Stars and Galaxies

Lecture Notes

What are stars?

Stars are massive, luminous balls of gas that are held together by their own gravity. They
are primarily composed of hydrogen and helium, and their life cycles are determined by their
mass.

Characteristics of stars:
 Size
o This refers to its diameter or radius, typically measured relative to the sun’s
radius. Stars can range from small neutron stars to enormous supergiants, with
supergiants being up to 1,000 times the diameter of the sun. Larger stars are
generally more luminous than smaller stars. Supergiants are very large stars that
use their hydrogen quickly and die young.
 Mass
o The amount of matter in a star, which determines its life cycle and ultimate fate.
There are low-mass stars, medium mass stars and massive stars. A star's
mass is related to how quickly it uses its fuel supply. Lower-mass stars are
cooler, burn longer and are dimmer than very massive stars. Lighter mass stars
are also more plentiful than heavier stars. On the other hand, a star that is
massive needs a lot of fuel to stay bright and therefore uses up its fuel faster.
o For all stars, the primary nuclear fuel is hydrogen. When they run out of
hydrogen, they start to use helium in their cores, which causes the star to burn
hotter and brighter. The resulting heat and pressure in the core cause the star to
swell up. At that point, the star is nearing the end of its life and will experience a
supernova event if the star is massive enough.

 Color
o A star’s color indicates its surface temperature. Hotter stars tend to appear blue
or blue-white, while cooler stars are red or orange. This is because the intensity
and frequency of emitted light are related to temperature, with hotter stars
emitting more energy at shorter wavelengths (blue) and cooler stars emitting
more energy at longer wavelengths (red).

 Surface temperature
o The temperature at the star's surface, which determines its color and spectral
type.
o A star's spectral class is a short code that summarizes the ionization state of its
photosphere. There are 7 spectral class types of stars. In order of decreasing
 temperature, they are O, B, A, F, G, K, and M. O and B are uncommon, very hot
and bright. M stars are more common, cooler, and dim.

 Luminosity
o The amount of energy emitted by a star per unit time. It is directly related to the
star’s size and is also proportional to the fourth power of temperature. How bright
a star looks from the perspective of Earth is called as its apparent brightness.
This means that apparent brightness refer to the amount of light reaching Earth
from the star. That is to say, how bright the star appear from Earth. The apparent
brightness of a star depends on both its luminosity (intrinsic brightness) and its
distance from Earth. This also means that even if two stars have the same
luminosity, their apparent brightness or how bright they appear on Earth can be
different, depending on their relative distance to Earth. On the other hand, a
star's absolute magnitude is its real brightness regardless of distance from
Earth.

 Composition
o The mix of elements present in a star, which changes over its life cycle.
Metallicity refers to the level of heavy elements, such as iron, present in a star
compared to lighter elements like hydrogen and helium.
Types of stars:

 Main-sequence stars

Main sequence stars like our sun have a hot, dense core where hydrogen is
fused into helium. They are characterized with an equilibrium state between inward
gravitational forces seeking to collapse the star and the outward pressure from nuclear
fusion reactions serving to expand the star. Hence, main sequence stars are stable,
continuously burning hydrogen fuels in their core into helium to produce light and heat
energy. Main sequence stars are average-sized stars, yellow in color and have
temperatures midway between red and blue stars.

 Red giants

Aging stars that have begun to fuse helium in their cores expand to become red
giants. This happens once a star has exhausted its supply of hydrogen in its core,
leaving nothing but helium, and the outward force created by fusion starts to decrease
and the star can no longer maintain equilibrium. As the surface of the stars expand, they
begin to cool, giving the star an orange or red color. Further shells of helium and even
heavier elements can be consumed in fusion reactions. The red giant phase of a star’s
life will only last a few hundred million years before it runs out of fuel completely and
becomes a white dwarf.

 Super Giant Stars

The most massive stars will leave the main sequence relatively quickly, becoming
a supergiant. Most stars of this type are between 200 and 800 times the radius of our
Sun. The very largest stars in our galaxy, all red supergiants, are about 1,500 times the
size of our home star.

