The Family of Stars

1. 0 The Family of Stars Chapter 9

2. What we can measure directly: Surface temperature and color Spectrum Apparent magnitude or intensity Diameter of a few nearby stars Distance to nearby stars Part 1: measuring and classifying the stars • What we usually cannot: • Distance to most stars • Luminosity (energy radiated per second) • Diameter and mass

3. Surface temperature and color indices Color filters Color indices: B-V, U-B Differences in apparent magnitudes observed through different filters

4. Spectral Classification of Stars Mnemonics to remember the spectral sequence:

5. Parallax (only for stars within ~1500 ly) From stellar motions For moving clusters Using “standard candles” (model-dependent) Using mass-luminosity relation (for main-sequence stars) or period-luminosity relations (for binaries and variable stars; model-dependent) How to find distances to the stars?

6. When d is too large, angles A and B become too close to 900 The larger the baseline, the longer distances we can measure

7. The longest baseline on Earth is our orbit! Angular shift; we can measure it directly Apparent shift in the position of the star: parallax effect

8. Larger shift Smaller shift Effect is very small: shift is less than 1 arcsec even for closest stars Aristotle used the absence of observable parallax to discard heliocentric system

9. Half of the angular shift is called parallax angle p and used to define new unit of distance

10. The parallax angle p Small-angle formula: Define 1 parsec as a distance to a star whose parallax is 1 arcsec 1 pc = 206265 AU = 3.26 ly d (in parsecs) = 1/p

11. The Trigonometric Parallax Example: Nearest star, a Centauri, has a parallax of p = 0.76 arc seconds d = 1/p = 1.3 pc = 4.3 LY With ground-based telescopes, we can measure parallaxes p ≥ 0.02 arc sec => d ≤ 50 pc With Hipparcos satellite: parallaxes up to 0.002 arcsec, i.e. d up to 500 pc. 118218 stars measured!

12. Proper Motion In addition to the periodic back-and-forth motion related to the trigonometric parallax, nearby stars also show continuous motions across the sky. These are related to the actual motion of the stars throughout the Milky Way, and are called proper motion.

13. Barnard’s star: highest proper motion 10 arcsec per year, or one lunar diameter per 173 yr Approaches us at 160 km/sec Fourth closest star

14. Apparent magnitude: tells us how bright a star looks to our eyes Brightness and distance Intensity, or radiation flux received by the telescope: Energy of radiation coming through unit area of the mirror per second (J/m2/s)

15. R d Brightness and Distance The flux received from the star is proportional to its intrinsic brightness or luminosity (L) and inversely proportional to the square of the distance (d): L

16. d2 d1

17. Intrinsic Brightness, or luminosity The flux received from the star is proportional to its intrinsic brightness or luminosity (L) and inversely proportional to the square of the distance (d): L __ I = 4d2 Star A Star B Earth Both stars may appear equally bright, although star A is intrinsically much brighter than star B.

18. Brightness and Distance (SLIDESHOW MODE ONLY)

19. Recall the definition of apparent magnitude: Define the magnitude scale so that two objects that differ by 5 magnitudes have an intensity ratio of 100. Order of terms matters!

20. However, the apparent magnitude mixes up the intrinsic brightness of the star (or luminosity) and the effect of distance (which has nothing to do with the luminosity of the star). Inverse square law:

22. 0 Distance and Intrinsic Brightness Example: Recall that: Betelgeuse App. Magn. mV = 0.41 Rigel For a magnitude difference of 0.41 – 0.14 = 0.27, we find an intensity ratio of (2.512)0.27 = 1.28 App. Magn. mV = 0.14

23. 0 Distance and Intrinsic Brightness (2) Rigel is appears 1.28 times brighter than Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse But Rigel is 1.6 times further away than Betelgeuse Thus, Rigel is actually (intrinsically) 1.28*(1.6)2 = 3.3 times more luminous than Betelgeuse. Rigel

24. Absolute Magnitude A star that is very bright in our sky could be bright primarily because it is very close to us (the Sun, for example), or because it is rather distant but is intrinsically very bright (Rigel, for example). It is the "true" (intrinsic) brightness, with the distance dependence factored out, that is of most interest to us as astronomers. Therefore, it is useful to establish a convention whereby we can compare two stars on the same footing, without variations in brightness due to differing distances complicating the issue. Astronomers define the absolute magnitude M to be the apparent magnitude that a star would have if it were (in our imagination) placed at a distance of 10 parsecs (which is 32.6 light years) from the Earth. To determine the absolute magnitude M the distance to the star must also be known!

25. Absolute magnitude Recall that for two stars 1 and 2 Let star 1 be at a distance d pc and star 2 be the same star brought to the distance 10 pc. Then m2 = M Inverse:

26. 0 The Distance Modulus If we know a star’s absolute magnitude, we can infer its distance by comparing absolute and apparent magnitudes: Distance Modulus = mV – MV = -5 + 5 log10(d [pc]) Distance in units of parsec Equivalent: d = 10(mV – MV + 5)/5 pc

27. Absolute magnitudes of two different stars 1 and 2: If two stars are at the same distance of 10 pc from the earth:

28. 0 Absolute Magnitude (2) Back to our example of Betelgeuse and Rigel: Betelgeuse Rigel Difference in absolute magnitudes: 6.8 – 5.5 = 1.3 => Luminosity ratio = (2.512)1.3 = 3.3

29. Organizing the Family of Stars We learned how to characterize stars with many different parameters Is there any correlationbetween stellar luminosities, radii, temperature, and masses???

30. The Size (Radius) of a Star We already know: flux increases with surface temperature (~ T4); hotter stars are brighter. But luminosity also increases with size: Star B will be brighter than star A. A B Luminosity is proportional to radius squared, L ~ R2. Quantitatively: L = 4 p R2s T4 Surface flux due to a blackbody spectrum Surface area of the star

31. Example: Star Radii Polaris has just about the same spectral type (and thus surface temperature) as our sun, but it is 10,000 times brighter than our sun. Thus, Polaris is 100 times larger than the sun. This causes its luminosity to be 1002 = 10,000 times more than our sun’s.

32. However, star radius is not a convenient parameter to use for classification, because it is not directly measured. Surface temperature, or spectral class is more convenient!

33. Organizing the Family of Stars: The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram We know: Stars have different temperatures, different luminosities, and different sizes. To bring some order into that zoo of different types of stars: organize them in a diagram of Luminosity Temperature (or spectral type) versus Absolute mag. Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram Luminosity or Temperature Spectral type: O B A F G K M

34. Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram 1911 1913 Betelgeuse Rigel Absolute magnitude Sirius B Color index, or spectral class

37. Stars in the vicinity of the Sun

38. Stars in the vicinity of the Sun

39. 90% of the stars are on the Main Sequence!

40. Check whether all stars are of the same radius: Total radiated power (luminosity) L = T4 4R2 J/s

41. No, they are not of the same radius

42. 0 The Radii of Stars in the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram Betelgeuse Rigel 10,000 times the sun’s radius Polaris 100 times the sun’s radius Sun As large as the sun

43. Majority of stars are here Specific segments of the main sequence are occupied by stars of a specific mass

44. The mass-luminosity relation for 192 stars in double-lined spectroscopic binary systems. L ~ M3.5much stronger than inferred from L ~ R2 ~ M2/3

45. However, this M3.5 dependence does not go forever: Cutoff at masses > 100 M and < 0.08 M

46. H-R diagram for nearby+bright stars: All stars visible to the naked eye + all stars within 25 pc