HR Diagrams

Surface Temperature vs Luminosity

Luminosity
- in solar units (Sun has luminosity of 1)
- Logarithmic axis

Dwarf stars on the main sequence:

M-class main sequence star = red dwarfs

G-class main sequence star
= yellow dwarfs (eg. Sun)

Recall: surface temp = color = spectral class

Star clusters:
- Always have more stars that are lower in temp (redder)

Main Sequence
From red w low luminosity to blue w high luminosity
- Stars on the main seq are fusing H in their cores = same energy source
- Bigger the mass, shorter the lifetime
- One star does not move up and down the main sequence. They come into and leave one spot on the
main sequence

Black Body Radiation Curve

Height of curve: luminosity

Peak of curve: surface temperature

Hottest star: A

Brightest star: E

B & D have same luminosity, but at diff

wavelengths, meaning they are diff in size
Life Cycle of 1M Stars
Formation
- Stars form in molecular clouds: cold, dusty clouds of hydrogen (AKA nebulas)
- dark in visible light image, bright in infrared image
- Clusters of blue stars in core of molecular clouds (short lives, usually die within cloud)
- Eg. Orion Nebula
1. Molecular clouds internal disturbance = begin to collapse by gravity
2. Due to conservation of energy: gravitational potential
E → kinetic energy (move fast, heat up)
3. Pre-main sequence phase of protostar: converting and
concentrating E, not producing much
4. Due to conservation of angular momentum:
tendency to spin → collapse into a spinning disk
(protostellar disk) has jet
5. Surface temp rise when radiation becomes dominant E
flow
6. Fusion rate increase to balance radiation from surface -
move onto main sequence
- For 1M stars, protons need to move at 10 million K
speed for fusion to occur (star’s way of producing energy) via proton-proton chain
7. Zero-age main sequence star (core + non-fusing envelop): Fusion E counterbalances gravity = H
fusing core establishes, star stops collapsing
- hydrostatic equilibrium
1M stars stay on main sequence for 10 billion years
High mass stars (>8M): O & B stars
Low mass stars (<8M): A, F, G, K, M stars

Death of Low Mass Stars

1. Run out of fuel for fusion, hydrostatic equilibrium disrupted, gravity wins

→ →
- during main sequence, 10% helium, 90% hydrogen, steadily converts H to He in the core
- After 10 billion years, star converts nearly all H into He
2. Inert He core: Core is mostly Helium, 1M can’t generate temp needed to fuse helium - helium ash
(can’t be used to make new E to oppose gravity), core slightly contracts until opposed by electron
degeneracy pressure
3. Hydrogen shell burning: a layer of Hydrogen around inert helium core (produce greater E than
original H core)
4. Release of extra E causes outer layer to expand slowly
 5. Subgiant stage: expanding gases cool to become redder and larger → move to upper
right corner off the main sequence (note: core is heating up, only surface is cooling
down)
6. Red Giant stage: each area of surface emits less light, but overcompensated
by drastic increase in size = over luminosity increase → swallow planets
around it
7. Helium Flash: H burning shell consistently adds He to Helium core - which
compressed by gravity and eventually reach temp sufficient for He fusion to
begin - He ignites in core, within minutes.
8. Horizontal branch: helium flash E expands He core, and cause Hydrogen
shell burning to slow. Star shrinks and settles into new equilibrium (but for
short time) - like main sequence stars.
9. Carbon/Oxygen core: He fuse into C and O which accumulates in core, inert.
10. Asymptotic Giant stage: go back to the red giant branch, then dies.
11. White dwarf: With no more E generation, it still does not collapse under
gravity and form black hole due to Pauli exclusion principle/electron
degeneracy pressure - repulsion by electrons with each other - but star is very
dense (Sun’s white dwarf will be the same size as Earth).
- Planetary Nebula: Outer layer diffuse off, only C/O core left
A star in post-main sequence changes: luminosity, spectral class, visible color, surface
temp, radius

Life cycle of Massive Stars (O & B stars)

Massive stars can generate enough energy to fuse:
- H, He, C, O, Neon, Magnesium, Silicon
- Not iron

Iron Fusion
Mass of protons and neutrons are not the same - depends on the nucleus of the atom
- Due to binding energy: the E it takes to remove a particle from one context into another
- eg. E needed to throw a rock off Earth is added to the mass of the rock
Recall: product of H fusion has lower mass than before fusion - energy released and extracted
- Only works when going from a lighter element to heavier element
- If going from heavier to lighter element: fission: nucleus splits to lower the mass of each particle to
release E.
*the goal is to release energy.
*iron has the most tightly bound nucleus - lowest mass a proton can have in iron nucleus = ultimate nuclear
ash