A supergiant star has enough mass that it will be able to fuse not only helium, but
heavier elements, as well. While their cores are extremely hot, the energy spreads out
 over the interior and surface of the star and the more surface area there is, the faster it
can cool. Because of their immense size and mass, these stars require an incredible
amount of energy to sustain them and prevent gravitational collapse. As a result, they
burn through their nuclear fuel very quickly and most live only a few tens of millions of
years (their age depends on their actual mass). When iron begins to build up in the star's
core, it will become unable to maintain equilibrium and will collapse, resulting in a
supernova.

On the other hand, there are also blue supergiants which are born massive.
Think of them as the 800-pound gorillas of the stars. Most have at least ten times the
mass of the Sun and many are even more massive behemoths. The most massive ones
could make 100 Suns (or more!).

 White dwarfs

White dwarfs are the cores of red giants that have lost their outer layers. They
are stellar cores, left behind when stars exhaust their fuel supplies and blow their gases
into space. These objects mark the final stage of evolution for most stars, including our
sun. White Dwarfs are no longer capable of fusion, but they are incredibly hot, which
means that they will shine brightly for a very long time.

A single white dwarf contains roughly the mass of our sun, but in a volume
comparable to Earth. Their small size makes white dwarfs difficult to find. No white
dwarfs can be seen with the unaided eye. The light they generate comes from the slow,
steady release of incredible amounts of energy stored up during billions of years as a
star’s nuclear powerhouse.

 Brown Dwarfs

They are generally smaller than our sun, but larger than the planet Jupiter. Most
astronomers would classify any object with between 15 to 75 times the mass of Jupiter
to be a brown dwarf. Given this range of masses, the object would not have been able to
sustain the fusion of hydrogen like a regular star. Thus, brown dwarfs do not shine
through the thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen and many scientists have dubbed brown
dwarfs as "failed stars".

Starting in 1995, astronomers have been able to detect a few nearby brown
dwarfs. All of the brown dwarfs discovered so far are parts of a binary system. A binary
system is one in which two stars orbit around one another (just like the planets of our
solar system orbit our star, the Sun).

 Red Dwarfs

These stars shine dimly and are estimated to have lifespans of hundreds of
billions or even trillions of years. They are the oldest, the most long-lived and most
abundant stars in the universe and are located at the halo or central bulge of galaxies.
  Variable stars (e.g., Cepheid variables, RR Lyrae variables)
 Exotic stars (e.g., quark stars, preon stars)

Life Cycle of Stars:

A quick glance on Star’s Life Cycle:

1. Protostar formation: A star is born from a giant molecular cloud of gas and dust that collapses
under gravity.

2. Main sequence: The star fuses hydrogen into helium in its core, releasing energy in the form of
light and heat.

3. Red giant: As the star's hydrogen fuel runs out, it expands to become a red giant, fusing helium
into heavier elements.

4. White dwarf: Once the star has exhausted its fuel supply, it contracts into a hot, compact white
dwarf.

5. Supernova: Massive stars end their lives in a spectacular explosion, scattering heavy elements
into space

The life cycle of a star begins with its formation in a nebula, progresses through several
stages including proto-star, main sequence, and red giant, and eventually ends in one of several
ways depending on its mass, including as a white dwarf, neutron star, or black hole.

Birth

Stars form in large clouds of gas and dust called molecular clouds or nebulae.
Molecular clouds range from 1,000 to 10 million times the mass of the Sun and can span as
much as hundreds of light-years. Molecular clouds are cold which causes gas to clump, creating
high-density pockets. Some of these clumps can collide with each other or collect more matter,
strengthening their gravitational force as their mass grows. Eventually, gravity causes some of
these clumps to collapse. When this happens, friction causes the material to heat up, which
eventually leads to the development of a protostar – a baby star. A protostar is formed as gravity
begins to pull the gases together into a ball. This process is known as accretion. Strictly
speaking, a star is not truly a star until it can fuse hydrogen into helium. So before that, they are
only called protostars. Batches of stars that have recently formed from molecular clouds are
often called stellar clusters, and molecular clouds full of stellar clusters are called stellar
nurseries.
Life

At first, most of the protostar’s energy comes from heat released by its initial collapse.
Since normal hydrogen fusion does not occur until 10 million degrees, it will remain a protostar
longer, accreting more matter and becoming a more massive star. After millions of years,
immense pressures and temperatures in the star’s core will squeeze the nuclei of hydrogen
atoms together to form helium, a process now called nuclear fusion.

