Notes
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Outline
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Astro 1050     Fri., Nov. 8, 2002
  •    Today: Articles
  •                 End Ch. 12, The Milky Way
  •                 Start Ch. 13, Galaxies


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M51:  The Whirlpool Galaxy
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Density Wave Theory
    • SPIRAL WAVE rotates with galaxy, but slower than individual stars
      • Like moving traffic jam after an accident has been cleared


    • Gas (and stars) catch up with wave, move through it, eventually reach front
      • Just like cars catching up with moving traffic jam, eventually get through it

    • Gas is more crowded in wave – clouds collapse to form new stars
      • More collisions in the traffic jam


    • There are slightly more old stars in the arm too, because they speed up slightly coming into it and slow down slightly moving out of it.
    • But the best tracers are the things that mark recent cloud collapses:  O,B stars, etc.


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M51:  The Whirlpool Galaxy
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Self Sustaining Star Formation
  • Cloud collapse Þ New stars
  • New stars Þ Supernova after few million years
  • Supernova Þ Shock Waves
  • Shock Waves Þ Nearby clouds collapse


  • Differential Rotation twists pattern into spiral
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Two limiting cases of spirals
  • Grand Design: Density Wave


  • Flocculent: Self Sust. Star Form. + Diff. Rot.


  • In most Galaxies you have some combination of the two
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The Sun in the Milky Way
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Milky Way Reconstruction
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The Nucleus of the Galaxy
  • Likely Black hole
    • High velocities
    • Large energy generation


  • At  a=275 AU  P=2.8 yr Þ 2.7 million solar masses


  • Radio image of Sgr A
    about 3 pc across, with model of surrounding disk


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A movie of stars at the core
  • www.mpe.mpg.de/www_ir/GC


  • Very cool, brand new, and worth a look!


  • This is the best evidence to date for a massive black hole at the Galactic core.  Now essentially “proven.”
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Review Chapter 12: Milky Way
    • The discovery of the Galaxy
      • Variable stars as distance indicators
      • Globular clusters
    • The size and overall structure of the Galaxy
    • 21 cm Hydrogen emission
    • Motions in the galaxy
      • The Halo
      • The Disk population
        • Spiral Arms
      • The Nuclear Bulge
      • The Rotation curve and the Galaxy’s mass
    • The origin of the galaxy
    • The Galactic Center
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Chapter 13: Galaxies
  • Family of Galaxies
    • Classification
  • Properties of Galaxies
    • Distance; The Hubble Law
    • Size and Luminosity
    • Mass (including Dark Matter)
  • Evolution of Galaxies
    • Clusters
    • Mergers
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The Hubble Deep Field
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Types of Galaxies  (pg. 254-255)
  • Spirals
    •       Sa                   Sb              Sc
         (large nuclei      Þ  small nuclei)
      (little gas,dust   
      Þ lots of gas, dust)


    •      SBa                SBb            SBc    (as above, with BARS)

  • Ellipticals
    • E0  E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 E7
      (spherical)               (highly elliptical)


  • Irregulars
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Spiral types
  • The nuclear bulge is population II  (old objects)
  • So the Sa – Sc sequence is consistent with
     little gas Þ more gas
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Properties of Galaxies
  • Distance
    • Use Cepheid Variables for close objects
    • Other objects for which Absolute Magnitude is know:
      • Supernova
      • Planetary nebula in certain emission lines
    • Use “Hubble Law” for more distant objects
      • (Correlation of distance with radial velocity)
  • Diameter and Luminosity
    • Obtain from angular size and magnitude, combined with distance
  • Mass
    • Rotation curves
    • Velocity dispersion
    • 90 to 99% of mass is
      “dark matter”


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The Hubble Law using galaxies with visible Cepheid variables.
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The Hubble Law using galaxies with visible Cepheid variables.
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Hubble Law Example
vr = H0 d
  with H0=0.5 (mile/hr)/mile
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Hubble Law Example
vr = H0 d
  with H0=0.5 (mile/hr)/mile
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Hubble Law Example
vr = H0 d
  with H0=0.5 (mile/hr)/mile
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Hubble Law Example using relative vr and relative d
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The Hubble Law using secondary distance indicators
Ho = 72 ±8 km/s/Mpc
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The Local Group of Galaxies
  • Galaxies live in clusters
    • Rich clusters:  thousands of galaxies
    • Poor clusters:  Few than a thousand


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The Coma Cluster
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Evolution of Galaxies
  • Galaxies live in clusters
    • Rich clusters:  thousands of galaxies
    • Poor clusters:  Few than a thousand


  • Fundamental difference between stars and galaxies:
    • Stars live isolated lives:
      • They are much smaller than distance between them




      • They virtually never collide


    • Galaxies are not isolated
      • They are only slightly smaller than the distances between them




      • The can (and do) collide, and interact with gas within clusters
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Effects of Collisions
  • Stars pass “through” each other, but orbits around galaxy disrupted


  • Gas clouds collide
    • Gas stripped away from stars
    • Collisions cause bursts of star formation


  • Ellipticals may be those galaxies which have suffered collisions
  • Spirals may be those galaxies which have not suffered collisions