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138 Bennett, Donahue, Schneider, Voit
Part IV: Stars
Copyright © 2018 Pearson Education, Inc.

Instructor Guide for The Essential Cosmic Perspective, Eighth Edition 139
Chapter 11. Our Star

This chapter describes how the Sun works, laying the groundwork for the study of
stars in general by focusing on this all-important example.
As always, when you prepare to teach this chapter, be sure you are familiar
with the online quizzes, interactive figures and tutorials, assignable homework,
and other resources available on the MasteringAstronomy website
(www.masteringastronomy.com).
Key Changes for the 8th Edition: For those who have used earlier editions of our
textbook, please note the following significant changes in this chapter:
• Fully updated discussion of solar neutrino observations, including the
detection of proton-proton chain neutrinos.
• Updated Figure 11.20 on the sunspot cycle to include more recent sunspot
data.
• Added a new Figure 11.22 with associated discussion explaining why we
can rule out the Sun as the cause of recent global warming on Earth.
Teaching Notes (by Section)

Section 11.1 A Closer Look at the Sun
We already introduced students to the Sun briefly in Chapter 6, during our tour
of the solar system in Section 6.1. Here, we take a more in-depth look at the Sun.
We begin by addressing one of the most basic of all astronomical questions: Why
does the Sun shine? This question immediately engages students because it relates
directly to their personal experience of the Sun and perhaps even to questions they
began asking as children. They are often surprised to find out how recently we
learned the answer, and the process of elimination that led to the right answer
provides a good example of scientific reasoning. We then use an imaginary
journey into the Sun to discuss its basic properties and structure.
• Relating the history of ideas about how the Sun shines provides an early
opportunity to discuss gravitational contraction, a mechanism that will
arise repeatedly throughout the rest of the book. Introducing this idea early
allows students to digest it somewhat before they encounter it again in
discussions of star formation and stellar evolution.
• This section also introduces the very important idea of the two kinds of
equilibrium that are achieved by stars in a steady state. One equilibrium is
the balance between pressure and gravity within a star. Among astronomers,
this kind of equilibrium is known as hydrostatic equilibrium. We have
found that the word hydrostatic is so foreign to students that they often have
trouble remembering what it describes. Thus, we have elected to use the
term gravitational equilibrium in this book so that the link between the term
and the concept is easier for students to remember. Note that this term
allows the following very simple contrast: Gravitational contraction occurs

when gravity overwhelms pressure, and gravitational equilibrium occurs

when gravity is in balance with pressure. (Note: In using the term
gravitational equilibrium, we are consistent with terminology used by
Mitch Begelman and Martin Rees in their book Gravity’s Fatal Attraction,
Scientific American Library Series [New York: W. H. Freeman, 1996].)
This concept of equilibrium was difficult for our own students, so our text
aims to emphasize this important concept and prepare the students for the
concepts they will re-visit in chapters on stars and stellar evolution.
• Energy balance is the other equilibrium achieved in the Sun, where the
energy generated in the core of the star balances the energy lost at the
surface of the star. This idea was given a graphic (Figure 11.3) in the 7th
edition. It is as important as gravitational equilibrium in understanding
stars and star lives, but it is the much more difficult concept for our
students.
• This section also raises a potential dilemma for instructors: whether to
describe the Sun as yellow or white. Because students already know that
the Sun is yellow, they can have trouble with the idea that the Sun would
look nearly white if they were not seeing it through Earth’s atmosphere.
However, when astronomers speak of “white stars,” they are usually talking
about stars considerably hotter than the Sun. For this reason, we depict
the Sun as yellow in our figures. (One way to demonstrate that the Sun is
whiter than it appears is to point out that clouds look white because they are
scattering both the blue light from the sky, which is indirect solar radiation,
and the direct yellow light from the Sun. Combining these two colors of
light more closely approximates the original color of the Sun.)
Section 11.2 Nuclear Fusion in the Sun

This section focuses on the process of nuclear fusion in the Sun and describes
how the balance between gravity and pressure acts as a thermostat in the solar
core, maintaining a constant fusion rate. Figure 11.8 is a useful aid to illustrate
this concept.
• The topic of fusion in the solar core presents an opportunity to discuss the
role of mathematical modeling in science and to explain how we can be so
certain of what’s going on when we can’t see the core and can’t send in a
probe to observe what’s going on there. Up to this point in the course,
we’ve been discussing planets, which some students regard as “more real”
because we have landed probes there. The Sun provides these students with
their first challenge to understand how we might be able to learn about a
place without actually visiting it.
• In this section, we also discuss solar neutrinos as a way to “observe” the
solar core, and we present the solar neutrino problem as a solved problem
in our understanding of the Sun.
• Based on experimental results confirming that neutrinos oscillate, we
presume that neutrinos do have mass (e.g., Fukuda et al., 1998, Physical
Review Letters, 81, 1562), although the amount of mass remains unknown.

(Ironically, the best upper limits on the neutrino mass of about 0.23 eV come
not from detector experiments but from cosmological measurements, such as
those of the cosmic microwave background studied by the Planck mission
[Planck Collaboration, 2014, A&A, 571, A16; 2015, arXiv:1502.01589].)
Fast-moving (relativistic) cosmic neutrinos “free-stream” from any
structures that are too small to contain them, an effect that inhibits the
growth of these small structures as compared to the growth of larger
structures. The fact that small structures survive in our universe (and that
large systems are assembled from smaller systems) is evidence that neutrinos
do not have a mass sufficient to noticeably change the ratio of large and
small structures in the universe. Research on neutrinos, from those working
in both high-energy physics and cosmology, is an active field, so stay tuned.
• We provide the ideal gas law relation for thermal pressure in Cosmic
Calculation 11.1.
Section 11.3 The Sun–Earth Connection
This section discusses solar activity, including sunspots, and the ways in which
solar activity can affect Earth.
• Solar activity is one of the most direct ways in which cosmic events affect
human activity. Don’t miss this opportunity to engage your students with
examples of how solar weather affects Earth and, more relevantly, whether
solar activity can be considered a credible cause for global climate change.
Answers/Discussion Points for Think About It/See It for Yourself

Questions
The Think About It and See It for Yourself questions are not numbered in the
book, so we list them in the order in which they appear, keyed by section number.
Section 11.1
• (p. 290) At higher altitudes, there is less overlying air pressing down.
Because of the lower pressure, the atmosphere is less compressed.
• (p. 291) We need to know Earth’s period and distance from the Sun. We
measure the mass of the Sun by measuring the periods and semimajor axes
of planetary orbits and then plugging these measurements into Newton’s
version of Kepler’s third law. Because the Sun is so much heavier than
anything else in the solar system, the sum of the masses in the equation is
essentially equal to the Sun’s mass.
Section 11.2
• (p. 294) Heavier elements have more protons in their nuclei. Their greater
positive charge means they repel each other more strongly than do
hydrogen nuclei, which contain only 1 proton. The stronger repulsion
means that higher temperatures are required to overcome the repulsion and
make the nuclei fuse.

Section 11.3
• (p. 303) Because the Sun rotates faster at the equator, after a few days,
the sunspot near the equator would have moved ahead (east) of the higher
latitude sunspot. By measuring the rate at which we see the sunspots move
at different latitudes, we can determine the Sun’s rotation period at each
latitude.
Solutions to End-of-Chapter Problems (Chapter 11)
Visual Skills Check

1. d
2. Sunspots appear over a range of 40–50°N latitude to 40–50°S latitude.
3. Sunspots get closer to the equator during a sunspot cycle.
Review Questions
1. As something contracts, its gravitational potential energy is converted into
thermal energy. This process was important for the Sun when the Sun was
forming billions of years ago because it provided the energy needed to start
the fusion in the Sun’s core.
2. Gravitational equilibrium is a balance between the force of gravity pulling
inward and pressure pushing outward. In the Sun’s core, the weight of the
layers above is very large, thus the pressure needed to balance it is also
large. Pressure is the product of temperature and density, so high pressure
means high densities and high temperatures in the core. Energy balance is a
balance between the radiative energy released at the surface of a star (its
luminosity) and the energy generated inside the star by nuclear fusion
reactions.
3. The Sun’s radius is about 700,000 kilometers, more than 100 times the
radius of Earth. The Sun’s mass is 2  1030 kg, more than 1000 times the
combined mass of all of the planets that orbit it. The Sun’s luminosity is
3.8  1026 watts, and just 1 second of that would be enough to meet Earth’s
current energy demands for the next 500,000 years. The Sun’s surface
temperature is 5800 K. A blast furnace, by comparison, is about 1500 K.
(The fireball from an atmospheric detonation of a nuclear weapon can
achieve and maintain a temperature of 5000 K, but we hope this will never
be an “everyday experience” for anybody.)
4. The corona is a region several million kilometers above the surface of the
Sun that is at a temperature of about 1 million K. The Sun’s X rays are
emitted from this region. Beneath that layer is the chromosphere, where the
temperature drops to 10,000 K and where the Sun’s ultraviolet light is
emitted. The lowest layer of the atmosphere is the photosphere, where the
temperature is 6000 K and where the visible light from the Sun is emitted.
(The photosphere is what we see as the surface of the Sun.)

The topmost layer inside the Sun is the convection zone, where the energy
generated in the core is transported upward by hot gas rising and cooler gas
sinking. About a third of the way to the middle of the Sun, the convection zone
ends and the radiation zone begins. In the radiation zone, the Sun’s energy is
carried outward by photons of light. Finally, the innermost layer of the Sun is
the core. The Sun is able to produce its energy here through nuclear fusion,
thanks to the temperature of 15 million K and a density 100 times that of water.
5. Nuclear fission is the process of splitting an atomic nucleus into two.
Nuclear fusion is the process of combining two nuclei. Nuclear power
plants use fission to generate energy here on Earth, but the Sun uses fusion.
6. Nuclear fusion requires high temperatures to cause the protons to collide at
high enough speeds that they get close enough to stick together (like Velcro)
rather than being deflected by the electromagnetic force. The high pressure,
generated by the weight of all the Sun’s layers above the core, is required to
keep the hot gas in the Sun’s core from exploding into space, shutting off
the nuclear reactions. A high particle density is required to sustain a high
rate of fusion.
7. The Sun’s overall nuclear reaction is to combine four protons to form a single
helium nucleus. The actual process, called the proton-proton chain, requires
three steps. In the first, two protons collide and fuse to form an isotope of
hydrogen called deuterium. (This step occurs twice for each full reaction.)
In the second step, a deuterium nucleus is struck by a proton and they fuse
together to become helium-3. (This step also occurs twice per reaction.)
Finally, when two helium-3 nuclei collide, they fuse together to form
helium-4 and two protons are released.
8. The Sun’s energy output is steady over time. This steadiness results because
the rate of fusion is sensitive to temperature. If the Sun’s core were a bit
hotter, the fusion rate would increase. This would produce more energy,
which would cause the core to expand slightly and cool. The cooling would
cause the fusion rate to slow back down until the Sun was back to the
original size and temperature and fusion occurred at the original rate.
9. Photons take hundreds of thousands of years to get out of the Sun because
their paths zigzag repeatedly. Because the plasma is so dense in the Sun’s
interior, a photon can only travel a fraction of a millimeter before colliding
with an electron and deflecting into a new direction. So photons bounce
around at random and only slowly make their way out of the Sun.
10. Mathematical models use the observed composition and mass of the Sun,
along with the laws of physics, to derive equations that describe the
gravitational equilibrium, solar thermostat, and rate at which energy moves
from the core to the photosphere. Computers let us calculate the Sun’s
temperature, pressure, and density at any depth. We can check the models
by comparing their predictions of the radius, surface temperature, and
luminosity with observable parameters generated by studying
helioseismology. Helioseismology allows us to probe the conditions in
the solar interior. The models make testable predictions that allow us to
explain these observations; we are on the right track.

