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THE STARS AND THE SUN Contents INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 13A TOUR OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM 3 Neil McBride and David A. Rothery 1.1 A grand tour 3 1.2 The formation of the Solar System 23 1.3 The layout of the Solar System 24 1.4 Physical properties of Solar System bodies 26 1.5 Summary of Chapter 1 29 CHAPTER 23THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF THE TERRESTRIAL ...
Scientists call this balance “hydrostatic equilibrium”. There are two main forces acting in a star: Gravitational contraction: it is due to the higher layers, this force pushes mass to the center. Radiation pressure: it is produced by the inner layers, and it forces material upwards.
One of our goals in this class is to be able to describe not just the observ-able, exterior properties of a star, but to understand all the layers of these cosmic onions — from the observable properties of their outermost layers to the physics that occurs in their cores.
Describe the various layers of the Sun and their functions; Explain what happens in the different parts of the Sun’s atmosphere; The Sun, like all stars, is an enormous ball of extremely hot, largely ionized gas, shining under its own power. And we do mean enormous.
Fusion during the giant phases of stellar evolution produces elements like carbon, oxygen, and silicon that may be cycled toward the outer layers of the star. For the most massive stars, neutrons from fusion bombard atoms in the star to make yet more elements, including technetium, a rapidly-decaying element that doesn’t exist naturally on Earth.
There is an order in the properties of stars! ⚫ Most of the stars lie on the “main sequence”: massive stars are hot and have high power (top left), while the small stars have lower masses, are cold and have low power (bottom right) ⚫ The giant stars lie on the top-right part of the diagram, while the white dwarfs are on the bottom-left
star. In the outer layers of the star, the temperature has dropped enough that the atoms are no longer completely ionized, and the gas becomes opaque. It catches the heat from the interior, and tries to confine it. However, much like a pot boiling, the lower parts of
