Our Star: The Sun

This image captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory on June 20, 2013 shows the
bright light of a solar are on the left1 side of the Sun. Credit: NASA/SDO
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First: Some Potential Conditions to Use Looking
for Life on other Planets
No guarantee
other life in the
Universe is like
us! We have “a
N of 1” (or
sample size of
1)
The Nature of Life

3
 The “Habitable Zone”

There is a zone over which water

would be in liquid form – this is
called the “habitable zone”.
Its location depends on the size of
the star. It is closer to the star for
smaller stars. It is earth-centric,
and not a fundamental truth — akin
to looking under the lamp-post at
night for your lost keys
 Magnetospheres
Magnetosphere protects a planet from a stellar wind,
which may disrupt formation of life
 Constraints on Star Systems

1) Must be old enough to allow time for evolution (rules

out high-mass stars - 1% of all stars)
2) Need to have stable orbits (might rule out binary/
multiple star systems - 50% of all stars)

Even so… billions of stars in the Milky Way seem

at least to offer the possibility of habitable worlds.
Miller-Urey Experiments
Water, Ammonia, Methane, Hydrogen
• Experiments done in the 1950s
named for U. Chicago scientists
Stanley Miller and Harold Urey

• Simulated what was thought at the

time to represent Earth’s primordial
atmosphere in a sealed container and
subjected it to heat and electrical
discharge

• Were able to readily synthesize many

of the amino acids needed to produce
biotic proteins and the nucleic acids
in DNA
 Earliest
Fossils

Oldest fossils show that

bacteria-like organisms
were present over 3.5
billion years ago.
Carbon isotope evidence
pushes origin of life to
more than 3.85 billion
years ago
Life formed quickly!
 Extremophiles
Grand Prismatic
Spring

We nd life almost everywhere on Earth

that has occasional access to liquid
water, chemicals composed of the
elements carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen,
oxygen, phosphorous, and sulfur
(CHNOPS), and somewhat long-term
environmental stability.

Rio Tinto
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 Extremophiles
Grand Prismatic
• Very acidic hot springs with temperatures Spring
approaching boiling

• Hydrothermal vents where the temperature

exceeds 100 C and pressure exceeds 1000
atmospheres

• Waters at -25 C where high pressure and

salinity prevent freezing

• Acidic rivers laced with toxic concentrations

of heavy metals

• Salt ponds that are 10 times saltier than

typical seawater Rio Tinto
 Tardigrades

• Can survive for several minutes at

temperatures above 151 C

• Can survive for 30 years at -20 C

• Have survived for several minutes at

temperatures near 1K
 Tardigrades
• Can live in extremely low pressures
inside a vacuum chamber

• Can withstand 1200 times

atmospheric pressure

• Some species can withstand 6000

times atmospheric pressure, six times
greater than the pressure in Earth’s
deepest ocean reaches
 Tardigrades

• Have been shown capable of

surviving 10 years without access to
liquid water

• Can change body water content from

85% to 3% to withstand freezing
temperatures
 Tardigrades

• Dehydrated samples have survived

10 days exposed to the vacuum of
space and solar UV radiation

• Their survival is largely unaffected by

microgravity and hard UV radiation
 Tardigrades

• Having evolved some 530-540 Mya

in the Cambrian Explosion,
tardigrades have endured 5 of
Earth’s mass extinction events
Early 2015, fish
and other living
aquatic animals
discovered ~1km
beneath ice in
Antarctica, about
800 km from
sunlight!
Searches for Life
Searches for life usually focus on locating liquid
water.
Is this necessary? Maybe not….
 Potential for Life in Our Solar System: Mars

Still has subsurface ice; possibly subsurface water near sources of

volcanic heat.
18
Potential for Life in Our Solar
System: Satellites

19
Potential for Life in Our Solar
System: Satellites

20
 Potential for Life Outside Our Solar
System: all biased to be Earth-centric

21
The Copernican Principle
• Sometimes referred to as the “principle of
mediocrity”

• Posits that it is unreasonable to think that Earth

holds some special or privileged place in the
cosmos

• Whatever conditions we nd on Earth must be

reproduced again and again in the vastness of
space
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 The Fermi Paradox
• Given the monumentally large number of Earth-
like planets orbiting Sun-like stars in the Milky
Way, shouldn’t there be an abundance of
space-faring intelligent aliens?

