UNIT 4 and 5

Short answered type question

Q1 (a) What are protostar?

A protostar is a large mass that forms by contraction of the gas of a giant molecular cloud in
the interstellar medium. The protostellar phase is an early stage in the process of star formation.
For a one solar-mass star it lasts about 10,000,000 years.

Q1 (b) How supernova explosion takes place in binary star system?

A supernova is a stellar explosion that briefly outshines an entire galaxy, radiating as much
energy as the Sun or any ordinary star is expected to emit over its entire life span, before fading
from view over several weeks or months. The extremely luminous burst of radiation expels much
or all of a star's material

Q1(c) What are Type I and Type II stars?

Astronomers traditionally divide stars into two rough classes, called Type I and Type II. Type I
stars are richer in "dirt" (that is, elements heavier than helium) than Type II stars are, primarily
because the Type I stars are younger. As time goes by, the interstellar medium is becoming
more "polluted" with heavier elements as a result of supernova explosions, so the older Type II
stars are "cleaner" than the Type I stars because they were formed from older, cleaner gas.

Q1 (d) What are seyfert galaxies?

Seyfert galaxies are one of the two largest groups of active galaxies, along withquasars. They
have quasar-like nuclei (very luminous, distant and bright sources of electromagnetic radiation)
with very high surface brightnesses whose spectra reveal strong, high-ionisation emission
lines, but unlike quasars, their host galaxies are clearly detectable.

Q1 (e) Distinguish between White Dwarf and Neutron star

Ans: (a) White Dwarf
A white dwarf, also called a degenerate dwarf, is a stellar remnant composed mostly of electron-
degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to that of the Sun, and its
volume is comparable to that of Earth. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes from the emission
of stored thermal energy.
A neutron star is a type of compact star that can result from the gravitational collapse of a
massive star after a supernova. Neutron stars are the densest and smallest stars known to exist in
the universe; with a radius of only about 11–11.5 km (7 mi), they can have a mass of about twice
that of the Sun.
(b) Neutron stars are composed almost entirely of neutrons, which are subatomic particles
without net electrical charge and with slightly larger mass than protons. Neutron stars are very
hot and are supported against further collapse byquantum degeneracy pressure due to the
phenomenon described by the Pauli exclusion principle, which states that no two neutrons (or
any other fermionicparticles) can occupy the same place and quantum state simultaneously.

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Q1 (f) Define luminosity of a star.
Ans; In astronomy, luminosity is the total amount of energy emitted by a star, galaxy, or
other astronomical object per unit time. It is related to the brightness, which is the luminosity of
an object in a given spectral region.
In SI units luminosity is measured in joules per second or watts. Values for luminosity are often
given in the terms of the luminosity of the Sun, which has a total power output
of 3.846×1026 W. The symbol for solar luminosity is L⊙. Luminosity can also be given in terms
of magnitude. The absolute bolometric magnitude (Mbol) of an object is a logarithmic measure of
its total energy emission.

Q1(g) Supernova

Answer. A supernova is a stellar explosion that briefly outshines an entire galaxy, radiating as
much energy as the Sun or any ordinary star is expected to emit over its entire life span, before
fading from view over several weeks or months. The extremelyluminous burst
of radiation expels much or all of a star's material at a velocity of up to 30,000 km/s (10% of
the speed of light), driving a shock wave into the surrounding interstellar medium. This shock
wave sweeps up an expanding shell of gas and dust called a supernova remnant. A great
proportion of primary cosmic rays comes from supernovae. A supernova is a stellar explosion
that briefly outshines an entire galaxy, radiating as much energy as the Sun or any ordinary star
is expected to emit over its entire life span, before fading from view over several weeks or
months. The extremely luminous burst of radiation expels much or all of a star's material at a
velocity of up to 30,000 km/s (10% of the speed of light), driving a shock wave into the
surrounding interstellar medium. This shock wave sweeps up an expanding shell of gas and dust
called a supernova remnant. A great proportion of primary cosmic rays comes from supernovae.

Q1 (h) Define Chandrashekhar limit.

