IESO

Observational Astronomy
Part 5

Mar 10, 201

A star’s color, temperature, size,
brightness and distance are all
related!

Mar 10, 201

The Beginnings
 Late 1800’s, early 1900’s – how light is produced by
atoms is being intensely studied by…
 Gustav Kirchoff & Robert Bunsen

 Max Planck…Josef Stefan...

 Ludwig Boltzmann…Albert Einstein

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Black Bodies
 In 1862, Kirchoff coins the phrase “black body” to
describe an imaginary object that would perfectly
absorb any light (of any wavelength) that hit it.

 No light transmitted through, no light reflected off,

just totally absorbed.

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 a perfect absorber of light would also be a perfect
emitter

 amount of light energy given off each second (its

brightness or luminosity) and the color of its light are
related to the object’s temperature.

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 Molten lava and hot iron are two good examples of
black bodies, but…

 a star is an excellent black body emitter.

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 Max Planck, a German physicist, was able to make
theoretical predictions of how much light of each color
or wavelength would be given off by a perfect black
body at any given temperature.
 These predictions or models are today called Planck
Curves.

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Ohio University - Lancaster Campus
Spring 2009 PSC 100 slide 7 of 47

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 What 2 characteristics of the curves change as the
temperature increases?

(1) The size of the curve increases.

(2) The peak of the curves shift to the

left, to shorter wavelengths & higher
energies.

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Can we draw some conclusions?
 Hotter stars should be brighter than cooler stars.
 Hotter stars should emit more of their light at shorter
wavelengths (bluer light)
 Cooler stars should emit more of their light at longer
wavelengths (redder light).
 All stars emit some energy at all wavelengths!

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 In 1879, Josef Stefan discovered that the luminosity of a
star was proportional to the temperature raised to the
4th power.
 In 1884, Stefan’s observations were confirmed when
Ludwig Boltzmann derived Stefan’s equation from
simpler thermodynamic equations.

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Ohio University - Lancaster Campus slide 11 of 47
Spring 2009 PSC 100

Stefan-Boltzmann Law
 Today, we honor both scientists by naming the
equation after them…the Stefan-Boltzmann Law:
 At the surface of the star, the energy that’s given off
per square meter (Watts / m2) called the luminous
flux is...

W / m2 = 5.67 x 10-8 T4

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 At 100 K (cold enough to freeze you solid in just
seconds), a black body would emit only 5.67 W/m2.

 At 10x hotter, 1000 K, the same black body would emit

104 times as much light energy, or 56,700 W/m2.

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 If the temperature of a star were to suddenly double,
how much brighter would the star become?
 If the temperature of a star somehow fell to 1/3 of what
it was, how much fainter would the star become?

24 = 16 times brighter
(1/3)4 = 1/81, or 81 times dimmer
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 In 1893, Wilhelm Wien (pronounce “vine”) discovered
by experiment the relationship between the “main”
color of light given off by a hot object and its
temperature.

 This “main” color is the peak wavelength, called λmax ,

at the top of the Planck Curve.

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For each curve, the
top of the curve is the
peak wavelength.

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Wien’s Law
 Wien’s Law says that the peak wavelength is
proportional to the inverse of the temperature:

λmax = 2.9 x 106 T = 2.9 x 106

T λmax

 T must be in Kelvin, and λmax in nanometers.

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 What is the peak wavelength of our sun, with a T =
5750 K?

2.9 x 106 = 504 nm (yellowish-green)

 5750
What K peak wavelength of a star with a surface
is the
temperature of 3500 K?

2.9 x 106 = 829 nm (this star emits the

3500 K majority of its light as
infrared, IR).
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 A reddish star has a peak wavelength of 650 nm. What
is the star’s temperature?

2.9 x 106 = 4462 K (cooler than the sun)

650
A star hasnm
a peak wavelength in the ultra-violet of 300 nm.
What is the star’s temperature?

2.9 x 106 = 9667 K

300 nm 19
 We now have a “color thermometer” that we can use
to determine the temperature of any astronomical
object, just by examining the light the object gives
off.

 We know that different classes of objects are at

different temperatures and give off different peak
wavelengths.