11. Neutrinos are subatomic particles produced in nuclear reactions. They move
at nearly the speed of light and almost never interact with matter. Detectors
on Earth found only about one-third of the neutrinos predicted by models of
nuclear fusion in the Sun. This disagreement between theory and data was
called “the solar neutrino problem.” Today, the problem is solved: The
electron neutrinos scientists expected to see in neutrino detectors had changed
into other kinds of neutrinos en route from the Sun. Recent experiments
support this idea by showing that neutrinos can change their type. Other
experiments show that the total number of neutrinos of all types is about
what the models for fusion in the Sun predict.
12. Solar activity refers to the changing features of the Sun, such as sunspots,
flares, prominences, and coronal mass ejections. The sunspots are regions of the
photosphere that are cooler than the surrounding plasma so that they appear
darker. The sunspots occur in pairs, with the magnetic field lines arcing from
one sunspot to the other. Where gas from the chromosphere or corona becomes
trapped in the magnetic field, we see solar prominences. Solar flares are
intense storms that result in bursts of X rays and fast-moving charged particles
being shot off into space. Coronal mass ejections are huge bubbles of energetic,
charged particles that are released from the Sun’s corona.
13. The Sun’s photosphere is at a temperature of about 5800 K. It looks mottled
because it is churning constantly with rising and falling gas. However, in
some areas the surface is cooler and therefore less bright. These areas are
sunspots, where the temperature is “only” 4000 K. Magnetic fields in
sunspots keep the sunspots cooler than the surrounding plasma by keeping
the other plasma out. Because new, hot plasma cannot enter the sunspots to
warm them, the spots can cool.
14. The chromosphere is best viewed with ultraviolet telescopes because it emits a
lot of light in that part of the spectrum, since its temperature is 10,000 K, and
because we cannot usually see the chromosphere in the visible wavelengths
because the photosphere drowns the light out. Similarly, the 1-million-K
corona is so hot that it emits strongly in the X-ray part of the spectrum, making
it best viewed in X rays. These two parts of the Sun’s atmosphere are heated
by magnetic fields carrying energy upward from the surface.
15. The sunspot cycle is a cycle in which the average number of sunspots on the
Sun gradually rises and falls over a period of about 11 years. As the cycle
progresses, more and more sunspots appear on the Sun’s surface and the
spots start to move to lower latitudes. As the sunspots approach the solar
equator, solar activity reaches a peak with prominences, flares, and coronal
mass ejections. Eventually, the activity decreases and the number of
sunspots diminishes as the Sun approaches solar minimum. At this time,
the sun’s magnetic field reverses orientation so that magnetic north becomes
magnetic south and vice versa.
There are also long-term changes in solar activity. Astronomers have
detected a period of about 70 years when virtually no sunspots were visible.
The sunspot cycle does not have an obvious connection to Earth’s
climate, because variations in the cycle cause changes in the total output of

energy of less than 0.1%. The data supporting claims of correlation between
sunspots and global temperatures, drought cycles, or storms are weak, and
the general question of whether sunspots have anything to do with climate is
still open. However, we can rule out the Sun as the cause of recent global
warming, because the solar irradiance has been going down at the same time
as Earth’s temperature has been going up.
Does It Make Sense?

16. Before Einstein, gravitational contraction appeared to be a perfectly plausible
mechanism for solar energy generation. This statement does not make sense.
Gravitational contraction has been known to be an insufficient source of stellar
power since the 1800s, when geologists realized that the age of rocks on Earth
numbered in the billions of years. Gravitational contraction of the Sun, if the
only source of the Sun’s energy, would have powered the Sun only for some
25 million years, a time much less than its geological age.
17. The solar wind usually flows outward from the Sun, but sometimes it turns
around and flows backward. This statement does not make sense. The solar
wind is composed of charged particles being blown away from the Sun by
the Sun’s radiation, which cannot drive flows toward the Sun, and by
particles accelerated away from the Sun, possibly driven by acceleration
from the snapping (breaking) of magnetic fields near the Sun’s surface.
18. If fusion in the solar core ceased today, worldwide panic would break out
tomorrow as the Sun began to grow dimmer. This statement does not make
sense. If fusion in the core ceased, photons would continue to percolate out
of the Sun at about the same rate for many thousands of years. It would be
impossible to measure any dimming on the day after such an event. It is
debatable when such an event might be noticed. Certainly neutrino fluxes
would drop noticeably, and eventually the structure of the Sun would be
affected.
19. Astronomers have recently photographed magnetic fields churning deep
beneath the solar photosphere. This statement does not make sense. The
photosphere is the farthest into the Sun that we can “see” in photographs.
Conditions beneath the photosphere must be inferred from other types of
observations and theoretical models.
20. I wear a lead vest to protect myself from neutrinos. This statement does not
make sense. Neutrinos pass right through Earth and would not be
diminished at all by a lead vest.
21. There haven’t been many sunspots this year, but there ought to be many
more in about 5 years. Whether this statement makes sense or not is time
dependent. For example, it would have made sense in 2015, but it might not
make sense in 2018. An inspection of Figure 11.20 shows that in 2015, the
Sun was ending a period of peak activity (although that peak was rather
subdued compared to previous peaks) and an extension of the 11-year cyclic
trend predicts that sunspot numbers will maintain or decline over the 5 years
from 2015 through 2018.

22. News of a solar flare caused concern among businesses involved in

communication and electrical power generation. This statement makes
sense. Solar flares can cause havoc with satellites, communication
infrastructure, and power grids because of the energetic charged particles.
23. By observing solar neutrinos, we can learn about nuclear fusion deep in the
Sun’s core. This statement makes sense. Neutrinos are produced by fusion in
the Sun’s core and can travel directly from the Sun’s core to neutrino
detectors on Earth.
24. If the Sun’s magnetic field somehow disappeared, there would be no more
sunspots on the Sun. This statement makes sense. Sunspots are regions of
strong magnetic fields, so with no magnetic field there would be no sunspots.
25. Scientists are currently building an infrared telescope designed to observe
fusion reactions in the Sun’s core. This statement does not make sense.
Infrared telescopes cannot see through the Sun.
Quick Quiz
26. c. four individual protons
27. c. photosphere
28. c. corona
29. b. mathematical models of the Sun
30. a. are cooler than their surroundings
31. c. helium, energy, and neutrinos
32. a. photons
33. a. fusion in the Sun’s core
34. b. changes in the organization of the Sun’s magnetic field
35. c. particles from the Sun
Process of Science
36. Scientists create computer models, using physical laws to predict the
conditions in the center of the Sun. These models are both tested and
informed by observations of the Sun and improved by better understanding
of nuclear physics and the behavior of a plasma in the presence of magnetic
fields. For example, both the luminosity and the neutrino flux from the Sun
must be replicated by these models in order to be valid. Helioseismology
(the study of the sun’s vibrations) provides tests of models that seek to
explain the inner structure of the Sun, such as the convection zone. This
process fits the hallmarks of science: testing through observations, models
that are as simple as necessary to explain the observations, and no
invocations of magic or a deity as an explanation.
37. Scientists do not simply abandon their models unless they believe that the
counterevidence is so overwhelming that they must. Although early solar
neutrino experiments detected only a third of the neutrinos expected to
emerge from the Sun, nuclear fusion reactions naturally and simply
explained the Sun’s luminosity and its longevity. Scientists were not so

confident in their understanding of neutrinos and their ability to detect

them all that they would walk away from fusion models that were so
successful in other ways. It turned out that scientists did have an incomplete
understanding of neutrinos, and indeed, their early experiments had been
missing those that changed in type en route to Earth.
Group Work Exercise

38. Grading a discussion should involve evaluation of the process and the
students’ reasoning, not just checking for a “correct” answer. For
convenience, we provide quick answers.
a. The core temperature will go up as the core is compressed.
b. The temperature will continue to rise until something halts the
compression, like the onset of core fusion or degeneracy pressure limits.
A shrinking core could cool or stay the same temperature if it could
radiate energy faster than it was gaining it from gravitational
compression. But this process can’t happen when the core is surrounded
by gas.
c. This question is particularly open-ended. A computer experiment could
test this idea. Lab experiments for helium fusion sound difficult—
hydrogen fusion is hard to control; helium fusion requires even higher
temperatures. Observationally, one would want to look for “old” stars
that are no longer fusing hydrogen to helium in their cores. A strategic
experimenter would consider sampling a “control” set of hydrogen-
burning stars, perhaps.
Short-Answer/Essay Questions
39. If fusion reactions suddenly shut off in the Sun, photons would continue to
diffuse away from the core and radiate from the Sun’s surface for about a
million years. (The main point is that the Sun would not “turn off”
suddenly—we’re not looking for students to invent red giant phases.)
40. We would be able to tell if fusion reactions had shut off because we would
no longer detect neutrinos from the Sun. Neutrinos, a by-product of nuclear
fusion, exit the Sun immediately.
41. A “stronger” strong force would mean that nuclear reactions would not
require such high temperatures in order to proceed, so the core temperature
of the Sun could be cooler.
42. The Sun would look yellow and bright. The sunspots appear dark only in
contrast to their surroundings, but they are actually quite luminous.
43. Scientists use mathematical models and observations of solar vibrations and
neutrinos to infer what is happening in the center of the Sun. A probe would
not survive the trip.
44. X rays represent a tiny fraction of the Sun’s total energetic output.
Therefore, huge fluctuations in X-ray production represent only tiny

variations in the Sun’s energetic output. X rays, in general, are produced by

either extremely hot or extremely violent phenomena; in the Sun, this
violent behavior varies over time.
45. This is an essay question, but the key point should be that we are not
capable of affecting the Sun in any meaningful way, at least with current or
any foreseeable future technology.
Quantitative Problems
46. Wien’s law states that:
2, 900, 000
max  nm
T (Kelvin)
Plugging in the average temperature of the Sun’s photosphere, 5800 K, gives
2,900,000
max  nm  500 nm
5800
Thus, the Sun’s thermal spectrum peaks at a wavelength of 500 nanometers,
which is in the green part of the visible spectrum. However, because the Sun
also radiates other colors of the visible spectrum and the Earth’s atmosphere
scatters the bluer light, the Sun appears white or yellow to our eyes.
47. To solve this problem, we will use Wien’s law to find the peak wavelength
for a sunspot. Wien’s law states that:
2, 900, 000
max  nm
T (Kelvin)
Because sunspots have a typical temperature of 4000 K, we can plug in the
value to get
2,900,000
max  nm  725 nm
4000
So, the peak wavelength from a sunspot is 725 nanometers. This is a longer
wavelength than that emitted from the rest of the Sun’s surface,
corresponding to the reddest end of the visible spectrum.
48. The energy that the Sun radiates into space each second is easily determined
from its luminosity (watts, or joules/s) to be 3.8  1026 joules. This energy
results from the conversion of mass to energy through the process of fusion.
Recall that E = mc2, or m = E/c2. So if we divide the Sun’s luminosity by c2,
where c = 3  108 m/s, we have the mass loss per second:
2
26 kg-m
3.8×10
E s 2 = 4.2×109 kilograms
m= 2 = 2
c  8 m
 3×10 
 s 
So, the Sun loses 4.2  109 kg of mass every second due to fusion. We need to
multiply this rate by the amount of time the Sun will live (10 billion years) to
get how much mass it will lose over its lifetime. First, we convert 10 billion
years to seconds to get 3.16  1017 s. Then, we multiply this lifetime in