Ans: The Chandrasekhar limit is the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf star. The limit was
first indicated in papers published by Wilhelm Anderson and E. C. Stoner, and was named
after Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, the Indianastrophysicist who independently discovered and
improved upon the accuracy of the calculation in 1930, at the age of 19, inIndia. This limit was
initially ignored by the community of scientists because such a limit would logically require the
existence of black holes, which were considered a scientific impossibility at the time. White
dwarfs resist gravitational collapse primarily through electron degeneracy pressure. (By
comparison, main sequence stars resist collapse through thermal pressure.) The Chandrasekhar
limit is the mass above which electron degeneracy pressure in the star's core is insufficient to
balance the star's own gravitational self-attraction. Consequently, white dwarfs with masses
greater than the limit would be subject to further gravitational collapse, evolving into a different
type of stellar remnant, such as a neutron star or black hole. (However, white dwarfs generally
avoid this fate by exploding before they undergo collapse.) Those with masses under the limit
remain stable as white dwarfs.
The currently accepted value of the limit is about 1.39 ( 2.765 × 1030 kg).

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Q1 (i) Black hole
A black hole is a geometrically defined region of space time exhibiting such strong
gravitational effects that nothing—including particles and electromagnetic radiation such as
light—can escape from inside it. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently
compact mass can deform space time to form a black hole.

Q1 (j) Binary star

A binary star is a star system consisting of two stars orbiting around their common center of
mass. Systems of two, three, four, or even more stars are called multiple star systems. These
systems, especially when more distant, often appear to the unaided eye as a single point of light,
and are then revealed as double (or more) by other means. Research over the last two centuries
suggests that half or more of visible stars are part of multiple star systems.

Q1 (k) Explain variable star.

A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) fluctuates.
This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the
light, so variable stars are classified as either:

 Intrinsic variables, whose luminosity actually changes; for example, because the star
periodically swells and shrinks.
 Extrinsic variables, whose apparent changes in brightness are due to changes in the amount
of their light that can reach Earth; for example, because the star has an orbiting companion
that sometimes eclipses it.

Q (l) Dark energy and dark matter

Answer. More is unknown than is known. We know how much dark energy there is because we
know how it affects the Universe's expansion. Other than that, it is a complete mystery. But it is
an important mystery. It turns out that roughly 68% of the Universe is dark energy. Dark matter
makes up about 27%. The rest - everything on Earth, everything ever observed with all of our
instruments, all normal matter - adds up to less than 5% of the Universe. Come to think of it,
maybe it shouldn't be called "normal" matter at all, since it is such a small fraction of the
Universe.

Q 1(m) Hubble’s law

Answer. During the 1920's and 30's, Edwin Hubble discovered that the Universe is expanding,
with galaxies moving away from each other at a velocity given by an expression known
as Hubble's Law: v = H*r. Here v represent's the galaxy's recessional velocity, r is its distance
away from Earth, and H is a constant of proportionality called Hubble's constant.

Q 1(n) Define cosmic microwave background radiation.

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is the thermal radiation left over from the time
of recombination in Big Bang cosmology. In older literature, the CMB is also variously known
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as cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) or "relic radiation." The CMB is a cosmic
background radiation that is fundamental to observational cosmology because it is the oldest
light in the universe, dating to the epoch of recombination. With a traditional optical telescope,
the space between stars and galaxies (the background) is completely dark.

Q 1 (o) Describe the birth of a star.

Stars are formed in nebulae, interstellar clouds of dust and gas (mostly hydrogen). These stellar
nurseries are abundant in the arms of spiral galaxies. In these stellar nurseries, dense parts of
these clouds undergo gravitational collapse and compress to form a rotating gas globule.

Q1 (p) Describe the phenomenon of gravitational red shift.

In astrophysics, gravitational redshift or Einstein shift is the process by which electromagnetic
radiation originating from a source that is in a gravitational field is reduced in frequency,
or redshifted, when observed in a region of a weaker gravitational field. This is a direct result
of gravitational time dilation - as one moves away from a source of gravitational field, the rate at
which time passes is increased relative to the case when one is near the source.

Q 1 (q) What are the important assumptions of geocentric model of universe?

The geocentric model, also known as the Ptolemaic system, is a theory that was developed by
philosophers in Ancient Greece and was named after the philosopher Claudius Ptolemy who
lived circa 90 to 168 A.D. It was developed to explain how the planets, the Sun, and even the
stars orbit around the Earth.

Long answer type questions

(2) Discuss apparent and absolute magnitude of stars.

