PLAN FOR TONIGHT

• Remember to fill out Week Four Class Notes (on ACORN) and upload after class
• Clear skies I hope so a little telescope time
• Test #1 – two weeks today
• All online
• Can write in class or at home
• Will clarify next week what topics are covered
• Open book – BUT, a lot of questions so little time to do any searching –
therefore please study
• Quick review
• Quiz on last week
• No Astronews – telescope instead
• Light and Telescopes – Ch 5&6

Acadia University is located in Mi’kma’ki, the unceded ancestral territory of the Mi’kmaq nation.
ANNOUNCEMENT

One of your fellow students in PHYS 1513 has requested the services of a note taker.
This is an opportunity to help a fellow student by photocopying or emailing your
notes to them.
As this is a paid service, you will be compensated at the end of the term/course.

Good note takers attend class regularly and can capture the essence of their lectures
in a way that someone else can understand. If anyone is interested in providing this
service, please contact Gill in Accessible Learning Services at
accessible.learning@acadiau.ca

PLEASE CONSIDER DOING THIS! WE ARE A LEARNING COMMUNITY

PTOLEMY ~140 AD

Retrograde Motion of a Planet beyond Earth’s Orbit. The letters on the diagram
show where Earth and Mars are at different times. By following the lines from each
Earth position through each corresponding Mars position, you can see how the
retrograde path of Mars looks against the background stars.
COMPLEXITY – OCCAM’S RAZOR?

Ptolemy’s Complicated Cosmological System. Each planet orbits around a small circle
called an epicycle. Each epicycle orbits on a larger circle called the deferent. This system is
not centered exactly on Earth but on an offset point called the equant. The Greeks needed
all this complexity to explain the actual motions in the sky because they believed that Earth
was stationary and that all sky motions had to be circular.
SUN AT THE CENTRE

Copernicus’ System. Copernicus developed a heliocentric plan of the solar system.

This system was published in the first edition of De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium.
Notice the word Sol for “Sun” in the middle. (credit: Nicolai Copernici)
 SKETCHES
JUPITER

Objects
orbiting
Jupiter

https://
www.cloudynights.com/
articles/cat/articles/the-
discoveries-of-galileo-–-part-
1-jupiter-r3277
MOON
Moon is not a perfect sphere

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Galileo%27s_sketches_of_the_moon.png
 VENUS

https://www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/articles/the-discoveries-of-galileo-–-part-4-venus-r3292
SATURN

Took him a while to sort it out

1616 sketch

1623 sketch

http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/observations/saturn.html
 KEY OBSERVATIONS

1) Moon is not a perfect sphere

2) Jupiter has moon orbiting it – not everything goes around
the sun
3) Venus exhibits phases like the moon does – it is not always
full

Showed that all celestial objects are not perfect spheres -

maybe everything does not move in a perfect circle?

Showed that things do not all have to orbit the Earth

Phases of Venus can only be explained if Venus orbits the Sun

KEPLER'S LAWS - #1

Eccentricity characterizes
how elliptical an orbit is

In general, the planets move in elliptical orbits

Sun is at the focus of the ellipse – yellow dot above
Planet moves faster when it is closer to the sun, slower when it is farther away
ELLIPTICAL ORBIT

Planetary orbit eccentricities

Mercury .206
Venus .0068
Earth .0167
Mars .0934
Jupiter .0485
Saturn .0556
Uranus .0472
Neptune .0086
Perihelion – closest to the sun Pluto .25
Aphelion – farthest from the sun

Eccentricity - the ratio of the distance between the foci and the length of the
major axis
KEPLER’S LAWS - #2

Kepler’s Second Law: The Law of Equal Areas. The orbital speed of a planet traveling
around the Sun (the circular object inside the ellipse) varies in such a way that in equal
intervals of time (t), a line between the Sun and a planet sweeps out equal areas (A and B).
Note that the eccentricities of the planets’ orbits in our solar system are substantially less
than shown here.
 KEPLER'S LAWS - #3
There is a relationship between
how long it takes a planet to go
once around its orbit (orbital
period - T) and the size of the
orbit (semi-major axis - a)