• Where are they?

• Famous physicist Enrico Fermi is often credited

with making some of the rst concrete estimates
for how many space-faring alien species there
ought to be in 1950. Enrico Fermi
• The seemingly surprising dearth of alien visitors
is often referred to as The Fermi Paradox
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The Fermi Paradox—Where Are All The Aliens? Watch if
time permits

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNhhvQGsMEc
 Interstellar Travel
• Bernard Oliver, a renowned Hewlett Packard engineer and space
travel enthusiast, estimated that within current technological
paradigms, a round trip to the nearest star traveling at 70% the
speed of light, even with a perfectly ef cient engine, would
require an amount of energy equivalent to several hundred
thousand years’ worth of the total electrical energy
consumption of the United States.

• Science ction that genuinely confronts the immensity of space

and the tremendous obstacles presented by space travel would
be extremely boring.

• Voyager 2 is less than 1% of the way to the nearest stars, the

furthest man-made object from the Sun (0.0127 light-years or ~
136 AU, just beyond the Kuiper belt)
fi
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What are we Doing to Find E.T.?
1) Space probes!
2) SETI searches
3) Locating extrasolar planets

But we’re not really trying too hard, all

things considered…..
 The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI)

Allen Telescope Array in

Hat Creek CA, north of San
Francisco at the SETI
Institute site.

SETI searches the sky at radio frequencies for strong,

repeating signals. Nothing plausible so far….
 Radio Transmissions
• As the lowest energy EM waves,
they are the least energetically
costly waves to produce.

• Radio waves can traverse

interstellar space with little chance
of being absorbed.

• Most reasonable planetary

atmospheres should be mostly
transparent to radio waves
 Radio Transmissions
• If we were to search for the
leakage signals of civilizations like
ours, even with the largest radio
telescopes we have ever built, we
could only detect it from very
nearby star systems

• Our real hope is to look for targeted

signals being beamed intentionally
at us by distant civilizations
The Cosmic Haystack
 The Wow! Signal
• A one-time bright radio signal that
lasted ~70 seconds

• If of astronomical origin, it originated

somewhere in the constellation
Sagittarius

• Seen as part of a SETI survey with the

“Big Ear” telescope at The Ohio State
University in 1977

• Near the 21-cm spectral line of neutral

atomic hydrogen

• Could’ve been of terrestrial origin, but

still the best (and maybe only)
candidate for an alien transmission
The Wow! Signal: supplemental, skip
during lecture
The Wow! Signal: translated to
sound in human hearing range
 The Drake Equation

• A structured way of estimating the

number of technologically advanced
communicating alien civilizations in the
Galaxy

• A recasting of The Fermi Paradox and

an attempt to better understand it

• Described by Jill Tarter as a “way of Frank Drake

organizing our ignorance”
 The Drake Equation

• N is the number of civilizations in our Galaxy with which

communication might be possible

• R* is the average rate of star formation in our Galaxy

• fp is the fraction of stars with planets

• ne is the average number of planets per star that could potentially

support life at some point
 The Drake Equation

• fl is the fraction of planets capable of developing and supporting life

that actually do

• fi is the fraction of planets with life that actually intelligent life and
civilizations

• fc is the fraction of alien civilizations that actually produce

technologies capable of transmitting detectable signals through
interstellar space

• L is the average lifetime of those technologically capable civilizations

Attempting Communication:
Listening for Messages

37
 Rare Earth Hypothesis

• A rebuke of the Copernican Principle

• Maybe the emergence of life like us is

exceedingly rare and was made possible
only by a stunning series of coincidences

• Basically, maybe some of the fractions in

the Drake Equation are extremely small
 Rare Earth Hypothesis
• Our Sun is remarkably stable and hasn’t
had massive are ups that could sterilize
the planet