seconds by the rate of mass lost to get 1.33  1027 kg lost over the lifetime of
the Sun. We recall that Earth’s mass is about 6  1024 kg, so the mass that the
Sun will lose due to fusion over its lifetime greatly exceeds the mass of Earth.
49. We will use the relationship between temperature and pressure:
P  nkT
where P is the pressure; n is the number density of gas molecules; k is
Boltzmann’s constant, 1.38  10–23 joules/K; and T is the temperature. We
can express the results in a table:
Ratio to
Temperature Density Pressure Earth
Layer (Kelvin) (particles/cm3) (joules/cm3) Pressure
Top 4500 1.60  1016 9.94  10–4 1.00  10–2
Middle 5800 1.00  1017 8.00  10–3 8.06  10–2
Bottom 7000 1.50  1017 1.45  10–2 1.46  10–1
For the last column, we have used the fact that Earth’s atmosphere at sea
level is about 300 K and has a density of about 2.4  1019 particle/cm3,
leading to a pressure of 9.94  10–2 joules/cm3. We see from this table that
the pressure of the photosphere increases as we get lower. This trend makes
sense because each deeper layer of the photosphere has to exert enough
pressure to support the layers above it.
50. a. The total amount of mass in the Sun is 2.0  1030 kg, 75% of which is
hydrogen and 13% of which becomes available for fusion. Thus, the
total mass of hydrogen available for fusion over the Sun’s lifetime is
simply 13% of 75% of the total mass of the Sun:
2.0  10 30 kg  0.75  0.13  1.95  10 29 kg
b. The Sun fuses 6  1011 kg of hydrogen per second and has 1.95  1029
kg available for fusion, so the Sun’s lifetime is
mass available 1.95  10 29 kg
lifetime    3.25  1017 s
rate mass burned 6  1011 kg /s
or
1 hr 1 day 1 yr
3.251017 s     10.3 billion yr
3600 s 24 hr 365 days
c. Subtracting the current age of the Sun from the lifetime found in part (b),
we find
10.3 billion years – 4.6 billion years = 5.7 billion years
The Sun will run out of fuel in approximately 6 billion years.
51. a. The surface area of a sphere that has a radius of 1 AU (1.5  1011 m) is
4 r 2  4 (1.5  1011 m) 2  2.83 1023 m 2

b. The flux of solar radiation at the surface of this imaginary sphere is the
luminosity of the Sun divided by the surface area of the sphere:
3.8 10 26 watts
23 2
 1344 watts/m 2
2.83 10 m
c. The average power per square meter collected by a solar collector on the
ground will always be less than 1344 watts per square meter because of
absorption by the atmosphere, the angle of incidence not being 90°, the
weather (cloud cover), nighttime, and varying amounts of daylight.
d. To optimize the amount of power collected, a solar collector should be
aimed up and south in the Northern Hemisphere and up and north in the
Southern Hemisphere (and up toward the celestial equator). To increase
optimization even more, one might rotate the face of the collectors east
to west to follow the Sun’s daily path across the sky and north to south
to match the Sun’s changing path with the seasons.

Chapter 12. Surveying the Stars

This chapter outlines how we measure and classify stars. It introduces many
important ideas, such as the relationship among luminosity, brightness, and
distance. The chapter also introduces the H-R diagram.
• Whenever possible, we have used real stellar data from Hipparcos and
other sources to construct the H-R diagrams in Chapters 12 and 13.
Key Changes for the 8th Edition: For those who have used earlier editions of our
textbook, please note that many small changes were made to the text for clarity and
conciseness. We also revised Figure 12.13, which compares the Sun, Aldebaran,
and Betelgeuse, for easier interpretation of the relative sizes of these stars.

Section 12.1 Properties of Stars
This section explains how we determine basic properties of stars: luminosity,
surface temperature, and mass.
• We avoid using the term flux in this book because it’s an unfamiliar word
for students. Instead, we use the term apparent brightness, which refers
explicitly to the concept of brightness one would observe. Likewise, we
avoid the jargon term bolometric luminosity and use the term total
luminosity instead.
• This section introduces the term parsecs to provide a background
reference for that term, but in this book we consistently use the term light-
year for distance so instructors do not need to require students to learn the
term parsec. We also define solar luminosity here.
• We introduce the magnitude system in this section, but we do not teach
magnitudes in our own general education courses at all. We find that
understanding magnitudes requires great effort for students (particularly
students who are taking astronomy in order to satisfy a physical science
requirement) yet adds little to students’ understanding of other
astronomical concepts. Magnitudes are included here largely because of
their historical importance and their continued use in astronomy
(particularly optical and near-infrared). The magnitude system is
essentially reporting a flux ratio, and flux ratios are easier to measure
accurately than absolute physical fluxes. Nevertheless, in order to allow
instructors some flexibility, we still include definitions in the textbook,
but as an optional topic. You can skip them if you choose, because we do
not use magnitudes elsewhere in the book.

• The discussion of star colors, temperatures, and absorption lines assumes

that students have covered the material on light and color in Chapter 5.
• For simplicity, we limit the discussion of stellar classes to OBAFGKM,
which covers the standard main sequence and omits special cases like R,
N, and S stars and Wolf–Rayet stars. Our learning objective here is to
make sure students clearly understand the main sequence, the foundational
notion of stellar studies.
• We have found that hosting a student contest to identify a modern
mnemonic always stimulates some witty and timely mnemonics
involving current events or next weekend’s major sports event.
• Students, particularly female students, enjoy the stories of Annie Jump
Cannon and Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin. For many of them, these are the
first stories about women scientists that they have heard, beyond (perhaps)
Madame Curie. Students appreciate frank discussions of how science has
excluded participation of women.
• This section mentions several different types of binary systems but does
not provide an exhaustive nomenclature. We describe astrometric binaries
without using the formal term, because the word astrometric is
uninformative to students. Visual, spectroscopic, and eclipsing binaries are
mentioned explicitly, because these terms are usefully descriptive.
• Teaching students about measuring masses is one of the main themes in
our course. We found that the most effective way to communicate this
difficult but pervasive concept in a large class is to use a combination
of frequent conceptual questions in class and peer instruction. (See Eric
Mazur’s Peer Instruction, or his website at http://mazur.harvard.edu/
education/educationmenu.php for some ideas.)
• We refer to the fundamental law for estimating stellar masses from
observables as Newton’s version of Kepler’s third law in order to give
credit to both individuals.
• We have removed references to “burning” to avoid the misconception that
the source of the Sun’s energy has something to do with fire. For example,
“core burning” or “shell burning” becomes “core fusion” or “shell fusion.”
• The reference radius of Betelgeuse, throughout the chapter, is based on
parallax and proper motion from Hipparcos and the VLA (Harper, Brown,
and Guinan, 2008, AJ, 135, 1430). Table 12.1 reflects the temperature
differences between stellar types as presented in G. M. H. J. Habets and J.
R. W. Heinze, Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series 46
(November 1981), pp. 193–237.
Section 12.2 Patterns Among Stars

This section summarizes stellar classification and introduces the H-R diagram.
The previous section laid the groundwork for this section. While students can
understand the observational H-R diagram before studying stellar masses, we
find it prudent to discuss the H-R diagram after covering masses, because we can

immediately point out that the main sequence is fundamentally a sequence of

stellar masses. This approach helps counteract the tendency of students to think
of the main sequence as a temporal evolution of stellar properties.
• In small class sections, it can be illustrative to have students plot stellar
temperatures and luminosities on their own before you cover the H-R
diagram, enabling them to discover the main sequence for themselves.
• Appendix F lists the 20 brightest stars and the stars within 12 light-years.
One way to get students to think more deeply about the H-R diagram is to
ask them why the spectral types of the stars in the two tables are so
different. A process for doing this in class is described in a group work
exercise in this chapter.
• This section includes a discussion of main-sequence lifetimes, showing
how some simple order-of-magnitude estimates can reveal the vast
differences between stellar lifetimes.
Section 12.3 Star Clusters
The chapter concludes with this section on star clusters, emphasizing that they are
excellent laboratories for comparing the properties of stars and establishing how
stars evolve.
• This chapter emphasizes that a star’s color depends primarily on its mass
and age but does not mention that a star’s heavy-element content also
affects its color. Heavy elements tend to hinder the flow of energy in the
outer layers of a star, making it slightly larger and redder than it would be
without these heavy elements. We find that downplaying this fact does not
affect students’ comprehension of the “big picture,” but it does complicate
the issue of the main-sequence turnoff. Because globular clusters are poor
in heavy elements, their main sequences are displaced to the left in the
H-R diagram. Their turnoff points thus lie blueward of the Sun but at
lower luminosities. This effect is not noticeable in Figures 12.16 or 12.17,
but could come up with inspection of other globular cluster diagrams.

Questions
Section 12.1
• (p. 311, SIFY) Star charts use different sizes of dots to denote stars of
different apparent brightness. The largest dots are reserved for the
brightest stars in the sky. The brightness ranking should agree with what
you see with your eyes unless the sky has patchy cloud cover.
• (p. 312) Apparent brightness is directly proportional to luminosity, so at the
same distance Star A will be four times as bright in our sky as Star B. If Star
A is twice as far away, the inverse square law tells us it will appear four times
dimmer—which means it will have the same apparent brightness as Star B.