Very important result – measure

the period and find the size of the
orbit (if you know the mass of the
star)
Or vice versa – measure the period
and size of the orbit to find the
mass of the star
KEY IDEA – there is a relationship http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/kepler.html

between the time it takes a planet to

This is how we know the mass of
orbit the sun and its distance form the
the sun
sun
Used radar ranging to determine
distance from Earth to Venus
THE PLANETS

Semimajor Axis Period (y) Eccentricity

Planet (AU)
Mercury 0.39 0.24 0.21
Venus 0.72 0.6 0.01
Earth 1 1.00 0.02
Mars 1.52 1.88 0.09
Jupiter 5.2 11.86 0.05
Saturn 9.54 29.46 0.06
Uranus 19.19 84.01 0.05
Neptune 30.06 164.82 0.01

Except for Mercury, eccentricities are small

Note big jump in semimajor axis between Mars and Jupiter

Mercury – shortest period

NEWTON

Newton’s first law: Every object will continue to be in a state of rest

or move at a constant speed in a straight line unless it is compelled to
change by an outside force.
• Newton’s second law: The change of motion of a body is
proportional to and in the direction of the force acting on it.
• Newton’s third law: For every action there is an equal and opposite
reaction (or: the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are
always equal and act in opposite directions).
Universal Law of Gravitation
If we have a mass m a distance r from a second mass of M, they will
experience an attractive force
ALWAYS FALLING IN A CIRCLE

Astronauts in Free Fall. While in space, astronauts are falling freely, so they
experience “weightlessness.” Clockwise from top left: Tracy Caldwell Dyson (NASA),
Naoko Yamzaki (JAXA), Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger (NASA), and Stephanie Wilson
(NASA). (credit: NASA)

Shuttle is falling around the Earth (and everything aboard is in free fall)
FIGURE 3.10

Solar System Orbits. We see the orbits of typical comets and asteroids compared with
those of the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter (black circles). Shown in
red are three comets: Halley, Kopff, and Encke. In blue are the four largest asteroids:
Ceres, Pallas, Vesta, and Hygeia.
KEPLER’S 2ND LAW AND ANGULAR MOMENTUM

Bigger
Smaller
Same
Smaller
Bigger
Same
SEASONS

Southern Summer. As captured with a fish-eye lens aboard the Atlantis Space Shuttle on
December 9, 1993, Earth hangs above the Hubble Space Telescope as it is repaired. The
reddish continent is Australia, its size and shape distorted by the special lens. Because the
seasons in the Southern Hemisphere are opposite those in the Northern Hemisphere, it is
summer in Australia on this December day. (credit: modification of work by NASA)
SUMMER AND WINTER

Seasons. We see Earth at different seasons as it circles the Sun. In June, the Northern
Hemisphere “leans into” the Sun, and those in the North experience summer and have
longer days. In December, during winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern
Hemisphere “leans into” the Sun and is illuminated more directly. In spring and autumn, the
two hemispheres receive more equal shares of sunlight.

In southern hemisphere, shortest day of the year is June 21 – opposite

to northern hemisphere
SOLAR FLUX

The Sun’s Rays in Summer and Winter.

(a) In summer, the Sun appears high in the sky and its rays hit Earth more directly, spreading out less.
(b) In winter, the Sun is low in the sky and its rays spread out over a much wider area, becoming less
effective at heating the ground.
FIGURE 4.7

The Sun’s Path in the Sky for Different Seasons. On June 21, the Sun rises north of east and sets north of west.
For observers in the Northern Hemisphere of Earth, the Sun spends about 15 hours above the horizon in the United
States, meaning more hours of daylight. On December 21, the Sun rises south of east and sets south of west. It
spends 9 hours above the horizon in the United States, which means fewer hours of daylight and more hours of
night in northern lands (and a strong need for people to hold celebrations to cheer themselves up). On March 21
and September 21, the Sun spends equal amounts of time above and below the horizon in both hemispheres.
Northern hemisphere – longest daylight hours in late June
Southern hemisphere – longest daylight hours in late December
TIME - NOT ALL DAYS ARE EQUAL