Death of Massive Star

1. Iron core no longer generates E to resist gravity - collapse - overcome electron degeneracy
2. Supergiant: after leaving main sequence (eg. Betelgeuse)
3. Neutronization: violent collapse, in speed of c, protons + electrons → neutrons +
neutrino
- Ball of iron → ball of neutrons
- If it doesn't collapse to form black hole, it becomes neutron star (1.5 -3M)
4. Neutron Degeneracy pressure halts neutrons from getting closer - Neutrinos bounce off the core,
push outer layers off (lots H) - generate HUGE energy
- Core-collapse Supernova / Type II Supernova

Type Ia Supernova
Chandrasekhar limit - about 1.44M
- maximum mass of white dwarfs - beyond which electron degeneracy pressure cannot support
against their own gravity
- If a white dwarf in a binary system and gets too close to another star, mass exceeds
Chandrasekhar limit.
- Large portion of white dwarf immediately undergoes fusion, causing it to explode.
- Leave behind supernova remnants (eg. Cassiopeia A (1667), SN1987A (1987))
- Remnants dissipate & rejoin interstellar medium - incorporate into new stars/planets

Afterlife of Massive Stars

Neutron Stars
Angular momentum = mass x speed x radius
- Conserved. When radius is smaller, speed and mass must get bigger
- Remnants star rotate much faster than original star
- Kilonova - when 2 neutron stars merge, creating strong gravitational waves
Pulsars
- Neutron star w a beam of light - not align with axis of rotation (eg. Crab pulsar)
- Strong magnetic fields channel participles into 2 narrow beams
- Detected as regular, repeating pulses of radio waves
Milky Way Galaxy
- A barred spiral galaxy, the Sun is 27,000 light years from the galactic centre (diameter = 100,000)
- Each orbit of sun about centre is 230,000,000 years (make 50 orbits before Sun dies)
- About 100-400 billion stars

Galactic Disk
- Thin, only 3000 light years
- Contains most of the dust and gas in the Milky Way
- Exclusively: ongoing star formation, O & B stars (young)
- Spiral arms
- Gas clouds become compressed
- Cause new star formation = blue stars (this is why arms are blue)
- Blue stars die within arms, while red low mass stars live long
enough to leave arm and scatter across disk
- Starburst galaxy - undergoing exceptionally rapid burst of star formation
- Often triggered by gravitational interactions with other galaxies
- Eg. Galaxy M82 - formation results in superwind ejecting hydrogen out of galaxy
- Eg. Antennae Galaxy - interacting galaxies resulting in starburst (2 spiral galaxies)
Galactic Bulge
- Contain older, redder stars. No star formation
- Most galaxies (including Milky Way) has a supermassive black hole in the bulge
Galactic Halo
- Globular clusters move around galaxy in randomly oriented orbits
- Old stars, little gas no star formation
- Contains most of the dark matter

Dark Matter in Galaxies

Recall: Zwicky found motions of galaxy clusters moved faster than could be
accounted by the visible mass
Vera Rubvin found rotational curves (speeds of stars relative to centre of galaxy) of
distant stars to be faster, not slower, than central stars. - they flattened out

True mass of galaxy is distributed smoothly

within and beyond the luminous part of galaxy

The assumption about mass was wrong.

Each galaxy is actually surrounded by an

enormous dark matter halo

Dark Matter
- 90% of Milky Way Galaxy
 - Invisible - does not emit, reflect, or absorb any wavelengths of light
- Gravitational lensing is also proof for existence of dark matter - lensing much more than can be
accounted by the luminous mass of the foreground object
Dark matter in galaxy collision:
- Galaxies pass through each other - due to mostly empty space (eg. Bullet Cluster)
- Clouds of hot gas (that make up most of the luminous mass) collide and slow
down, are located btw the galaxies
- Location of dark matter can be measured based on the degree of lensing
- Dark matter does not interact with itself. If it did, it would collide and slow
down like the clouds of hot gas did.
- Dark matter is a particle that only interacts via gravity
- Weakly interacting massive particles

Other Galaxies
Elliptical Galaxies
- Contain older, red stars
- Very little gas and dust
Lenticular Galaxies
- Cross btw spiral and elliptical
- Bulge and disk like spiral, can have a bar, but no arms
- Like elliptical, older stars and no star formation
Irregular Galaxies
- No distinct shape, result of collisions / gravitational interactions
- Young stars, gas, dust - intensive star formation
- Smaller than elliptical and spiral, less luminous

stars Star formation Dust and gas

Spiral Young in arms, old in In disk only Mostly in disk

bulge

Elliptical old none none

Irregular young Lots of star formation lots

Fate of Milky Way

- Collide with Andromeda
in about 4 billion years

Cosmic Distance Ladder

Each step is used to calibrate the next step

interlocking set of techniques

Radar
- Used to get accurate measure of 1AU, to measure parallax
Parallax
- To build accurate HR diagram of a star cluster at a known distance for main sequence fitting

Main Sequence Fitting

Standard Candles
- An object whole luminosity can be determined without knowing its distance - intrinsic brightness
known
- The main sequence is a standard candle - same for every star cluster