• (p. 312) The distance of Star A from Earth is twice the distance of Star B,
because the parallax of Star A (0.2 arcsecond) is less than the parallax of Star
B by a factor of 2.
• (p. 316) Inventing an original OBAFGKM mnemonic is a fun way for
students to burn this sequence into their memories.
Section 12.2
• (p. 319) The colors of the stars are similar to the star colors determined by
thermal radiation at the given surface temperature. The colors of stars are
not necessarily related to their interior temperatures. For example, a red
supergiant and a red main-sequence star have very different core
temperatures.
• (p. 323) Bellatrix: spectral type B, luminosity class V, radius ~7RSun .
Vega: spectral type A, luminosity class V, radius ~3RSun . Antares:
spectral type M, luminosity class I, radius ~400RSun . Pollux: spectral type
K, luminosity class III, radius ~10RSun . Proxima Centauri: spectral type
M, luminosity class V, radius ~0.1RSun .
• (p. 324) DX Cancri is the star in Figure 12.10 with the longest main-
sequence lifetime. It is the coolest, least luminous star pictured on this
main sequence, so it will putter along for well over 100 billion years. Its
tiny luminosity means that it is burning its fuel at a very conservative rate.
Section 12.3
• (p. 327) The main-sequence turnoff point for a 10-billion-year-old star
cluster should be around 1LSun , because the Sun itself leaves the main
sequence at an age of around 10 billion years. The turnoff should therefore
be around spectral type G (in a cluster with solar proportions of heavy
elements). All of the original K stars should still remain, but none of the
original A stars will. (Beyond the scope of the book: A few stars called
blue stragglers, which are bluer than the stars at the turnoff point, can be
found in old clusters. These stars probably resulted from relatively recent
mergers of two smaller stars to form a single, more massive star.)
Visual Skills Check

1. b
2. d
3. c
4. luminosity: about 10, 000 LSun ; lifetime: slightly longer than 10 million years
5. luminosity: about 100 LSun ; lifetime: slightly shorter than 1 billion years
6. luminosity: about 10 LSun ; lifetime: approximately 1 billion years

Review Questions
1. A snapshot of the heavens, like a snapshot of a family at a family reunion,
captures many stars at many different phases in their lives. By collecting the
clues from these “snapshots,” we can reconstruct the life of a single star over
millions and even billions of years. Each star cluster is a sample of stars of
nearly identical ages. Observations of star clusters, both elderly and newborn,
provide some of the best sources of information about star lives.
2. Stars are similar in the sense that they all convert hydrogen to helium in
their cores during their main sequence phase, which is the longest phase of
life for any star. They all form from clouds of gas and dust, and all of them
have approximately the same chemical composition as that of the Sun:
three-quarters hydrogen, one-quarter helium, and trace amounts of heavier
elements (up to 2% by mass). They can differ greatly in their size, mass,
surface temperature, and luminosity.
3. A star’s luminosity measures how much energy it radiates into space.
The apparent brightness tells us how bright it seems in our sky. The two
concepts differ because objects that are farther away appear dimmer. This
relationship is described by the inverse square law for light, which says that
the brightness of a star follows an inverse square law with distance, getting
four times dimmer every time we move twice as far away.
4. Stellar parallax is the tiny movement of stars in our sky due to Earth’s
motion around the Sun. Because more distant stars show smaller parallaxes
than closer ones, we can measure the amount that stars move over 6 months
(half of an Earth orbit) and find the distance to the stars. Once we know this,
we can use the apparent brightness of the star along with the inverse square
law for light to determine the star’s luminosity.
5. Spectral types are a way of classifying stars according to their color or what
spectral lines we see in their light. The spectral types run OBAFGKM,
where O stars are the hottest and M are the coolest.
6. There are three kinds of binary star systems. The first is visual binaries,
those in which we can see both stars distinctly as they orbit each other.
The second type of binary system is the eclipsing binary, which we see
by examining the light curve. Light curves of eclipsing binaries show
periodic dimming, corresponding to the time at which one of the stars
passes behind the other and its light is blocked. The final type of binary is
the spectroscopic binary. For these systems, we detect the presence of two
stars (rather than one) by the Doppler shifts in the spectral lines.
Eclipsing binaries are particularly important for finding stellar masses
because we can measure the orbital periods of the stars and the velocities.
(We can get the velocities, in this case, because we know that these systems
orbit in the plane of our line of sight.) With this information, we can
determine the orbital separation and then the masses via Newton’s version
of Kepler’s third law.
7. A sketch of an H-R diagram will look like Figure 12.10. Cool and dim stars
are located in the lower right hand corner. Hot and dim stars are found to the

left and low in the diagram. Hot and luminous stars are in the upper left hand
corner, while cool and luminous stars are in the upper right hand corner.
8. Luminosity classes of stars are designated by Roman numerals and tell us
what region of the H-R diagram the star falls in. We use both spectral type
and luminosity class to completely classify stars because the spectral type
tells us the star’s temperature and the luminosity class tells us its radius.
So, for example, our Sun is a G2 V, where G2 is the spectral type (a yellow-
white star) and V is the luminosity class (our Sun is a main-sequence star).
9. The defining characteristic of a main-sequence star is that it falls along a
specific line on the H-R diagram, and so it exhibits a particular relationship
between luminosity and surface temperature. This relationship occurs because
the more luminous stars have larger masses and therefore have higher rates of
fusion in their cores. Because of the particular relationship between luminosity
and radius along the main sequence, the more massive stars must also be much
hotter than the less massive ones in order to emit their energy from their
surfaces. (Hotter surfaces emit more light per unit area.)
10. Lower mass stars have longer lifetimes than higher mass stars. This is
because the more massive stars are much more luminous than the lower
mass stars. While the more massive stars have more fuel to use up, their
luminosities are so great that they consume their fuel supply faster and
end their main-sequence lives sooner. If stellar luminosities were simply
proportional to stars’ masses, all stars would have the same lifetimes. But
massive stars are so much more luminous for their mass than are low-mass
stars. So the more massive stars live much shorter lives as a result.
11. Giant and supergiant stars have left the main sequence after exhausting their
supplies of hydrogen fuel in their central cores. They release fusion energy
so furiously that they have to expand in order to radiate it away. We know
they are large in radius because they have relatively low temperatures, but
extremely large luminosities. They can be up to 1000 times larger than our
Sun. They differ from main-sequence stars because they are burning fuel in
at least one shell, not in their cores, and they are burning hydrogen much
more quickly.
12. A star’s birth mass is the most important predictor of a star’s lifetime. A star
born with high mass will have a short lifespan; a star born with a low mass
will have a significantly longer lifespan.
13. Open clusters are located in the galactic disk. They contain up to several
thousand stars, are typically about 30 light-years across, and tend to be
young. Globular clusters are quite old, are found in the galactic halo, and
contain more than a million stars.
14. The H-R diagram looks different for clusters of stars because the largest stars
have left the main sequence. This is because all the stars were born together, but
the largest stars have shorter main-sequence lifetimes. We can use the main-
sequence turnoff point to find the age of the cluster because the lifetimes of
stars at that turnoff point are equal to the age of the cluster.

Does It Make Sense?

15. Two stars that look very different must be made of different kinds of
elements. This statement does not make sense because most stars have very
similar proportions of elements. Differences in the appearances of stars arise
primarily because of differences in age and mass, not element content.
16. Two stars that have the same apparent brightness in the sky must also
have the same luminosity. This statement does not make sense. Apparent
brightness depends on both luminosity and distance.
17. Sirius looks brighter than Alpha Centauri, but we know that Alpha Centauri
is closer because its apparent position in the sky shifts by a larger amount
as Earth orbits the Sun. This statement makes sense. The parallax for Alpha
Centauri is larger than that for Sirius because Alpha Centauri is closer to us.
18. Stars that look red-hot have hotter surfaces than stars that look blue. This
statement does not make sense. Blue stars are hotter than red stars.
19. Some of the stars on the main sequence of the H-R diagram are not
converting hydrogen into helium. This statement does not make sense. All
main-sequence stars are converting hydrogen to helium.
20. The smallest, hottest stars are plotted in the lower left-hand portion of the
H-R diagram. This statement makes sense. Temperature on the H-R diagram
increases from right to left, and stellar radii on the same diagram increase
diagonally from lower left to upper right. So the smallest, hottest stars are in
the lower left-hand corner of the H-R diagram.
21. Stars that begin their lives with the most mass live longer than less massive
stars because they have so much more hydrogen fuel. This statement does
not make sense. The most massive stars burn their fuel a lot faster than the
conservative, low-mass stars. They burn fuel at a profligate rate that negates
their size/mass advantage.
22. Star clusters with lots of bright, blue stars of spectral types O and B are
generally younger than clusters that don’t have any such stars. This
statement makes sense. Clusters with no blue stars probably had some blue
stars in the past, but as the clusters aged, the blue stars rapidly died off.
23. All giants, supergiants, and white dwarfs were once main-sequence stars.
This statement makes sense. Giants, supergiants, and white dwarfs are later
stages in the evolution of stars that began life as main-sequence stars.
24. Most of the stars in the sky are more massive than the Sun. This statement
does not make sense. Most of the stars are less massive than the Sun. Many
more low-mass stars are formed than high-mass stars. The high-mass stars
burn out sooner, too, while the low-mass stars persist for billions of years.
Quick Quiz
25. b. get smaller
26. c. apparent brightness and distance
27. a. the time between eclipses and the average distance between the stars
28. c. a K star

29. a. a main-sequence A star

30. c. a main-sequence M star
31. c. a supergiant M star (Students may have to consult Figure 12.10 to confirm.)
32. a. a main-sequence B star
33. c. a cluster containing stars of all colors (because the blue stars are still around)
34. b. a cluster whose brightest main-sequence stars are yellow
Process of Science
35. Cannon’s system organized the stars in a sequence based on the presence
and absence of spectral features and not just on the hydrogen lines. That
system simplified and reordered the previous system significantly. Progress
was more rapid after that because even though no one knew exactly why the
system worked at the time, it turned out to be an excellent way to sort stars
by their surface temperatures. Cannon’s sequence was a sequence of surface
temperature, although she did not know it at the time. Molecular biology
studies are another area of science where improved classification yielded
much more rapid understanding of the relationships among organisms,
because the differences among organisms could be quantified by differences
in their DNA molecules.
36. If high-mass star lifespans are shorter than low-mass star lifespans, and if
stars are born with a range of masses, then there should be star clusters or
galaxies with all old low-mass stars or star clusters and galaxies with a mix
of low and high-mass stars, but no star clusters or galaxies with only
massive stars (and no low-mass protostars).
Group Work Exercise
37. Brief descriptions of the correct answers are provided here. These results are
based on information in Tables F.1 and F.2.
a. Stars by spectral type:
O B A F G K M
Table F.1 0 0 1 1 3 5 17
Table F.2 0 7 5 2 3 4 2
Table F.1 includes two unknown star types, two white dwarfs (DA), and
two brown dwarfs (T-type).
b. Stars by luminosity class (size):
I II III IV V
Table F.1 0 0 0 1 26
Table F.2 5 0 6 4 8
For stars classified as two types, I chose the lowest-number luminosity
class to tabulate here. (There are other legitimate choices, including
splitting 50/50 between classes, or tabulating intermediate classes).
Table F.1 includes two white dwarfs, two brown dwarfs, and two stars
of unknown luminosity class.

