms and molecules in the sun’s
atmosphere.

The Sun

Hydrogen Sodium Magnesium

The "strength" of an absorption line --

the amount of energy removed from the
spectrum -- depends on the amount of
the particular chemical element in the
star causing the line, and on the
efficiency of absorption.
Hydrogen absorption spectra
The spectral series are important in astronomy
for detecting the presence of hydrogen and
calculating red shifts. 700 nm

H Alpha line 656 nm

400 nm
An absorption spectrum occurs when light
passes through a cold, dilute gas.
Atoms in the gas absorb energy at characteristic
frequencies, giving rise to dark lines (absence of
light) in the spectrum.
 Redshift
H Alpha Line
Transitions from N3 to N2
400nm 656nm 700nm

Red
shift

The frequency of a wave may be increased or decreased depending on the relative

velocity between source and observer. Spectral lines are shifted towards the red
end of the spectrum in stars that are moving away.
Stellar Spectra Since each element has a
characteristic “fingerprint”
pattern, spectral lines can be
used to identify the atoms that
make up the stars.

Young luminous Population I stars are concentrated in the arms of spiral galaxies.
They are rich in metals suggesting that the gas from which they formed had been
seeded with the heavy elements formed from previous giant stars.
Emission Spectra
Hydrogen lines at 656, 486, 434, and 410nm

H Alpha
750nm 650 nm 570 nm 510 nm 500 nm 445 nm 390 nm

What goes up must come down.

Electrons, like anything else, will
N=3
attempt to seek their lowest energies.

N2 to N3

N=2
N1 to N3
When electrons return
from their excited states
they emit the same
N=1 frequency light they
absorbed.
Hydrogen
This light is known as
atom
an emission spectrum
Hydrogen Alpha Hydrogen Alpha line at 656nm

750nm 650 nm 570 nm 510 nm 500 nm 445 nm 390 nm

N=3
H-alpha (Hα) is a specific red
visible spectral line created
N3 to N2
by hydrogen with a wavelength
of 656 nm, which occurs when
a hydrogen electron falls from
N=2
its third to second lowest
energy level.

Due to the abundance

of hydrogen and its
N=1 relatively low energy of
Hydrogen ionization, this colour
atom radiation is often seen
in emission nebula.
Red Emission Nebula

The ionized gas emits light in the

visible band as the electrons
recombine with the protons.

Red visible
light

Ultraviolet light from a bright

star will cause nearby
hydrogen gas to glow due to
the emission of Hydrogen
Alpha radiation

Ultraviolet
This causes most emission light from
nebula to appear red an O or B
star
H II regions
Hydrogen Alpha is the dominant spectral
line in H II regions.
These are large clouds of glowing
ionized Hydrogen gas in which star
formation has recently taken place.

The first known H II region was the Orion

Nebula, which was discovered in 1610
 Spiral and irregular galaxies
H II regions in contain a lot of star forming H II
Spiral Galaxies regions, concentrated in
the spiral arms.
 Part 6
Optics and
telescopes
 The Nature of Light
Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation that is visible to the human eye.
It is a type of energy that travels through space, as both waves and particles

A changing electric field

Magnetic field can produce a magnetic
field, and vice versa

Direction

Electric field

An electromagnetic wave is made up of an electric field alternating with

a magnetic field at right angles to each other, and moving in a direction
perpendicular to both.

Radio transmitter
 The Bending
of light
According to Einstein's theory of
General Relativity, light is bent by a
gravitational field.

This occurs because General

Relativity describes gravity as the
curvature of spacetime by massive
objects.

When light passes close to a

massive object, like a star or a black
hole, it follows the curved path of
spacetime, which results in the
apparent bending of light.

