4-21 notes

Galaxies generally formed when the universe was young and have aged along with
the universe
A galaxys age its distance and the age of the universe are all closely related
The study of galaxies is intimately connected with cosmology
3 major types of galaxies
Spiral galaxies
Elliptical galaxies
Irregular galaxies
Spirals have both disk and spheroidal components
Elliptical have no disk, all spheroidal (red-yellow)
Spheroidal component: bulge and halo, old stars, few gas clouds
Disk component: stars of all ages, many gas clouds
Blue-white color = ongoing star formation
Red-yellow = old stars
Irregular neither spiral nor elliptical; blue-white color
Spiral galaxies often found in groups of galaxies (up to a few dozen)
Elliptical common in huge clusters (hundreds to thousands)
Measuring Distances to Galaxies
Step 1: determine size of solar system using radar
Speed of light * journey time
Step 2: determine distances of stars out to a few hundred light-years using parallax
The parallax angle depends on distance
Brightness of a star depends on both distance and luminosity; luminosity passing
thru each sphere is the same
A standard candle is an object whose luminosity we can determine without
measuring its distance
Step 3: apparent brightness of a star clusters main sequence tells us its distance
Variable stars
Any star that varies significantly in brightness with time is called a variable star
Some stars vary in brightness because they cannot achieve proper balance between
power welling up from the core and power radiated from the surface
Such a star alternately expands and contracts, varying in brightness as it tries to
find balance
Pulsating variable stars repeats in a cycle
Cepheid variables
Most pulsating variable stars inhabit an instability strip on the H-R diagram
The most luminous ones are known as Cepheid variables
Because of the period of a Cepheid variable star tells us its luminosity, we can use
these stars as standard candles
Cepheid variable stars with longer periods have greater luminosities

Step 4: use Cepheid variable as standard candle

White dwarf supernovae can also be used as standard candles
Step 5: apparent brightness of a white dwarf supernova tells us the distance to its
galaxy (up to 10 billion light years)
A massive star supernova is NOT a standard candle
Hubbles Law
Hubble measured the distance to the Andromeda Galaxy using Cepheid variables
thereby showing that Andromeda lies far beyond the outer reaches of stars in the
Milky Way
Hubble also found that the spectral features of virtually all galaxies are redshifted
theyre all moving away from us
Velocity = H * distance
The more distance a galaxy, the greater its redshift and hence the faster it moves
away from us
This implies that the entire universe is expanding
Step 6: distances of the farthest away galaxies are measured from redshifts
Redshift of a galaxy tells us its distance thru Hubbles law
Distance = velocity/H