Chapter 31

Astronomy and cosmology

31.1 Standard candles
The stars do not look the same; they differ in brightness and colour. These stars are not all the
same distance from us, and they do not all emit the same power. So, we cannot deduce their
distance from just how bright they appear in the night sky.
In astronomy, luminosity of a star is defined as the total radiant energy emitted per unit time.
This is the same as the total power emitted by a star. In SI units, luminosity L is measured in W
or J s−1.
In astronomy, a standard candle is an astronomical object of known luminosity. Astronomers
can determine the distance of a standard candle by measuring the intensity of the
electromagnetic radiation arriving at the Earth.
The two well-known standard candles are Cepheid variable stars and Type 1A supernovae.

Cepheid variable stars

The brightness of Cepheid variable stars varied periodically, and the period of this variation was
related to the average luminosity of the star. By measuring the period, astronomers could
determine the luminosity of the star. The star’s distance could then be calculated from the
observed radiant intensity at the Earth. Finding a Cepheid variable star in a distant galaxy meant
that the distance of the galaxy itself could be calculated.

Type 1A supernovae
Type 1A supernovae stars implode rapidly towards the end of their lives, and scatter matter and
energy out into space. This implosion event can be brighter than the galaxy itself. The luminosity
of the star at the time of the implosion is always the same. From this, astronomers can estimate
the star’s distance from the Earth.

31.2 Luminosity and radiant flux intensity

The luminosity of a star depends not only on its surface temperature but also on its physical size.
We can relate the brightness of a star to its luminosity by the following assumptions:
• the power from the star is uniformly radiated through space
• there is negligible absorption of this radiated power between the star and the Earth.
With these assumptions, we can determine the intensity of electromagnetic radiation observed at
the Earth.

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The observed intensity is known as radiant flux intensity F. This is defined as the radiant
power passing normally through a surface per unit area. Which is also called brightness.
Figure 31.3 shows how F can be calculated for a star at a distance d from its centre.

𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓
𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒇𝒍𝒖𝒙 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒚 =
𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒂 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆
The power of the star is its luminosity L, and the surface area of a sphere is 4πd2. Therefore:
𝑳
𝑭=
𝟒𝝅𝒅𝟐
The SI units for radiant flux intensity are Wm−2.
For a given star, the luminosity L is constant, so according to the equation, the radiant flux
intensity F obeys an inverse square law with distance d. So, doubling the distance from the
centre of the star (2d) will decrease F by a factor of 4, and tripling the distance (3d) will decrease
F by a factor of 9, and so on.

This equation tells us:

• For a given star, the luminosity is constant

• The radiant flux follows an inverse square law
• The greater the radiant flux (larger F) measured, the closer the star is to the Earth
(smaller d)

Distance of galaxies
By using the above equation we can find the distance of the star that we measure it flux intensity
and then we can find the distance of the galaxies that the star belong to.

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31.3 Stellar radii
The Sun is enormous – it only looks small because it is far away from us. We can determine the
diameter of the Sun fairly easily (see Practical Activity 31.2).

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Wien’s displacement law
The hottest stars are blueish-white in colour. Cooler stars are a deep shade of red. There is a link
between the observed wavelength of light and temperature. Table 31.2 shows the colour of a star
in the night sky and the range of its surface temperature.

Figure 31.6 shows typical intensity against wavelength graphs for objects at different
temperatures.

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The higher the temperature of a body:
• the shorter the wavelength at the peak (maximum) intensity
• the greater the intensity of the electromagnetic radiation at each wavelength.
In 1893, German physicist Wilhelm Wien discovered a relationship between the thermodynamic
temperature T of the object and the wavelength λmax at the peak intensity:
λmaxT = constant
The relationship is known as Wien’s displacement law. The experimental value of the constant
is 2.9 × 10−3mK.