Absolute magnitude is a measure of the luminosity of a celestial object, on

a logarithmic astronomical magnitude scale. An object's absolute magnitude is defined to be
equal to the apparent magnitude that the object would have if were viewed from a distance of
exactly 10 parsecs (32.6 light years), with no extinction (or dimming) of its light due to
absorption by interstellar dust particles. By hypothetically placing all objects at a standard
reference distance from the observer, their luminosities can be directly compared on a magnitude
scale. As with all astronomical magnitudes, the absolute magnitude can be specified for
different wavelength ranges corresponding to specified filter bands or passbands; for stars a
commonly quoted absolute magnitude is the absolute visual magnitude, which uses the visual
(V) band of the spectrum (in the UBV photometric system). Absolute magnitudes are denoted by
a capital M, with a subscript representing the filter band used for measurement, such as M V for
absolute magnitude in the V band.
The more luminous an object, the smaller the numerical value of its absolute magnitude. A
difference of 5 magnitudes between the absolute magnitudes of two objects corresponds to a
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ratio of 100 in their luminosities, and a difference of n magnitudes in absolute magnitude
corresponds to a luminosity ratio of 100(n/5). For example, a star of absolute magnitude MV=3
would be 100 times more luminous than a star of absolute magnitude MV=8 as measured in the V
filter band. The Sun has absolute magnitude MV=+4.83. Highly luminous objects can have
negative absolute magnitudes: for example, the Milky Way galaxy has an absolute B magnitude
of about −20.8.
An object's absolute bolometric magnitude represents its total luminosity over all wavelengths,
rather than in a single filter band, as expressed on a logarithmic magnitude scale. To convert
from an absolute magnitude in a specific filter band to absolute bolometric magnitude,
a bolometric correction is applied.
For Solar System bodies that shine in reflected light, a different definition of absolute magnitude
(H) is used, based on a standard reference distance of one astronomical unit.

(4) Evaluation of Galaxies

Galaxies: Formation and evolution

The study of galactic formation and evolution attempts to answer questions regarding how
galaxies formed and their evolutionary path over the history of the Universe. Some theories in
this field have now become widely accepted, but it is still an active area in astrophysics.

Formation

Current cosmological models of the early Universe are based on the Big Bang theory. About
300,000 years after this event, atoms of hydrogen and helium began to form, in an event
called recombination. Nearly all the hydrogen was neutral (non-ionized) and readily absorbed
light, and no stars had yet formed. As a result this period has been called the "Dark Ages". It was
from density fluctuations (or anisotropic irregularities) in this primordial matter that larger
structures began to appear. As a result, masses of baryonic matter started to condense within cold
dark matter halos. These primordial structures would eventually become the galaxies we see
today. Evidence for the early appearance of galaxies was found in 2006, when it was discovered
that the galaxy IOK-1 has an unusually high redshift of 6.96, corresponding to just 750 million
years after the Big Bang and making it the most distant and primordial galaxy yet seen. While
some scientists have claimed other objects (such as Abell 1835 IR1916) have higher redshifts
(and therefore are seen in an earlier stage of the Universe's evolution), IOK-1's age and
composition have been more reliably established. However, in December 2012, astronomers
reported that the UDFj-39546284 galaxy is the most distant galaxy known and has a redshift
value of 11.9. The galaxy, estimated to have existed around "380 million years" after the Big
Bang(which was about 13.8 billion years ago), is about 13.42 billion light years away. The
existence of such early protogalaxies suggests that they must have grown in the so-called "Dark
Ages".

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The detailed process by which such early galaxy formation occurred is a major open question in
astronomy. Theories could be divided into two categories: top-down and bottom-up. In top-down
theories (such as the Eggen–Lynden-Bell–Sandage [ELS] model), protogalaxies form in a large-
scale simultaneous collapse lasting about one hundred million years. In bottom-up theories (such
as the Searle-Zinn [SZ] model), small structures such as globular clusters form first, and then a
number of such bodies accrete to form a larger galaxy. Once protogalaxies began to form and
contract, the first halo stars (called Population III stars) appeared within them. These were
composed almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, and may have been massive. If so, these huge
stars would have quickly consumed their supply of fuel and became supernovae, releasing heavy
elements into the interstellar medium. This first generation of stars re-ionized the surrounding
neutral hydrogen, creating expanding bubbles of space through which light could readily travel.

Evolution

Within a billion years of a galaxy's formation, key structures begin to appear. Globular clusters,
the central supermassive black hole, and a galactic bulge of metal-poor Population II stars form.
The creation of a supermassive black hole appears to play a key role in actively regulating the
growth of galaxies by limiting the total amount of additional matter added. During this early
epoch, galaxies undergo a major burst of star formation.