Light travels at a constant speed of approximately 3 x 108 meters, or

186,282 miles per second in a vacuum.
This speed is denoted by the symbol "c."
 Wavelength and EM waves move through
frequency a vacuum with the speed
Velocity
of light
(3 x 108 ms-1)

The strength of a wave

Amplitude depends on its
amplitude

0o 90o 180o 270o 360o

Phase
Angle
Its behavior depends on
its wavelength and
frequency

Wavelength f = frequency
The frequency of a wave is the

f =v/
= wavelength
number of waves per second,
and is measured in Hertz v = velocity
Refraction The speed of light in a vacuum is 3 x 108 ms-1

Glass

When light enters a more dense medium it

slows down.
This causes the path of the light to bend.
 Light bends towards the
Path of perpendicular on entering a more
light dense medium, and away from the
perpendicular on emerging into a less
through a dense medium
Prism

Line drawn
perpendicular to
glass surface

Incident
ray
refracted
ray
 Light passing through a convex lens
Convex is refracted towards a point called the
Lens prime focus

lens

Light from a
distant object
diameter
focus
Focus is the point on
the optical axis of
the lens at which the
image of a distant
Focal length point is formed.
Focal length is the
distance between a
lens and its focus
 Focal ratio (f number)

lens

Light from a
distant object

diameter

The f number of a
lens or mirror is its Focal length
focal length divided
by its diameter.
f number =

An 8”(200mm) telescope with a focal

length of 2000 mm has an f number of 10
2000
f= = f 10
200
 Image produced by a
convex lens

lens

image

Object

A convex lens produces a real inverted image

of a distant object
 A Telescope

lens

Object

eyepiece

image

In a telescope, the eyepiece produces a

magnified virtual image of the object
Magnification

Focal length of eyepiece

Objective lens Focal length of objective

eyepiece

Magnification =
Refracting
Telescopes
Objective lens
Eyepiece

A refracting telescope uses a

lens as its objective to gather
light and form an image.
This image is magnified
using a choice of eyepieces
of various focal lengths

Both the objective lens in a refracting telescope and the main mirror in a
reflecting telescope form real images at the prime focus. A frame of photo film
or a CCD placed at that spot will capture the image.
Concave
mirror
Focus is the point on the
optical axis of a curved
mirror at which the image
of a distant point is formed.

Light from a
distant object focus

Focal length

Focal length is the

mirror
distance between curved
mirror and its focus
Newtonian Reflecting
Telescope
Primary Mirror

Secondary Mirror

Eyepiece

The Newtonian telescope

uses a concave primary
mirror and a flat diagonal
secondary mirror to form an
image.
 Cassegrain
Reflecting
Corrector
Telescope plate Primary Mirror

Secondary
Mirror
Eyepiece

The Cassegrain has a

parabolic primary mirror and
a hyperbolic secondary
mirror that reflects the light
back down through a hole in
the primary.
Folding the optics makes
this a compact design.
Collimation

Collimation means lining the optical elements of a telescope so that they all point in
the proper direction. Most reflectors require occasional collimation in order to
produce the best possible images.
Chromatic
Aberration
lens

Star

image

On passing through a glass lens, blue light is refracted more than

red light, causing rainbow coloured images.

This is known as Chromatic Aberration

Spherical
Aberration
lens

Star

image

Due to imperfections in the shape of the lens,

light passing through is brought to focus at
different points, causing blurred images

This is known as Spherical Aberration

 Advantages of
Reflecting
Telescopes
Reflecting telescopes have a number
of advantages over refractors.
They are not subject to chromatic
aberration because reflected light
does not disperse according to
wavelength.
 Giant Reflecting
Telescopes

Since mirrors are easier to construct

than lenses and can be made bigger,
all giant telescopes are reflectors.
The Hubble Space The finest photographs of deep space
Telescope objects were obtained using the Hubble
Space Telescope (HST)

It was carried into orbit by a space

shuttle in 1990, above the turbulence in the
atmosphere, which causes stars to twinkle.
The Webb Space
Telescope

James Edwin Webb

October 7, 1906 – March 27, 1992
NASA administrator from 1961 to
1968,
The telescope’s mirror JWST Primary Mirror

The primary mirror is a 21 ft -diameter

gold-coated beryllium reflector with a
collecting area of 273 sq ft.
This is 16 times the collecting area of the
Hubble

The mirror is composed of 18 hexagonal

segments, each 4.3 ft in diameter.