Nuclear fusion releases energy, which heats the star and prevents it from further
collapsing under the force of gravity. In this way, a state of equilibrium is attained and a true star
is born. An equilibrium means that the forces pulling inward from gravity and the forces pushing
outward from the fusion reactions are equal and balance each other out, thus allowing the star
to exhibit stability. If the star has enough fuel in its core to continue its fusion reaction, the star
will maintain equilibrium and stay usually as a main sequence star. Most of the energy from a
main sequence star is created by fusing hydrogen in a process known as the Proton-Proton
Chain Reaction. This reaction takes hydrogen atoms, which have a single proton and
combines them into helium atoms, which have two protons and two neutrons.

Death

At the beginning of the end of a star’s life, its core runs out of hydrogen to convert into
helium. The energy produced by fusion creates pressure inside the star that balances gravity’s
tendency to pull matter together, so the core starts to collapse. But squeezing the core also
increases its temperature and pressure, making the star slowly puff up. However, the details of
the late stages of the star’s death depend strongly on its mass.

A low-mass star’s atmosphere will keep expanding until it becomes a subgiant or giant
star while fusion converts helium into carbon in the core. (This will be the fate of our Sun, in
several billion years.) Some giants become unstable and pulsate, periodically inflating and
ejecting some of their atmospheres. Eventually, all the star’s outer layers blow away, creating an
expanding cloud of dust and gas called a planetary nebula.

The explosion that occurs when a supergiant star's core collapses is called a
supernova. The tremendous amounts of energy released in this explosion allow elements
heavier than iron to be formed. When the explosion dies down, the remains of the star usually
form a nebula and a neutron star, although very massive stars may leave behind a black hole.

The Stages of Stellar Evolution:

Stage 1: Protostar Formation

 A giant, vast molecular cloud collapses under gravity

 The core becomes increasingly hot and dense
  A protostar forms, fusing hydrogen into helium

Stage 2: Main Sequence

 The star fuses hydrogen into helium in its core

 Energy is released through radiation and convection
 The star remains stable, fusing hydrogen into helium

Stage 3: Red Giant Branch

 Hydrogen fuel runs out in the core

 The core contracts and heats up
 The star expands to become a red giant, fusing helium into heavier elements

Stage 4: Helium Flash

 Helium fusion ignites in the core

 A brief helium flash occurs, causing expansion

Stage 5: White Dwarf Cooling

 The star sheds its outer layers, leaving a hot core

 The core cools, becoming a white dwarf until it burns out and become a black dwarf
 Energy is released through thermal radiation

Stage 6: Neutron Star or Black Hole

 Massive stars undergo a supernova explosion

 The core collapses into a neutron star or black hole

Stellar Remnants
 Planetary Nebula
When the outer shell of a red giant star drifts off into space, it forms a planetary
nebula. Because of the intense fusion reactions that take place inside stars, planetary
nebulae tend to be made up of more than just hydrogen. Helium, carbon, and small
amounts of other elements can also be found in them. These elements are blown back
into the interstellar medium, enriching it with more heavy elements. More heavy
elements in the interstellar medium means more heavy elements being pulled into future
protostars. The more of these elements a star pulls in as it is forming, the more likely
that the star will also form planets.
 Neutron Star
A neutron star is the core of a star that has gone a supernova. The pull of
gravity has crushed the matter together so tightly that individual atoms are forced
together, losing their electrons. The resulting matter is made up of tightly compressed
nucleons, mostly neutrons. Even though it might have more mass than the sun, it is
compressed to a tiny ball only about 24 kilometers apart.
  Black Holes
A black hole is a remnant of a supermassive star's core. A black hole is so small
and dense that even light can't escape from it. The intense gravitational field of the black
hole simply bends the light back inside before it goes anywhere.

Nebula
A nebula is an enormous cloud of gas and dust in outer space between stars, acting as
a nursery for new stars. The roots of the word come from Latin nebula, which means a “mist,
vapor, fog, smoke, exhalation.” Nebulae are made up of dust, basic elements such as hydrogen
and other ionized gases. It is visible in the night sky either as an indistinct bright patch or as a
dark silhouette against other luminous matter.

