Introduction to Astrophysics

PHYS 45400, Spring 2024

Dr. James Hedberg

What is this class about?

Class Structure

Some Important Observations/events:

Moons of Jupiter

galileo moons

Galileo's Diagrams showing the position of the moons of Jupiter on successive evenings.

Modern Analogue: Exoplanets

trappist 1

An artist's interpretation of the trappist-1 system.

trappist 1 data

Data from the trappist 1 system showing the relative brightness of the central star.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/M. Gillon (Univ. of Lige, Belgium)

Spectroscopy

trappist 1

The dark lines of the solar spectrum as depicted by Fraunhofer (~1814)

Bestimmung des Brechungs- und Farbenzerstreuung-Vermögens verschiedener Glasarten in Bezug auf die Vervollkommnung achromatischer Fernröhre. [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/andp.201400807]

trappist 1

The JWST-PRISM transmission spectrum of WASP-39b with key contributions to the atmospheric spectrum.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2211.10487.pdf

1919 Eclipse

trappist 1

The 1919 eclipse

F. W. Dyson, A. S. Eddington, and C. Davidson (1920). "A Determination of the Deflection of Light by the Sun's Gravitational Field, from Observations Made at the Total Eclipse of May 29, 1919". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: 332. ISSN 1364-503X.

Cepheid Variables

light curves from variable stars

Cepheid Variables: The light from theses stars changed - periodically!

https://archive.org/details/popularsciencemo69newy/page/180/mode/2up

Expansion of the Universe

hubble 1929

1930's: Jansky Radio Antenna

trappist 1

Karl Jansky, at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Holmdel, NJ

CC-BY: https://www.nrao.edu/archives/items/show/32732

trappist 1

Now, our radio telescopes are much larger and more recognizable.

Cosmic Microwave Background

Horn Antenna

The Holmdel Horn Antenna on which Penzias and Wilson discovered the cosmic microwave background

Pulsars

pulsar plot

Data from the original discovery of a pulsar.

Data from: Observation of a Rapidly Pulsating Radio Source A. HEWISH, S. J. BELL, J. D. H. PILKINGTON, P. F. SCOTT & R. A. COLLINS, Nature 217, 709 - 713 (24 February 1968);

vela pulsar

This movie from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory shows a fast moving jet of particles produced by a rapidly rotating neutron star

http://chandra.si.edu/photo/2013/vela/

pulsar plot

The "Golden Record"

Dark Matter

The expected velocity of orbiting bodies as a function of position from the center.

galactic rotation curve

A measured galactic rotation curve shows that the objects further away move about the same speed as the ones close in. uh-oh

Data from: Rotational properties of 21 SC galaxies with a large range of luminosities and radii... Rubin, V. C.; Ford, W. K., Jr.; Thonnard, N. Astrophysical Journal, Part 1, vol. 238, June 1, 1980, p. 471-487

Missions!

Mars Rovers

mars rover

The Sojourner rover.

The Perseverance rover landed in Feb 2021

Solar probe

Parker Solar Probe was making its closest approach to the Sun on June 7, 2020, when its Wide-field Imager for Solar Probe (WISPR) captured the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn in its field of view.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Naval Research Laboratory/Guillermo Stenborg and Brendan Gallagher

Parker Solar Probe is in the 10th of 24 planned, progressively closer orbits around the Sun. the spacecraft, built and operated at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, launched on Aug. 12, 2018.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL

Return to the Moon

capstone and artemis orbits

Instrumentation

Two Space telescopes.

Gravitational Waves

ligo data

Data from the first Advanced LIGO detection

Image credit: LIGO

Last bits

Topics:

  • History of Astro
  • Celestial Mechanics
  • Light And Interactions
  • Instrumentation
  • Stars - inside/evolution/black holes
  • Solar System
  • Planets,Sun,Earth & moon system
  • Galaxies
  • Cosmology

To do:

Get a python installation going. This can be done with:

  • → Google Colab ←
  • Anaconda
  • (or more fancy things)