Essential Astrophysics: Interstellar Medium to Stellar Remnants

Description

This book takes a reader on a tour of astronomical phenomena: from the vastness of the interstellar medium, to the formation and evolution of stars and planetary systems, through to white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes, the final objects of the stellar graveyard. At its heart, this book is a journey through the evolutionary history of the birth, life, and death of stars, but detours are also made to other related interesting topics. This highly accessible story of the observed contents of our Galaxy includes intuitive explanations, informative diagrams, and basic equations, as needed. It is an ideal guide for undergraduates with some physics and mathematics background who are studying astronomy and astrophysics. It is also accessible to interested laypeople, thanks to its limited equations. Key features: Includes coverage of some of the latest exciting research from the field, including star formation, exoplanets, and black holes Can be utilised as a stand-alone textbook for a one-term course or as a supplementary textbook for a more comprehensive course on astronomy and astrophysics Authored by a team respected for research, education, and outreach Shantanu Basu is an astrophysicist and a professor at The University of Western Ontario, Canada. He is known for research contributions on the formation of gravitationally-collapsed objects in the universe: stars, planets, brown dwarfs, and supermassive black holes. He is one of the originators of the migrating embryo scenario of episodic accretion onto young stars. He has been recognized for his teaching excellence and his contributions to the astronomical community include organizing many conferences and training schools. Pranav Sharma is an astronomer and science historian known for his work on the history of the Indian Space Program. He has curated the Space Museum at the B. M. Birla Science Centre (Hyderabad, India). He is in-charge of the history of Indo-French scientific partnership project supported by the Embassy of France in India. He is a national-award-winning science communicator and has extensively worked on the popularization of astronomy education in India. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of Figures Preface CHAPTER 1: Introduction 1.1. OVERVIEW 1.2. UNITS 1.3. BASIC PHYSICS FOR ASTROPHYSICS 1.3.1. The Electromagnetic Spectrum 1.3.2. Specific Intensity and Optical Depth 1.3.3. Blackbody Spectrum 1.3.4. Level Populations 1.3.5. Measuring Temperature 1.3.6. Spectral Line Formation 1.3.7. Line Broadening 1.4. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS CHAPTER 2: The Interstellar Medium 2.1. INTRODUCTION 2.2. THE DISCOVERY OF INTERSTELLAR DUST 2.3. THE DISCOVERY OF INTERSTELLAR GAS 2.4. AN INVENTORY OF THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM 2.4.1. Gaseous Nebulae 2.4.2. Interstellar Gas 2.4.3. Magnetic Field 2.4.4. Cosmic Rays 2.4.5. Emission Nebulae (H II Regions) 2.5. BLAST WAVES CHAPTER 3: Star Formation 3.1. INTRODUCTION 3.2. CLOUDS AND COLLAPSE 3.2.1. Molecular Cloud Fragmentation 3.2.2. Jeans Instability Criterion 3.2.3. Magnetic Field Support 3.2.4. Gravitational Collapse 3.3. PROTOSTELLAR PHASE 3.3.1. Protostars and Pre-main-sequence Stars 3.3.2. Outflows and Jets 3.3.3. Disk Evolution 3.4. STELLAR MASSES 3.4.1. The Substellar Mass Limit 3.4.2. Initial Mass Munction CHAPTER 4: Stars 4.1. INTRODUCTION 4.2. STELLAR STRUCTURE 4.2.1. Gravitation 4.2.2. Free Fall 4.2.3. Virial Theorem 4.2.4. Total Energy 4.2.5. Energy from Gravitational Contraction 4.2.6. Nuclear Energy 4.2.7. Internal Pressure and Temperature 4.3. OBSERVING THE STARS 4.3.1. Trigonometric Parallax 4.3.2. Moving Cluster Method 4.3.3. Luminosity Distances 4.3.4. Magnitude Scale 4.3.5. Absolute Magnitude 4.3.6. Magnitudes at Different Wavelengths 4.3.7. Bolometric Magnitudes 4.3.8. Stellar Spectra 4.4. HERTZSPRUNG-RUSSELL (H-R) DIAGRAM 4.4.1. Luminosity Classes 4.4.2. Color-magnitude diagrams 4.5. STAR CLUSTERS 4.5.1. Distance Determinations to Clusters CHAPTER 5: Stellar Evolution 5.1. INTRODUCTION 5.2. STELLAR STRUCTURE AND EVOLUTION 5.2.1. Hydrostatic Equilibrium 5.2.2. Mass Continuity 5.2.3. Equation of State 5.2.4. Energy Conservation 5.2.5. Energy Transport 5.2.5.1. Conductive Transport 5.2.5.2. Radiative Transport 5.2.5.3. Convective Transport 5.2.6. Energy Sources 5.3. MASS–LUMINOSITY RELATION AND LIFETIME 5.4. EVOLUTIONARY STAGES 5.4.1. A Snapshot of the Stellar Populations 5.4.2. Evolution of Very Low Mass Stars 5.4.3. Evolution of Low Mass Stars 5.4.4. Evolution of High Mass Stars 5.4.5. Instability Strip 5.5. SUMMARY 5.5.1. Stellar Structure 5.5.2. Stellar Evolution CHAPTER 6: Stellar and Planetary Systems 6.1. INTRODUCTION 6.2. ANALYSIS OF BINARIES 6.2.1. Visual and Astrometric Binaries 6.2.2. Spectroscopic Binaries 6.2.2.1. Double Lined, i = 90°, circular orbit 6.2.2.2. Double Lined, arbitrary i 6.2.2.3. Single Lined, arbitrary i 6.2.3. Eclipsing Binaries 6.2.3.1. i = 90°, circular orbit 6.2.3.2. i ≠ 90°, circular orbit 6.2.3.3. Final Thoughts 6.2.4. Close Binaries 6.3. OBSERVING THE EXOPLANETS CHAPTER 7: Stellar Remnants 7.1. INTRODUCTION 7.2. ORIGIN OF DEGENERACY PRESSURE 7.2.1. The Degeneracy Parameter 7.3. WHITE DWARFS 7.3.1. Limiting Mass of a White Dwarf 7.3.2. Observations of White Dwarfs 7.3.3. Luminosity of a White Dwarf 7.4. SUPERNOVAE 7.5. NEUTRON STARS 7.5.1. Pulsars 7.5.2. Emission Mechanism for Pulsars 7.5.3. Fast Radio Bursts 7.6. BLACK HOLES 7.6.1. Physical Meaning of the Schwarzschild Radius 7.6.2. Observational Signatures Bibliography Index