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    Candles

    Uploaded by

    Gregor Samsa
    Standard candles are astronomical objects with known intrinsic luminosities that allow astronomers to calculate distances. There are two primary types of standard candles: 1) Cepheid variable stars, whose period of variability is linked to luminosity, and 2) Type 1A supernovae, which always explode with the same luminosity. Measuring how bright standard candles appear from Earth allows calculation of their distance based on the inverse square law of light diminishing over distance.

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    Candles

    Uploaded by

    Gregor Samsa
    142 views2 pages
    Standard candles are astronomical objects with known intrinsic luminosities that allow astronomers to calculate distances. There are two primary types of standard candles: 1) Cepheid variable stars, whose period of variability is linked to luminosity, and 2) Type 1A supernovae, which always explode with the same luminosity. Measuring how bright standard candles appear from Earth allows calculation of their distance based on the inverse square law of light diminishing over distance.

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    Candles

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    Standard candles are astronomical objects with known intrinsic luminosities that allow astronomers to calculate distances. There are two primary types of standard candles: 1) Cepheid variable stars, whose period of variability is linked to luminosity, and 2) Type 1A supernovae, which always explode with the same luminosity. Measuring how bright standard candles appear from Earth allows calculation of their distance based on the inverse square law of light diminishing over distance.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    142 views2 pages

    Candles

    Uploaded by

    Gregor Samsa
    Standard candles are astronomical objects with known intrinsic luminosities that allow astronomers to calculate distances. There are two primary types of standard candles: 1) Cepheid variable stars, whose period of variability is linked to luminosity, and 2) Type 1A supernovae, which always explode with the same luminosity. Measuring how bright standard candles appear from Earth allows calculation of their distance based on the inverse square law of light diminishing over distance.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Contents:

    Standard
    candles

    What is a 'Standard Candle'?


    Measuring distance using standard candles
    Types of standard candle:
    1. Cepheid variables
    2. Type 1A supernovae

    What is a 'standard candle'?


    In astronomy, a standard candle is a source that has a known luminosity.
    luminosity = total power output, measured in watts (W) or solar luminosities (L).
    1 L = 3.84 x 1026 W

    Measuring distance using standard candles


    For distances which are too large to measure using parallax, astronomers use 'standard candles'.
    Light sources which are further away appear fainter because the light is spread out over a greater area.
    If we know how luminous a source really is, then we can estimate its distance from how bright it
    appears from Earth.
    The light which reaches Earth has
    spread out over a sphere.
    radius of sphere = distance to earth, r
    Source of luminosity L

    Surface area of sphere = 4r2


    r
    Earth

    On Earth, the received power per unit


    area is then
    received power = source luminosity
    per unit area
    area of sphere
    F=

    L
    4r2

    The larger the distance, the smaller the power that we measure.
    Astronomers traditionally measure the received power per unit area in magnitudes, but watts
    per square metre (W/m2) is also good.

    Dr Jennifer Hatchell

    Types of standard candle

    There are several types of 'standard candle' objects for which we can predict the luminosity from some
    other measurement. Two of the most important are Cepheid variable stars and type 1A supernovae.

    1. Cepheid variables
    Cepheid variables are a special type of star with a luminosity which varies on a regular cycle. Around
    1908, Henrietta Leavitt discovered that the period of the variability was closely linked to the luminosity
    of the star.
    So, if you time the variability of a Cepheid then you can predict its luminosity. And if you know its
    luminosity and how bright it appears from Earth, then you can calculate the distance.
    Cepheids are used to measure the distance of galaxies out to about 30,000,000 parsecs (30 Mpc).
    Cepheids are what Edwin Hubble used to determine the distances of nebulae (ie. galaxies) and
    derive the Hubble law.

    2. Type 1A supernovae
    Supernovae occur when massive stars explode at the end of their lives. A
    white dwarf star in a binary pair with a red dwarf star steals mass from the
    red dwarf until it is too massive to support itself against gravity any more.
    Then its core collapses, starting a runaway nuclear reaction and a bright
    explosion. Because the collapse always happens at the same mass, the
    luminosity of the explosion is always the same. From this known
    luminosity we can estimate the distance.
    Supernovae are very bright often as bright as all the stars in a whole
    galaxy put together. Because they are so bright, we can see them at very
    great distances, up to around 10,000,000,000 parsecs.
    The disadvantage of supernovae as standard candles is that they don't
    hang around - you have to spot them when they go off, or shortly
    afterwards.

    Dr Jennifer Hatchell

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