Things to know/memorize:
Bohr atom and line transitions
F=GMm/r^2
Synodic period derivation: 1/S=1/P_1-1/P_2
Newton's form of Kepler's law P^2=4 pi^2 a^3 / (G(M+m)) AND its use in
Msun, AU
and yrs P^2=a^3/(M+m)
P=nkT
E=kT for a particle
variables and use of Boltzmann and Saha equations
concepts of full width half maximum (FWHM) and equivalent width, and
how to
measure them
concept of radial velocity and redshift/blueshift
(1+z=lambda_obs/lambda_rest
approx v/c for v<
HOW TO SCALE EQUATIONS BY DIFFERENT UNITS E.G. AU, SOLAR MASSES, YRS
ETC.
Links to supplemental material for Physics & Astronomy 307, Autumn
2007
Chap 2 Solar System in Perspective:
Carbon
Veins in
Meteorite: Evidence for Life on Mars?
SOHO
satellite catches comet crashing into Sun
Asteroids
near Jupiter (at Lagrange pts) are really comets, from measuring
density
Jupiter
Develops
Second Red Spot
Massive
Lightning Storm on Saturn, related to planet's internal heat
Uranus
has New,
Blue (from scattered light) Ring
Ice
Found on Surface of Comet
Small
Nudge Could Change Asteroid Courses Significantly
Occultation
shows Pluto's satellite Charon has no atmosphere
Pluto
may have Rings
2003
UB313 bigger than Pluto, from measuring thermal emission
research on planetary
atmospheres at UL
Chap 3 Dynamics of Earth:
An
excellent review of various measures of time (courtesy of Michigan
State)
An excellent
description of the equation of time
How do
GMT and UT differ?
NOAA
sunrise/sunset azimuth calculator
Herzberg
Institute for Astrophysics sunrise/sunset azimuth calculator
U
Toronto page on solar parallactic angle
Chap 4 Earth-Moon System:
Earth's
Core is Asymmetric, Physics
Today, Sep 2008, p 112
Fred
Espenak's eclipse page, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Paper on Phobos Spiralling in
to Mars, Sharma 2008, arXiv:0805.1454,
Total Solar
Eclipse (11 Aug 1999) Viewed from Space
Lunar
Maria and bulges Formed by Giant Impacts
nice
graphic on plate tectonics, convection
Subducted
crust stays cool to 200 km depth (Stanford research, 2000)
Microbes
began 3.5 Gyr ago, but multi-celled creatures only 1 Gyr ago
Japanese
ship does deepest dig ever
Wikipedia
article on aurorae
Wikipedia
article on motions of charged particles in the magnetosphere
including MAGNETIC MIRRORING and CONSERVATION OF MAGNETIC MOMENT
Chap 8 Electromagnetic Radiation and Matter
excellent
explanation of Boltzmann and Saha equations
Steve Myers, NRAO, 1999 (using Zeilik & Gregory, 4th ed.)
Boltzmann equation (N_B/N_A) with fixed energy level difference,
variable temperature plot
Saha equation behavior showing (kT)^3/2, exp(-1/kT) and product plot
Here is an explanation
for a physical interpretation of how the two equations work.
Chap 10 The Sun: A Model Star
Solar
Neutrino
Problem (1998) (by John Bahcall, not a Nobel
Prize-winner, oops)
Solution
to the Solar Neutrino Problem by John Bahcall, 2002
Effects of
Solar Storms
on Earth
More
Details
on Sunspots
Sunspot
Group Mean
Areas Change over the Solar Cycle (see pdf file for figures)
Next
Solar Cycle May Be More Intense
How
to Measure Sunspot Polarity and Sunspot Size Variation over the Solar
Cycle
Real
values for the solar density in the photosphere and corona, 20 Oct 2007
Voyager
2 Detects Solar Termination Shock
Q. From PA307 (2008 AU, Eric Book): How does the Sun's core rotate?
A. 3-5x faster than the photosphere, but still slower than
expected. See a
discovery
from SOHO (Rafael Garcia et al. 2007, France). It does
rotate as
a solid body.
Q. From PA307 (2008 AU, Eric Book): If magnetic pressure increases,
does the
gas pressure automatically decrease?
A. If pressure equilibrium (magnetic+gas) is to be maintained with the
environment outside where the
magnetic pressure increases, then the volume element will expand until
it's at the
same pressure as the ambient medium. That will make the gas
pressure decrease, and
thus the density decrease. It's in practice a conservation of
energy density.