During the following two billion years, the accumulated matter settles into a galactic disc. A
galaxy will continue to absorb infalling material from high-velocity clouds and dwarf
galaxies throughout its life. This matter is mostly hydrogen and helium. The cycle of stellar birth
and death slowly increases the abundance of heavy elements, eventually allowing
theformation of planets.

The evolution of galaxies can be significantly affected by interactions and collisions. Mergers of
galaxies were common during the early epoch, and the majority of galaxies were peculiar in
morphology. Given the distances between the stars, the great majority of stellar systems in
colliding galaxies will be unaffected. However, gravitational stripping of the interstellar gas and
dust that makes up the spiral arms produces a long train of stars known as tidal tails. Examples of
these formations can be seen in NGC 4676 or the Antennae Galaxies.

As an example of such an interaction, the Milky Way galaxy and the nearby Andromeda Galaxy
are moving toward each other at about 130 km/s, and—depending upon the lateral movements—
the two may collide in about five to six billion years. Although the Milky Way has never collided
with a galaxy as large as Andromeda before, evidence of past collisions of the Milky Way with
smaller dwarf galaxies is increasing. Such large-scale interactions are rare. As time passes,
mergers of two systems of equal size become less common. Most bright galaxies have remained
fundamentally unchanged for the last few billion years, and the net rate of star formation
probably also peaked approximately ten billion years ago.

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ACTIVE GALAXIES

An active galactic nucleus (AGN) is a compact region at the centre of a galaxy that has a much
higher than normal luminosity over at least some portion, and possibly all, of the electromagnetic
spectrum. Such excess emission has been observed in
the radio, microwaves, infrared, optical, ultra-violet, X-ray and gamma ray wavebands. A galaxy
hosting an AGN is called an active galaxy. The radiation from AGN is believed to be a result
of accretion of mass by a super massive black hole at the centre of its host galaxy. AGN are the
most luminous and persistent sources of electromagnetic radiation in the universe, and as such
can be used as a means of discovering distant objects; their evolution as a function of cosmic
time also puts constraints on models of the cosmos.

 The energy of an active galaxy is determined by its core.

 Non-thermal process. (Meaning the process is not related to temperature!)

The lifetime energy of an active galaxy can be compared to the total energy of a black hole.

Properties of Active Galaxies

 High luminosity
 Non-thermal radiation
 Small, bright core
 Jets or explosive appearance
 Non-stellar emission features
 Possible “super massive” black hole in center.

Radio Galaxies

 All galaxies emit radio waves. For normal galaxies, radio emission corresponds to a small
fraction of the total energy emitted by the galaxy.

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  For Radio Galaxies, the energy emitted at radio wavelengths is 0.1 to 10 times the
energy emitted at visible wavelengths.
 Most radio galaxies are either elliptical or giant elliptical galaxies.
 The radio emission comes from a tiny bright source in the nucleus of the galaxy as well
as large jets which are often larger than the galaxy.
 The radio emission comes from the synchrotron mechanism where rapidly moving
electrons spiral around magnetic field lines.

Seyfert Galaxies

 Seyfert Galaxies are spiral galaxies with an unusually bright nucleus.

 The nucleus is much bluer than a normal nucleus.
 Emission lines are present, showing that very hot ionized gas is present.
 The gas in the central region orbits the centre very rapidly.
 The luminosity of the nucleus changes rapidly over the course of days and weeks.
 A Seyfert Galaxy is an example of a galaxy with an active nucleus.

Blazars (BL Lac Objects)

 The first Blazar identified was first thought to be a variable star and given the name BL
Lacertae.
 All objects similar to this first blazar are called either BL Lac objects or Blazars.
 BL Lac objects appear to be star-like point sources in early photos.
 Their spectra show no emission lines, only continous synchrotron emission.
 Longer exposure photos show that the Blazars are the very bright nuclei of faint elliptical
galaxies.

(5) Quasar

 Quasar is short for Quasi-Stellar Object also abbreviated as QSO.