They will unfold after the telescope is

launched.
 What will the telescope search for ?

The JWST is designed to provide

improved infrared resolution and
sensitivity over Hubble, which
operated mainly in the visible
region.

As such, it will enable a broad Visible Infrared

range of investigations across the
fields of astronomy and cosmology.

This will include observations of

some of the most distant events
and objects in the Universe, such
as the formation of the first
galaxies.

It will also allow detailed

atmospheric investigation
of potentially habitable exoplanets.
Infrared Astronomy

Infrared Visible

All bodies above 0o K emit heat in the form of infrared radiation.

Objects created at the birth of the universe, including quasars, stars, and galaxies,
are very cold. Also, very distant objects are more highly redshifted, and their light is
pushed from the UV and optical into the near-infrared. Thus observations of these
distant objects, like the first galaxies formed in the Universe, requires an infrared
telescope.
The Webb telescope was designed to observe these cold faint objects.
What else can we see using infrared?

Visible

Infrared

Infrared light, being heat radiation, can penetrate dust which blocks visible light.
As such, we cannot see the super massive black hole at the centre of our Milky Way
galaxy which is shrouded by dust.
Infrared light emitted from this region can penetrate this dusty shroud and reveal
what is inside.
Keeping the cameras cool

To detect a cold object the camera must be colder than the object.

A big challenge was building a large shield to block the heat of the sun, moon and Earth.
It had to be folded to fit in the rocket and then deployed in space.

Further cooling, down to 6oK, is done by the MIRI cryocooler which uses helium gas to
carry heat away from the instrument’s detectors.
Legrange
points

The second way of keeping the telescope cool is to keep it 1 million miles away in the
Earth’s shadow.
It will be located at L2, one of five stable Legrange points.

Legrange points are locations where the centripetal force on a small orbiting object is
balanced by the gravitational attraction of two large bodies.
11. How will the telescope be used in searching for extraterrestrial life?

The JWST may be able to look for signs of alien life - detecting whether atmospheres of
planets orbiting nearby stars are being modified by that life.

When an exoplanet moves in front of a star, the starlight passes through its
atmosphere. The absorption spectrum of this light shows what gases are present in the
atmosphere.
The presence of oxygen has long been thought to be a good way of finding life.

The first place to look would be at planets orbiting a small Jupiter-sized star called
TRAPPIST-1, about 39.6 light-years away from our Sun. This has seven Earth-sized
planets, several of which could possess liquid water, and hence might be a good bet for
hosting life.
 Equatorial
Mount

An equatorial mount
needs to be aligned with
one rotational axis
parallel to the Earth's
axis of rotation.
The advantage of an
equatorial mount lies in
its ability to allow the
telescope to stay fixed
on any object in the sky
by driving one axis at a
constant speed.
Alt-Azimuth
Mount

An alt-azimuth mount is
a simple two-axis mount
for rotating the
telescope about a
vertical (altitude) axis,
and a horizontal
(azimuth) axis.
The biggest advantage
of alt-azimuth mounts is
their simplicity of their
mechanical design.

They do not need to be

aligned with the Earth’s
axis of rotation
 Computerized
Mounts

The primary disadvantage of altazimuth

mounts is that they cannot follow
astronomical objects in the night sky as the
Earth spins on its axis the way an
equatorial mount can.
Altazimuth mounts have to be moved in
two axis at variable rates.
The advent of computer based 2 axis drive
systems, removed some of these
shortcomings, making the altazimuth
mount viable for inexpensive consumer
telescopes

Computer Driven Telescope

 Dobsonian
Mount

A Dobsonian telescope
is an alt-azimuth
mounted newtonian
telescope design
popularized by the
amateur astronomer
John Dobson starting in
the 1960s.
Dobson's telescopes
feature a simplified
mechanical design that
is easy to manufacture
from readily available
components to create a
large, portable, low-cost
telescope.
Declination Scale Setting
Circles

Right Ascension and Declination Setting

circles are used on telescopes equipped with
an equatorial mount to find astronomical
objects in the sky by their equatorial
coordinates used in star charts.