• The con guration of planets in our solar

system has shielded Earth from too many
extinction level impacts

• Earth’s orbit is extremely stable owing to

the presence of our weirdly large Moon
and the con guration of the other planets
allowing for long-term climatic stability
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fi
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 Rare Earth Hypothesis
• Earth’s consistent magnetic eld has helped us maintain
our atmosphere and protected us from the worst solar
radiation

• Our large Moon produces strong tides, facilitating the

transition of life from ocean to land

• Microbial life persisted for billions of years before the

Cambrian Explosion which may have been extremely
unlikely

• Maybe the emergence of the complex photochemical

pathways in photosynthesis was extremely unlikely

• Evolution does not necessarily select for intelligence as

the giant dinosaurs and large prehistoric land mammals
may demonstrate
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 Rare Earth Hypothesis
• Maybe there aren’t signi cant new
technologies to be found that would
facilitate long-distance space travel or
even better interstellar communication

• Maybe advanced civilizations tend to

self-annihilate shortly after achieving
technological sophistication

• We need more data! More examples of

life in the Universe to know how rare our
circumstances are!
fi
 Our Star: The Sun

This image captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory on June 20, 2013 shows the
bright light of a solar are on the left
42side of the Sun. Credit: NASA/SDO
fl
The Shorter the Period of the Doppler
Curve (1 of 2)

a. the closer the unseen planet is to the star.

b. the farther the unseen planet is from the star.
c. the greater the mass of the planet.
d. the smaller the mass of the planet.
e. Both a and c are correct.

ACCURACY CLICKERS — 30 SECONDS

The Shorter the Period of the Doppler
Curve (2 of 2)

a. the closer the unseen planet is to the star.

b. the farther the unseen planet is from the star.
c. the greater the mass of the planet.
d. the smaller the mass of the planet.
e. Both a and c are correct.

ACCURACY CLICKERS — 30 SECONDS

The Larger the Mass of the Unseen Planet
(1 of 2)

a. the larger the Doppler shift of the star.

b. the smaller the Doppler shift of the star.
c. the faster the period of the star’s Doppler shift.
d. the slower the period of the star’s shift.
e. Both a and c are correct.

ACCURACY CLICKERS — 30 SECONDS

The Larger the Mass of the Unseen Planet
(2 of 2)

a. the larger the Doppler shift of the star.

b. the smaller the Doppler shift of the star.
c. the faster the period of the star’s Doppler shift.
d. the slower the period of the star’s shift.
e. Both a and c are correct.

ACCURACY CLICKERS — 30 SECONDS

Suppose You Found a Star Similar to the Sun Moving
Back and Forth With a Period of 2 Years. What Could You
Conclude? (1 of 2)

a. It has a planet orbiting at less than 1 AU.

b. It has a planet orbiting at greater than 1 AU.
c. It has a planet orbiting at exactly 1 AU.
d. It has a planet, but we don’t know its mass so we can’t know its
orbital distance for sure.

ACCURACY CLICKERS — 30 SECONDS

Suppose You Found a Star Similar to the Sun Moving
Back and Forth With a Period of 2 Years. What Could You
Conclude? (2 of 2)

a. It has a planet orbiting at less than 1 AU.

b. It has a planet orbiting at greater than 1 AU.
c. It has a planet orbiting at exactly 1 AU.
d. It has a planet, but we don’t know its mass so we can’t know its orbital
distance for sure.

ACCURACY CLICKERS — 30 SECONDS

 • Runaway gravitational collapse
Star Forming in over-dense regions leads
temperature and pressure to
Regions increase dramatically in the core

• To ignite fusion and create a star,

an over-dense core of gas needs
to collapse and increase its
density by a factor of up to 1020

• This is the same process as

discussed previously in the
“nebular theory” of planet
formation — but now we will
focus on the astrophysics of the
star itself and not the planets,
asteroids, comets, etc.
Chemical energy is far too inef cient
to provide the power output of the sun The Stable Sun
Gravitational contraction DOES NOT
power the sun as 19th century
astronomers hypothesized; it could
only supply energy for ~ 25 million
years (and geologists already knew the
earth was much older than this).
NUCLEAR ENERGY POWERS
THE SUN!

