Chapter 11

 Apparent brightness- how bright stars look in our sky, or the amount of pwer reaching us
per unit area
 Luminosity- total amount of power that the star emits
 Inverse square law- if we viewed the sun from earth twice the distance it would appear
dimmer by a factor of 2^2, if we ciewed it from ten times the distance it would look like 10
squared
 Incerse square law of light = apparent brightness = luminosity divided by 4 pi multiplied
by the distance squared
 Stellar parallax- the small annual amount of shift in a star's apparent piosition caused my
earths motion around the sun
 Stars come in a wide range of luminociticys with our sun somewhere in the middle, the
dimmest stars have luminosities of 1/10000 times that of the sun while the brightest stars ar
about 1 millione times as luminous as the sun
 Dim stars are far more common than bright stars, for example even though our sun is
roughly in the middle of overall range of stellar luminosities it is brighter than the vast
majority of stars in our galaxy.
 Magnitude system is another way to look at stars, relative magnitude and absolute
magnitude
 How we measure stellar temperatures- we only look to observe surface temperature
because internal temperatures are derived from mathematical models
 Spectral type- classifications that astronomers give according to surface temperature by
spectral lines. The hottest stars have the bluest colors- O B A F G K M in decreasing hotness.
 We measure mass by watching one object orbit another
 For stars these requirements generally mean that we can apply the law to measure masses
only in binary star systems
 Visual binary- is a pair of stars that we can see distinctly with a telescope as the stars orbit
each other. Sometimes we observe a star slwly shifting position in the sky as if it were a
member of a visual binary but its companion is too dim to be seen for example slow shifts in
the position of sirius the brightest star in the sky revealed it to be a binary star long before
its companion was discovered
 Eclipsing binary is a pair of stars that orbit in the plane of our line of sight. When neither
star is eclipsed we see the combined light of both stars. When one star eclipses the other,
the apparent brightness of the system drops because some of the light is blocked from our
view. A light curve or graph of apparent brightness against time reveals the pattern of the
eclipses. The most famous example of an eclipsing binary is Algol, the demon star.
 If a binary system is neither visual nor eclipsing we may be able to detect its binary nature
by observing Doppler shifts in its spectral lines. Called spectroscopic binary.
 Even for a binary system, we can only apply newtons version of keplers 3rd law if we can
measure both the orbital period and the separation of the two stars.
 In a visual binary we simply observe how long each orbit takes
 In an eclipsing binary we measure the time between eclipses
 In a spectral binary we measure the time it takes the spectral lines to shift back and
forth
 Most of the very brightest stars are reddish in color
 Theres a general trend to the luminocities and colors among all the rest of the stars: the
brighter ones are white with a little bit of blue tint, the more modest ones are similar to our
sun in color with a yellowish white tint and the dimmest ones are barely visible specs of red.
 Hertzsprung Russell (H-R) diagrams- graphs of stellar properties by plotting stellar
luminosities on one axis and spectral types on the other
 Horizontal axis represents stellare surfave temperature which as weve discussed
corresponds to spectral type. Temperature decreases from left to right because
hetrtzsprung and russlel based their diagrams on the spectral sequence OBAFGKM
 The vertical axis represents stellar luminocity in units of the suns luminosity. Stellar
luminosities span a wide range so we keep the graph compact by making each tick
mark represent a luminosity 1- times as large as the prior tick mark.
 Upper left is hot and luminous.
 4 star sequence
 Main sequence- the prominent streak running from upper left to lower right on the HR
diagram, notice the sun is one of the main sequence stars.
 Supergiants-the upper right stars because they are very large and very bright
 Giants- somewhat smaller in radius and lower in luminosity but still much larger and
brighter than main sequence stars of the same spectral type
 White Dwarfs- the stars near the lower left are small in radius and appear white in color
because of their high temperatures
 The luminosity class describes the region of the HR diagram in which the star falls. Much
more related to size than luminosity.
 A star has a a spectral type designated by OBAFGKM and a luminosity class designated by a
roman numeral but also tells us about the stars radius. Class I is the largest and class V
being smallest
 Mass is the most important aspect of a hydrogen burning star, luminocity depends directly
on mass because the weight of the stars outer layers determines the nuclear fusion rate in
its core. More weight means the star must sustain nuclear fusion weight to maintain its
gravitational equilibrium
 A star is born with a limited amount of hydrogen. This means it has a limited main
sequence.
 Massive stars have shorter sequences because it burns its fuel faster
 A stars most fundamental property is mass.
 Giants and supergiants
 Cooler and much larger
 Giants and supergiants are nearing the end of their lives
 They have already exhausted the supply of hydrogen
 White dwarfs
 A giant with a mass similar to that of our sun ultimately ejects its outer layers leaving
behind a dead core in whichh all nuclear fusion has ceased White dwarfs are these
remaining embers of former giants
 White dwarfs are hot because they are essentially exposed stellare cores but ther are
dim because they lack an energy source and radiate only their leftover heat into spave
A typical white dwarf is no larger in size than earth although they have a mass greater
than our sun. Clearly white dwarfs must be made of matter compressed to an
extremely high density unlike anything found on earth