Difference Between a Sidereal Day and a Solar Day. This is a top view, looking down as Earth orbits the Sun.
Because Earth moves around the Sun (roughly 1° per day), after one complete rotation of Earth relative to the
stars, we do not see the Sun in the same position.
Solar day – time interval from noon to noon – where noon is defined to be that moment when the sun is at its
highest point in the sky – culmination
Or, the time taken for the sun to reappear in the same point in the sky

SOLAR DAY - The time it takes for the Sun to return to the same place in our sky after
the Earth has rotated once

Sidereal day - time taken for a star (other then the sun) to reappear at the same point in the sky.
Solar day is longer than a sidereal day by about 4 minutes
Our clocks and watches are based on mean solar time – because the earths orbit is slightly eccentric, the length
of a solar day varies over the year!
 LOCAL INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE
Moon used as a timekeeper

Mi'kmaq Name English Translation

Kjikús Great Moon
Siwkewikús Maple Sugar
Penamuikús Birds Lay Eggs
Etquljuikús Frogs Croaking
Nipnikús Leaves Full Blossom

Peskewikús Birds Shed Feathers

Kisikwekewikús Ripening Time
Wikumkewikús Moose Calling Time
Wikewikús Fat Tame Animals
Keptekewikús Rivers About To Freeze
Kiskewikús Chief Moon
Punamujuikús Spawn of Tom-Cod

Apunknajit Sun Is Very Strong

https://www.facebook.com/www.MikmawMoons/ - two-eyed seeing project

LUNAR PHASES

Phases of the Moon. The appearance of the Moon changes over the course of a complete monthly cycle. The
pictures of the Moon on the white circle show the perspective from space, with the Sun off to the right in a fixed
position. The outer images show how the Moon appears to you in the sky from each point in the orbit. Imagine
yourself standing on Earth, facing the Moon at each stage. In the position “New,” for example, you are facing the
Moon from the right side of Earth in the middle of the day. (Note that the distance of the Moon from Earth is not to
scale in this diagram: the Moon is roughly 30 Earth-diameters away from us.) (credit: modification of work by NASA)
MOON IS TIDALLY LOCKED TO EARTH
The Moon without and with Rotation.
In this figure, we stuck a white arrow into
a fixed point on the Moon to keep track of
its sides.
(a) If the Moon did not rotate as it orbited
Earth, it would present all of its sides
to our view; hence the white arrow
would point directly toward Earth only
in the bottom position on the
diagram.
(b) Actually, the Moon rotates in the
same period that it revolves, so we
always see the same side (the white
arrow keeps pointing to Earth).

The period of the moon's

rotation on its axis is the same
as the period of its revolution
around earth
TIDES

Pull of the Moon. The Moon’s differential attraction is shown on different parts of Earth.
(Note that the differences have been exaggerated for educational purposes.)
This is because the force of gravity depends upon distance
Stronger on the side of the earth closest to the moon
Weaker on the side of the earth farthest from the moon
TIDES

Tidal Bulges in an “Ideal” Ocean. Differences in gravity cause tidal forces that push
water in the direction of tidal bulges on Earth.
Why two high tides?
Recall that the earth is also in orbit with the moon
Earth and moon orbit the barycentre (centre of mass) of the earth-moon system
For the earth, that point is about 4700 km from the centre of the earth – still inside the
earth which has a radius of about 6400 km
VARIATION IN THE TIDES

Tides Caused by Different Alignments of the Sun and Moon.

(a) In spring tides, the Sun’s and Moon’s pulls reinforce each other.
(b) In neap tides, the Sun and the Moon pull at right angles to each other, and the resulting
tides are lower than usual.
SOLAR ECLIPSE

Geometry of a Total Solar Eclipse. Note that our diagram is not to scale. The Moon
blocks the Sun during new moon phase as seen from some parts of Earth and casts a
shadow on our planet.

Phase of the moon is always new when a solar eclipse occurs

LUNAR ECLIPSES

Geometry of a Lunar Eclipse. The Moon is shown moving through the different parts
of Earth’s shadow during a total lunar eclipse. Note that the distance the Moon moves
in its orbit during the eclipse has been exaggerated here for clarity.
 WHY NOT EVERY MONTH?

