Image credit: NASA/ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)

AST 201
STARS AND GALAXIES
ast201@astro.utoronto.ca

Slides developed by Profs. Mike Reid, Bryan Gaensler,

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 1
Jeremy Webb, Renée Hložek, Barth Netterfield 1
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb and
Prof. Gaensler |
 Announcements / Reminders

• The clicker code for lectures is AA

• Tutorials start next week

• Assignment 2 is due on January 23

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 Accessibility Services:
studentlife.utoronto.ca/as

Counselling and
Psychological Services:
studentlife.utoronto.ca/hwc
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Credit: W. Rory Coker

If someone is moving relative to you, their

lengths will all appear shorter to you.
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 This is called
length contraction.

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 This means that
space and time are
not separate
things.
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 Space and time are
bound together by the
speed of light into a
single entity called
spacetime.
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 The Twin
“Paradox”*
*It’s not really a paradox,
it just seems that way at first.

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 Consider a set of identical
twins, Zoomer and Stayer.
Zoomer gets in a spaceship
and travels to a star far from
Earth at 60% of the speed of
light, then comes home.
Stayer stays on Earth.
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Each twin sees the other
one as moving, so she
can claim that the other
twin’s clock is running
slower than her own.
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 So, when the twins
reunite on Earth, each
one expects the other one
to be younger than
herself.
This is a paradox!
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The trick to resolving
the paradox is to take
careful account of the
entire trip.
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Let’s say Zoomer
travels 3 light
years at 0.6c.
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 Turn-around
Earth
point

3 light years
Credit: NASA / Apollo 17 AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 15
 A light year is the
DISTANCE light
travels in one year.

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 A “light year”
sounds like a time,
but it’s not.

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1 light year = 9.5 trillion km

(you don’t have to memorize this kind of thing!)

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Stayer sees: S clock: 0 yrs Zoomer sees: Z clock: 0 yrs
Z clock: 0 yrs S clock: 0 yrs

Event: Beginning of journey

3 light years Turn-around

Earth point
Credit: NASA / Apollo 17; freesvg.com AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 19
Stayer sees: S clock: 1 yr Zoomer sees: Z clock: 0.8 yrs
Z clock: 0.8 yrs S clock: 0.64 yrs
Event: One year has passed on Earth
At 60% of light speed, other clocks run at 80% speed

3 light years Turn-around

Earth point
Credit: NASA / Apollo 17; freesvg.com AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 20
Stayer sees: S clock: 1.67 yr Zoomer sees: Z clock: 1.33 yrs
Z clock: 1.33 yrs S clock: 1.07 yrs

Event: Zoomer reaches one light year

3 light years Turn-around

Earth point
Credit: NASA / Apollo 17; freesvg.com AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 21
Stayer sees: S clock: 2 yrs Zoomer sees: Z clock: 1.6 yrs
Z clock: 1.6 yrs S clock: 1.28 yrs

Event: Two years have passed on Earth

3 light years Turn-around

Earth point
Credit: NASA / Apollo 17; freesvg.com AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 22
Stayer sees: S clock: 3.33 yr Zoomer sees: Z clock: 2.67 yrs
Z clock: 2.67 yrs S clock: 2.13 yrs

Event: Zoomer reaches two light years

3 light years Turn-around

Earth point
Credit: NASA / Apollo 17; freesvg.com AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 24
Stayer sees: S clock: 5 yrs Zoomer sees: Z clock: 4 yrs
Z clock: 4 yrs S clock: 3.2 yrs

Event: Zoomer reaches destination

3 light years Turn-around

Earth point
Credit: NASA / Apollo 17; freesvg.com AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 25
Stayer sees: S clock: 5 yrs Zoomer sees: Z clock: 4 yrs
Z clock: 4 yrs S clock: 3.2 yrs

Is this allowed?

Yes, because Stayer and Zoomer

are in different, equivalent, reference
frames

Observers in different equivalent

reference frames will not agree on
times, distances, ages, etc

Credit: © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 28
Stayer sees: S clock: 5 yrs Zoomer sees: Z clock: 4 yrs
Z clock: 4 yrs S clock: 3.2 yrs

Event: Zoomer turns around

3 light years Turn-around

Earth point
Credit: NASA / Apollo 17; freesvg.com AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 29
Stayer sees: S clock: 5 yrs Zoomer sees: Z clock: 4 yrs
Z clock: 4 yrs S clock: 3.2 yrs

Zoomer has had to turn and decelerate,

while Stayer has not had to do anything

Zoomer has switched reference frames,

while Stayer hasn’t

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Stayer sees: S clock: 5 yrs Zoomer sees: Z clock: 4 yrs
Z clock: 4 yrs S clock: 3.2 yrs
S clock: 6.8 yrs!
Event: Zoomer begins the journey home

3 light years Turn-around

Earth point
Credit: NASA / Apollo 17; freesvg.com AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 31
Stayer sees: S clock: 5 yrs Zoomer sees: Z clock: 4 yrs
Z clock: 4 yrs S clock: 3.2 yrs
S clock: 6.8 yrs!

