NATS 1740 Chapter Notes -Triple-Alpha Process, Inverse-Square Law, Electron Degeneracy Pressure

• School: York University
• Department: Natural Science
• Course: NATS 1740
• Professor: Randy Hoffman

Document Summary

Gravitational equilibrium: is the outward push or the internal gas pressure and the inward pull of gravity. Sunspots: are dark spots on the suns surface. Corona: the outermost layer of the sun, several million km from the visible surface. Photosphere: lowest layer, visible surface of the sun, temperature lower than 6000k. Core: the central region of a star, in which nuclear fusion can occur. Nuclear fusion: fusing two or more nuclei into 1. Solar flares: send bursts of x-rays and fast moving charged particles into space. Luminosity: the total amount of power a star emits into space. Parallax: the apparent shifting of an object against the background due to viewing it from different positions. Inverse square law: apparent brightness = luminosity/ 4 x (distance)2 , the apparent brightness of a star or any other light source obeys the inverse square law. Doubling the distance to a star would decrease the apparent brightness by a factor of 2 or 22.