c, d. Table F.1 lists the closest stars, and is not biased to only the brightest
stars. (Shorthand: It’s volume-limited, or volume-limited down to a
faint sensitivity.) Table F.2 lists the brightest stars regardless of their
distance, and will include the more rare but far more luminous stars.
Table F.1 is likely to include stars that are more common. Table F.2 is
likely to include stars that are rare, but bright. What we hope students
notice then, is that Table F.1 provides a sense that M stars are by far
the most common star type, and that main-sequence (luminosity class
V) stars are by far the most common luminosity class. However,
because Table F.2 lists the brightest stars, it includes some rare star
types (more I–IV luminosity class stars, more B and A stars).
e. The nearest star of each spectral type:
O B A F G K M
N/A N/A Sirius Procyon Sun Alpha Proxima
(or Alpha Centauri B Centauri
Centauri A)
While Achernar is the nearest bright B star on those tables, it is not
necessarily the nearest B star. Achernar is 144 light-years away, and the
complete list of stars (Table F.1) only goes out to 12 light-years. There
could be a main-sequence B star that is somewhat less luminous than
Achernar but closer, but does not make the brightest star listing. There
are no O stars listed in either table.
f. The brightness limit of Table F.2 is defined by the faintest star in it, Beta
Crucis. An O-star of 30,000 K has a luminosity of about 100,000 solar
luminosities, based on an inspection of the H-R diagrams in this chapter.
To be brighter than the faintest star in Table F.2, such a star would have
to be closer to us than (37,000LSun/100,000LSun)1/2(352 light-years) = 214
light-years. (This calculation uses the luminosity and distance of Beta
Crucis for comparison.) If such a luminous star were closer than about
200 light-years, it would be in the list of the brightest 20 stars.
Short Answer/Essay Questions

38. a. Sirius appears brightest in our sky because it has the smallest
(most negative) apparent magnitude.
b. Regulus appears faintest of the stars on the list because it has the largest
apparent magnitude.
c. Antares has the greatest luminosity of the stars on the list because it has
the smallest (most negative) absolute magnitude.
d. Alpha Centauri A has the smallest luminosity of the stars on the list
because it has the largest absolute magnitude.
e. Sirius has the highest surface temperature of the stars on the list because
its spectral type, A1, is hotter than any other spectral type on the list.
f. Antares has the lowest surface temperature of the stars on the list because
its spectral type, M1, is cooler than any other spectral type on the list.

g. Alpha Centauri A is most similar to the Sun because it has the same
spectral type and luminosity class, G2 V.
h. Antares is a red supergiant; its spectral type M means it is red, and its
luminosity class I indicates a supergiant.
i. Antares has the largest radius because it is the only supergiant on the list.
j. Aldebaran, Antares, and Canopus have luminosity classes other than V,
which means that they have left the main sequence and are no longer
burning hydrogen in their cores.
k. Spica is the most massive of the main-sequence stars listed because it has
the hottest spectral type of the main-sequence stars; thus, it appears higher
on the main sequence of an H-R diagram, where masses are larger.
l. Alpha Centauri A, with spectral type G2, is the coolest and therefore the
longest-lived main-sequence star in the table.
39. The list of the brightest stars will include the very luminous hot stars from
distances greater than 12 light-years, while the list of the fainter yet closer
low-mass stars will not. The list of stars within 12 light-years is “volume
limited,” which means that nearly all of the stars within that distance are
listed regardless of luminosity. Such a list is more representative of the total
population of stars and is more likely to be dominated by low-mass stars.
The list of brightest stars contains only those stars that are above a certain
apparent brightness threshold. Therefore, the faintest nearby stars are left
out, but the brightest and rarer hot stars are included in higher proportion
than they are in a volume-limited list.
40. In Figure 12.10, Proxima Centauri is redder and has a cooler surface
temperature than Sirius. Proxima Centauri is at least 10 times smaller in
radius than Sirius. Both stars are on the main sequence, but Proxima
Centauri is less massive and will have a longer life than Sirius. We can’t tell
from this plot how old each star is or how bright they are in our sky
compared to the others.
41. The parallax of stars, as viewed from the orbit of Jupiter, would be about
five times larger than the parallax from Earth, because Jupiter’s orbit around
the Sun is about five times larger than that of Earth. Parallactic distances
would be easier to measure from Jupiter’s orbit. With the same accuracy of
results, you could measure distances about five times farther than we can
from Earth.
42. If a star doubled in size with no change in luminosity, its surface
temperature would go down, because the surface area of the star would
increase, but its energy output would stay the same, so a lower temperature
would be required to maintain its energy output. Mathematically, the surface
area would go up by a factor of 4, so the temperature would go down by a
1
factor of x, where x 4  or x  1/ 2  0.71 , to maintain a constant
4
luminosity.

43. In Figure 12.8, the blue star is smaller than the red star, so when the blue
star is eclipsed, none of its light reaches Earth. When the red star is eclipsed
by the blue star, some of its light still gets to Earth because it is only
partially eclipsed.
44. Both star systems are at the same distance from Earth, so the fact that one
has an orbit that is large enough to be seen means that the other’s orbit is
physically smaller. Because smaller orbits for a given mass imply larger
velocities, the binary star that is not in a visual binary might be expected
to have the greater Doppler shifts in its spectra. However, a visual binary
with very massive stars could potentially have larger Doppler shifts than
a spectroscopic binary with low-mass stars at the same distance.
(Students’ reasoning is important in grading this question.)
45. This is an essay question. The key points are that stars of all colors (with
colors and luminosities described by the main sequence) form as the cluster
is born, and the bluest, most massive ones evolve away from the main
sequence first. The cluster starts life with a complete main sequence; after
13 billion years, only stars somewhat less massive than the Sun remain on
the main sequence, while the more massive stars have gone on to become
giants and supergiants, many of which will have either exploded or left
behind white dwarfs.
46. We don’t need the value of an AU to do this problem, because the apparent
brightness (flux) of the Sun scales with distance.
dnew 1
Distance from Sun New Apparent Brightness
(dnew) 1 AU (dnew /1 AU)2 (watts/m2)
a. 1/2 AU 1/2 4 4  1300 = 5200
b. 2 AU 2 1/4 0.25  1300 = 325
c. 5 AU 5 1/25 0.04  1300 = 52
47. a. We rearrange the formula for the inverse square law for light to solve for
the luminosity:
L
apparent brightness   L  (apparent brightness)  4   d 2
4  d 2
Now we need to convert the values for distance and apparent brightness
into standard units. A light-year is about 9.5 trillion kilometers, or 9.5 
1015 m, so Alpha Centauri’s distance of 4.4 light-years = 4.2  1016 m.
Combining this with its apparent brightness in our night sky of 2.7 
10–8 watt/m2, we find:
 watt 
L   2.7  108 2   4  (4.2  1016 m) 2  6.0  1026 watts
 m 
Note that the luminosity of Alpha Centauri A, about 6.0  1026 watts, is
similar to that of our Sun.

b. In this problem, we must solve for the distance of a lightbulb with a

luminosity of 100 watts and an apparent brightness of 2.7  10–8
watt/m2. First, we solve the formula for the distance. We begin with the
formula for the inverse square law:
luminosity
apparent brightness 
4   (distance)2
Multiply both sides by distance2 and divide by (apparent brightness):
luminosity
(distance)2 
4   (apparent brightness)
Take the square root of both sides:
luminosity
distance 
4   (apparent brightness)
Now we plug in the numbers to find the distance of the lightbulb:
100 watts
distance   2.9  108 m 2  1.7  10 4 m
4   2.7  10 watt/m
8 2
The lightbulb must be located at a distance of 17,000 meters, or 17

kilometers, to have the same apparent brightness as Alpha Centauri A.
48. a. A star with the same luminosity as our Sun but at a distance of 10 light-
years would have an apparent brightness of
L 3.8 1026 watts watt
  3.35 109 2
4r 2

2
m
 m 
4  10 ly   9.5  1015 
  ly  

b. A star with the same apparent brightness as Alpha Centauri but located
at a distance of 200 light-years has an intrinsic luminosity of
2
 m  watt 
L  4    200 ly  9.5  1015    2.7  108 2   1.2 1030 watts
 ly   m 
or 3200 solar luminosities.
c. If a star has a luminosity of 8  1026 watts and an apparent brightness of
3.5  1012 watt/m2, its distance is (using F for apparent brightness)
L 8 1026 watts
d   4.3 1018 m  4.3 1015 km
4F  watt 
4   3.5 1012 2 
 m 
 450 light-years

d. If a star has a luminosity of 5  1029 watts and an apparent brightness of

9  10–15 watt/m2, its distance is (using F for apparent brightness)
L 5 1029 watts
d   2.11021 m  2.11018 km
4F  watt 
4   9 1015 2 
 m 
 220, 000 light-years
Note that this star lies outside the Milky Way Galaxy.
49. a. Alpha Centauri: parallax angle of 0.742. Using the parallax formula,
we find that the distance to Alpha Centauri is
1
d  1.35 pc  4.39 light-years
0.742 
Because 1 parsec is 3.26 light-years, this is the same as 4.39 light-years.
b. Procyon: parallax angle of 0.286. Using the parallax formula, we find
that the distance to Procyon is
1
d  3.5 pc  11.4 light-years
0.286
Because 1 parsec is 3.26 light-years, this is the same as 11.4 light-years.
50. Sirius has a luminosity of 26LSun and a surface temperature of 9400 K, so its
radius is
L 26  3.8 1026 watts
r 4
  1.3 109 m
4  T  watt 
4    5.7 108 2 2   (9400 K )4
 m K 
or about twice the radius of the Sun.

Chapter 13. Star Stuff

This chapter covers star birth and stellar evolution, highlighting the role that stars
play in creating the elements necessary for life. The battle between pressure and
gravity provides the drama, and the saga of the lives of stars is the main focus of
our discussion. We have reworked the discussion of equilibrium in this chapter,
to better articulate the role of both energy equilibrium (the balance between the
energy rate generated by processes in the star or in the cloud and the luminosity
of the star or cloud) and gravitational equilibrium (pressure balancing gravity).
We begin the chapter with a discussion of star birth, with a focus on the physical
processes occurring inside the molecular clouds. We close that section with a
discussion of the limits on stellar masses (both high and low), and we provide
the narrative for the evolution of two main categories of stars, high-mass and
low-mass stars. The focus is on the passage from equilibrium to non-equilibrium,
using and expanding on physical concepts developed in previous chapters.
Key Changes for the 8th Edition: We made no major changes to the structure
or content of this chapter, but we did do minor text updates and figure changes
to improve flow and clarity. We added several new narrated figures on the
MasteringAstronomy website that should help students review and understand
stellar evolution.

Section 13.1 Star Birth
This section explains where and why stars form. We can now begin to explore
what happens in a gas cloud that is not in energy equilibrium or gravitational
equilibrium.
• This is the first chapter in which we use the term thermal pressure instead
of pressure. We will need to distinguish between the various sources of
pressure in order to talk about star birth and stellar evolution in the next
chapter.
• Cosmic Calculation 13.1 provides a simple expression (and an example)
for the mass of a molecular cloud that is in balance as a function of its
temperature T (in Kelvins) and its density (in number of particles per cubic
centimeter). This calculation allows the students to estimate how massive
a cloud must be for gravity to begin collapsing the cloud to form stars. The
Jeans mass is not identified by name, however.
• We discuss the stages of protostellar evolution in three subsections: “From
Cloud to Protostar,” “Disks and Jets,” and “From Protostar to the Main
Sequence.” Some of this material overlaps the discussion of solar system
formation in Chapter 6.

