Knowledge Organiser – Astrophysics.
Planets and moons have circular orbits (very slightly elliptical)
Definitions to memorise.
Comets have elliptical orbits (oval). Note that the star is not at the centre of the ellipse, it is always significantly off-centre.
[Link] force
Tripleof gravity
only actingmagnitude
Absolute on each planet
– the or comet is of
brightness always
a stardirected towardsat
when observed the centre of distance.
a standard the star, regardless of where it is in
its orbit.
2. Triple only Apparent magnitude – the brightness of a star as observed on earth.
Formulas.
gravity
These two formulas are given in the exam:
2 πr 2 π × orbitalradius
1. v= orbital speed=
T time period
gravity
Occasionally you need to work out the orbital radius before using the equation. As an example, for a satellite orbiting earth,
ensure you use the distance from the centre of the earth to the satellite e.g
Comets.
Comprised of dust and ice
Have ‘tails’. The tail always points away from the star regardless of the direction of motion. Tail is material from the comet heated
by the star which has sublimated. The light from the star then reflects off these particles making the tail visible. The tail points
away from the star as its solar wind (stream of charged particle ejected by the hot star) pushed them away.
Unlike planets and moon which have constant orbital speeds, comets are fastest when closest to their star because this is where
the force of gravity is greatest.
λ− λ0 v change∈ wavelength velocity of galaxy
2. Triple only = =
Stars. λ0 c wavelength speed of light
All stars emit a wide range of electromagnetic radiation (radio waves to gamma rays).
The where
λ 0 is the
hottest stars arereference wavelength
blue, ‘medium’ / the wavelength
temperature in the
stars appear laband
white / the wavelength
cooler you observe when at rest relative to the
stars red.
The y axis on the graph below you can think of as ‘light intensity’ (ignore the ‘classical theory line’). The graph shows the
Scaleelectromagnetic
of the [Link] emitted by stars of 3000, 4000 and 5000 kelvin. Our focus is on the visible light portion of the graph. The
4000 K star would appear red as it emits mainly red light. The 5000 K star would appear yellow or white as it emits a little more
In order of ascending size: moon, planet, star, galaxy, universe.
red than blue.
A galaxy is a collection of billions of stars (some of these stars have planets orbiting them). Our galaxy is called the Milky Way.
The universe is a collection of billions of galaxies.
Gravitational field strength.
Gravitational field strength is given the symbol ‘g’ and is measured in N/kg.
It is the attractive gravitational force that acts on each kg. On earth, g= 10 N/kg so every kg in your body is attracted to the earth
by 10 N.
The larger the mass of the planet/moon/star the larger the gravitational field strength it has (at the same distance) than a less
massive object.
The closer you are to a planet the larger its gravitational field strength.
Orbits.
Gravity causes objects to orbit one another:
o Moons orbit planets
o Artificial satellites primarily orbit planets (we also satellites orbiting the sun and the moon)
o Planets orbit stars
o Comets orbit stars
The force of gravity always acts towards the centre of mass.
This is all TRIPLE material.
Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.
You need to be able to draw a HR diagram:
o You must draw the main sequence going from top left to bottom right with a clear flatter part in the middle e.g it is a
backwards ‘S’ shape rather than a straight line.
o White dwarfs must be centred on the white region of the diagram between +10 and +15, and red giants centred on the
red region between 0 and -5.
Absolute magnitude
Blue White Yellow Orange Red
Star colour
Common describe / explain questions.
Explain the evidence that supports the Big Bang
Evidence for the big Bang:
1. Red shift. Nearly all galaxies, when observed through a spectrometer, were found to be red shifted. This told us that
these galaxies were moving away from us. And it was noted that the more distant galaxies had greater red shift and so
were moving away even faster. This led to the conclusion that space itself was expanding which is what was causing the
galaxies to move away from each other – this is what the Big Bang predicts. Here is galaxy velocity against distance from
earth.
2. Cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR). CMBR appears to be the same in all directions which tells us all
parts of the universe were in contact at the time of the big bang. As the universe has expanded the
wavelength has increased.
(The Big Bang theory states that at some point in time all the matter of the universe was in one place. From this point the universe
rapidly expanded and is continuing to expand to date.)