Notes
Slide Show
Outline
1
Astro 1050     Mon. Feb. 23, 2004
  •    Today:  Chapter 8, Properties of Stars
2
Chapter 8: Properties of Stars
  • How much energy do stars produce?


  • How large are stars?


  • How massive are stars?


    • We will find a large range in properties!
3
How to get distances to stars: Parallax
4
Intrinsic Brightness of Stars
  • Apparent Brightness:  How bright star appears to us
  • Intrinsic Brightness:   “Inherent” – corrected for distance
  • How does brightness change with distance?
    • Flux = energy per unit time per unit area:   joule/sec/m2   = watts/m2
      • Example:  100 watt light bulb (assume this is 100 W of light energy)
                spread over 5 m2 desk gives  20 Watts/m2
    • Sun’s flux at the Earth
      • Luminosity = 3.8 ´1026 Watts
      • It has spread out over sphere of radius 1 AU = 1.5 ´ 1011 m
        • Surface area of sphere = 4 p R2 = 2.8 ´1023 m2
      • FSun = 3.8 ´1026 Watts / 2.8´1023 m2 = 1,357 W/m2


    • Inverse Square Law:   Flux falls of as 1/distance2
5
Inverse-square law for light:
6
Correcting Magnitudes for Distance
  • To correct intensity or flux for distance, use Inverse Square Law




  • Up to now we have used “apparent magnitudes”  mv
  • Define absolute magnitude Mv as magnitude star would have
     if it were at a distance of 10 pc.








  • This gives us a way to correct Magnitude for distance, or find distance if we know absolute magnitude. Note:  the book writes mv and Mv:  The “V” stands for “Visual” -- Later we’ll consider magnitudes in other colors like “B=Blue” “U=Ultraviolet”



7
Let’s work some examples:
  • Problem from textbook:
  • mV MV d (pc) P (arcsec)
  • ___ 7 10 _______
  • 11 ___ 1000 _______
  • ___ -2 ____ 0.025
  • 4 ___ ____ 0.040
8
Let’s work some examples:
  • Problem #4:
  • m MV d (pc) P (arcsec)
  • 7 7 10 0.1
  • 11 1 1000 0.001
  • 1 -2 40 0.025
  • 4 2 25 0.040
9
How to recognize patterns in data

  • What patterns matter for people – and how do we recognize them?
  • Weight and Height are easy to measure
  • Knowing how they are related gives insight into health
      • A given  weight tends to go with a given height
      • Weight either very high or very low compared to trend ARE important
  • Plot weight vs. height and look for deviations from simple line


  • Example of cars from the book
    • Note “main sequence” of cars
    • Weight plotted backwards
      • Just make main sequence a line
        which goes down rather than up


    • Points off main sequence are
      “unusual” cars
10
Stars:  Patterns of L, T, R

  • The Hertzsprung-Russsell (H-R) diagram
  • Plot L vs. backwards T.      (We can find R given L and T)
11
How are L, T, and R related?
  • L = area ´sT4 = 4 p R2 sT4
    • Stars can be intrinsically bright because of either large R or large T


    • Use ratio equations to simplify above equation
      • (Note book’s symbol for Sun is circle with dot inside)





    • Example:  Assume T is different but size is same
      • A star is ~ 2 ´ as hot as sun, expect L is 24 = 16 times as bright
      • M star is ~1/2 as hot as sun, expect L is 2-4 = 1/16 as bright


      • B star is ~  4 ´ as hot as sun, expect L is 44 = 256 times as bright


    • Example:  Assume T same but size is different
      • If a G star 4 ´ as large as sun, expect L would be 42=16 times as bright
12
L, T, R, and the H-R diagram

  • L = 4 p R2 sT4
  • The main sequence consists very roughly of similar size stars
  • The giants, supergiants, and white dwarfs are much larger or smaller


13
Lines of constant R in the H-R diagram


14
 
15
Different “types” of H-R diagrams


16
Luminosity Classes


17
Spectra of Different Luminosity Classes


18
Spectroscopic “Parallax”


19
What fundamental property of a star
varies along the main sequence?


20
Masses of Binary stars


21
Masses of Binary stars


22
Masses of Binary stars


23
Measuring a and P of binaries
  • Two types of binary stars
    • Visual binaries: See separate stars
      • a large, P long
      • Can’t directly measure component of a along line of sight
    • Spectroscopic binaries:  See Doppler shifts in spectra
      • a small, P short
      • Can’t directly measure component of a in plane of sky
  • If star is visual and spectroscopic binary get get full set of information and then get M



24
Masses and the HR Diagram
  • Main Sequence position:
    • M:    0.5 MSun
    • G:        1 MSun
    • B:       40 Msun


  • Luminosity Class
    • Must be controlled by something else
25
The Mass-Luminosity Relationship
  • L = M3.5
26
Eclipsing Binary Stars
  • System seen “edge-on”
  • Stars pass in front of each other
  • Brightness drops when either is hidden


  • Used to measure:
    • size of stars (relative to orbit)
    • relative “surface brightness”
      • area hidden is same for both eclipses
      • drop bigger when hotter star hidden
    • tells us system is edge on
      • useful for spectroscopic binaries