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Explore the fascinating features and history of the Milky Way galaxy, including its shape, stellar populations, and the process of galactic recycling. Discover the clues held by halo stars and learn how our galaxy formed.
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Ch. 14 Ch. 14. The Milky Way
Ch. 14 OUTLINEShorter than book • 14.1 The Milky Way Revealed • 14.2 Galactic Recycling (closely related to Ch. 13) • 14.3 The History of the Milky Way • 14.4 The Mysterious Galactic Center
14.1 The Milky Way Revealed • Our Goals for Learning (not exactly like book) • What does our galaxy look like? • Where do stars form in our galaxy?
The Milky Way galaxy appears in our sky as a faint band of light
Dusty gas clouds obscure our view because they absorb visible light This is the interstellar medium that makes new star systems
All-Sky View at visible wavelengths plotted in galactic coordinates What if we could see through most of that dust?
All-Sky View at visible wavelengths All-Sky View at infrared wavelengths
Remember Extinction and Reddening: interstellar dust will make stars look fainter and redder. Dust will affect more the shorter (bluer) wavelengths and less the longer (redder) wavelengths. By looking at infrared wavelengths we can see through most of the dust.
The Shape of our Galaxy: a flattened disk We see our galaxy edge-on Primary features: disk, bulge, halo, globular clusters
If we could view the Milky Way from above the disk, we would see its spiral arms
Andromeda Galaxy: our twin galaxy Our Galaxylooks like Andromeda
How do we know what our galaxy would look like if viewed from the top? Infrared and Radio observations penetrate dark interstellar clouds
Stellar Populations • Turns out that there are two types of stars in the Galaxy • Population I: Relatively young. Similar to the Sun. Tend to be in the galactic disk. Richer in heavy elements • Population II: Few heavy elements, very old (12-14 billion years), tend to be in the center of the galaxy or in globular clusters
Remember CH 11 Part III Star Clusters: Two types of clusters: Open and Globular
Two types of star clusters • Open clusters: young, contain up to several thousand stars and are found in the disk of the galaxy (Population I). • Globular clusters: old, contain hundreds of thousands of stars, all closely packed together. They are found mainly in the halo of the galaxy (Population II).
14.2 Galactic Recycling • Our Goals for Learning • How does our galaxy recycle gas into stars? • Where do stars tend to form in our galaxy?
Star-gas-star cycle Recycles gas from old stars into new star systems
14.2 Galactic Recycling • Where do stars tend to form in our galaxy?
14.2 Galactic Recycling • Where do stars tend to form in our galaxy? In the Disk
Question 4 What happens after an interstellar cloud of gas and dust is compressed and collapses: • It will heat and contract • If it gets hot enough (10 million K) it can produce energy through hydrogen fusion • It can produce main sequence stars
Question 4 What happens after an interstellar cloud of gas and dust is compressed and collapses: • It will heat and contract • If it gets hot enough (10 million K) it can produce energy through hydrogen fusion • It can produce main sequence stars D. All of the above
Cycle of Birth and Deaths of Stars • Interstellar cloud of gas and dust is compressed and collapses to form stars • After leaving the main sequence red giants eject their outer layers back to the interstellar medium • Supernovas explode and eject their outer layers back to the interstellar medium • Supernova explosions and other events can compress an interstellar cloud of gas and dust that collapses to form stars ………..
Star-gas-star cycle Recycles gas from old stars into new star systems
Halo: no blue stars no star formation Disk: blue stars star formation
Halo: No emission nebulae, no blue stars no star formation Disk: emission nebulae, blue stars star formation
Much of star formation in disk happens in spiral arms Emission Nebulae Blue Stars Gas Clouds Spiral arms are waves of star formation The Whirlpool Galaxy
14.3 The History of the Milky Way • Our Goals for Learning • • What clues to our galaxy’s history do halo stars hold? • How did our galaxy form?
Halo Stars: 0.02-0.2% heavy elements (O, Fe, …), only old stars Disk Stars: 2% heavy elements, stars of all ages
Halo Stars: 0.02-0.2% heavy elements (O, Fe, …), only old stars Halo stars formed first, then stopped Disk Stars: 2% heavy elements, stars of all ages
Halo Stars: 0.02-0.2% heavy elements (O, Fe, …), only old stars Halo stars formed first, then stopped Disk Stars: 2% heavy elements, stars of all ages Disk stars formed later, kept forming
Note: This model is oversimplified Stars continuously form in disk as galaxy grows older
What have we learned? • What clues to our galaxy’s history do halo stars hold? • The halo generally contains only old, low-mass stars with a much smaller proportion of heavy elements than stars in the disk. Thus, halo stars must have formed early in the galaxy’s history, before the gas settled into a disk.
What have we learned? • How did our galaxy form? • The galaxy probably began as a huge blob of gas called a protogalactic cloud. Gravity caused the cloud to shrink in size, and conservation of angular momentum caused the gas to form the spinning disk of our galaxy. Stars in the halo formed before the gas finished collapsing into the disk.
14.4 The Mysterious Galactic Center • Our Goals for Learning • What lies in the center of our galaxy?
Stars at galactic center Strange radio sources in galactic center
Stars appear to be orbiting something massive but invisible … a black hole! Orbits of stars indicate a mass of about 4 million MSun
What have we learned? • What lies in the center of our galaxy? • Motions of stars near the center of our galaxy suggest that it contains a black hole about 4 million times as massive as the Sun. The black hole appears to be powering a bright source of radio emission.