• We use the term life track instead of evolutionary track to describe a star’s
path through the H-R diagram. We are not avoiding the term evolution.
We simply find that students understand “life track” more quickly than
“evolutionary track” because the life track is the path traced by an
individual star through the H-R diagram; students associate evolution
with something that happens during multiple generations of individuals.
• We introduce the term degeneracy pressure in the context of stars in this
chapter. It is described in terms of its function in preventing brown dwarfs
from becoming main-sequence stars.
• We have completely eradicated the use of the term “hydrogen burning”
from this edition, to avoid feeding the “Sun is on fire” misconception. We
have replaced the term with “hydrogen fusion” or “fusing hydrogen to
create helium,” as appropriate.
Section 13.2 Life as a Low-Mass Star

This section and the next discuss the subject of stellar evolution by returning to
the idea of gravitational equilibrium and explaining that the tug-of-war between
gravity and thermal pressure is what governs a star’s life. If students understand
that all the changes a star goes through are driven by the need to balance pressure
and gravity, they will have a much easier time understanding how stars evolve.
For this book, we define low-mass stars as those with mass less than 8MSun and
high-mass stars as those with mass more than 8MSun—that is, stars that end their
lives as white dwarfs and stars that end up as supernovae. We do not discuss
intermediate-mass stars between 2 and 8 solar masses explicitly, as single-
semester courses do not allow time to cover this next level of sophistication.
Section 13.2 describes how a low-mass star progresses from birth to death,
covering the transition to the red giant stage, hydrogen shell fusion, helium
fusion, the horizontal branch of the H-R diagram, and planetary nebulae.
You might be interested to add to the discussion the following points if your
course emphasizes the origins of elements:
• High-mass stars are often given all the credit for producing the elements
necessary for life, but most of the carbon in the universe does not come
from the stars that explode. Late in their lives, the more massive low-mass
stars (those beginning with around 2MSun) expel dredged-up carbon from
the carbon-burning core via winds and planetary nebulae. These stars are
the source of most carbon in the universe.
• The atmospheres of some red giant stars are more oxygen-rich than
carbon-rich, and these stars tend to produce silicate dust grains rather than
carbon grains. We avoid mentioning them here, but the mass of interstellar
dust in the form of silicates is roughly equal to the mass in the form of
carbon particles.
We have found that one of the best ways to engage students is to relate
astronomical phenomena to life on Earth. To that end, this section concludes with
speculation about the fate of Earth once the Sun exhausts its core hydrogen.
Vividly telling this story in class may help students remember the evolutionary

stages of low-mass stars. Working with them to sort out the stages themselves, as
part of a class activity and/or a MasteringAstronomy task, will be even better.
Section 13.3 Life as a High-Mass Star

This section traces the life of a high-mass star. It includes discussions of the CNO
cycle, advanced nuclear fusion, the difficulty of extracting energy from iron, and
supernovae.
• The text explains that higher-mass stars fuse hydrogen via the CNO cycle
because their higher core temperatures enable hydrogen to fuse to heavier
nuclei, but it does not explain why lower-mass stars use the proton-proton
chain rather than the CNO cycle. The reason has to do with the need for
protons to decay to neutrons via weak interactions. In the proton-proton
chain, fusion of two protons into deuterium requires this decay to happen
on a very short timescale, making successful fusion highly improbable in
any one proton-proton collision. The CNO cycle circumvents this
bottleneck because it creates unstable isotopes that can take their time
decaying. Thus, it is strongly preferred when core temperatures are high
enough.
• Beyond the scope of the book: Intermediate-mass stars create helium from
hydrogen via the CNO cycle during their main-sequence lives, but they
never fuse their way up the period table all the way to iron and therefore do
not explode as supernovae. The initial mass cutoff separating these stars
from high-mass stars that do explode is still somewhat uncertain. Analyses
of the main-sequence turnoff points in star clusters that contain white
dwarfs indicate that the cutoff must be at least as high as 8MSun.
• Supernovae remnants are discussed near the end of this section, but they
are covered in more detail in Chapter 14.
• Cosmic Context Figure 13.23 provides a two-page pictorial summary of
stellar lives that can serve as a study aid for visually oriented students.
Section 13.4 Stars in Close Binaries

This last section describes how mass transfer in close binary systems can alter the
standard pathways of stellar evolution.
• This section helps prepare students for the following chapter, in which
mass transfer onto white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes receives
considerable attention.
• In the interests of focusing on the “big picture,” we avoid going into the
nomenclature of close binaries (e.g., contact binaries, common-envelope
systems). Our primary goal is to provide an example of what can happen
when stars transfer mass, not to enumerate all the possibilities.


Questions
Section 13.2
• (p. 342) A star grows larger and brighter after core hydrogen is exhausted
because hydrogen then begins to fuse in a shell around the core. Shell
fusion proceeds at a much higher temperature than core fusion, resulting
in a much larger luminosity that causes the star to expand. The red giant
stage halts either when helium starts to fuse in the core or when the
overlying hydrogen envelope is gone. If the temperature required for core
helium to begin fusing were larger, helium core fusion would begin later,
after the red giant star had grown even larger and more luminous.
• (p. 344) If the universe contained only low-mass stars, elements heavier
than carbon would be very rare, because the core temperatures of most
low-mass stars are insufficient for fusing other nuclei to carbon.
(However, stars on the upper end of the low-mass range can fuse
helium to carbon, making some oxygen.)
Section 13.3
• (p. 350) If hydrogen had the lowest mass per nuclear particle, nuclear
fusion would be impossible, so stars would not give off any energy other
than that released by gravitational contraction. All stars would be like
brown dwarfs—bad news for life!
• (p. 352, SIFY) This describes the classic tennis ball–basketball illustration
of core bounce. This demo is fun to try in class.
• (p. 353) This is a good topic for class discussion about how important the
night sky was to various cultures; Betelgeuse’s demise will be visible to
nearly anyone who can view the sky.

Visual Skills Check
1. approximately 10LSun
2. approximately 3500 K
3. approximately 104 LSun
4. approximately 104 LSun
Review Questions
1. A molecular cloud is a collection of the coldest and densest interstellar gas,
typically with low temperatures (10–30 K). At these cold temperatures, not
far above absolute zero, gas is in molecular form, most commonly molecular

hydrogen. A molecular cloud with sufficiently high mass does not have
enough thermal pressure to prevent the cloud from collapsing under its own
weight. The collapsing cloud breaks into fragments, which heat up and spin.
Early on, much of this heat is lost to radiation, so the cloud fails to provide
thermal pressure support against the ongoing collapse. However, as the
density of the cloud increases, radiation finds it more difficult to escape and
is trapped; heat is no longer radiated as quickly as before. At this phase, we
call the cloud fragment a protostar.
2. Protostars rotate rapidly because they form from much larger clouds. Even if
the original cloud was turning only very slowly, the collapsing cloud spins
faster because of conservation of angular momentum, and the resulting
protostar rotates rapidly. A close binary system can form when gravitational
interactions between binary protostars and neighboring protostars and gas
fragments remove angular momentum from the binary system, causing the
orbits of the binary stars to become more compact.
3. A spinning disk of gas surrounds a protostar because, as a cloud collapses
and spins faster, collisions between the gas particles of the cloud cause the
cloud to flatten into a disk, as in our own solar system. Shedding angular
momentum seems to be one of a protostar’s main tasks. One way to get rid
of angular momentum is to transfer a large amount of angular momentum to
a small number of particles, which fly away in protostellar winds or even
jets along the rotation axis of the protostar. Because of the loss of angular
momentum, the rotation of the protostar will gradually slow down.
4. The minimum mass for a star is 0.08 solar mass. Below this mass,
degeneracy pressure halts the collapse of the core before it gets hot enough
to start fusion. The maximum mass for stars is around 150 solar masses.
This limit is set by the rate that such a star generates energy. In stars larger
than 150 solar masses, energy is generated so furiously that the extra mass is
blown away into space.
A brown dwarf is an object in which degeneracy pressure halted the
collapse of the protostar before fusion began, making it a “failed star.”
5. Degeneracy pressure is a quantum mechanical effect that halts the
contraction of protostars with masses less than 0.08 solar mass. Unlike
thermal pressure, degeneracy pressure depends only on density and not on
temperature. Because degeneracy pressure does not weaken as a star’s core
cools, it will continue to support a core even when the core becomes cold.
6. When the Sun exhausts its core hydrogen, the core will begin shrinking and
hydrogen fusion will begin in a shell around the core. The atmosphere of the
Sun will balloon and redden, hence the term red giant. This stage is called
hydrogen shell fusion. The core eventually shrinks and heats to the point at
which helium fusion can begin. Once this becomes the source of core
energy, the Sun’s surface shrinks and gets bluer/hotter, and it is now a
helium-fusing star. Once the core helium is exhausted, the inert carbon core
begins shrinking, and once again, shell fusion begins around the core,
inflating the outer gas layers of the Sun. It becomes a larger red giant than

before, but in this stage it is a double shell–fusion star, fusing helium on the
inner shell and hydrogen on the outer. However, the shrinking core of the
Sun is unable to achieve the temperatures required for carbon ignition, and
so the unstable outer layers are lost, leaving behind the former solar core as
a white dwarf.
7. Because helium nuclei have two protons, and therefore twice the charge of
hydrogen nuclei, they repel one another more strongly. Therefore, the nuclei
must slam into one another at much higher speeds than is needed for
hydrogen fusion, requiring much higher temperatures. Before helium fusion
begins, the core is supported by degeneracy pressure. This means that it
does not expand as the core heats up, so that when the helium fusion begins,
the core is very dense and very hot. This causes the helium fusion rate to
rocket upward rapidly, resulting in the helium flash.
8. A planetary nebula is a glowing shell of gas that was once the outer layers
of a star. The gas glows because the hot core’s ultraviolet light ionizes the
gas. The core, now exposed, will cool with time and become a white dwarf.
9. As the Sun evolves and becomes more luminous, Earth’s climate will
eventually no longer be able to regulate itself and will experience a runaway
greenhouse effect such as that which occurred on Venus. As the Sun
becomes a red giant, it will expand to nearly Earth’s orbit. Earth may be
destroyed in this stage.
10. A life track is the path that a single star takes through an H-R diagram over
the course of its life. The star begins on the main sequence seen in Figure
13.13 and spends most of its life there. Eventually, hydrogen fusion in the
core must end, and the star expands to a subgiant as the core shrinks and the
overall star expands, powered by shell fusion. Over a period of about a
billion years, the star will grow in radius into a red giant. Eventually, the
core temperature reaches about 100 million K, and the helium there can
begin fusion. When this happens, the fusion starts suddenly and strongly,
producing a great deal of energy, which then heats and expands the shell
outside the core, causing fusion there to stop. When this happens, the star
becomes less luminous and actually shrinks until helium fusion ceases.
When the helium fusion ends, the core again contracts, and shell fusion
begins again. This time, there will be two shells of fusion: one of hydrogen
and one of helium. The star again swells into a red giant. The outer layers of
the star are no longer attached to the star very strongly and can blow off into
space, creating a planetary nebula. Eventually, the shell fusion also ends,
and the core of the star, now exposed, becomes a white dwarf.
11. High-mass stars go through their lives more quickly than low-mass stars.
In part this is because, during their main-sequence lifetimes, they fuse
hydrogen via the CNO cycle, which produces more energy. After their
main-sequence lifetimes, high-mass stars begin fusing a series of heavier
and heavier elements in their cores. But eventually, high-mass stars reach a
stage in which they have iron cores and cannot fuse any elements together to
produce more energy. When this happens, the star explodes as a supernova.

