A105 Stars and Galaxies: A105 Stars and Galaxies This week’s units: 74, 75, 76, 78, 79 News Quiz Today Galaxies homework due Thursday Projects due Nov. 30 Today’s APOD


Announcements…: Announcements… Kirkwood Obs. open Weds night 6:30-8:30 PM Rooftop Session on Thurs, Nov. 16 @ 8 PM Leonid Meteor Shower, Friday AM or PM


Main Types of Galaxies: Main Types of Galaxies Spirals Ellipticals Irregulars


Hubble Deep Field: Hubble Deep Field Our deepest images of the universe show a great variety of galaxies, many of them billions of light-years away


Slide5: Irregular Galaxies Hubble Ultra Deep Field Spiral Galaxy Elliptical Galaxy Elliptical Galaxy


Slide6: Spiral Galaxy disk bulge halo


Slide7: Spheroidal Component: bulge andamp; halo, old stars, few gas clouds Disk Component: stars of all ages, many gas clouds


Slide8: Disk Component: stars of all ages, many gas clouds Spheroidal Component: bulge andamp; halo, old stars, few gas clouds Blue-white color indicates ongoing star formation Red-yellow color indicates older star population


Properties of Elliptical Galaxies: Properties of Elliptical Galaxies Round or elliptical in shape Contain no visible gas or dust No young stars or star-forming regions The largest galaxies are ellipticals (and also some of the smallest)


Slide10: Elliptical Galaxy: All spheroidal component, virtually no disk component Red-yellow color indicates older star population


Properties of Irregular Galaxies: Properties of Irregular Galaxies Chaotic mix of stars, gas and dust No bulge or spiral arms May contain star forming regions Usually small galaxies Blue-white color indicates ongoing star formation


Classifying Galaxies: Classifying Galaxies Elliptical Spiral Irregular


Classifying Galaxies: Classifying Galaxies Elliptical Spiral Irregular


Thought Question: Thought Question Why does ongoing star formation lead to a blue-white appearance? A. There aren’t any red or yellow stars B. Short-lived blue stars outshine others C. Gas in the disk scatters blue light


Famous Galaxies!: Famous Galaxies! The Local Group – about 3 dozen galaxies Milky Way Large and Small Magellanic Clouds Andromeda M33 Dwarfs About four times smaller than our Milky Way Galaxy Near M31 more than twice the angular size of the full moon visible with a good pair of binoculars Messier 33


The Whirlpool: The Whirlpool Messier 51 23 million light years away


Messier 87: Messier 87 Giant elliptical galaxy at the center of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies ~60 million light years away note globular clusters jet other galaxies


Messier 82: Messier 82 About 12 Mly very disturbed galaxy


The Mice: The Mice ~ 300 Mly


The Puzzle of “Spiral Nebulae”: The Puzzle of 'Spiral Nebulae' Before Hubble, some scientists argued that 'spiral nebulae' were entire galaxies like our Milky Way, while others maintained they were smaller collections of stars within the Milky Way The debate remained unsettled until someone finally measured their distances


How did Hubble prove that galaxies lie far beyond the Milky Way?: How did Hubble prove that galaxies lie far beyond the Milky Way? Standard Candles! Pulsating Stars Hubble settled the debate by measuring the distance to the Andromeda Galaxy using Cepheid variables as standard candles


Slide22: Cepheid Variable Stars Because the period of a Cepheid variable star tells us its luminosity, we can use these stars as standard candles Period = 3 days


Slide23: Cepheid variable stars with longer periods have greater luminosities


Slide24: The Nearest Stars Determine distances of stars out to a few hundred light-years using parallax Distances


Distances of Galaxies: Distances of Galaxies Galaxies are too far away for parallax technique Use 'standard candles' (INVERSE SQUARE LAW) Cepheid variable supergiant stars planetary nebulae supernovae Image 'graininess' – The smoother the distribution of stars in a galaxy the farther away it is


Steps to the Distance Scale: Steps to the Distance Scale How do astronomers measure distances to objects? Brightness alone does not provide enough information to measure distance Start with nearby objects, move to greater distances


Slide27: Identifying the Main Sequence Apparent brightness of star cluster’s main sequence tells us its distance


Slide28: Knowing a star cluster’s distance, we can determine the luminosity of each type of star within it, including the distances to Cepheids Establishing the brightness of stars


Other Distance Methods: Other Distance Methods What clues give you information about distance?


Slide30:


The Distance Scale: The Distance Scale Combination of methods allows us to measure distances to nearby galaxies, and then to further and further distant galaxies. Andromeda – about 2,500,000 LY distant Virgo Cluster – about 50,000,000 LY distant Most distant galaxies –


Slide32: By measuring distances to galaxies, Hubble found that redshift and distance are related in a special way


“Redshift” of Galaxies: 'Redshift' of Galaxies Remember the Doppler Shift? The spectral lines of galaxies are redshifted, i.e. galaxies are moving away from us. Plot the velocity of recession against the distance to the galaxy: the farther away a galaxy is, the faster it recedes from us!


Hubble Law: Hubble Law


Hubble’s Law: Hubble’s Law The correlation discovered by Hubble was reported in 1929 as the formula: Velocity of Recession = Ho x Distance Ho is now know as the Hubble constant, and is measured in kilometers per second per megaparsec o


Hubble’s Law …: Hubble’s Law … o The Hubble Space Telescope was launched to the distance-redshift relation Why is Hubble’s law so important? Hubble’s constant tells us age of universe because it relates velocities and distances of all galaxies Age = ___________ ~ 1 / H0 Distance Velocity


Slide37: Read Units 74, 75, 76, 78, 79 Galaxies homework due Thurs