Imagine you’re driving a car, fast, and

you suddenly change into reverse

You experience a sudden jerk, before

settling into your new reference frame
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Stayer sees: S clock: 5 yrs Zoomer sees: Z clock: 4 yrs
Z clock: 4 yrs S clock: 3.2 yrs
S clock: 6.8 yrs!

In the same way, switching

reference frames produces a
sudden jerk in how Zoomer sees
time in other reference frames

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Stayer sees: S clock: 5 yrs Zoomer sees: Z clock: 4 yrs
Z clock: 4 yrs S clock: 3.2 yrs
S clock: 6.8 yrs!

Once Zoomer settles into her new

reference frame, things go back to
“normal”, i.e. Stayer sees Zoomer’s
clock running slow, and Zoomer
sees Stayer’s clock running slow
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Stayer sees: S clock: 5 yrs Zoomer sees: Z clock: 4 yrs
Z clock: 4 yrs S clock: 6.8 yrs
Event: Zoomer has begun the journey home
After the sudden jump in time, both clocks seem to run slowly once more

3 light years Turn-around

Earth point
Credit: NASA / Apollo 17; freesvg.com AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 35
Stayer sees: S clock: 6.67 yrs Zoomer sees: Z clock: 5.33 yrs
Z clock: 5.33 yrs S clock: 7.87 yrs

Event: Zoomer travels one light year

3 light years Turn-around

Earth point
Credit: NASA / Apollo 17; freesvg.com AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 36
Stayer sees: S clock: 8.33 yrs Zoomer sees: Z clock: 6.67 yrs
Z clock: 6.67 yrs S clock: 8.93 yrs

Event: Zoomer travels two light years

3 light years Turn-around

Earth point
Credit: NASA / Apollo 17; freesvg.com AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 37
Stayer sees: S clock: 10 yrs Zoomer sees: Z clock: 8 yrs
Z clock: 8 yrs S clock: 10 yrs
Event: Zoomer returns home

3 light years Turn-around

Earth point
Credit: NASA / Apollo 17; freesvg.com AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 38
Stayer sees: S clock: 10 yrs Zoomer sees: Z clock: 8 yrs
Z clock: 8 yrs S clock: 10 yrs
Event: Zoomer returns home
Zoomer is 2 years younger than Stayer

3 light years Turn-around

Earth point
Credit: NASA / Apollo 17; freesvg.com AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 40
Stayer sees: S clock: 5 yrs Zoomer sees: Z clock: 4 yrs
Z clock: 4 yrs S clock: 3.2 yrs
S clock: 6.8 yrs!
Event: Zoomer begins the journey home

3 light years Turn-around

Earth point
Credit: NASA / Apollo 17; freesvg.com AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 43
Stayer sees: S clock: 10 yrs Zoomer sees: Z clock: 8 yrs
Z clock: 8 yrs S clock: 10 yrs

Observers at the same

location, in the same reference
frame, must agree on times,
distances, ages, etc

And they do!

Credit: NASA / Apollo 17; freesvg.com AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 44
 Resolving the Twin Paradox
• It’s only a paradox if we pretend the two twins are
interchangeable
• They are not interchangeable: Zoomer changes from
one reference frame to another, Stayer does not
• As Zoomer switches reference frames, what Zoomer
sees on Stayer’s clock is complicated; at other times,
both see the other one’s clock running slower
• Overall, Zoomer is the one whose clock accumulates
less time (i.e. she ages less than Stayer)
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We can also think
about the problem
using length
contraction.
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Credit: W. Rory Coker

Observers in motion relative to one another also

disagree about lengths and distances.
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 Stayer sees: Zoomer moving to the right at 0.6c
Distance travelled = 6 light years round trip
Time taken = 6 light years ÷ 0.6 c = 10 years

0.6c

3 light years Turn-around

Earth point
Credit: NASA / Apollo 17; freesvg.com AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 48
 Zoomer sees: Stayer, Earth and destination
all moving to the left at 0.6c
Distance travelled = 4.8 light years return trip
Time taken = 4.8 light years ÷ 0.6 c = 8 years

0.6c 0.6c

Turn-around
2.4 light years
Earth point
Credit: NASA / Apollo 17; freesvg.com AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Gaensler | 49
If you travelled to the center of
our galaxy and back at
99.99999999999% of the speed
of light, you would age about 8
days, but Earth would age
50,000 years!
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