Types of Nebulae

 Planetary Nebulae
o Formed when low to medium-mass stars, like our Sun, shed their outer layers at
the end of their lives.
 Supernova Remnants
o Formed when massive stars explode as supernovae, sending shockwaves
through space and forming glowing clouds.
 Dark Nebulae
o Clouds of gas and dust that block light from stars behind them.
 Giant Nebula
o A giant nebula is a large, diffuse cloud of gas and dust in space, primarily
composed of hydrogen and helium, that can be several light-years across. These
nebulae, also known as interstellar clouds, are the birthplaces of stars, as gravity
can cause the gas and dust within them to collapse and form new stars.
 Giant Molecular Clouds
o A specific type of giant nebula is a giant molecular cloud (GMC), which is the
coldest, densest phase of interstellar gas. These clouds are crucial for star
formation as they are dense enough to collapse under their own gravity, leading
to the formation of stars.
Hertzsprung–Russell diagram
The Hertzsprung–Russell diagram (HR Diagram) is a scatter graph of stars showing
the relationship between the stars’ absolute magnitudes or luminosities versus their spectral
types or classifications and effective temperatures.

RIGEL
Color: Blue
Temperature: Approximately 12,100 Kelvin
Size: Radius around 78 times that of the Sun
Mass: Around 21 solar masses
Brightness: Extremely bright, about 120,000 times the Sun’s
luminosity

Here are examples of stars along with their characteristics.

SIRIUS
Color: Blue-white
Temperature:
SUN 9,940 Kelvin
Size:
Color:1.7 times the radius of the Sun
Yellow
Mass: Approximately twice the mass of the Sun
Temperature:
ALDEBARAN Approximately 5,500 Kelvin
Brightness:
Size: Brightest star visible in the night sky
Color:diameter
Orange is about 865,000 miles (1.4 million kilometers)
Mass: 1.989 x Around
Temperature: 10^30 kilograms
3,900 Kelvin
Brightness: Average
Size: 61.8 million compared
km (38.4 milliontomiles)
other stars
or 45 times the
ANTARES
radius of the Sun
Color: Antares is red, which is due to its relatively low surface
Mass: 1.7 times Sun’s mass
temperature.
Brightness: One
Temperature: of thesurface
Antares’ brightest stars visibleisto
temperature the naked
around 3,400°
C (6,100° F), which is cooler than the Sun’s surface
What are Galaxies?
Before the 20th century, we did not know that galaxies other than the Milky Way existed;
earlier astronomers had classified them as “nebulae,” since they looked like fuzzy clouds. But in
the 1920s, astronomer Edwin Hubble showed that the Andromeda “nebula” was a galaxy. Since
it is so far from us, it takes light from Andromeda more than 2.5 million years to bridge the gap.
Despite the immense distance, Andromeda is the closest large galaxy to our Milky Way, and it is
bright enough in the night sky that it's visible to the naked eye in the Northern Hemisphere.

A galaxy is a huge collection of gas, dust, and billions of stars and their solar systems. A
galaxy is held together by gravity. Galaxies are scattered throughout the Universe and they vary
greatly in size and shape.

Types of Galaxies

The classifications of galaxies include spiral galaxies, barred spiral galaxies, elliptical
galaxies, and irregular galaxies. This shape classification of galaxies was created by Edwin
Hubble in 1926 which he laid out in a diagram called the Hubble Tuning Fork, because of the
diagram’s resemblance in shape to a tuning fork.

Spiral Galaxies

Named for their shape, spiral galaxies are the most common type of galaxy in the
universe. Most spiral galaxies consist of a flat, rotating disk containing stars, gas and dust, and
a central concentration of stars known as the bulge. These are often surrounded by a much
fainter halo of stars, many of which reside in globular clusters.

In particular, spiral galaxies are classified by their 3 main components – a disk, bulge,
and halo. The bulge is housed at the center of the galaxy. It is spherically shaped, and only
contains old stars.

Spiral galaxies are named by their spiral structures that extend from the center into the
galactic disc. The spiral arms are sites of ongoing star formation and are brighter than the
surrounding disc because of the young, hot OB stars that inhabit them.

Of all the known galaxies in the universe, 77% of them are classified as spiral galaxies.
Some galaxies, like the M31 Andromeda Galaxy, appear as disks and have arms of stars and
dust which appeared in a spiral pattern. The Milky Way galaxy is also a spiral galaxy.