 These objects were first discovered in the 1960's and looked like stars (point sources) on
photographic plates.
 These objects emitted radio waves and had strong emission lines, which is not a normal
spectrum for a star.
 In 1963 Martin Schmidt identified the emission lines of Hydrogen in the QSO named 3C
273 and showed that they were redshifted.
 The redshift for 3C 273 is z = 0.158 which corresponds to motion of the galaxy at a speed
(with respect to us) of 16% the speed of light.
 At the time, this was the largest redshift ever recorded.
 Using Hubble's redshift law, we can find the distance to 3C 273.
 d = v/H0 = cz/H0

c/H0 = 3 x 105 km/s / 70 km/s/Mpc = 4.3 x 109 pc

The distance to an object with redshift z is then

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 d = z x 4.3 x 109 pc

This means that the distance to the Quasar 3C 273 is 680 Mpc.

With this large distance, the luminosity of the quasar must be very large.

 Quasars are Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN)

 Later more powerful telescopes have shown that the QSOs have faint galaxies
surrounding them, suggesting that the Quasars are the very bright nuclei of active
galaxies.
 The brighter quasars have a luminosity of 1015 LSun ~ 100,000 x more luminous than the
Milky Way.

A Gravitationally Lensed Quasar

 Since quasars are far away from us, they can appear to be gravitationally lensed by a
nearby galaxy.
 This picture is called the "Einstein Cross".
 The central bright spot in the centre is a "nearby" galaxy with redshift z=0.0394
 The four spots around the centre are four images of a background quasar with z=1.695
 The spectra of the four images are the same, showing that this is a gravitational lens.
 When the spectrum of the quasar changes, there is a time delay between when the
changes occur due to the different distances that light has to travel for the different
images.
 Aging Quasars
 As the quasars evolve in time, they become less luminous and appear as either Seyfert
galaxies or Radio Galaxies.
 Over time, these active galaxies become less bright and appear as regular galaxies.
 In this evolutionary picture, the young galaxies (or quasars) begin with large amounts of
gas in their nuclei which spirals onto the black hole's accretion disk, causing it to be very
luminous.
 Over time, the black hole consumes gas in the inner regions and less gas is available to
accrete onto the disk causing it to be less luminous.
 Observations of nearby galactic centres (such as the Milky Way and Andromeda) have
shown evidence that most galaxies have a supermassive black hole at their centre.
 The Milky Way's central black hole is only one million times the mass of the Sun, so it
may not have been as bright as a quasar when it was young.

(6) H-R diagram

Hertzsprung-Russell diagram
The Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, abbreviated H–R diagram or HRD, is a scatter
graph of stars showing the relationship between the stars' absolute
magnitudes or luminosities versus their spectral classifications or effective temperatures.
More simply, it plots each star on a graph measuring the star's brightness against its
temperature (color). It does not map any locations of stars.
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The diagram was created circa 1910 by Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Norris Russell and
represents a major step towards an understanding of stellar evolution or "the way in
which stars undergo sequences of dynamic and radical changes over time".

Most of the stars occupy the region in the diagram along the line called the main
sequence. During the stage of their lives in which stars are found on the main sequence
line, they are fusing hydrogen in their cores. The next concentration of stars is on
the horizontal branch (helium fusion in the core and hydrogen burning in a shell
surrounding the core). Another prominent feature is the Hertzsprung gap located in the
region between A5 and G0 spectral type and between +1 and −3 absolute magnitudes
(i.e. between the top of the main sequence and the giants in the horizontal branch). RR
Lyrae variable stars can be found in the left of this gap on a section of the diagram called
the instability strip. Cepheid variables also fall on the instability strip, at higher
luminosities.
The H-R diagram can be used by scientists to roughly measure how far away a star
cluster or galaxy is from Earth. This can be done by comparing the apparent magnitudes
of the stars in the cluster to the absolute magnitudes of stars with known distances (or of
model stars).

(7) What are neutron stars? How the stars are classified with Harvard classification
system?