Lunar orbit is tilted with respect to the plane of earths orbit

Only occasionally does everything line up to produce an eclipse

https://earthsky.org/space/why-is-the-moons-orbit-tilted-collisionless-encounters
QUIZ
STRETCH

Stop and then start recording

TELESCOPES AND LIGHT

Hubble Space Telescope (HST). This artist’s impression shows the Hubble above
Earth, with the rectangular solar panels that provide it with power seen to the left and
right.
MEASURING STARLIGHT

This spectacular image shows many more stars than we can see with
our eyes
It is a time exposure photograph
HOW BRIGHT IS THAT STAR?
Hipparchus – 150 BC
Developed a brightness scale for stars
Brightest stars – 1st magnitude
Next brightest – 2nd magnitude
…
Just visible – 6th magnitude
Modern astronomers retain the magnitude scale
It has the following features:
a) Brighter objects have smaller magnitude numbers
b) It is a logarithmic scale – a magnitude 1 star is 100 times
brighter than a magnitude 6 star – factor of 100 change in
brightness for a change in magnitude of 5
MAGNITUDE SCALE IS BACKWARDS!

Apparent Magnitudes of Well-Known Objects. The faintest magnitudes that can be

detected by the unaided eye, binoculars, and large telescopes are also shown.
APPARENT AND ABSOLUTE MAGNITUDE

Two stars that appear to be equally bright when viewed from earth are not
necessarily the same
They could be at different distances from us!
We now know that in general, stars are at different distances from us
Absolute magnitude takes the distance into account
A STAR APPEARS DIMMER AS WE MOVE AWAY FROM IT

Inverse Square Law for Light. As light radiates away from its source, it spreads out in
such a way that the energy per unit area (the amount of energy passing through one of
the small squares) decreases as the square of the distance from its source.
I(r)
We know the exact mathematical form for this
I – power per square meter
At 2, the intensity would be ¼ of what it is at 1
Po – total power from the star
At 3, the intensity would be 1/9 of what it is at 1 r – distance from the star
ABSOLUTE MAGNITUDE

The absolute magnitude of a star is its apparent magnitude IF it was 32.6 light years away
For example, if we were 32.6 ly from the Sun, it would have an apparent magnitude of 4.8 – a
relatively dim star
100 W bulb – absolute magnitude of 66.3
The difference between the light bulb and the Sun is 61.5 magnitudes
Recall that for every 5 magnitudes, intensity changes by 100
Therefore, Sun is like a lightbulb!!!!!!!!!
CBSKY4: Reference Manual, Noah and Noah -
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235091689_CBSKY4_Reference_Manual
PARALLAX

When we look at an object from two different positions, it appears in a different

direction relative to the baseline joining our two observation positions
This effect is known as parallax
PARALLAX EXERCISE

Complete the parallax exercise in the Worksheet

STARS EXHIBIT PARALLAX WHEN OBSERVED WITH A TELESCOPE

We use the diameter of earths orbit as our baseline – which we know

The angle P shown above is the parallax
Angles are measured in degrees
A degree can be subdivided in 60 arcminutes
A minute can be subdivided into 60 arcseconds
A star that exhibits 1 arcsecond of parallax is defined to be 1 parsec from us
1 parsec = 3.26 light years = 206 000 AU
STELLAR DISTANCES FROM PARALLAX

We know what an AU is (radar measurement and Keplers’ Law) and we can measure the parallax angle
We then have a right-angled triangle where we know all three angles and one side. This allows us to
determine d, the distance to the star!
Space based telescopes can measure parallax to as small as 0.001 arcsec, which corresponds to 1000
parsecs
Not very far – Milky way is about 30 000 parsecs across
But it is an important start on the “distance ladder”
APPARENT TO ABSOLUTE MAGNITUDE
Apparent magnitude is relatively easy to measure – how bright does a
star appear to us here on earth?
Distance – get using parallax
Absolute magnitude – we can now calculate this
Let m be the apparent magnitude, M be the absolute magnitude and d
be the distance in parsecs
Then