Elliptical galaxies

They are shaped as their name suggests: They are generally round but can stretch
longer along one axis than along the other, so much so that some take on a cigar-like
appearance. The universe's largest-known galaxies giant elliptical galaxies can contain up to a
trillion stars and span two million light-years across. Stars and gasses in these types of galaxies
are spread fairly evenly throughout, however, the center is still the brightest area. Additionally,
elliptical galaxies do not contain many new stars. Rather, these galaxies are comprised of old,
low mass stars. Elliptical galaxies may also be small, in which case they are called dwarf
elliptical galaxies.

Barred spiral galaxies

Although similar to spiral galaxies, barred spiral galaxies differ in their shape slightly.
Rather than just being spiraled from the nucleus like ordinary spiral galaxies, these have a ‘bar’
of matter running through them. From the ends of this ‘bar’ the arms emerge. Just like typical
spiral galaxies, barred spiral galaxies contain a disk, bulge, and halo.

Irregular galaxy

As the name implies, irregular galaxies are all quite unique. Each irregular galaxy does
not have a size or shape that is what we know as ‘regular’ or ‘normal’. These do not have any
previously discussed components, such as a bulge, disk, or arms, that other galaxies are known
to have.

Irregular galaxies are commonly small, about one tenth the mass of the Milky
Way galaxy, though there are also unusual cases of large irregulars like UGC 6697. Another
example of an irregular galaxy is the Magellanic Clouds. Due to their small sizes, they are prone
to environmental effects like colliding with large galaxies and intergalactic clouds. According to
NASA, the uniqueness of irregular galaxies may be because of interactions they could have had
in the past with other, neighboring galaxies.

Lenticular galaxies

These include the iconic Sombrero Galaxy, which sit between elliptical and spiral
galaxies. They are called “lenticular” because they resemble lenses: Like spiral galaxies, they
have a thin, rotating disk of stars and a central bulge, but they don't have spiral arms. Like
elliptical galaxies, they have little dust and interstellar matter, and they seem to form more often
in densely populated regions of space. They have minimal ongoing star formation, as they have
used up or lost their interstellar matter.

Peculiar galaxy

A Peculiar galaxy collides, interacts, is cannibalistic, has a strange shape, or is

considered diverse somehow. These are the unusual galaxies in their size, structure, and
composition. They form from the interaction of two or more galaxies.

Formation of Galaxies
Galaxies form from the clumping of primordial matter that arise after the Big Bang and
grow under inflation. This clumping of primordial matter forms filaments, and galaxies form in
knots along the filaments.

Spiral vs. Elliptical Galaxies

 The final type of galaxy depends on initial rate of star formation:

 If stars form quickly, then galaxy becomes elliptical. Stars form within initial distribution of
gas and follow their initial orbits.
 If stars form later, the gas has time to collapse into a disk. Most stars from within the
disk. The galaxy becomes a spiral.

Characteristics of galaxies:
Size and Composition

Galaxies range in size from dwarf galaxies with a few thousand stars to giant galaxies
with trillions of stars. They are primarily composed of stars, gas, dust, and dark matter, which
collectively exert a gravitational pull that binds them together.

Supermassive Black Holes

Most large galaxies, including our own Milky Way, have a supermassive black hole at
their center.
Star Formation

Spiral galaxies typically have active star formation in their spiral arms, while elliptical
galaxies are mostly composed of older stars and have little or no current star formation.

Age

Galaxies range in age from relatively young (around 500 million years old) to nearly as
old as the universe itself (around 13.8 billion years old).

Organization

Galaxies can organize into groups and clusters, and these structures can further arrange
into superclusters.

QUASARS

Quasars are extremely luminous, point-like objects in the distant universe, classified as
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). They are powered by supermassive black holes at the centers of
galaxies, fueled by infalling gas and dust that forms a hot, luminous accretion disk. This material
is drawn into the black hole, causing it to emit immense amounts of energy in the form of light
and radio waves.

Luminosity:

Quasars are among the most luminous objects in the universe, shining brightly due to
the energy released by the accretion disk.

Supermassive Black Holes:

They are powered by supermassive black holes, which can be millions to billions of
times the mass of our Sun.

Accretion Disk:

Gas and dust spiral into the black hole, forming a hot, luminous accretion disk that emits
a large amount of energy.
Jets:

Some quasars also produce powerful jets of particles and energy that are ejected from
the poles of the black hole.

Distant and Early:

Many quasars are extremely distant, allowing us to study the early universe and how
galaxies and black holes formed.