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The Stefan-Boltzmann law
The luminosity of a star depends on two factors:
• its surface thermodynamic temperature T
• its radius r.
In 1879, Slovenian physicist Josef Stefan developed an expression for the luminosity L of a star.
This is the Stefan-Boltzmann law:

Where σ is a constant known as the Stefan-Boltzmann constant. The experimental value for σ is
5.67 × 10– 8 W m–2 K–4.

Using Wien’s displacement law and the Stefan-Boltzmann law to determine stellar
radii
The radius of a star can be calculated from Wien’s displacement law and the Stefan-Boltzmann
law. The procedure would be as follows:
1. Use Wien’s displacement law to determine the temperature T of the star. This would
involve determining the wavelength λmax at maximum intensity for the star, and then
using a reference star (such as the Sun) to determine T.
2. Use the Stefan-Boltzmann law to determine the radius r of the star. The luminosity L of
the star can be determined by measuring the radiant flux intensity F of the star.

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31.4 The expanding Universe
The Big Bang theory is a model of the evolution of the Universe from an extremely hot and
dense state some 13.8 million years ago – the event was called the Big Bang.
The Big Bang was also responsible for the birth of the fabric of space (and time) – this fabric has
been expanding ever since then. At the early stages after the Big Bang, fundamental particles
(such as quarks) and forces (such as gravitation) came into existence. Subsequent expansion led
to cooling and formation of atoms, stars and galaxies.
In this topic, we will explore evidence for the Big Bang by using the ideas of physics developed
in the earlier chapters of this book–notably spectra and Doppler effect.

Hubble’s law
Astronomers can see the light from distant galaxies using powerful telescopes. The telescopes
can look at the light through a diffraction grating. Analysis of the spectrum of the light from
distant galaxies shows that they are all moving away from us. The more distant a galaxy, the
faster it moves.
By using doppler effect in light waves, the observed wavelengths of all spectral lines from
distant galaxies are longer than the ones observed in the laboratory. This is known as redshift.
Figure 31.7 shows the red-shifting of the absorption spectral lines from a cluster of galaxies
some 1 billion light-years away.

The redshift of spectral lines from distant galaxies must imply that all galaxies are receding from
us. This is what American astronomer Vesto Slipher discovered. Edwin Hubble, combined his
own observations with Slipher’s discovery to create Hubble’s law.
Hubble’s law states that the recession speed v of a galaxy is directly proportional to its
distance d from us.
Therefore,

v∝d

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or

v = H0d
where v is the recession speed, d is the distance of the galaxy and H0 is the Hubble constant. The
SI unit for H0 is second−1, or s−1.
The experimental value for H0 is about 2.4 × 10−18 s−1. Figure 31.8 shows a recession speed v
against distance d graph for galaxies. The straight-line of best fit passes through the origin, and
the gradient of the line is equal to H0.

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Doppler redshift
It is worth pointing out that the term redshift does not imply spectral lines becoming red; all
spectral lines show an increase in wavelength. The fractional increase in the wavelength
depends on the recession speed v of the source (galaxy).
For non-relativistic galaxies – those moving with speeds far less than the speed of light in a
vacuum c – we can use the relationship:

Astronomers and cosmologists often assign a value for the term ‘redshift’. For example, a galaxy
shows redshift of 7.0 % means that:

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Evidence for the Big Bang
All galaxies in the Universe are moving away (receding) from each other, and not from the Earth. The
galaxies have motion because space itself is stretching. This is quite difficult to visualise. The best we can
do is to imagine the galaxies as dots on the surface of an ever-expanding balloon (see Figure 31.9).

The expanding balloon model can also be used to explain the redshift of light from galaxies. As
the Universe expanded, the wavelength of photons was stretched out.

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Hubble’s law provided the first evidence for the birth, and the subsequent expansion, of the
Universe. Distant galaxies appear to be moving faster. However, we must remember that the light
has a finite speed, so as we stare deeper into space, we are looking further into the past. The
further back in time we go, the faster the galaxies are receding from each other.
Now we can only lead to the conclusion that the Universe must have had a beginning … the
Big Bang.
Another evidence of Big Bang is that the waves that we get from space around us the universe
was hotter that now.

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