• Energy supplied by fusion

maintains the internal gas
pressure that balances the
inward crush of gravity — also
called “hydrostatic
equilibrium” or “gravitational
equilibrium”
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Math: Pressure in the Sun: The Ideal Gas Law

• Sun’s outward core pressure halting gravitational

collapse is given by the ideal gas law: P=nkT

•
The Stable Sun
Energy Balance:
• The rate at which
energy radiates from
the surface of the Sun
must be the same as
the rate at which it is
released by fusion in
the core.
Gravitational contraction:
• Provided the energy that
heated the core as Sun was
The Stable Sun
forming.
• Contraction stopped when
fusion began.

The Sun was born with enough

nuclear fuel to last about 10
billion years

About 5 billion years from now,

when the Sun nally exhausts its
nuclear fuel, gravitational
contraction will begin once
again.
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Solar wind:
• A flow of charged The Sun’s Structure
particles from the surface
of the Sun due to constant
heating of Corona
Corona:
• Very thin material
• Outermost layer of solar
atmosphere ~ 1 million K
Chromosphere:
• Middle layer of solar
atmosphere
• 103-104K
Photosphere:
• Where the plasma becomes
transparent
• Visible surface of Sun ~ 6000K
• Where you will find sunspots
The Sun’s Structure (5 of 7)

Convection Zone:
• Energy transported upward
by rising hot gas — cool gas
falls down

Radiation Zone:
• Energy transported upward by
photons — ~ 10 million K

Core:
• Energy generated by nuclear fusion at ~ 15 million K
• Density is more than 100 times that of water, and the
pressure is 200 billion times that on Earth’s surface
 How do stars generate energy?
Stars create energy by nuclear fusion!
Nuclear fusion is the combination of two atoms to form
a more massive atom.
Mass is converted to energy via E = mc2.
Nuclear Fusion in the Sun (1 of 5)

Fission (Weak Force) Fusion (Strong Force)

• Big nucleus splits into • Small nuclei stick together to

smaller pieces. make a bigger one.
• Short Range Force
• (Example: nuclear power
plants) • (Example: the Sun, stars)
Fusion vs Fission

= fission

= fusion

Loren Anderson – Shanghai – May 14, 2013

 How Does Nuclear Fusion Occur in the Sun?

• High temperatures &

pressures enable nuclear
fusion to happen in the core.
• Recall that temperature is a
measure of the average
speed of particles in a
material, higher
temperatures imply higher
speeds for the particles (high
pressures keep the plasma
confined)
• When Hydrogen speeds are
fast enough, two Hydrogen
nuclei can fuse together
 Nuclear Fusion in the Sun: Big Picture

• The Sun releases energy by fusing four hydrogen nuclei

into one helium nucleus.
 Nuclear Fusion in the Sun

• The proton–proton chain is how hydrogen fuses into helium

in the Sun.
• Fusion of hydrogen to make helium generates energy because a
helium nucleus has a mass slightly less (by about 0.7%) than the
combined mass of four hydrogen nuclei
Math:: Mass-Energy Conversion in Hydrogen

• How much hydrogen is converted to helium each

second in the Sun?

26
• The Sun’s Luminosity is 3.8 × 10 W
Fusion and Energy
For light atoms, like
hydrogen, fusion produces
energy. For heavy atoms it
does not.

The turnover point is for

Iron.

The result is that stars only

make all elements up to Iron
during their main lifetime.
Fusion & Quantum Tunneling in the Sun —
SUPPLEMENTAL
 What Is the Sun’s
The Sun: a giant ball of hot Structure?
gas or, more technically, plasma
— a gas in which atoms are
ionized because of the high
temperature.