Answer. A neutron star is a type of stellar remnant that can result from thegravitational
collapse of a massive star after a supernova. Neutron stars are the densest and smallest
stars known to exist in the universe; with a radius of only about 12–13 km (6 mi), they
can have a mass of about two Suns. Neutron stars are composed almost entirely
of neutrons, which are subatomic particles without net electrical charge and with slightly
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 larger mass than protons. Neutron stars are very hot and are supported against further
collapse by quantum degeneracy pressure due to the phenomenon described by the Pauli
exclusion principle. This principle states that no two neutrons (or any
other fermionic particles) can occupy the same place andquantum state simultaneously. A
typical neutron star has a mass between ~1.4 and about 3 solar masses (M☉) with a
surface temperature of ~6 x 105 Kelvin. Neutron stars have overall densities
of 3.7×1017 to 5.9×1017 kg/m3 (2.6×1014 to 4.1×1014 times the density of the Sun), which
is comparable to the approximate density of an atomic nucleus of 3×1017 kg/m3. The
neutron star's density varies from below 1×109 kg/m3 in the crust - increasing with depth -
to above 6×1017 or 8×1017 kg/m3 deeper inside (denser than an atomic nucleus). This
density is approximately equivalent to the mass of a Boeing 747 compressed to the size
of a small grain of sand. A normal-sized matchbox containing neutron star material
would have a mass of approximately 5 billion tonnes or ~1 km³ of Earth rock.
Harvard classification:
In this activity, you will classify stars based on the elements represented in their spectra.

(7) Describe the birth and evolution of a star. Also mention nucleo-synthesis and formation
of elements in the star.

Answer. Stellar evolution is the process by which a star undergoes a sequence of radical
changes during its lifetime. Depending on the mass of the star, this lifetime ranges from only a
few million years for the most massive to trillions of years for the least massive, which is
considerably longer than the age of the universe. The table shows the lifetimes of stars as a
function of their masses. All stars are born from collapsing clouds of gas and dust, often

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called nebulae or molecular clouds. Over the course of millions of years, these proto stars settle
down into a state of equilibrium, becoming what is known as a main-sequence star.
Nuclear fusion powers a star for most of its life. Initially the energy is generated by the fusion
of hydrogen atoms at the core of the main-sequence star. Later, as the preponderance of atoms at
the core becomes helium, stars like the Sun begin to fuse hydrogen along a spherical shell
surrounding the core. This process causes the star to gradually grow in size, passing through
the sub giant stage until it reaches the red giant phase. Stars with at least half the mass of the
Sun can also begin to generate energy through the fusion of helium at their core, whereas more
massive stars can fuse heavier elements along a series of concentric shells. Once a star like the
Sun has exhausted its nuclear fuel, its core collapses into a dense white dwarf and the outer
layers are expelled as a planetary nebula. Stars with around ten or more times the mass of the
Sun can explode in a supernova as their inert iron cores collapse into an extremely dense neutron
star or black hole. Although the universe is not old enough for any of the smallest red dwarfs to
have reached the end of their lives, stellar models suggest they will slowly become brighter and
hotter before running out of hydrogen fuel and becoming low-mass white dwarfs.
Stellar evolution is not studied by observing the life of a single star, as most stellar changes occur
too slowly to be detected, even over many centuries. Instead, astrophysicists come to understand
how stars evolve by observing numerous stars at various points in their lifetime, and by
simulating stellar structure using computer models.
Stellar nucleo-synthesis
Stellar nucleo-synthesis is the nuclear process by which new nuclei are produced. It occurs
naturally in stars during stellar evolution. It is responsible for the galactic abundances of
elements from carbon to iron. Stars are thermonuclear furnaces in which H and He are fused into
heavier nuclei by increasingly high temperatures as the composition of the core [Link]
particular importance is carbon, because its formation from He is a bottleneck in the entire
process. Carbon is produced by the triple-alpha process in all stars. Carbon is also the main
element that causes the release of free neutrons within stars, giving rise to the s-process, in which
the slow absorption of neutrons converts iron into elements heavier than iron and nickel.
Steller remnants
The products of stellar nucleo-synthesis are generally dispersed into the interstellar gas through
mass loss episodes and the stellar winds of low mass stars. The mass loss events can be
witnessed today in the planetary nebulae phase of low-mass star evolution, and the explosive
ending of stars, called supernovae, of those with more than eight times the mass of the sun.
The first direct proof that nucleo-synthesis occurs in stars was the astronomical observation that
interstellar gas has become enriched with heavy elements as time passed. As a result, stars that
were born from it late in the galaxy, formed with much higher initial heavy element abundances
than those that had formed earlier. The detection of technetium in the atmosphere of a red
giant star in 1952, by spectroscopy, provided the first evidence of nuclear activity within stars.
Because technetium is radioactive, with a half-life much less than the age of the star, its
abundance must reflect its recent creation within that star. Equally convincing evidence of the
stellar origin of heavy elements, is the large overabundances of specific stable elements found in

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stellar atmospheres of asymptotic giant branch stars. Observation of barium abundances some
20-50 times greater than found in unevolved stars is evidence of the operation of the s-
process within such stars. Many modern proofs of stellar nucleosynthesis are provided by
the isotopic compositions of stardust, solid grains that have condensed from the gases of
individual stars and which have been extracted from meteorites. Stardust is one component
of cosmic dust, and is frequently called presolar grains. The measured isotopic compositions in
stardust grains demonstrate many aspects of nucleosynthesis within the stars from which the
grains condensed during the star's late-life mass-loss episodes.