For a distance cluster, apparent brightness shifts vertically compared to

closer cluster due to distance

Used for the Milky Way and nearby galaxies

Cepheids - up to 130 million ly

Variable star - a star whose brightness varies with time.
Cepheid variable star - a star whose brightness varies with time because the star is physically pulsating due
to instability of internal fusion

Leavitt: Cepheid Period-Luminosity Relationship:

the period it takes a Cepheid variables star to complete a pulsation cycle = directly
related to luminosity

To measure distance of a Cepheid variable star:

1. Measure apparent brightness
2. Measure period of pulsation
3. Use CPLR to get luminosity
4. Use luminosity to get distance

Type Ia Supernovae for distance galaxies

Explosion when Chandrasekhar limit of 1.44M is reached - luminosity of explosion identical for all galaxies
- Standard candle - measure apparent brightness, compare with luminosity = distance

Hubble’s Law
Steady state model : universe is eternal, has always existed and essentially unchanging
Olber’s Paradox: if universe is infinite, every line of sight should end at the surface of a star. But not true.

Hubble’s Law
The further away a distance galaxy, the more redshifted its spectral lines (longer wavelengths)
- Same for all observers in the universe
Doppler’s effect - the wavelength of a wave moving away from you appears to be redshifted
- Recessional speed - motion away from us
- More distant galaxy, the higher recessional speed

Expansion of the Universe

- The space btw galaxy clusters are expanding at constant rate, NOT btw individual galaxies since
they are governed by mutual gravity (eg. Milky Way and Andromeda)
- The expansion is equally distributed across the universe - no source of expansion
- But the expansion had a beginning - the Big Bang

Big Bang
Hubble-Lemaitre Law
Rewinding Hubble’s Law, the universe was one all in the same place
- a singularity, a hot, dense state (ionized gas/plasma)

The Big Bang Model

- Plasma cooled when universe expanded

380,000 years after the Big Bang, all matter ionized. Free electrons
absorbed all wavelengths of light, universe was opaque

At 380,000 years, temperature drop - electrons bind with nuclei -

form atoms - no longer absorb light

Universe was transparent

Temp = 3000K - same temp as surface of a cool star
Cosmic Microwave Background
Microwave light is uniform and equally spread across all of the universe - it comes from the time when
universe was hot and dense
Light has redshifted (within the expanding space) from visible to microwave part of the spectrum

Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

Temp of singularity = temp of core of a star
Nuclear reactions would happen v quickly to form heavy elements such as helium and lithium.
Distribution of predictions of which elements would form under such temp = the distribution of these
elements in the universe right now.

Cosmological constant / lambda

Fudge factor in the equation of general relativity by Einstein to preserve the steady state model.
- Account for the acceleration of universe expansion

Expansion rate is accelerating, not constant.

Universe is expanding faster every day.

- Due to dark energy (represented by lambda)
- Unknown what it really is.

Universe = 35% matter, 65% dark energy

Ultimate Fate of the Universe

The observable universe
Come from objects whose light had time to reach us.
The farthest thing we can see is the cosmic microwave background, 13.8 billion years ago.
Radius of the observable universe = 46.5 billion ly

Curvature of the universe

All angles of a triangle would add up to:
- 180 degrees - flat
- Less than 180 degrees - negatively curved / open
- Infinite, no edge
- More than 180 degrees - positively curved / closed
- Finite size, no edge

The universe is flat - parallel lines never converge. Sum of angles = 180%. Infinite size.
Density

our universe = accelerating

Accelerating Expansion
- New star formation is slowing
- Galaxies will be populated mainly by old stars - dimmer
- Eventually - universe expansion will isolate each individual galaxy in its own observable universe -
no other galaxies will be visible
- Cosmic microwave background will be redshifted to undetectable wavelengths
Heat death of the Universe

Problems with the Big Bang Model

The Flatness Problem

The Fine-Tuning Problem

The Horizon Problem

If light coming from either sides had just had time to reach us, then they had not reached each other. But
how can the cosmic microwave background on each side be identical temperatures? - implying that they
were once in physical contact and could exchange heat to achieve a common temperature

Solution for Flatness and Horizon Problem: Inflation

Flatness problem:
The period of exponential expansion would
make any curvature seem flat (if the universe
is curved)

Horizon problem:
Prior to inflation, opposite sides of the sky
were in contact with one another. Inflation
dragged them apart at speed much higher
than the speed of light, making it appear they
were never able to communicate.

Hubble Tension
Recall: Hubble’s Constant (how fast the universe is expanding)
The value of Hubble’s constant start to disagree with different calculations, as methods became more
precise.

Explanations: different methods measure different eras in history - many expansion rate has been changing
over time?
 - Amount of dark energy / rate of universe expansion varies over time.
Hypothesis for why the Big Bang originated
- Chain of universes that start with Big Bang, end with Big Crunch
- Eternal inflation - pockets of existing universe undergo inflation - bud off from an existing universe