Right Ascension scale

Elevation Scale

Graduated
Scales

On Alt azimuth mounts

these have been
replaced with elevation
and azimuth scales.

Azimuth Scale
Finders

Finder scopes are low powered

refractors with a wide field of
view .
They are mounted on the
telescope to help find objects
or align the telescope
 Eyepieces

Telescope
eyepieces
determine your
telescope's
magnification.
To calculate the
A magnification of
telescope
B eyepiece, divide
the focal length of
the telescope by
the focal length of
the telescope
eyepiece:
Eyepieces

Focal length of
Low Power / wide telescope = 200mm
field of view
High Power / Narrow
field of view

With an eyepiece of 20 mm focal With an eyepiece of 10 mm focal

length, the telescope has length, the telescope has a
magnification of 2000 / 20 = 100. magnification of 2000 / 10 = 200.
 Choice of
Eyepiece

When using a telescope, start with the lowest power, which gives you the
widest field of view.
Once you have located your object you can use eyepieces of shorter focal
length to get greater magnification.
 Barlow
Lens

A Barlow is a lens that’s placed into the focusing tube to effectively double or triple a
telescope’s focal length and, in turn, the magnification of any eyepiece used with it.
 Binoculars
Binoculars are a pair of identical telescopes mounted side-by-side and
aligned to point accurately in the same direction, allowing the viewer to use
both eyes with binocular vision when viewing distant objects.

Unlike a monocular
telescope, binoculars give
users a three-dimensional
image
For nearer objects the two
views, presented to each
of the viewer's eyes from
slightly different
viewpoints, produce a
merged view with
an impression of depth.
 Porro Prism
Binoculars
Porro prism binoculars use
a Porro prism in a double prism
Z-shaped configuration to erect
the image. This feature results
in binoculars that are wide, with
objective lenses that are well
separated but offset from
the eyepieces.
Porro prism designs have the
added benefit of folding
the optical path so that the
physical length of the
binoculars is less than the focal
length of the objective and
wider spacing of the objectives
gives a better sensation of
depth. Thus, the longitudinal
size of binoculars is
reduced. .
 Roof Prism
Binoculars
Binoculars using roof prisms have
objective lenses that are approximately
in line with the eyepieces. Roof-prisms
designs create an instrument that is
narrower and more compact than Porro
prisms.
Roof-prisms designs also require tighter
tolerances for alignment of their optical
elements (collimation).

This adds to their expense since the

design requires them to use fixed
elements that need to be set at a high
degree of collimation at the factory.

The fixed alignment means the

binoculars normally will not need re-
collimation.
 Binocular
Parameters

Magnification = 7x

Diameter of
Objective lens = 50 mm

Field of View = 70 30’

Objective Diameter

The diameter of the objective lens Giant Binoculars are those

determines how much light can be with a diameter greater
gathered to form an image. than 60 mm.

It is usually expressed in millimeters. They are heavy and usually

require a tripod
Birth of Stars
Stars are born
instellar nurseries
on the arms of
spiral galaxies.
They are made
from compressed
molecular clouds
of hydrogen gas,
and the dust of
exploded stars.

Spiral galaxy

Stellar Nursery
with new stars
 Stellar Nursery

NGC 1333 contains hundreds of stars less than a million years old, most still hidden
from optical telescopes by the pervasive stardust.
The chaotic environment may be similar to one in which our own Sun formed over 4.5
billion years ago.
 Small,
dim,
Size and warm
Colours
Stars come in many sizes and colours.
Generally, the luminosity or brightness of Big,
a star increases with its diameter. bright,
hot
Big,
bright,
warm

The colour of a star,

however, is
determined by its
temperature Small,
dim,
hot
 Relation between colour and temperature

We can determine the

temperature of a star by its
colour, using a spectrometer.