(8) The universe is expanding. Comment on this.

Ans: For thousands of years, astronomers wrestled with basic questions about the size and age of
the universe. Does the universe go on forever, or does it have an edge somewhere? Has it always
existed, or did it come to being some time in the past? In 1929, Edwin Hubble, an astronomer at
Caltech, made a critical discovery that soon led to scientific answers for these questions: he
discovered that the universe is expanding.

The ancient Greeks recognized that it was difficult to imagine what an infinite universe might
look like. But they also wondered that if the universe were finite, and you stuck out your hand at
the edge, where would your hand go? The Greeks' two problems with the universe represented a
paradox - the universe had to be either finite or infinite, and both alternatives presented
problems.

After the rise of modern astronomy, another paradox began to puzzle astronomers. In the early
1800s, German astronomer Heinrich Olbers argued that the universe must be finite. If the
Universe were infinite and contained stars throughout, Olbers said, then if you looked in any
particular direction, your line-of-sight would eventually fall on the surface of a star. Although the
apparent size of a star in the sky becomes smaller as the distance to the star increases, the
brightness of this smaller surface remains a constant. Therefore, if the Universe were infinite, the
whole surface of the night sky should be as bright as a star. Obviously, there are dark areas in the
sky, so the universe must be finite.

But, when Isaac Newton discovered the law of gravity, he realized that gravity is always
attractive. Every object in the universe attracts every other object. If the universe truly were
finite, the attractive forces of all the objects in the universe should have caused the entire
universe to collapse on itself. This clearly had not happened, and so astronomers were presented
with a paradox.

When Einstein developed his theory of gravity in the General Theory of Relativity, he thought he
ran into the same problem that Newton did: his equations said that the universe should be either
expanding or collapsing, yet he assumed that the universe was static. His original solution
contained a constant term, called the cosmological constant, which cancelled the effects of
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gravity on very large scales, and led to a static universe. After Hubble discovered that the
universe was expanding, Einstein called the cosmological constant his "greatest blunder."

At around the same time, larger telescopes were being built that were able to accurately measure
the spectra, or the intensity of light as a function of wavelength, of faint objects. Using these new
data, astronomers tried to understand the plethora of faint, nebulous objects they were observing.
Between 1912 and 1922, astronomer Vesto Slipher at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona
discovered that the spectra of light from many of these objects was systematically shifted to
longer wavelengths, or redshifted. A short time later, other astronomers showed that these
nebulous objects were distant galaxies.

(9) The Discovery of the Expanding Universe

Meanwhile, other physicists and mathematicians working on Einstein's theory of gravity

discovered the equations had some solutions that described an expanding universe. In these
solutions, the light coming from distant objects would be redshifted as it traveled through the
expanding universe. The redshift would increase with increasing distance to the object.

In 1929 Edwin Hubble, working at the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California, measured
the redshifts of a number of distant galaxies. He also measured their relative distances by
measuring the apparent brightness of a class of variable stars called Cepheids in each galaxy.
When he plotted redshift against relative distance, he found that the redshift of distant galaxies
increased as a linear function of their distance. The only explanation for this observation is that
the universe was expanding.

Once scientists understood that the universe was expanding, they immediately realized that it
would have been smaller in the past. At some point in the past, the entire universe would have
been a single point. This point, later called the big bang, was the beginning of the universe as we
understand it today.

The expanding universe is finite in both time and space. The reason that the universe did not
collapse, as Newton's and Einstein's equations said it might, is that it had been expanding from
the moment of its creation. The universe is in a constant state of change. The expanding
universe, a new idea based on modern physics, laid to rest the paradoxes that troubled
astronomers from ancient times until the early 20th Century.

