AST 201

STARS AND GALAXIES

ast201@astro.utoronto.ca
Slides developed by Mike Reid, Bryan
Gaensler
Jeremy Webb, Renée Hložek, Barth
Netterfield AST 201 | UofT | Dr. Hložek and Dr. Webb | 1
 AST 201
STARS AND GALAXIES
Black Holes:
Cosmic Vacuum Cleaners?
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |
 Previously on AST 201
• Tour of the Universe
• What is spacetime?
• What is gravity?

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |

 Coming up on AST 201
• When are spacetime and gravity
important?
– i.e. where does Newtonian physics fail?
• Then its time for stars and galaxies!

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |

 Learning Goals
• Define the term “escape speed” and
explain how it changes with the mass of a
body and the distance from that body
• Describe what happens to bodies which
attempt to orbit with speeds above and
below the escape speed

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |
 Vorbital

At Vorbital, the ball ‘misses’ the far side of Earth and

completes an orbit. AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |
Matter Curves Space (II)

Earth

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |

Vcircular

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |
Vescape

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |

minimum speed to orbit: V = Vorbital

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |

minimum speed to orbit: V = Vorbital
elliptical orbits: Vorbital < V < Vcircular

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |

minimum speed to orbit: V = Vorbital
elliptical orbits: Vorbital < V < Vcircular

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |

minimum speed to orbit: V = Vorbital
elliptical orbits: Vorbital < V < Vcircular
circular orbit: V = Vcircular

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |

minimum speed to orbit: V = Vorbital
elliptical orbits: Vorbital < V < Vcircular
circular orbit: V = Vcircular
elliptical orbits: Vcircular < V < Vescape

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |

minimum speed to orbit: V = Vorbital
elliptical orbits: Vorbital < V < Vcircular
circular orbit: V = Vcircular
elliptical orbits: Vcircular < V < Vescape
escape “orbit”: V ≥ Vescape

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |

Escape speed from Earth’s surface
is about 40,000 km/h (11 km/s)
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb | 35
Apollo 10 astronauts reached a maximum speed of
39,897 km/h (~11 km/s) after going around the moon
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb | 36
 Newton’s Law of Gravity
r
M m

Fgravity = GxMxm
r2
This applies for every pair of objects in the Universe!
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb | 41
 Newton’s Law of Gravity
rEarth
M m

Fgravity = GxMxm
r2
This applies for every pair of objects in the Universe!
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb | 42
Escape speed from Earth’s surface if we could
compress Earth until it was 1 metre in diameter
would be about 100 million km/h (28,000 km/s)
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb | 49
What would happen to
the escape speed if we
kept crushing the Earth
smaller and smaller?

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb | 51

 Once the escape speed
reaches c (the speed of light),
nothing can get away from
the crushed Earth!

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb | 52

 An object with an
escape speed of c or
higher is a
black hole.
AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb | 53
 This is an artist’s
conception of a
black hole that
formed when a star
died and collapsed.

Image Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb | 55

 This black hole is
tiny: only a few km
in size.

Image Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb | 56

 This is a star the
black hole is eating.
Poor star.

Image Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb | 57

 This is gas from the
star swirling around
the black hole, like
water going down a
drain.

Image Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb | 58

First “Image” of a Black Hole

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb | 59

First “Image” of a Black Hole

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb | 60

 Learning Goals
• Define the term “escape speed” and explain how it changes
with the mass of a body and the distance from that body
– Velocity needed for an object to escape a body’s gravitational
pull
– Depends linearly on body’s mass and inversely (squared) with
distance from the body
• Describe what happens to bodies which attempt to orbit with
speeds above and below the escape speed
– For speeds less than the escape velocity, objects can end up on
elliptical orbits, circular orbits, or crash into the surface
– For speeds greater than the escape velocity, objects will fly of
into space and never return (unless acted on by another force)

AST 201 | UofT | Prof. Webb |