Example – Sun – m=-26.8, d = 1 AU = 1/206000 parsec

IMPORTANT POINT – if we can determine the distance to a star, we

can determine its absolute magnitude from its apparent magnitude
TELESCOPES

Telescope
Key Ideas
a) Telescope has a much larger opening than our eye whose pupil is typically about 5 mm in diameter. Large
telescopes have collecting areas up to 10 m
• Light collected proportional to area of aperture – telescope/eye – (10 m)2/(.005 m )2 = 4 million times as much light!!!!

b) That light gets focused down onto our eye or a “camera” that has a size comparable to our retina
• A lot of light on a similar area – lets us see much dimmer objects

If we use a camera, we can also do long exposures which allow us to gather even more light
Telescopes are not magnifiers – they are light collectors
REFRACTION

Formation of an Image by a Simple Lens. Parallel rays from a distant source are bent
by the convex lens so that they all come together in a single place (the focus) to form
an image.
TELESCOPE DESIGNS

Refracting and Reflecting Telescopes. Light enters a refracting telescope through a lens at the upper end, which
focuses the light near the bottom of the telescope. An eyepiece then magnifies the image so that it can be viewed by the
eye, or a detector like a photographic plate can be placed at the focus. The upper end of a reflecting telescope is open,
and the light passes through to the mirror located at the bottom of the telescope. The mirror then focuses the light at the
top end, where it can be detected. Alternatively, as in this sketch, a second mirror may reflect the light to a position outside
the telescope structure, where an observer can have easier access to it. Professional astronomers’ telescopes are more
complicated than this, but they follow the same principles of reflection and refraction.
REFRACTORS
World’s Largest Refractor. The Yerkes
40-inch (1-meter) telescope.

Modern large telescopes are all reflectors

• Much easier to build a large mirror
than a large lens
• Mirror weighs much less
• Eliminates chromatic aberration – an
effect with lens where not all
wavelengths are focused at the same
point
REFLECTORS

Focus Arrangements for Reflecting Telescopes. Reflecting telescopes have different options for
where the light is brought to a focus. With prime focus, light is detected where it comes to a focus after
reflecting from the primary mirror. With Newtonian focus, light is reflected by a small secondary mirror off
to one side, where it can be detected (see also Figure 6.5). Most large professional telescopes have a
Cassegrain focus in which light is reflected by the secondary mirror down through a hole in the primary
mirror to an observing station below the telescope.
A BIG MIRROR

Large Telescope Mirror. This image shows one of the primary mirrors of the European
Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, named Yepun, just after it was recoated
with aluminum. The mirror is a little over 8 meters in diameter. (credit: ESO/G.
Huedepohl)
MOUNTS

Modern Reflecting Telescopes.

(a) The Palomar 5-meter reflector: The Hale telescope on Palomar Mountain has a complex mounting structure that enables
the telescope (in the open “tube” pointing upward in this photo) to swing easily into any position.
(b) The Gemini North 8-meter telescope: The Gemini North mirror has a larger area than the Palomar mirror, but note how
much less massive the whole instrument seems. (credit a: modification of work by Caltech/Palomar Observatory; credit b:
modification of work by Gemini Observatory/AURA)
ADAPTIVE OPTICS
Thirty-Six Eyes Are Better Than One.
The mirror of the 10-meter Keck
telescope is composed of 36 hexagonal
sections. (credit: NASA)

Mirrors are controlled by computer to

constantly adjust the focus
Corrects for the effect of “seeing”
As light comes down through the
atmosphere, it gets slightly deflected by
variations in the density of the air
These variations are always moving so
the star light is always moving slightly
from side to side – this is the twinkling we
see when we look at the sky
To correct for this seeing (twinkle), the
mirror can be tweaked to get a steady
image
ADAPTIVE OPTICS
ANOTHER EXAMPLE

Power of Adaptive Optics (AO). One of the clearest pictures of Jupiter ever taken from
the ground, this image was produced with adaptive optics using an 8-meter-diameter
telescope at the Very Large Telescope in Chile. AO uses infrared wavelengths to remove
atmospheric blurring, resulting in a much clearer image. (credit: modification of work by
ESO, F.Marchis, M.Wong (UC Berkeley); E.Marchetti, P.Amico, S.Tordo (ESO))
LIGHT IS A WAVE