12. The simplest sequences of fusion are helium capture reactions, where
helium nuclei fuse with other nuclei. This builds carbon into oxygen,
oxygen into neon, neon into magnesium, and so on. Also, at the high
temperatures in the high-mass stars’ cores, heavy nuclei can be fused
together, so carbon can be combined with oxygen to form silicon, two
oxygen nuclei can create sulfur, and so forth.
These reactions all require high temperatures, which low-mass stars
cannot produce. So low-mass stars are never able to use these reactions to
power themselves as the high-mass stars do.
13. Iron cannot be fused to release energy because, for elements heavier than
iron, the mass per nuclear particle increases, so fusing two iron nuclei
requires more energy than it produces.
14. One piece of evidence that supports our theories about how the elements
form in high-mass stars is the chemical composition of older stars. Our
theory predicts that the older stars should have fewer heavy elements in
their compositions. Observations indicate that this is so. Another piece of
evidence supporting our theories is the relative abundance of the various
elements. For example, because helium-capture reactions are an important
series of reactions in high-mass stars, we expect to see more elements with
even numbers of protons than odd numbers of protons (Figure 13.19). This
predicted pattern agrees with the observations quite well.
15. When high-mass stars reach the stage of iron cores, degeneracy pressure will
briefly support the core against collapse. However, this situation cannot last
because gravity pushes the electrons past the limits and degeneracy pressure
fails. In a fraction of a second, the iron core shrinks from the size of Earth to a
ball a few kilometers across. The contraction is halted by neutron degeneracy
pressure. The contraction releases an enormous amount of energy that blows
the outer layers away from the star in a supernova explosion.
After the supernova, the core is left exposed. If the neutron degeneracy
pressure is strong enough to resist gravity, a neutron star is left over.
However, if even the neutron degeneracy pressure is insufficient to resist
gravity, the core collapses into a black hole.
Theoretical models reproduce the energy outputs of real supernovae,
indicating that our understanding of supernovae is pretty good. Also, when
Supernova 1987A occurred, we were able to look at the pre-supernova star
and see that most of our predictions about the evolution of the star were
fairly accurate.
16. In the binary system Algol, the stars should be the same age, yet the bigger
star is still on the main sequence and the smaller star is in the subgiant
phase. This is called the Algol paradox. Stellar evolution models say that the
more massive star should live its life faster and die more quickly, yet the
reverse appears to have occurred. The resolution to this paradox is that the
subgiant star was once more massive and lived its life faster. As it expanded,
it spilled its mass onto its companion. Mass transfer caused the companion

to grow and the subgiant to shrink. This mass exchange allows stars with
companions to change their masses throughout their lives, altering the life
tracks in ways that cannot occur for single isolated stars.
Does It Make Sense?
17. The iron in my blood came from a star that blew up more than 4 billion
years ago. This statement makes sense. The iron in the solar system was
created before our Sun was formed about 4.6 billion years ago. Because iron
is created in high-mass stars and delivered into interstellar space by
supernova explosions, the supernova (or supernovae) responsible for
creating the solar system’s iron must have occurred before the Sun formed.
18. I discovered stars being born within a patch of extremely low-density, hot
interstellar gas. This statement does not make sense. Hot interstellar gas has
higher thermal pressure than the cold molecular clouds where stars are born.
But more critically, if it is extremely low density, it is far less likely to have
enough mass (or equivalently, gravity) to collapse and form stars.
19. Humanity will eventually have to find another planet to live on, because one
day the Sun will blow up as a supernova. This statement does not make
sense. The Sun will eject a planetary nebula and fade away as a white dwarf.
It is not massive enough to explode as a supernova. However, if humanity
survives that long, we will probably have to find another place to live.
20. I sure am glad hydrogen has a higher mass per nuclear particle than many
other elements. If it had the lowest mass per nuclear particle, none of us
would be here. This statement makes sense. Iron has the lowest mass per
nuclear particle, making it the end of the road for stellar energy production
through fusion. If hydrogen had the lowest mass, it would be the end of the
road, and none of the other elements would form via fusion in stars. Stars
would be powered only by gravitational contraction, an energy source that
does not last very long compared to the time needed for humans to evolve.
21. If the Sun had been born 4.5 billion years ago as a high-mass star rather
than as a low-mass star, Jupiter would have Earth-like conditions today,
while Earth would be hot like Venus. This statement does not make sense.
If the Sun had been born as a high-mass star 4.5 billion years ago, it would
have exploded as a supernova a long time ago.
22. If you could look inside the Sun today, you’d find that its core contains a
much higher proportion of helium and a lower proportion of hydrogen than
it did when the Sun was born. This statement makes sense. Because the Sun
is about halfway through its hydrogen-burning life, it has turned about half
the core hydrogen into helium.
23. I just discovered a 3.5MSun main-sequence star orbiting a 2.5MSun red giant.
I’ll bet that red giant was more massive than the 3.5MSun star when it was a
main-sequence star. This statement makes sense. The 2.5MSun red giant had
to be more massive than its companion at some point in the past in order for
it to be more advanced in its evolutionary state than its companion.

24. Globular clusters generally contain lots of white dwarfs. This statement
makes sense because globular clusters contain lots of old stars. Because the
end-states of low-mass stars are white dwarfs, one would expect globular
clusters to have lots of them.
25. After hydrogen fusion stops in a low-mass star, its core cools off until the
star becomes a red giant. This statement does not make sense. Hydrogen
fusion stops because the core has run out of hydrogen to fuse, but is not yet
hot enough to fuse helium. So the core of a red giant shrinks and heats up (it
does not cool off).
26. The uranium in nuclear reactors comes from supernova explosions. This
statement makes sense because elements heavier than iron are formed in
supernova explosions. A gold atom is heavier than an iron atom, so gold
falls into this category.
Quick Quiz
27. a. cold and dense
28. a. an object not quite massive enough to be a star
29. b. a red supergiant (because it is undergoing advanced nuclear fusion,
which requires higher temperatures than the hydrogen fusion that occurs
in the cores of the other answer choices)
30. a. a red giant
31. b. goes down (because the star’s size decreases)
32. c. Nuclear fusion would not occur in stars of any mass.
33. a. Supernovae would be more common (because more common, lower-
mass stars end as supernovae).
34. b. a white dwarf
35. c. a 1MSun star in a close binary system with a 2MSun star (Because the
2MSun star will evolve more quickly; then the 1MSun star will gain
material from its companion and evolve more quickly than the other
answer choices.)
36. a. It shrinks and heats up.
Process of Science
37. a. The Sun has a finite mass and is radiating energy at a steady rate. Even
if it could convert all of its mass into energy (somehow), it could not
supply Earth with heat and light forever.
b. The Sun’s core, according to our models, is slowly being converted into
helium. Eventually, there will not be enough hydrogen to support
hydrogen fusion, but the core temperature will not yet be able to support
helium fusion, according to our understanding of nuclear physics and
fusion reactions. We can also see that old globular clusters are full of red
giants, suggesting that the red giant phase is an advanced stage of stellar
evolution.
c. White dwarf masses are consistent with their being the remnants of
solar-mass stars.

38. One would expect older brown dwarfs to be cooler than the younger ones.
One way to test this would be to estimate brown dwarf surface temperatures
with infrared observations of star clusters of a range of ages.
Group Work Exercise
39. These answers given here simply suggest interpretations of the figures that
students might use in assessing the predictions; one needs to be able to
assume that the ages of star clusters indicated on the figures are accurate in
order to evaluate the predictions. This exercise asks students to look back at
figures in Chapter 12.
a. Figure 12.17 shows data from four clusters, and the O stars only appear
in the youngest clusters.
b. This would be hard to verify, since the products of a star’s element
production do not appear on their surface until after the star dies, unless
some dredging by convection occurs. Computer models might be used to
examine this question, but the data presented in these figures cannot help.
c. One could compare F stars in star clusters with a range of ages (and
known distances). Figure 12.17 suggests that old F stars (Hyades) have a
wider range of luminosities than young F stars (NGC 188).
d. As in part (c), one could look at the O stars in young star clusters
and see if their average surface temperature changes with cluster age.
The single cluster shown in Figure 12.18 shows O stars with a range
of temperatures, but it’s hard to tell whether they became that way or
started that way.
e. Evaluating this prediction is tricky, because K and M stars both have
expected lifetimes longer than the current age of the universe. So all the
K and M stars ever made are still alive. The indirect argument must be
made for the trend in mass, luminosity, and temperature.
f. Find stars of mass similar to the Sun in clusters that are also red and
luminous, and estimate their radii from their luminosities and surface
temperatures. This prediction would be difficult to evaluate based
on the data in the figures alone.
g. As in part (e), K stars have a main-sequence lifetime of 100 billion
years, so none have made that transition yet. The figures can’t be used
directly to evaluate this prediction.
h. Old star clusters should have a lot of white dwarfs; young star clusters
should have few to none. Only Figure 12.18, a diagram of an old stellar
cluster, shows lots of white dwarfs; however, the white dwarfs are faint.
It’s not clear if the observations used to make Figure 12.17 were
sensitive enough to see white dwarfs. But it would be straightforward to
make such observations.
i. The white dwarfs on Figure 12.18 cluster around a single radius line (of
~0.01 solar radius). So they neither increase in radius nor shrink.


40. Both brown dwarfs and jovian planets are formed of hydrogen and helium
gas yet are not massive enough to ignite hydrogen fusion in their cores.
Both types of objects could be a companion to a regular main-sequence
star. Brown dwarfs are like stars in the sense that they are composed of
hydrogen and helium gas, they are more massive than a jovian planet, and
they are thought to start out as protostars. Planets are thought to form in
protoplanetary disks around stars. It is nontrivial to differentiate between a
massive jovian planet and a low-mass brown dwarf orbiting a star.
41. The answers to the parts of this question revolve around several features of
stars: their lifetimes compared to the time presumably required to spawn an
advanced civilization and their effects on complex life forms that rely on a
protective environment, such as an atmosphere or an ocean, and a steady
source of energy to survive. Assumptions about all of these features are, of
course, debatable. Informed answers will address the stage of life each star
is in, what stages of life it has passed through, what may have happened to a
planet in that time, and how long the star has lived so far. Here are sample
answers:
a. A 10MSun star has a very short lifetime. It also produces copious
amounts of ultraviolet radiation that may discourage the development
of living organisms.
b. A 1.5MSun star has a lifetime of a few billion years and produces light
similar to that of our Sun. It seems reasonable to imagine it being orbited
by a planet with a civilization.
c. A 1.5MSun red giant is a temporary stage of life for a low-mass star. If an
advanced civilization had already developed around this star, which is
possible, then it may have had the resources to respond to its expanding,
reddened sun.
d. A 1MSun horizontal branch star is a late-stage low-mass-star that is
fusing helium. Life had time to develop, but it would have had to be
very clever and have sufficient natural resources as well as a lot of
cooperation to persist.
e. A red supergiant is a late-stage high-mass star in the advanced state of
nuclear fusion—that is, it is fusing elements heavier than helium in its
core. Its envelope is gigantic. Its age at this point is rather young because
massive stars live short lives. With our stated assumptions, an advanced
civilization probably would not have enough time to develop around
such a star.
42. Helium fuses into carbon when three helium nuclei (atomic number 2)
combine into one carbon nucleus (atomic number 6), therefore bypassing the
elements lithium, beryllium, and boron, with atomic numbers 3 through 5.
Therefore, fusion processes in the cores of stars do not form these three
elements. (Beyond the scope of this book: Trace amounts of lithium and
perhaps beryllium and boron formed in the Big Bang. Most of the beryllium
and boron may have formed via collisions between cosmic rays and heavier