Ionization occurs when

electrons are no longer bound
to their nuclei

The differing temperatures and

densities of the plasma at
different depths give the Sun a
layered structure
 Basic Properties of the Sun
Radius:
8
6.9 × 10 m (109 times Earth )

Mass:
30
2 × 10 kg (300,000 Earths )
Luminosity:
26
3.8 × 10 watts
Rotation:
25 days at the equator to 30
days at the poles

If we could somehow capture and store just 1 second’s worth of the Sun’s
luminosity, it would be enough to meet current human energy demands
for roughly the next 500,000 years
Thought
Accuracy
AccuracyQuestion
Clicker 1 SECONDS
Clicker — 30 (1 of 2)

What two properties of Earth are necessary to use Newton's

version of Kepler's third law to determine the mass of the
Sun?
A. Earth’s radius and mass
B. Earth’s orbital radius and mass
C. Earth’s orbital radius and orbital period
D. Earth’s radius and orbital period
 Accuracy Clicker — 30 SECONDS
What two properties of Earth are necessary to use
Newton's version of Kepler's third law to determine the
mass of the Sun?
A. Earth’s radius and mass
B. Earth’s orbital radius and mass
The correct answer is C. Earth’s orbital radius and orbital period
D. Earth’s radius and orbital period
Solar
Thermostat

Fusion rate (and therefore energy output) is proportional to the

temperature and pressure, which both increase toward the core

• Decline in core temperature causes fusion rate to drop, so core

contracts and heats up.
• Rise in core temperature causes fusion rate to rise, so core expands
and cools down.
Brightening
Sun

As hydrogen fuel is spent, the solar core shrinks, which increases the
core temperature and fusion rate,

Theoretical models indicate this process has increased Solar

luminosity by about 30% since the Sun was born 4.5 billion years
ago.
Thought Question 2 (1 of 2)

What would happen inside the Sun if a slight rise in core

temperature led to a rapid rise in fusion energy?
A. The core would expand and heat up.
B. The core would expand and cool.
C. The Sun would blow up like a hydrogen bomb.
 Thought Question 2 (2 of 2)

What would happen inside the Sun if a slight rise in core

temperature led to a rapid rise in fusion energy?
A. The core would expand and heat up.
The correct answer is B. The core would expand and cool.

C. The Sun would blow up like a hydrogen bomb.

The solar thermostat keeps burning rate steady.
Energy Escape from the Sun

• Radiative Diffusion: Energy gradually leaks out of the radiation

zone in the form of randomly bouncing photons — photons are
scattered off electrons into random directions — this process is
known as a “random walk”
 Energy Escape from the Sun

• At the top of the

Radiation Zone (~ 2
million K), photons are
more easily absorbed and
energy transfer through
convection becomes the
dominant process

• Convection (rising hot gas) takes energy to surface.

 Energy Escape from the Sun
• Bright blobs on photosphere show where hot gas is reaching
the surface.

It takes hundreds of thousands

of years for energy transport
from fusion to reach the
photosphere

The energy output from the

sun into space and our planet
is in the form of a 5800 K
black body photon spectrum
due to the heated gas in the
photosphere.
Why Does the Sun Shine? (1 of 2)
a. It is on fire
b. Chemical energy
c. Gravitational energy
d. Nuclear fusion
e. Nuclear fission
Why Does the Sun Shine? (2 of 2)
a. It is on fire
b. Chemical energy
c. Gravitational energy
d. Nuclear fusion
e. Nuclear fission
Why Is the Sun Very Dense on the Inside? (1
of 2)

a. Denser materials sank to its center.

b. Weight of the outer layers keeps the density high.
c. It formed from dense material.
d. The photon pressure at the center is very high, increasing the
overall density.
Why Is the Sun Very Dense on the Inside? (2
of 2)

a. Denser materials sank to its center.

b. Weight of the outer layers keeps the density high.
c. It formed from dense material.
d. The photon pressure at the center is very high, increasing the
overall density.
What Is a Hydrogen Nucleus—the Particle
That Fuses Into Helium in the Sun? (1 of 2)

a. A neutron
b. A proton
c. An electron
d. A positron
What Is a Hydrogen Nucleus—the Particle
That Fuses Into Helium in the Sun? (2 of 2)

a. A neutron
b. A proton
c. An electron
d. A positron
 HW/Reading Assignment

Read Chapter 15 for Thursday

HW 5 on exoplanets is due Sunday October 20th, @ 11:59 PM

EST

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