Characterizing Waves. Electromagnetic radiation has wave-like characteristics. The

wavelength (λ) is the distance between crests, the frequency (f) is the number of cycles
per second, and the speed (c) is the distance the wave covers during a specified period
of time ( 300 000 kilometres per second).

c =f 𝜆
HAS DIFFERENT FREQUENCIES AND WAVELENGTHS

Electromagnetic spectrum
Visible spectrum is a tiny piece of the full spectrum
Objects in the universe emit across the full spectrum
MINIMIZE ATMOSPHERIC EFFECTS

High and Dry Site. Cerro Paranal, a mountain summit 2.7 kilometers above sea level in Chile’s
Atacama Desert, is the site of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope. This
photograph shows the four 8-meter telescope buildings on the site and vividly illustrates that
astronomers prefer high, dry sites for their instruments. The 4.1-meter Visible and Infrared Survey
Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) can be seen in the distance on the next mountain peak. (credit: ESO)
COMING SOON

Artist’s Conception of the European Extremely Large Telescope. The primary

mirror in this telescope is 39.3 meters across. The telescope is under construction in
the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile. (credit: ESO/L. Calçada)
STILL ATMOSPHERIC LIMITATIONS

Radiation and Earth’s Atmosphere. This figure shows the bands of the electromagnetic spectrum
and how well Earth’s atmosphere transmits them. Note that high-frequency waves from space do
not make it to the surface and must therefore be observed from space. Some infrared and
microwaves are absorbed by water and thus are best observed from high altitudes. Low-frequency
radio waves are blocked by Earth’s ionosphere. (credit: modification of work by STScI/JHU/NASA)
RADIO TELESCOPES

Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope. This fully steerable radio telescope in West
Virginia went into operation in August 2000. Its dish is about 100 meters across. (credit:
modification of work by “b3nscott”/Flickr)
 NO LONGER WITH US

Largest Radio and Radar Dish. The

Arecibo Observatory, with its 1000-foot
radio dish-filling valley in Puerto Rico,
was part of the National Astronomy and
Ionosphere Center, operated by SRI
International, USRA, and UMET under a
cooperative agreement with the National
Science Foundation. (credit: National
Astronomy and Ionosphere Center,
Cornell U., NSF)

“Following two cable breaks supporting

the receiver platform in the prior months,
the NSF stated on November 19, 2020
that it was decommissioning the
telescope due to safety concerns. On
December 1, 2020 the main telescope
collapsed before controlled demolition
could be conducted.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_Ob
servatory
VLBA

Very Long Baseline Array. This map shows the distribution of 10 antennas that
constitute an array of radio telescopes stretching across the United States and its
territories.
FALSE COLOUR IMAGES

Radio Image. This image has been constructed of radio observations at the Very Large
Array of a galaxy called Cygnus A. Colors have been added to help the eye sort out regions
of different radio intensities. Red regions are the most intense, blue the least. The visible
galaxy would be a small dot in the center of the image. The radio image reveals jets of
expelled material (more than 160,000 light-years long) on either side of the galaxy. (credit:
NRAO/AUI)
SPACE TELESCOPES

Chandra X-Ray Satellite. Chandra, the world’s most powerful X-ray telescope, was
developed by NASA and launched in July 1999. (credit: modification of work by NASA)
WAY BACK IN TIME

Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (HUDF). The Hubble Space Telescope has provided an
image of a specific region of space built from data collected between September 24,
2003, and January 16, 2004. These data allow us to search for galaxies that existed
approximately 13 billion years ago. (credit: modification of work by NASA)
LATEST ONE!

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This image shows some of the mirrors of the
JWST as they underwent cryogenic testing. The mirrors were exposed to extreme
temperatures in order to gather accurate measurements on changes in their shape as
they heated and cooled. (credit: NASA/MSFC/David Higginbotham/Emmett Given)
Launched!
Successor to the Hubble Space Telescope
DETECTORS

Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs).