20,000 K
Blue stars are hot

Red stars are warm.

2,500 K
 Spectral Classes
Stars are classified into
various spectral classes
Use the pneumonic depending on their colour

Oh Be A Fine Girl Kiss Me

to remember the spectral classes

O
Blue stars are hot

B
A
F
G
K
Red stars are warm.

M
 Spectral Sub-Classes
The spectrum letter is usually
followed by a number
O B A F G K M from 0 to 9 indicating the
range between two star
classes.

For example, our Sun has the

O stars are called "blue", spectral type G2, which means
it is "a 'yellow' two tenths
B "blue-white", towards 'orange'
A stars "white",
F stars "yellow-white",
G stars "yellow",
K stars "orange",
M stars "red", The apparently brightest
star Sirius is a type A1.
O stars are the hottest and the
letter sequence indicates
successively cooler stars up to
the coolest M class.
If we plot a graph of the brightness of stars vs their temperatures, they lie along a line,
known as the main sequence.

O B A F G K M
106

This graph is
Brightness (x the Sun)

104 known as
Hertzsprung-
Main sequence Russell (H/R)
stars diagram
102

10-2

10-4
20,000 14,000 10,000 7,000 5,000 3,500 2,500

Temperature (K)
Extreme stars, such as red giants or white dwarfs, lie outside the main sequence,
due to radical changes in their size and brightness towards the end of their lives.

O B A F G K M
106
Luminous Blue
Variables
Brightness (x the Sun)

104 Red Supergiants

are cool but
bright

102 Red Giants

10-2

White Dwarfs are

hot but dim
10-4
20,000 14,000 10,000 7,000 5,000 3,500 2,500

Temperature (K)
Our Sun is a medium sized type G star, halfway through its 9 billion year life span.

O B A F G K M
106

For comparison
Brightness (x the Sun)

purposes, we will say

104 it has a mass of 1,
radius of 1 and
luminosity of 1

102
The Sun

10-2

10-4
20,000 14,000 10,000 7,000 5,000 3,500 2,500

Temperature (K)
 Sirius
The Sun
Type A Medium sized stars,
Type G
Mass 2.0
Radius 1.7 compared to our Sun
Mass 1 Luminosity 25.4
Radius 1
Luminosity 1

Formalhaut Vega
Type A Type A
Altair Procyon
Mass 2.1 Mass 2.1
Type A Type F
Radius 1.8 Radius 2.3
Mass 1.8 Mass 1.4
Luminosity 17.66 Luminosity 37
Radius 1.6 Radius 2.0
Luminosity Luminosity 7.7
10.6

Castor
Type A Regulus Capella
Giant StarsPollux
Mass 2.5
Radius 2.3
Type B
Mass 3.5
Type G
Mass 2.7
Luminosity 30 Type K Radius 3.7 Radius 12.2
Mass 1.8 Luminosity 150 Luminosity 78.5
Radius 8
Luminosity 32 Note that the increase in mass and radius
are not always related. Capella is 3 times
larger than Regulus, but weighs a lot less.
O B A F G K M
 Giant stars
The Sun Aldebaran
Type G Type K
Mass 1 Mass 1.7
Radius 1 Radius 44
Luminosity 1 Polaris
Luminosity 425 Type F
Mass 7.5
Radius 30
Luminosity 2200

Canopus
Type F
Mass 8.5
Radius 65
Luminosity
13600
Rigel
Giant Stars
Giant stars have radii
Type B
Mass 17
between 10 and 100 solar Radius 78
radii and luminosities Luminosity 66,000 Deneb
between 10 and 1,000 times Type A
Mass 20
that of the Sun. Radius 110
Luminosity 54,400
O B A F G K M
 Supergiant Antares
The Sun Stars Type M
Type G Mass 15.5
Radius 800
Mass 1
Luminosity 85,000
Radius 1
Luminosity 1

