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Lecture 23-1
Galaxies
Group of stars are called galaxies
Our star, the Sun, belongs to a system called
The Milky Way Galaxy
The Milky Way can be
seen as a band of stars
in the night sky
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Galactic Structure
This artists conception shows the various parts of our
galaxy, and the position of our Sun
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Galactic Structure
The galactic halo and globular clusters formed very
early
The halo is essentially spherical
All the stars in the halo are very old, and there is
no gas and dust
The galactic disk is where the youngest stars are, as
well as star formation regions
emission nebulae and large clouds of gas and
dust
Surrounding the galactic center is the galactic
bulge, which contains a mix of older and younger
stars
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Galactic Structure
This infrared view of our galaxy shows much more
detail of the galactic center than the visible-light view
does, as infrared is not absorbed as much by gas and
dust
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Galactic Structure
Stellar orbits in the
disk move on a plane
and in the same
direction
Orbits in the halo
and bulge are much
more random.
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Precessing Orbits
A star's movement through the galaxy is affected
by the other stars in the galaxy
The paths of the stars are not circular,
but are elliptical
These ellipses appear to precess
The elliptical orbits of the stars are not
independent of each other, but are correlated
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Rotation Rates
Not all parts of the galaxy are rotating at the
same rate
Differential Rotation
The measurement of stars
velocities show that the
velocities increase rather
sharply, like that of a rigid
body, and then continue to
increase with a slow rise
This behavior for the orbital velocities cannot be
accounted for in a straight forward manner
It was expected that the rotation velocities would
decrease like Keplerian orbits as a function of
distance from center
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Galactic Mass
The orbital speed of an object depends only on the
amount of mass between it and the galactic center
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Galactic Mass
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Galactic Mass
What could this dark matter be?
It is dark at all wavelengths, not just the visible
Stellar-mass black holes?
Probably no way enough of them could have been
created
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Galactic Mass
A Hubble search for red dwarfs turned up too few to
account for dark matter
If enough existed, they should have been detected
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Galactic Mass
The bending of spacetime can allow a large mass to act as a gravitational
lens
Observation of such events suggests that low-mass white dwarfs could
account for as much as 20% of the mass needed
The rest is still a mystery.
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The
Milky
Way
Galaxy
After Copernicus
moved the Earth from
the center of the solar
system, Shapley moved
the Sun from the center
of the Galaxy.
Looking ahead, it appears
that no matter what direction
you look, distant galaxies
are receding from us.
Is our Galaxy at the center
of the universe?
Spiral structure of
our Galaxy, as
determined from
ionized hydrogen
regions
MILKY WAY
TOP (artists
conception)
SIDE
Galactic Recycling
How does our galaxy recycle gas into stars?
Where do stars tend to form in our galaxy?
Star-gas-star
cycle
Recycles gas
from old stars
into new stars.
Gas Cools
10 light-years
Have a very strong
effect on the ISM.
20 light years
Supernova
remnants are
filled with hot
gas (~106 K),
which emit
thermal
radiation at
mostly X-ray
wavelengths.
Supernova remnants
The gas of the supernova remnant expands and cools.
Begins to emit visible light, mostly emission line spectra.
Supernova remnants
The gas of the supernova remnant expands and cools.
Begins to emit visible light as emission line spectra.
These spectra show heavy elements (O, Ne, N, S) made
by the star, which are distributed back into the ISM.
SN superbubbles
Multiple supernovae
can create huge
bubbles of hot gas,
which blow out of
the galactic disk.
Gas clouds cooling
in the halo can rain
back down onto the
disk.
These collisions
may trigger future
star formation.
Optical image
Molecular clouds
Composition:
Mostly H2
About 28% He
About 1% CO
Many other molecules.
Young massive
stars can erode
the birth clouds,
preventing
further star
formation.
Only a small
fraction of gas
in molecular
clouds forms
into stars.
Gas Cools
Infrared
Visible
X-rays
X-rays are observed from hot gas above and
below the Milky Ways disk.
Radio (21cm)
Radio (3 mm)
Far-IR
(dust)
Whirlpool Galaxy
Ionization nebulae
Regions of ionized gas
Found around short-lived
high-mass stars and signify
active star formation.
The blue light of the
massive stars is scattered
by nearby dust clouds.
The nebulae tend to appear
reddish, b/c of strong
emission lines at these
wavelengths.
Halo Stars:
0.02-0.2% heavy elements (O, Fe),
only old stars
Disk Stars:
2% heavy elements,
stars of all ages
Halo stars
formed first,
then stopped.
Disk stars
formed later, &
keep on forming.