The document provides comprehensive notes on astrophysics, covering topics such as the Sun, Earth, Moon, and the Solar System, including the properties and orbits of celestial bodies. It discusses gravitational forces, the life cycle of stars, including their birth, fusion processes, and eventual death, along with phenomena like supernovae and black holes. Additionally, it addresses the expanding universe and the Big Bang theory, providing insights into cosmic microwave background radiation and methods for estimating the universe's age.
The document provides comprehensive notes on astrophysics, covering topics such as the Sun, Earth, Moon, and the Solar System, including the properties and orbits of celestial bodies. It discusses gravitational forces, the life cycle of stars, including their birth, fusion processes, and eventual death, along with phenomena like supernovae and black holes. Additionally, it addresses the expanding universe and the Big Bang theory, providing insights into cosmic microwave background radiation and methods for estimating the universe's age.
The document provides comprehensive notes on astrophysics, covering topics such as the Sun, Earth, Moon, and the Solar System, including the properties and orbits of celestial bodies. It discusses gravitational forces, the life cycle of stars, including their birth, fusion processes, and eventual death, along with phenomena like supernovae and black holes. Additionally, it addresses the expanding universe and the Big Bang theory, providing insights into cosmic microwave background radiation and methods for estimating the universe's age.
The document provides comprehensive notes on astrophysics, covering topics such as the Sun, Earth, Moon, and the Solar System, including the properties and orbits of celestial bodies. It discusses gravitational forces, the life cycle of stars, including their birth, fusion processes, and eventual death, along with phenomena like supernovae and black holes. Additionally, it addresses the expanding universe and the Big Bang theory, providing insights into cosmic microwave background radiation and methods for estimating the universe's age.
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Complete Physics 4TH Edition
Astro-Physics Notes
1. Sun, Earth and Moon
a. Sun: i. Description as a glowing ball of gas ii. Surface temperature iii. Core temperature iv. Nuclear reactions in the core v. Type of EM radiation b. Earth: i. Axial rotation ii. Orbit around the sun iii. Days and seasons c. Moon: i. Orbit around the earth d. Orbital Speed equation 2. The Solar System 1 a. Description of the solar system b. Planets reflecting light from the sun c. Planets kept in orbit by gravitational pull of the sun d. Planets in circular and elliptical orbit around the sun e. Properties of the planets table 3. The Solar System 2 a. Description of each of the first four planets b. Asteroids c. Description of each of the last four planets d. Comets,Meteors and meteorites 4. Objects in orbit a. Gravity and orbits i. Without gravity, planets would move in a straight line. ii. Gravity provides a centripetal force for orbital motion iii. There is gravitational attraction between all masses and this attraction is more apparent in large planetary bodies and controls their motion iv. The gravitational attraction is directly proportional to the masses of the bodies and inversely proportional to the distance between them b. Comets in orbit i. Comets have highly elliptical orbits around the sun ii. Their speed is lowest when they are far from the sun and it’s gravitational force and highest when they are close to the sun iii. Further from the sun, the comet has more potential energy than kinetic energy iv. Closer to the sun, the comet ‘falls towards the sun’ as gravity causes potential energy to be turned into kinetic energy c. Satelites in orbit i. Natural vs artificial satelites ii. Description of different artificial satelites around the earth 5. Sun, stars and galaxies 1 a. The sun is a star b. Light year definition c. Galaxies i. Interstellar matter ii. Motion of the galaxy and what keeps it together iii. Earth’s galaxy d. The birth of a star i. Process ii. Why inner planets are rocky and outer planets are gas giants 6. Sun, stars and galaxies 2 a. Fusion power in the sun i. Nuclear fusion in the sun occurs when Hydroden nuclei join to form a helium nucleus ii. This requires extremely high temperatures iii. The temperature of the sun’s core is about 15million ⁰C b. Death of a star i. In six billion years, all the hydrogen in the sun will have been converted into helium ii. Hydrogen fusion will therefore cease and the core will collapse iii. The sun’s outer surface will expand to 100 times its current diameter and cool off to a red glow called a red giant iv. The red giant will drift into space exposing a hot and dense core called a white dwarf v. The white dwarf will use helium for nuclear fusion, turning it into carbon vi. When helium fusion ceases, the star cools and fades forever c. Supernova i. Bigger stars become red supergiants and blow up in a nuclear explosion called a supernova ii. After explosion, the core reacts protons and electrons to form neutrons iii. The result is the formation of a neutron star d. Blackholes i. A black hole is a place in space where the pull of gravity is so great that it even pulls light into it ii. The explosion of massive stars causes a black hole iii. Scientists believe that there is a black hole at the centre of most galaxies e. Made from stardust 7. The expanding universe a. The expanding universe i. Red shift: the stretching of EM radiation to a wavelength of red light ii. When objects move away from earth at high speed, light waves from them become red shifted, due to the Doppler effect. (description of the Doppler effect isn’t necessary) iii. Light from distant galaxies is red shifted, providing evidence that the universe is expanding b. The big bang theory i. A theory that states that a hot super-atom erupted in a burst of energy billions of years ago, to form space. ii. Evidence for the BBT o CMBR: Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, which is microwave radiation of a particular frequency that has been detected everywhere in space. It is assumed to be the red- shifted radiation from the big bang theory. o The expansion of the universe implies that the galaxies (which are moving apart) were once together in the same space. c. Estimating the age of the universe i. Hubble constant: a number that is used to estimate the rate of expansion of the universe v ii. H 0= d iii. Where v=speed at which a galaxy moves ¿ earth,∧¿ d=distance of the galaxy ¿ earth iv.
