P7 Star Spectra

P7 The Birth and Death of Stars

All hot objects like stars emit radiation, a continuous range of frequencies
known as a continuous spectrum if it doesnt have any gaps. The peak
frequency emitted by an object depends on its temperature. The higher the
temperature, the more energy the photons radiated will have, and so the
higher the peak frequency.
Red coloured stars have a low frequency and a lower temperature.
Blue coloured stars have a high frequency and a higher temperature.
Absorption spectra at high temperatures electrons move into higher
energy levels by absorbing radiation. There are only certain types of
energy levels an electron can occupy, so they absorb a particular frequency
of radiation to get to a higher level. This can be seen as dark lines in the
otherwise continuous spectrum of visible light.
Emission spectra electrons are unstable in the higher energy levels so
they usually fall form higher to lower levels, losing energy by emitting
radiation of a certain frequency. This produces a series of bright lines in a
dark coloured spectrum formed by the emitted frequencies.

Stars are born in a cloud of dust and gas, the denser regions of the cloud
contract very slowly into clumps under the force of gravity. When these
clumps get dense enough, the cloud breaks up into protostars that
continue to contract and heat up as the pressure increases. Eventually the
temperature at the centre of the a protostar reaches a few million degrees,
the hydrogen nuclei start to fuse together to form helium. This releases an
enormous amount of energy and creates enough outward [radiation]
pressure to stop the gravitational collapse. The star has no reached the
main sequence stage, where it stays as the hydrogen fuses into helium.
1. All stars change when theres no longer enough hydrogen in the core for
hydrogen fusion to continue. The core shrinks and the rest of the star
expands. Small stars like the sun become red giants, whilst larger stars
become red supergiants.
2. The core is compressed by the surrounding matter of the star and shrinks
until the pressure of the core is high enough for helium fusion to begin.
The star releases energy by fusing helium into larger nuclei.

P7 The Birth and Death of Stars

P7 Observing With Telescopes

3. Once there is too little helium in the core for any more helium fusion,
the core becomes unstable and is compressed by the rest of the star. A red
giant doesnt have enough mass to compress the core enough for further
fusion. The outer layers of the star are thrown off into space and the core
shrinks to become a hot white dwarf, which gradually cools.
4. Red supergiants do have enough mass to increase the pressure and
temperature of the core enough to fuse larger nuclei. Each time an element
in the core becomes depleted, the core shrinks until it is hot enough and at
a high enough pressure for further fusion to occur. This happens until most
of the core has been fused into iron.
5. Even red supergiants cant fuse iron, so the core collapses and the star
explodes as a supernova.
6. The core collapses to form a neutron star, or if theres enough matter, a
black hole from which even light cant escape.
small stars red giant white dwarf cold black dwarf
big stars red supergiant supernova neutron star black hole

Some objects in the sky are so distant and faint that only a tiny amount of
radiation from them reaches us. To collect enough of the radiation from
these objects to see them, a telescope with a large objective lens or mirror
is needed. The diameter of the objective lens is called the aperture. The
bigger the aperture, the more radiation can get into the telescope and the
better the image formed. However big mirrors are easier to make.
When radiation passes through a gap it diffracts, on entering a telescope it
is diffracted at the edges of the aperture, causing the image to blur. The
only way around this is to have an aperture thats much wider than the
wavelength of radiation to be looked at. This way the radiation passes
through the aperture and into the telescope with little diffraction.
Most telescopes are now computer controlled, especially remote ones.
This means they can be programmed to track an object in the sky,
repositioned easily to look at different areas in the sky, operated remotely
to save time and money and continuously observe an object via
networking. Without computer control there would be no space telescopes.