Betelgeuse
Type M
Mass 18
Radius 731
Luminosity 105,000

Supergiants can have masses

from 10 to 70 solar masses
Giant Stars and brightness from 30,000 up
to hundreds of thousands
times the solar luminosity.
They vary greatly in radius,
usually from 30 to 500, or
even in excess of 1,000 solar
radii.
O B A F G K M
 Star Names
Most star names are derived from
Arabic and Latin. Betelgeuse

Astronomers rarely use these

popular names except for a
handful of the most famous ones.

Orion

Alnitak
Saiph
Alnilam
Bellatrix
Mintaka

Rigel
Bayer
Designation

Alpha
Ursae Majoris

Beta
Delta

Zeta
Epsilon
Gamma

Eta
In the Bayer designation, stars are named according to their brightness, using the
letters of the Greek Alphabet.
The brightest star in a constellation is called “Alpha”, and so on.
 Flamsteed
Numbers

50

48
69
77 79,80

64

11h:00 min 14h:00 min

Numbers increase with Right Ascension
85
12h:00 min 13h:00 min

In the Flamsteed designation, stars are numbered according to their Right Ascension.
In a given constellation, star “1” has the lowest R.A.
Apparent Magnitude

-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

A magnitude 1 star is
about 2.5 times brighter
than a magnitude 2 star.

The apparent magnitude of a star is a number that is a measure of

its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth.
The brighter an object appears, the lower its magnitude value .
 4.0
Sirius appears bright
because it is relatively
close to the Earth ( 6.8
4.1 -1.5 Sirius light years)

4.3 1.9

3.9

4.0 4.3
4.5
3.0 3.8

1.8
4.0

Apparent Magnitude is the brightness

1.5
of a star as seen by an observer on
2.5 Earth.
 -0.4
It is actually one of the
dimmer stars in the
constellation.
-1.3 1.4 Sirius

-5.5
1.9

-1.0
-6.5
-4.6
-5.0

Absolute Magnitude is
-6.9 the brightness of a
star as seen by an
observer located at a
-3.3 -4.4
standard distance of
10 parsecs (32.6 light
years).
Magnitudes of the brightest stars
Note:- some of the brighter stars have negative magnitudes. The
larger the negative value, the brighter the star.

Star Distance Apparent Absolute

(common name) (light years) magnitude magnitude

Sirius 8.6 -1.46 1.4

Canopus 7.4 -0.72 -2.5
Arcturus 34 -0.04 0.2
Vega 25 0.03 0.6
Capella 41 0.08 0.4
Rigel 1400 0.12 -8.1
Betelguese 1400 0.5 (var) -7.2
Antares 520 0.96 (var) 0.52
Spica 220 0.98 (var) -0.32
Deneb 1500 1.25 -7.2
 Multiple Stars
Systems consisting of more than two
components, known as multiple stars, are
also not uncommon. The components of
binary star systems can exchange mass,
bringing their evolution to stages that single
stars cannot attain.
Examples of binaries are Algol (an eclipsing
binary), Sirius, and Cygnus X-1 of which
one member is probably a black hole.

Algol is an Eclipsing Binary of

mag 2.06 – 3.28
Period 3 daysPerseus
Rotating
Double
Stars

Centre of
Mass

A binary star is a star system

consisting of two stars
orbiting around their center of
mass.
A large percentage of stars
are part of systems with at
least two stars
 Eclipsing Binary
If binaries happen to orbit
in a plane containing our
line of sight, they will
eclipse each other; these
are called eclipsing
binaries.