(a) This CCD is a mere 300-micrometers thick (thinner than a human hair) yet holds more than 21
million pixels.
(b) This matrix of 42 CCDs serves the Kepler telescope. (credit a: modification of work by US
Department of Energy; credit b: modification of work by NASA and Ball Aerospace)
INFRARED - IR

Infrared Eyes. Infrared waves can penetrate places in the universe from which light is
blocked, as shown in this infrared image where the plastic bag blocks visible light but
not infrared. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC))
While the atmosphere is not transparent to IR (greenhouse effect), interstellar gas and
dust is
IR telescopes allow us to image further than visible in the plane of the Milky Way
INFRARED TELESCOPE

Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). SOFIA allows

observations to be made above most of Earth’s atmospheric water vapor. (credit:
NASA)
INFRARED IMAGES

Observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope (SST). These infrared images—a region of star formation, the
remnant of an exploded star, and a region where an old star is losing its outer shell—show just a few of the observations
made and transmitted back to Earth from the SST. Since our eyes are not sensitive to infrared rays, we don’t perceive
colors from them. The colors in these images have been selected by astronomers to highlight details like the composition
or temperature in these regions. (credit “Flame nebula”: modification of work by NASA (X-ray:
NASA/CXC/PSU/K.Getman, E.Feigelson, M.Kuhn & the MYStIX team; Infrared:NASA/JPL-Caltech); credit “Cassiopeia
A”: modification of work by NASA/JPL-Caltech; credit “Helix nebula”: modification of work by NASA/JPL-Caltech)
ALL WAVELENGTHS IS BEST

Orion Region at Different Wavelengths. The same part of the sky looks different when observed with instruments
that are sensitive to different bands of the spectrum.
(a) Visible light: this shows part of the Orion region as the human eye sees it, with dotted lines added to show the
figure of the mythical hunter, Orion.
(b) X-rays: here, the view emphasizes the point-like X-ray sources nearby. The colors are artificial, changing from
yellow to white to blue with increasing energy of the X-rays. The bright, hot stars in Orion are still seen in this
image, but so are many other objects located at very different distances, including other stars, star corpses, and
galaxies at the edge of the observable universe.
(c) Infrared radiation: here, we mainly see the glowing dust in this region. (credit a: modification of work by Howard
McCallon/NASA/IRAS; credit b: modification of work by Howard McCallon/NASA/IRAS; credit c: modification of
work by Michael F. Corcoran)
STRETCH

Get caught up on your class

notes questions

Stop and then start recording

CAN WE LEARN ANYTHING FROM THE LIGHT OTHER THAN MAKING
AN IMAGE?

We can use prisms (and other gadgets that disperse light) to determine what
colours are/are not in a light source
Dispersion – colour/frequency/wavelength dependent bending of a light beam
SPECTROSCOPY

Prism Spectrometer. The light from the telescope is focused on a slit. A prism (or
grating) disperses the light into a spectrum, which is then photographed or recorded
electronically.
TWO TYPES OF LIGHT

Heat an object up and it emits light

Ionize a gas and it emits light

LIGHT ACTIVITY PART ONE – LIGHTBULB IMAGES

Look for this section in your worksheet and be prepared to follow

along
BLACKBODY RADIATION – HOT DENSE OBJECTS

Radiation Laws Illustrated. This graph shows in arbitrary units how many photons are given off
at each wavelength for objects at four different temperatures. The wavelengths corresponding to
visible light are shown by the colored bands. Note that at hotter temperatures, more energy (in
the form of photons) is emitted at all wavelengths. The higher the temperature, the shorter the
wavelength at which the peak amount of energy is radiated (this is known as Wien’s law).