Chap 11 Stars: Distances and Magnitudes:
Hipparcos
Mission 1
Hipparcos
Mission 2 and GAIA
GAIA Mission
Chap 12: Stars: Binary Systems:
Spectroscopic
Binary Star radial velocity simulator (requires JAVA plug-in! used by
permission, T. Herter, Cornell)
Eclipsing
Binary Star light curve simulator (requires JAVA plug-in! used by
permission, T. Herter, Cornell)
Speckle
Interferometry at
Georgia State University
Speckle
Interferometry and detecting planets, from NASA
Chap 13 Stars: The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
Where
do
subdwarfs come from?
Table
of main sequence temperatures, peak emission wavelengths and peak
wavebands
Mnemonics
for OBAFGKM and variations
Chap 14 Our Galaxy: A Preview
The Milky Way at
various
wavelengths (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center)
Canadian Galactic
Plane
Survey Schematic of Galaxy (and Star Trek Quadrants!)
neat movie of stars
orbiting
million solar mass black hole around Galactic center (Sag A*) plus
other stuff
Ring
discovered
around Milky Way
Galaxy Dark Matter Potential
Measured;
Galactic Ring May Be Due to
a Post-Merger Dwarf Galaxy (arXiv paper)
Monty
Python's Galaxy Song Lyrics (with numbers about right!)
Chap 15 The Interstellar Medium and Star Birth:
Q. From PA307 (2007 AU): What is an aromatic (in the context of PAH,
polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbon)?
A. An aromatic molecule or compound is one that has special stability
and
properties due to a closed loop of electrons. Not all molecules with
ring (loop)
structures are aromatic. A general scientific definition can be found
at the URL below.
Aromatic molecules are sometimes referred to simply as aromatics.
Molecules that
are not aromatic are termed aliphatic.
A prototypical aromatic compound is benzene, so a layperson might
prefer to think of an
aromatic compound as something that has a ring structure like that of
benzene, C6H6.
See http://www.ilpi.com/msds/ref/aromatic.html
for details
3D
Map of the Local (Interstellar) Bubble
A
More
General Description of the Local (Interstellar) Bubble
Loop
I Supershell interacts with Local (Interstellar) Bubble - X-ray result
Astronomy
Picture of
the Day maps Local Bubble, nearby star formation regions (colorful!)
Local
Interstellar Cloud and Local Bubble
Virial
Theorem Made Easy
HST
View of Stellar Birth
Herbig-Haro
(HH-)47
closeup
Dust Pillars
in Trifid
Nebula
Sample
Planetary Nebula: The Spirograph (search APOD for others)
Correct
derivation of
free-fall time (in my opinion)
Large
Stars May Form Planets, Too (by Robert Roy Britt, Space.com, 8 Feb 2006)
How
Efficient is Star Formation?
Research
on Proto-Planetary Disks at UL
Research on
Proto-Planetary Disks at U Cincinnati
Research on
Star/Planet Formation at Indiana U
Research on
Star/Planet Formation at Vanderbilt - Stassun
Research
on
Star/Planet Formation at Vanderbilt - Weintraub
Chap 16 The Evolution of Stars:
Stellar
Evolution
on H-R diagram simulator (requires JAVA plug-in! used by permission, T.
Herter, Cornell)
Stellar
Structure/Evolution Explained in a more Descriptive Way
Note on factor 4/3 in Eqn (16-12a), from Chris Tout, IOA, Cambridge,
England
The factor of 4/3 simply comes from the fact that the radiation is
spherically isotropic so that you need to average of the emission
angle.
E.g. radiation in the direction perpendicular to the radius of the star
does not contribute to the transfer at all and the contribution
increases
as the inclination to the radius decreases.
Synopsis
of Proto-star Evolution onto Main Sequence, Lakehead U, Ontario,
Canada
Synopsis
of Low/Medium Mass Star Evolution onto RGB, AGB, He-flash Phases,
Lakehead
U, Ontario, Canada
Synopsis
of High Mass Star Evolution onto Shell Burning and Degeneracy Phases,
Lakehead U, Ontario, Canada
Interactive
H-R Diagram from Proto-Star to White Dwarf, aspire.cosmic-ray.org
Derivation of Basic Equations for Stellar Structure, with Algebra, G.
Williger lecture notes 2008 postscript
version, pdf
version,
Chap 19 Galactic Rotation: Stellar Motions:
Detailed
Derivation of Oort's Constants, with Algebra
See this figure in
pdf or
GIF format to help with the algebra and approximations.
It's really only equations for the radial and tangential vector
velocities of the Sun and a star,
with a small angle approximation and the assumption of Keplerian
Galactic motion.