Light
Curve

Magnitude

Time
 Visual and Optical binaries

Optical Visual Binary

Double

A binary star is generally

restricted to pairs of stars
which revolve around a
Optical double stars common centre of mass.
appear to be close Binary stars which can be
together as seen from resolved with a telescope
Earth, but are not bound are known as visual
by gravity binaries
Cepheid Variables

Henrietta Swan Leavitt

1868-1921

A Cepheid is usually a giant yellow star, pulsing regularly by expanding

and contracting, resulting in a regular oscillation of its luminosity.
In 1908 Henrietta Swan Leavitt discovered a correlation between the
brightness of the star and its period of oscillation.
 Standard candle
.
Cepheid Variables are old dying stars which vary in brightness depending on their
size. Small dim stars vary in brightness quickly while large bright stars vary slowly.
A Cepheid variable can therefore be used as a standard candle to determine the
distance to its host galaxy.

3.50 Bright Star

3.75
Brightness

4.00

4.25

4.50
Dim star

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Time
(days)
Globular
Cluster

A globular cluster is a
spherical collection of
stars that orbits a
galactic core as a
satellite. Globular
clusters are very tightly
bound by gravity, which
gives them their
spherical shapes and
relatively high stellar
densities toward their
centers.

Globular clusters, which

are found in the halo of a
galaxy, contain
considerably more stars
and are much older than
the less dense galactic, M5, one of the largest and
or open clusters, which oldest globular clusters
are found in the disk.
6. Where are the star forming regions of this galaxy:-
Omega
Centauri
A. a

B. b

C. c

Omega Centauri, located in the southern constellation Centaurus, is some

15,000 light-years away. The cluster is packed with about 10 million stars
much older than the Sun. It's the largest and brightest of 200 or so
known globular clusters that roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy.
 Open Cluster

An open cluster is a group of

up to a few thousand stars that
were formed from the same
giant molecular cloud, and are
still loosely gravitationally
bound to each other.
In contrast, globular clusters
are very tightly bound by
gravity. Open clusters have
been found only in spiral and
irregular galaxies, in which
active star formation is
occurring. They are usually
less than a few hundred million
years old. They become
disrupted by close encounters
with other clusters and clouds
of gas as they orbit the galactic
center. M45
The Pleiades
 M44: The
Beehive
Cluster

A mere 600 light-years away,

M44 is one of the closest star
clusters to our solar system.
Also known as the the Beehive
cluster, its stars are young
though, about 600 million years
old compared to our Sun's
4.5 billion years.
Evolution of Stars Planetary Nebula

Red Giant
White Dwarf

Small Stars

The life history of a star depends on its mass

Molecular cloud Neutron Star

Large Stars
Black Hole

Red Supergiant
Red Dwarfs

Red dwarfs are small stars, less than half the size of
the Sun. They make up three-quarters of the stars in
the Milky Way. They have a surface temperature of
~2,000 K and live for trillions of years, until their fuel is
depleted. Because of the comparatively short age of
the universe, no red dwarfs exist at advanced stages
of evolution.
The life cycle of a medium sized star

The core of the

star collapses to
form a white
dwarf

As a medium The outer

sized star ages, it gases are
cools and blown off
becomes a red like a bubble
giant
The gaseous shell is
called a Planetary
Nebula
 Red Giant

After the hydrogen-fusing period of

Inert Helium
a main-sequence star of low or
Core
medium mass ends, such a star
will expand to become a red giant .
During this time it
fuses helium to carbon and oxygen
in its core.

A red giant is a luminous giant star

of low or intermediate mass
(roughly 0.5–10 solar masses),

The outer atmosphere is inflated

and tenuous, making the radius Hydrogen
immense and the surface burning
temperature low, somewhere from shell
5,000 K and lower.

Cool Extended
envelope
Generally, the bigger a star is, the faster it
uses up its supply of nuclear fuel, so
the longest-lived stars are among the
smallest.
 Nova
Explosion

If a red giant has insufficient mass

to generate the core temperatures
required to fuse carbon (around
1 billion K), an inert mass of
carbon and oxygen will build up at
its center.

Such a star sheds its outer layers

in a nova explosion and forms
a planetary nebula.

it will leave behind a core, which is

the remnant white dwarf.