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 What kinds of objects?
 Clouds of cold
hydrogen gas
(nebulae) emit
radio waves

http://www.narrowbandimaging.com/images/vdb142_small.jpg 21
Warmer clouds of molecules where stars form
emit microwaves and IR.

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Protostars emit IR.

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http://www.antonine-education.co.uk/Physics_GCSE/Unit_3/Topic_10/protostar.jpg
Sun-like stars emit mostly visible light, while
hotter stars peak in the UV.

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http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/138952main_whywe16full.jpg
Neutron stars and black holes peak in the X-
ray.

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Star cores emit gamma rays.

http://aspire.cosmic-ray.org/labs/star_life/images/star_pic.jpg
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 Where would the peak wavelength be for

 your body

 a lightning bolt

 the coals from a campfire

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A star’s spectrum is also influenced by
its temperature.

•In 1872, Henry Draper obtained the first

spectrum of a star, Vega, in the
constellation Lyra.

Credit: Lick Observatory Archives 28

photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA04204.jpg
•In 1885, Edward Pickering began a project
at Harvard University to determine the
spectra of many stars. Draper’s widow
funded the work.

•The first 10,000 spectra obtained were

classified by Williamnia Fleming, using the
letters A through Q.

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•From 1901 to 1919, Pickering & his assistant
Annie Jump Cannon classified and published
the spectra of 225,000 stars (at the rate of
about 5000 per month!)

•When Pickering died in 1919, Cannon

continued the work, eventually classifying
and publishing the spectra of 275,000 stars.

Credit: amazing-space.stsci.edu 30
Hotter stars have
simpler spectra.

Cooler stars have

more complex
spectra, since most
atoms are not ionized.

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Class O >30,000 K bluish
He lines in spectrum.
(These stars are so hot that H is mostly ionized &
doesn’t shows lines.) Pleiades

Class B 11,000-30,000 K bluish

He lines, weaker H lines
Rigel, Regulus, Spica

Class A 8,000-11,000 K blue-

white H lines (Balmer Series)
Sirius, Vega 32
Class F 6,000-8,000 K white
H, Ca lines, weaker H lines Procyon

Class G 5,000-6,000 K yellow

Ca, Na lines, + other metals
Sun, Capella, -Centauri

Class K 3,500-5,000 K orange

Ca & other metals
Arcturus, Aldebaran
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Class M <3,500 K red
metal oxides (TiO2), molecules
Betelgeuse, Antares

Oh, Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me!

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The stellar classes (OBAFGKM) are further
subdivided with a number 0 to 9 following the
letter.

Our sun, a G2 star, is slightly cooler than the

F range. A G9 star would be just a bit warmer
than the K range.

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•1910-1913, Henry Russell, a professor at
Princeton, and Ejnar Hertzsprung, an
astronomer at Leiden Observatory in the
Netherlands, used the data from the Draper
catalog to plot the temperature of the stars
vs. their brightness or luminosity.

•What kind of result would you expect, a

random scatter, or a pattern?

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 universe-review.ca/I08-01-HRdiagram.jpg

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Betelgeuse and Antares show on the diagram
as being red stars, and red stars should be
faint.

Both stars are also hundreds of light

years distant, so why do they appear so
bright in our sky?

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‘Red’

‘Red’

Red Dwarfs

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The H-R Diagram makes a lot more
sense when you realize that the
different regions don’t show different
kinds of stars…

…but stars at different stages

of their lives.

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Determining distance using the HR Diagram

•From a star’s color-temperature, determine

its absolute magnitude (M).

•Observe the star’s apparent magnitude (m)

through a telescope.

•Use the distance modulus equation to

calculate the distance.
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How far away is an F1 star that has a surface
temperature of 8000 K, if its apparent
magnitude is +9.6?

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distance in parsecs =

10^[(9.6 - 3.0 +5)  5] =

10^[11.6  5] =

10^2.32 =

209 parsecs (or 681 light years)

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Where might this method run into trouble?

Red & Orange star come in 2 varieties:

giants & dwarfs.

The spectrum of the star must be used to

determine if the star is large or small.

The presence of what element(s) in higher

than normal percentages might indicate
that the star is a giant, not a dwarf?
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