KEY POINT – we can determine the temperature of a hot object by looking at its spectrum!!!
 81
BEAUTIFUL STAR FIELD IMAGE

HST image of a dense star field in the

Milky Way
Note the variation in colour – allows us to
determine the temperature of the stars

Astronomers use a measure call B-V to

characterize temperature
B, V – narrow band filters in the the blue
and the visible parts of the spectrum
B-V negative – HOT
B-V positive – cooler
Mathematical equation gets T from B-V
Sun – 0.656
Rigel - -0.03

Copyright © 2016 by Nelson Education Ltd. NASA/HST image

LIGHT ACTIVITY PART TWO – DISCHARGE TUBE IMAGES

Look for this section in your worksheet and be prepared to follow

along
GLOWING GAS – HOT DIFFUSE OBJECTS (NOT DENSE)

Continuous Spectrum and Line Spectra from Different Elements. Each type of glowing gas (each element)
produces its own unique pattern of lines, so the composition of a gas can be identified by its spectrum. The spectra of
sodium, hydrogen, calcium, and mercury gases are shown here.

KEY POINT – we can identify what chemicals, and their relative abundances, by studying the spectrum a gas emits
 84
EMISSION PHYSICS
An excited atom will transition back to a lower energy state by
emitting a photon (light particle)

Every element has its own unique set of energy levels (due to quantum
physics) and therefore its own unique emission spectrum

Like an atomic fingerprint

You may recall doing flame tests in chemistry lab – uses this idea
Copyright © 2016 by Nelson Education Ltd.
 85
Copyright © 2016 by Nelson Education Ltd.
 86
DUMBBELL NEBULA
ACADIA OBSERVATORY IMAGE

Planetary nebula
Cloud of gas around an
old red giant star
Core of star radiates
ultraviolet radiation (high
energy)
Ionizes the gas
Red outer shell – nitrogen
Blue inner region -
oxygen
 87
ABSORPTION OF LIGHT BY GAS

An atom can absorb light at the same wavelength that it can emit
light

http://faculty.virginia.edu/skrutskie/images/light_absorption.jpg

Copyright © 2016 by Nelson Education Ltd.

 88
KEY POINTS

Atoms emit and absorbs photons of the same energy/wavelength

When an atom emits a photon, it does so with equal probability in all
directions

Copyright © 2016 by Nelson Education Ltd.

 89
ABSORPTION SPECTRA

Consider a hot object (star) surrounded by a gas

The hot object will emit a continuous blackbody spectrum
As the light passes through the gas, some wavelengths will be
removed by absorption processes in the gas
We call this an absorption spectrum
For a star, the tenuous gas is the stellar atmosphere
Therefore, we can deduce what elements are in the stellar
atmosphere from the absorption spectrum

Copyright © 2016 by Nelson Education Ltd.

ABSORPTION SPECTRUM OF THE SUN

Visible Spectrum of the Sun. Our star’s spectrum is crossed by dark lines produced by atoms in
the solar atmosphere that absorb light at certain wavelengths. (credit: modification of work by
Nigel Sharp, NOAO/National Solar Observatory at Kitt Peak/AURA, and the National Science
Foundation)

Key point – We can determine the chemical composition of the outer layers of a star from the
absorption spectrum
SUMMARY

1) We can determine the temperature of a hot object by looking at its blackbody spectrum
2) We can determine the chemical composition of glowing gas by looking at its emission
spectrum
3) We can determine the chemical composition of the outer layers of a star from its absorption
spectrum
1) and 3) are actually done at the same time
 DOPPLER SHIFT

Doppler Effect.
(a) A source, S, makes waves whose numbered crests (1, 2, 3, and 4) wash over a stationary observer.
(b) The source S now moves toward observer A and away from observer C. Wave crest 1 was emitted when the source was
at position S4, crest 2 at position S2, and so forth. Observer A sees waves compressed by this motion and sees a
blueshift (if the waves are light). Observer C sees the waves stretched out by the motion and sees a redshift. Observer B,
whose line of sight is perpendicular to the source’s motion, sees no change in the waves (and feels left out).
KEY IDEA – by looking at the doppler shift of a spectrum, we can determine if a star is moving towards us or away form us
and how fast it is doing so
https://www.falstad.com/ripple/
SUMMARY - WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE LIGHT FROM A STAR

1) Position in the sky and whether it is moving (perpendicular speed)

2) Parallax – distance from us
3) Doppler shift – radial speed (perpendicular speed and radial
speed allow us to know the total speed and direction of travel)
4) Continuous spectrum – temperature
5) Discrete spectrum – chemical composition