Usually, white dwarfs are

composed of carbon and oxygen.
No fusion reactions take place.
 White Dwarf

A white dwarf is what stars like

the Sun become after they have
exhausted their nuclear fuel.

Near the end of its nuclear

burning stage, this type of star
expels most of its outer material,
creating a planetary nebula.

The remaining core of the star

shines brightly and is very hot.

The ultraviolet radiation

emitted by this core
ionises the ejected outer
layers of the star which
radiate as a planetary
nebula. White Dwarf
 The Chandrasekhar limit

White dwarfs resist gravitational collapse primarily

through electron degeneracy pressure, compared
to main sequence stars, which resist collapse
through thermal pressure.

The Chandrasekhar limit is the maximum mass of

a stable white dwarf star.
The currently accepted value of the
Chandrasekhar limit is about 1.4 Solar masses
 Supernova

Supernovae is a
massive explosion
that occurs at the
end of a massive
star's lifetime.

The outer atmosphere expands rapidly as a

supernova remnant
Type IA
Supernova
A type Ia supernova occurs in binary
systems in which one of the stars is
a white dwarf. The other star can be
anything from a giant star to an even
smaller white dwarf.

They are caused when the white dwarf

draws accreted material, mainly
hydrogen, from the companion star

The hydrogen becomes heated by the

white dwarf, eventually reaching a
critical temperature causing ignition of
rapid runaway fusion
The peak optical luminosity of a supernova can be
comparable to that of an entire galaxy.
 Neutron Star

A neutron star is the

collapsed core of a massive
star after a supernova
explosion. Such stars are
composed almost entirely of
neutrons, making them
extremely dense.
 Pulsars

Neutron stars rotate rapidly,

giving off light at the poles.
If this light is directed
towards us they are called
Pulsars
Quasars

A quasar is an extremely luminous active

galactic nucleus, in which a supermassive
black hole with mass ranging from millions
to billions of times the mass of the Sun is
surrounded by a gaseous accretion disk.
As gas in the disk falls towards the black
hole, energy is released in the form
of electromagnetic radiation, which can be
observed across the electromagnetic
spectrum.
The power radiated by quasars is enormous.
The most powerful quasars
have luminosities thousands of times greater
than a galaxy such as the Milky Way.
 According to Einstein, the
Gravitational frequency of light is reduced by a
Redshift powerful gravitational field, such as
that associated with white dwarfs.

Red
shift

Red shifts may not necessarily

mean that a massive object is
moving away
 Black Holes

Black holes are

formed when
massive stars die.
Their core collapses
to a point of infinite
density called a
singularity, whose
gravitational is so
powerful that If you shine a light near a
nothing can escape, black hole it will be redshifted
including light. out of existence
 Event
Horizon

While a singularity
is infinitely small, Event horizon
Singularity
the size of a black
hole is determined
by the diameter of
it’s event horizon.
This is the distance
from which light
cannot escape
 This illustration shows a star being ripped
Despite its interior being apart by a supermassive black hole.
invisible, a black hole may Surrounding the black hole is an accretion
reveal its presence through disk of hot matter that used to be the star,
an interaction with matter that with a jet emanating from the black hole's
lies in orbit outside its event spin axis.
horizon.
 Supermassive Black Holes

A supermassive black hole is the largest type of black hole, with mass on the order of
millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun.
They were created during the Big Bang and lie in the centre of active galaxies.
 The first Black Hole image

The first image of a black

hole was taken in May 2022.

Alone, black holes are

just black, but these monster
attractors are known to be
surrounded by glowing gas.

The dark central region is not

the event horizon, but rather
the black hole's shadow - the
central region of emitting gas
darkened by the central black
hole's gravity.
 Our Black Hole

There's a black hole at the

center of the Milky Way,
27,000 light-years away.

Stars are observed to orbit a

very massive and compact
object there known as Sgr A.

This is the first direct

evidence of the Milky Way's
central black hole.