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Physics 306 (Basic Astronomy) Fall 2006

This document provides information about Physics 306 (Basic Astronomy) taught in the Fall 2006 semester. It includes details about the instructor, textbook, evaluation breakdown, homework assignments, exam dates, and structure of the course. Key topics to be covered include the scale and structure of the universe, celestial mechanics, the solar system, stars, galaxies, and cosmology. Metrics and distances from Earth to the edge of the observable universe are defined in both standard and scientific notation to help students grasp the immense sizes involved in astronomy.

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95 views

Physics 306 (Basic Astronomy) Fall 2006

This document provides information about Physics 306 (Basic Astronomy) taught in the Fall 2006 semester. It includes details about the instructor, textbook, evaluation breakdown, homework assignments, exam dates, and structure of the course. Key topics to be covered include the scale and structure of the universe, celestial mechanics, the solar system, stars, galaxies, and cosmology. Metrics and distances from Earth to the edge of the observable universe are defined in both standard and scientific notation to help students grasp the immense sizes involved in astronomy.

Uploaded by

Nurul Arifah
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Physics 306 (Basic Astronomy) Fall 2006

Instructor: Dr. Alexey Belyanin (979) 845-7785, Room ENPH 509 Email: belyanin@tamu.edu http://faculty.physics.tamu.edu/belyanin/phys306.html Office Hours -- 12:45-14:45 TTR, or by appointment The textbook is Foundations of Astronomy, Ninth Edition, by Michael Seeds (Thomson Brooks/Cole, 2007).

Homework: 10% of the grade Use WebAssign to receive and submit assignments: http://www.webassign.net/

Evaluation
3 mid-term exams: 20% of the final grade each Final exam: 30% of the final grade Homework: 10% of the grade Use WebAssign to receive and submit assignments: http://www.webassign.net/ If you have an excused absence for a mid-term exam, the grade for one exam can be dropped in calculating the final average.

You are allowed to bring one 8.5" x 11" page with formulas (on one side) for every exam. You can bring three such pages for the final.
With this cheat sheet you dont have to memorize all formulas. However, you need to understand them!

Level of math used:


You will use simple algebra and some elementary functions, such as logarithms and exponents. Powers of 10 will occur all the time, so the ability to work with scientific notation is important. I will provide you with necessary math background; however, some of you might need extra practice to refresh your middle school math.

We will use metric units. See Appendix A for definitions, tables, and other important info.
Mars Climate Orbiter 1999

Remember and check UNITS for all terms in the formulas!!!


Indicate units on your formula sheet Express all terms in correct units before plugging in the formula Check your answer for right unit

Attendance is important. We will drop/add and rearrange some material as compared to the textbook

Advantages of taking classes over self-study Fighting intrinsic laziness Maintaining a proper speed Distinguishing important topics from less important ones Learning supplementary materials as well Someone is ready to answer questions

From the Fall 2005


test 3 results vs. absences
160 140 120 100

score

80 60 40 20 0 0 1 2 3 absences 4 5 6 7

Why astronomy is fun to study and to teach


In every lecture, we reach the frontier of human knowledge
Crossroads of physics, chemistry, biology, philosophy,

Breakthrough discoveries occur every year


All scales from elementary particles (10-15 m) to the Hubble radius (1026 m) are involved; all timescales from 10-43 s to 1010 years No need in sophisticated tools to do observations and make discoveries

Structure of the course


1. Scale and structure of the Universe 2. The night sky 3. History of astronomy 4. Celestial mechanics 5. Astronomical tools 6. The Sun 7. Birth, life, and death of stars 8. Galaxies 9. Cosmology 10.The Solar System 11. Life in the Universe

Chapter 1: setting the stage

Our place in the Universe


Scales and distances

Milky Way Galaxy

Galactic year = 225 million yr Our sun is 4.6 billion yr old

200 billion stars 25,000 light years, Or ~ 8 kpc, or 2.5x1017 km

Milky Way a milky patch of stars that rings the Earth

Galactos = milk in Greek

Galileo found that the Milky Way is made up of stars

Hubble Deep Field


10 day exposure photo! Over 1500 galaxies in a spot 1/30 the diameter of the Moon

1011 galaxies in the observable universe

Farthest and oldest objects are 12-13 billion ly away! Space observations as a time machine

107 m

Earth radius = 6378.164 km

102
109 m

Radius of Moons orbit = 384000 km

102
1011 m

1 Astronomical Unit = 1.51011 m

102
1013 m
Mean radius of Plutos orbit = 40 AU Pluto demoted to a dwarf planet on August 24, 2006!

The Kuiper Belt home for short-period comets and dwarf planets
Starting in 1992, astronomers have become aware of a vast population of small bodies orbiting the sun beyond Neptune. There are at least 70,000 "trans-Neptunians" with diameters larger than 100 km in the radial zone extending outwards from the orbit of Neptune (at 30 AU) to 50 AU.

1-day motion of Varuna

2003 UB313 Xena: the largest dwarf planet so far R = 2400 +- 100 km larger than Pluto! Pluto: R = 1185 km

HST image of Xena

Voyagers 1 and 2

Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 is now 100 AU from the Sun! (12 light-hours, or 15 billion km) The most distant human-made object in the Universe

The Oort Cloud source of long-period comets


The comets that are more likely to be easily visible are much rarer, and are thought to come from a great spherical cloud of cometary material surrounding the Solar System called the Oort Cloud. This sphere is a light year (50,000 A. U.) in radius, but the total mass of cometary material in this cloud is probably less than that of the Earth. Occasionally a comet in this cloud is disturbed gravitationally, for example by a passing star, and started on a long elliptical or parabolic orbit toward the Sun. These long-period comets are primarily responsible for the brighter comets observed historically.

102
1017 m

Proxima Centauri (Alpha Centauri C)

Distance to Cen C = 4.2 ly = 1.3 pc = 41016 m

Need to introduce new units of distance


1 light-year (ly) 1016 m 1 ly = c1 year (the distance the light travels in 1 year) Velocity of light in vacuum c = 3 108 m/s 1 year 3.1 107 s

1 parsec (pc) 3.26 ly 3 1016 m


1 kpc = 1000 pc; 1 Mpc = 1 million pc; 1 Gpc = 1 billion pc

Huge isolation of stars:


Distance between stars = 107

Star diameter

The time needed to reach Proxima with modern spacecrafts:

3 1016 m 1012 s 30,000 yr 3 104 m/s


Looking through space = travel in time!

102
1019 m

Local Bubble
Density ~ 0.05 atoms/cm3 Temperature ~ 105 K

Remnant of supernova explosion?

Milky Way Galaxy

102
1021 m

100 billion stars

10 kpc

102
1023 m

Neighboring galaxies: Mpc scale

Groups

clusters

superclusters

102
1025 m

500 Mpc scale

Distance scale

1017 m 107 m 109 m 1011 m 1021 m = 3 pc planets Sun = 1 AU = 10 kpc Solar System distance galaxy between stars
Looking through space = travel in time!

1025 m = 100 Mpc Largest structure

1026 m = Gpc Hubble radius

Contents of the Universe


97% of all ordinary (baryonic) matter is in stars Only 3-5% of matter in the Universe is baryonic! 27% is cold dark matter 70% is dark energy

Dark matter as a gravitational lens

Remaining 70% is dark energy

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