lecture34

Slide1: 

Next week is Thanksgiving Break. No homework until you get back. On Friday… Exam 2 Grades are posted. Nighttime observing should be posted by Friday. THE FINAL IS DECEMBER 15th: 7-10pm!

Exam 2: 

Exam 2 Exam Score # of Students Average: 79.9%

Outline: 

Outline The Milkyway Galaxy– what is it? Early studies put us at the center of the Universe. Wrong! Dust plays an important role in the Disk of the Galaxy. What are those weird spiral nebulae? The Milkyway Globular clusters, Galactic nucleus, Nuclear bulge, Spiral Arms and the Disk We rotate around the center of the Galaxy. There is something fishy about the rotation curve. Dark Matter!

Astronomy:The Big Picture: 

Astronomy: The Big Picture

The Milky Way: 

The Milky Way http://home.arcor-online.de/axel.mellinger/mwpan_aitoff.html

Slide6: 

Which is a picture of the Milky Way? A is what we see from Earth inside the Milky Way. B is what the Milky Way “might” look like if we were far away looking back at our own galaxy from some other galaxy.

What is it?: 

What is it? http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0001/milkyway_cobe_big.jpg In the infrared

Slide8: 

The Milky Way is made of all the stars in our galaxy– about 400 billion. All the stars you can see in the sky are in our Galaxy.

We Are in a Disk of Stars!: 

We Are in a Disk of Stars! The number of stars were counted in all directions from the Sun by William Herschel and his sister Caroline. They assumed that all stars have the same brightness and that space is completely transparent. Wrong! They concluded that the Sun is at the center of the Universe. Wrong. 6400 ly Sun

The Importance of Being Earnestly Dust: 

The Importance of Being Earnestly Dust There is dust in the disk of the Milky Way– it’s easily seen. How does this dust effect the measurement? Makes stars dimmer and redder There is more dust toward the center of the Galaxy Consequence: Underestimation in the number of stars in one direction– looks like we are center. Sun Star Us

We Are in a Disk of Stars!: 

We Are in a Disk of Stars! But they were correct in determining that the distribution of stars in the Milky Way is in a thin disk. The Milky Way is very thin in comparison to its diameter– imagine 3 CDs stacked. Sun Few stars More stars Many stars

And those weird Spiral Nebulae?: 

And those weird Spiral Nebulae? Dim, diffuse, “interstellar” nebulae with spiral structure were seen in the 17th century. Some disagreement on what they were. Kant: Our galaxy is a spiral “island universe” and the other spiral nebulae are the same and far away Herschel and others: Milky Way is all there is in the Universe, and the spiral nebulae are nearby. More prevalent idea. Sun Galaxy

Globular Clusters: 

Globular Clusters Extremely regular, gravitationally bound groups of stars– very dense About 105 – 106 stars each HR diagram of these groups of stars show that they are very old– 10 billion years! Generally outside disk of the Galaxy About 150 known orbiting our Galaxy

Finding Our Place: 

Finding Our Place Sun Early view Sun at center Harlow Shapley Globular Clusters evenly distributed Globular Clusters unevenly distributed

Our Place: 

Our Place Shapley showed that we are not the center of the Galaxy in the 1920s. All of the globular clusters are orbiting around a point in Sagittarius– 26000 lyrs or 8000 parsecs away. That must be the center of our Galaxy.

How to find out more?: 

How to find out more? The 21 cm emission line is the transition in the spin of the electron in hydrogen atoms. Long wavelength allows us to look though the dust.

Hydrogen Emission: 

Hydrogen Emission Looking for 21-cm wavelengths of light Emitted by interstellar hydrogen– most abundant As we look along the disk of the Milky Way (from inside), we see 21-cm photons Doppler shifted varying amounts

Visible and Radio: 

Visible and Radio M83

We see Spiral Arms– OK hints of: 

We see Spiral Arms– OK hints of

Our Galaxy: 

Our Galaxy Globular clusters– oldest stars Galactic nucleus Nuclear bulge– mostly old stars, but very densely packed Spiral arms Disk– mostly young stars and lots of dust Note position of the Sun, just over half way out.

Our Galaxy: 

Our Galaxy 26000 ly 100000 ly

The Center of Our Galaxy: 

The Center of Our Galaxy Lots of stars– and probably a massive blackhole.

The Center of Our Galaxy: 

The Center of Our Galaxy

Do Galaxies Spin?: 

Do Galaxies Spin? Spiral galaxies really suggest it. How? Like a CD? Our Galaxy probably looks more like the right galaxy.

Slide25: 

Solid vs. Differential Rotation Same angular speed (degrees per year) Same linear speed (parsecs per year)

Is the Solar System Moving Too?: 

Is the Solar System Moving Too? Yes… the whole Galaxy has differential rotation– us included The Sun orbits at 230 km/s or about 500,000 mph– 230 million years per orbit!

The Rotation of the Galaxy: 

The Rotation of the Galaxy Using our rate of motion, we can use Kepler’s 2nd Law to calculate the mass of the Galaxy inside our Orbit. There is 1011 solar masses inside of our orbit. Since we know our speed, we can measure the orbital speed of the other stars.

The Rotation of the Galaxy: 

The Rotation of the Galaxy According to Kepler’s 3rd Law, the farther a star is from the center, the slower it should orbit Observations show that speed actually increases or is constant with distance from the center There is mass outside of the Galaxy that is dark! In fact, 90% of the mass of the entire Galaxy (>1012 solar masses) is Dark Matter!