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Properties of the Expanding Universe

The equations of the expanding universe have three possible solutions, each of which predicts a
different eventual fate for the universe as a whole. Which fate will ultimately befall the universe
can be determined by measuring how fast the universe expands relative to how much matter the
universe contains.

The three possible types of expanding universes are called open, flat, and closed universes. If the
universe were open, it would expand forever. If the universe were flat, it would also expand
forever, but the expansion rate would slow to zero after an infinite amount of time. If the
universe were closed, it would eventually stop expanding and recollapse on itself, possibly
leading to another big bang. In all three cases, the expansion slows, and the force that causes the
slowing is gravity.

A simple analogy to understand these three types of universes is to consider a spaceship

launched from the surface of the Earth. If the spaceship does not have enough speed to escape
the Earth's gravity, it will eventually fall back to Earth. This is analogous with a closed universe
that recollapses. If the spaceship is given enough speed so that it has just enough energy to
escape, then at an infinite distance away from the Earth, it will come to a stop (this is the flat
universe). And lastly, if the ship is launched with more than enough energy to escape, it will
always have some speed, even when it is an infinite distance away (the open universe).

The Fate of the Universe

For the last eighty years, astronomers have been making increasingly accurate measurements of
two important cosmological parameters: Ho - the rate at which the universe expands - and w - the
average density of matter in the universe. Knowledge of both of these parameters will tell which
of the three models describes the universe we live in, and thus the ultimate fate of our universe.
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey, with its large systematic measurement of the galaxy density in the
Universe, should enable astronomers to precisely measure the density parameter w.

The Heavy Elements

Astronomers are not only interested in the fate of the universe; they are also interested in
understanding its present physical state. One question they try to answer is why the universe is
primarily composed of hydrogen and helium, and what is responsible for the relatively small
concentration of the heavier elements.

With the rise of nuclear physics in the 1930s and 40s, scientists started to try to explain the
abundances of heavier elements by assuming they were synthesized out of primordial hydrogen
in the early universe. In the late 1940s, American physicists George Gamow, Robert Herman,
and Ralph Alpher realized that long ago, the universe was much hotter and denser. They made

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calculations to show whether nuclear reactions that took place at those higher temperatures could
have created the heavy elements.

Unfortunately, with the exception of helium, they found that it was impossible to form heavier
elements in any appreciable quantity. Today, we understand that heavy elements were
synthesized either in the cores of stars or during supernovae, when a large dying star implodes.

Gamow, Herman, and Alpher did realize, though, that if the universe were hotter and denser in
the past, radiation should still be left over from the early universe. This radiation would have a
well-defined spectrum (called a blackbody spectrum) that depends on its temperature. As the
universe expanded, the spectrum of this light would have been red shifted to longer wavelengths,
and the temperature associated with the spectrum would have decreased by a factor of over one
thousand as the universe cooled.

(10) What is Big Bang theory?

The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model for the universe from the earliest
known periods through its subsequent large-scale evolution.[1][2][3] The model accounts for the
fact that the universe expanded from a very high density and high temperature state,[4][5] and
offers a comprehensive explanation for a broad range of phenomena, including the abundance of
light elements, the cosmic microwave background, large scale structure and Hubble's Law.[6] If
the known laws of physics are extrapolated beyond where they are valid, there is a singularity.
Modern measurements place this moment at approximately 13.8 billion years ago, which is thus
considered the age of the universe. After the initial expansion, the universe cooled sufficiently to
allow the formation of subatomic particles, and later simple atoms. Giant clouds of these
primordial elements later coalesced through gravity to form stars and galaxies.
Since Georges Lemaître first noted, in 1927, that an expanding universe might be traced back in
time to an originating single point, scientists have built on his idea of cosmic expansion. While
the scientific community was once divided between supporters of two different expanding
universe theories, the Big Bang and the Steady State theory, accumulated empirical evidence
provides strong support for the former. In 1929, from analysis of galacticred shifts, Edwin
Hubble concluded that galaxies are drifting apart, important observational evidence consistent
with the hypothesis of an expanding universe. In 1965, the cosmic microwave background
radiation was discovered, which was crucial evidence in favor of the Big Bang model, since that
theory predicted the existence of background radiation throughout the universe before it was
discovered. More recently, measurements of the red shifts of supernovae indicate that
the expansion of the universe is accelerating, an observation attributed to dark energy's
existence. The known physical laws of nature can be used to calculate the characteristics of the
universe in detail back in time to an initial state of extreme density and temperature.

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