Astro 1050     Fri. Nov. 1, 2002
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Today: Articles | 
 
  |  | Ch. 11: Neutron Stars
  &                     				 Black
  Holes | 
 
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  |  |  | 
The Crab Nebula –
Supernova from 1050 AD
 
  |  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Can see expansion between 1973 and 2001 | 
 
  |  | Kitt Peak National Observatory Images | 
What happens to the
collapsing core?
 
  |  |  |  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Neutron star (more in next chapter) | 
 
  |  | Quantum rules also resist neutron
  packing | 
 
  |  | Densities much higher than white dwarfs
  allowed | 
 
  |  | R ~ 5 km      r ~ 1014
  gm/cm3   (similar to
  nucleus) | 
 
  |  | M limit uncertain,  ~3 MSun before it collapses | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Spins very fast (by conservation of
  angular momentum) | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Trapped spinning magnetic field makes
  it: | 
 
  |  | Act like a “lighthouse” beaming out E-M
  radiation (radio, light) | 
 
  |  | pulsars | 
 
  |  | Accelerates nearby charged particles | 
Spinning pulsar powers
the
 Crab nebula
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Red: 
  Ha | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Blue:  “Synchrotron” emission from high speed
  electrons trapped in magnetic field | 
Another pic of the Crab,
Pulsar
Why a “pulsar?”
“Lighthouse” Model for
Pulsars
Another Neutron Star in a
SNR
Other cool stuff about
Neutron Stars
 
  |  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Novel Dragon’s Egg by Robert L. Forward | 
 
  |  | Short Story “Neutron Star” by Larry
  Niven | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Binary Pulsars | 
 
  |  | Gamma Ray Bursts? | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Pulsar Planets | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Gravity bends light! | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  |  | 
Black Holes -- basics
 
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  |  | Nothing we know of can stop collapse
  after neutron pressure fails | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Consider escape velocity from the
  surface at radius R: | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | As R shrinks (but M is fixed), Vescape
  gets larger and larger | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | At some point VEscape=
  c  (speed of light) | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Happens at Schwarzschild radius | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Not even light can escape from within
  this radius | 
 
  |  |  | 
Examples:
 
  |  |  |  |  | 
 
  |  | The Schwarzschild Radius: | 
 
  |  | Mass in solar masses			Rs
  (km) | 
 
  |  | 10 | 
 
  |  | 3 | 
 
  |  | 2 | 
 
  |  | 1 | 
 
  |  | 0.000003 (Earth) | 
Examples:
 
  |  |  |  |  | 
 
  |  | The Schwarzschild Radius: | 
 
  |  | Mass in solar masses			Rs
  (km) | 
 
  |  | 10					30 | 
 
  |  | 3					9 | 
 
  |  | 2					6 | 
 
  |  | 1					3 | 
 
  |  | 0.000003 (Earth)			0.9 cm | 
Black Holes -- details
 
  |  |  |  | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Remember – gravity is same as before,
  away from mass | 
 
  |  | Black holes do NOT necessarily pull all
  nearby material in | 
 
  |  | A planet orbiting a new black hole
  would just keep on orbiting as before (assuming the ejected material or
  radiated energy didn’t have an effect) | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Any mass can potentially be made into a
  black hole – if you can compress it to a size smaller than RS =
  2GM/c2 | 
 
  |  | 1 MSun: 3.0 km        106 MSun 3´106 km         
  1 MEarth 8.9 mm | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | If you do make material fall into a
  black hole, material will be falling at close to the speed of light when it
  reaches RS | 
 
  |  | If that falling gas collides with and
  heats other gas before it reaches RS, then light from that hot
  material (outside RS) can escape. | 
Black Holes – detection
 
  |  |  |  |  | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | By definition – can’t see light from
  black hole itself | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Can see large amounts of energy
  released by falling material just before it crosses RS | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Can see motion of nearby objects caused
  by gravity of black hole | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Example: Like White Dwarf accretion
  disk but w/ black hole instead | 
 
  |  | Gas from red giant companion spills
  over towards black hole | 
 
  |  | Gas spirals in toward black hole,
  through accretion disk | 
 
  |  | Gas will be much hotter because it
  falls further, to very small RS | 
 
  |  | Gas will be moving at very high
  velocity | 
 
  |  | Much faster than with white dwarf since
  much closer  (P2 µ a3) | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Signature of black hole:  Very high energy release, very high
  velocity | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | We will find MASSIVE black holes in
  centers of most galaxies | 
Cygnus X-1
More Cool Stuff About
Black Holes
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Time Dilation – originally “Frozen
  Stars” | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Gravitational Redshift | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Wicked Tidal Forces | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Hawking Radiation | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | A good online black hole FAQ: http://cosmology.berkeley.edu/Education/BHfaq.html | 
 
  |  |  | 
 
  |  | Virtual trips to neutron stars and
  black holes: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/rjn_bht.html |