elements. The exact origin of these elements is still a topic of astronomical

research. These three elements are also rather fragile and tend to be
destroyed in the cores of stars rather than being created there.)
43. The Sun will have an angular size of 30°. The setting position moves
through the sky—360°—once every 24 hours. So at 30°, or 121 of 360°, the
Sun will take 121 of 24 hours = 2 hours to set, from the moment the edge
touches the horizon to the time it vanishes below the horizon. (Compare that
to the approximately 2 minutes it takes the 0.5° Sun to set now.) The color
of the sky should be substantially different, because the light emitted by the
Sun will be much redder than it is today. There will be much less blue light
to scatter around any surviving atmosphere. There will be plenty of light. Of
course, the perception of the color may change over time. If the atmosphere
does not survive the onslaught of the red giant Sun, the color of the sky will
be black, as it is on the Moon.
44. This question involves outside research. Answers will vary, depending on
the historical supernova chosen.
45. From Cosmic Calculation 13.1, we know that the critical mass needed for a
cloud to collapse is
T3
M balance  18MSun
n
We are told that the temperature, T, is 10 K and the density, n, is 100,000
molecules per cubic centimeter, so we can find the critical mass: 1.8MSun.
The mass of the Sun is 2  1033 g, so the cloud’s mass in grams is 3.6  1033
g. To get the radius, we will first need to convert this mass to a volume and
then find the radius from the volume. The density of the cloud in grams per
cubic centimeter can be found by taking the density in molecules per cubic
centimeter and multiplying by the mass per molecule. Suppose we assume
that all of the molecules are hydrogen with a mass of 3.3  10–24 g, so that
the density is 3.3  10–19 g/cm3. Because density is mass over volume, we can
solve to get:
mass
volume 
density
The volume of the cloud is therefore 1.09  1052 cm3. Assuming that the
cloud is spherical, we can solve the formula for the volume of a sphere to
get the radius:
3  volume
r 3
4
Using our volume, this leads to a radius of 1.38  1017 cm. Converting to
meters gives us 1.38  1015 m. Converting to light-years gives 0.145 light-
year. So, the cloud would need to be at least 0.145 light-year in radius to
start star formation.

46. Assuming the Sun expanded so that its radius was the same as Earth’s
orbital distance (1 AU), we can use the formula for the volume of a sphere
to find the volume of the Sun:
4
volume =  r 3
3
We know from Appendix E that 1 AU is 1.496  108 km, or 1.496  1013 cm.
(We will use centimeters to make it easier to compare the densities later.) So,
we can calculate the volume as 1.40  1020 cm3.
What will the Sun’s density be if this is the volume? To find density, we
take the mass over the volume. We have the volume, and we know, from
Appendix E again, that the mass of the Sun is 2  1033 g. Thus, the density is
1.43  10–7 g/cm3. This density is much, much less than the density of water
and quite a bit less than the density of air at sea level.
47. We know from Cosmic Calculation 11.1 that the apparent brightness of a
star is given by the following formula:
L
Apparent brightness =
4 d2
We can set up a ratio of the brightness of Betelgeuse to the brightness of Sirius:
LBetelgeuse
Apparent brightness of Betelgeuse 4  dBetelgeuse
2

Apparent brightness of Sirius LSirius
4  dSirius
2
We can simplify this with a bit of algebra:

2
apparent brightness of Betelgeuse LBetelgeuse  dSirius 
  
apparent brightness of Sirius LSirius  d Betelgeuse 
We insert the numbers given into this formula:

2
apparent brightness of Betelgeuse 10 LSun  8.6 light-years 
10
4
    6.88 10
apparent brightness of Sirius 26LSun  643 light-years 
If Betelgeuse exploded as a supernova, it would appear 6.88  104 times
brighter in our sky than Sirius.
48. a. Because each carbon atom has 6 protons, the total number of protons in
two carbon atoms is 12, making a magnesium nucleus.
b. A carbon nucleus has 6 protons and a neon nucleus has 10, so the
combination of these nuclei makes a sulfur nucleus, with 16 protons.
c. An iron nucleus has 26 protons and a helium nucleus has just 2. When
we combine these nuclei, we get 28 protons—a nickel nucleus.
49. Newton’s version of Kepler’s third law is written as follows:
4 2 3
p 
2
a
GM total

We can solve for the orbital separation:

GM total
a 3 p2
4 2
The total mass of the two stars is 4.5MSun. The mass of the Sun is 2  1030 kg,
so the total mass of the system is 9.0  1030 kg. The orbital period is given as
2.87 days, which we can convert to 248,000 seconds. Using these numbers,
we find that the orbital separation is 9.97  109 m (or 1010 m). The text tells us
that the Sun will eventually swell to 100 times its radius, making the radius
about 7  1010 m when it becomes a red giant. Thus, the distance between
these two stars is less than the typical radius of a red giant.

Chapter 14. The Bizarre Stellar Graveyard

This chapter covers the end points of stellar evolution: white dwarfs, neutron
stars, and black holes. Students often enter an astronomy course interested in and
enthusiastic about these objects and may find this to be one of their favorite
chapters in the book. The chapter also addresses the topic of gamma-ray bursts
(GRBs). In the last decade, the locations of GRBs were identified to be distant
galaxies, so the main mystery is no longer where they are, but what causes them.
Key Changes for the 8th Edition: The content and the approach of this chapter
have received major updates. Mergers of compact objects and the decay of orbits
mediated by gravitational waves are themes that emerge across many topics in
this chapter, and gravitational waves themselves are an emergent area of study in
astrophysics.
• Our discussion of white dwarf supernovae has been updated in light of
recent discoveries and the hypothesis that white dwarf supernovae result
from the merger of two white dwarfs. We remain (properly) agnostic about
this hypothesis, but mention the merger idea, sometimes called the “double
degenerate progenitor model,” in this chapter. We also discuss the role of
gravitational waves in making mergers possible, and extend that idea to
other compact objects later in the chapter.
• We have also added discussion of neutron-star mergers and the new idea
that such mergers are the most likely sources of gold, platinum, and rare
earth elements. This conclusion is based on plausibility arguments about
how often these mergers could happen, together with the fact that there are
severe limitations on conventional production sources for those elements,
and takes into consideration the principles of nuclear astrophysics.
• An Extraordinary Claims feature presents stories about the development
of the ideas we discuss in this chapter. While this material was covered in
previous editions, it supports our theme “Extraordinary Claims,
Extraordinary Evidence.”
• Section 14.4 was retitled “Extreme Events” and was almost completely
rewritten to focus on events in which black holes may form and on mergers
of black holes; Figure 14.21 and the associated discussion introduce the
first LIGO detection of gravitational waves from a black hole merger. We
added a new Learning Goal for this section: “What happens when black
holes merge?”


Section 14.1 White Dwarfs
This section discusses white dwarfs and the consequences of mass transfer in a
close binary that contains a white dwarf. Here is where we cover white dwarf
supernovae (aka Type Ia) and the differences between supernova light curves.
• In order to keep the terminology as descriptive as possible, we call
1.4MSun the white dwarf limit rather than the Chandrasekhar limit.
• In the same vein, we use the term white dwarf supernova when referring to
the supernovae that come from exploding white dwarfs and massive star
supernova when referring to the supernovae that come from exploding
massive stars. Even professional astronomers sometimes have trouble
keeping the Type Ia, Type Ib, Type II nomenclature straight! A footnote
explains these terms, should you want to use them in class.
• A simple in-class way to reinforce the idea that friction is what heats
accretion disks is to have the students rub their hands together until they
heat up.
• A Special Topic feature, “Relativity and the Cosmic Speed Limit,”
investigates this interesting idea.
Section 14.2 Neutron Stars

This section covers neutron stars and their manifestations as pulsars, X-ray
binaries, and X-ray bursters.
• With regard to neutron star mergers and their role in producing gold,
platinum, and rare earth elements: About half of the heavy elements
beyond iron are produced by the r-process. The other half is produced
by the s-process (slow neutron capture) in evolved stars. However,
comparisons of model predictions with stellar abundances have revealed
that massive star supernova cannot be the only source of r-process
elements (traced observationally by the abundance of europium). This
insight has led to suggestions that neutron star mergers play a key role
in producing gold, platinum, and rare earth elements (see, for example,
Matteucci et al., 2014 MNRAS, 438, 2177). For instructors who want
even more detail: The discovery of a delayed near-IR transient following
a gamma-ray burst suggested that whatever made the burst also produced
a large amount of very heavy elements—these elements significantly
increased the opacity of the shocked gas in the explosion, delaying and
reducing mean photon energies in the afterglow (e.g. Berger, Fong, and
Chornock, 2013, ApJ Letters, 74, 23.)

Section 14.3 Black Holes: Gravity’s Ultimate Victory

This section introduces students to the weird world of black holes, the highlight of
an astronomy course for many students.
• The masses we quote for the Cygnus X-1 system are somewhat smaller than
those you might find elsewhere. We have taken them from the work of
Herrero et al. (1995, A&A, 297, 556), who measured the mass of the O star
in this system by analyzing its spectrum to determine its surface gravity.
• Cosmic Calculation 14.1 covers an application of the Schwarzschild radius
formula.
• The Extraordinary Claims feature provides stories behind discoveries
about compact astronomical objects.
Section 14.4 Extreme Events

This section continues themes from previous sections, from the origins of neutron
stars to the origins of black holes and the speculation regarding what happens
when two black holes merge.
• The section discusses the observational phenomena called gamma-ray
bursts. Their energy output suggests that they are produced during the
formation of a black hole, and some gamma-ray bursts have been
associated with supernova explosions in distant galaxies. However, the
mechanism that produces a gamma-ray burst is not the same from event to
event. Gamma-ray bursts come in two types, based on their duration and
their spectrum, and only one of these types has been tied to supernovae.
(Most gamma-ray bursts are likely from supernovae.) Follow-up
observations of the other type show they cannot be produced by
supernovae. They may come from merging neutron stars in a binary
system—“proof” of this mechanism may have to await the detection of
gravitational waves from such a merger, but recent simulations confirm
that this hypothesis is consistent with the short-term bursts emerging from
this type of event.
• This section also contains the exciting news of the detection of gravitational
waves by LIGO.

Questions
Section 14.1
• (p. 367) No, both novae and white dwarf supernovae arise from mass
transfer from a companion star and thus cannot occur outside binary
systems.

Section 14.2
• (p. 370) If a neutron star is a pulsar but its rotating beams of radiation
never touch Earth, then we will not see it as a pulsar. However, if these
rotating beams periodically point at some other civilization, then that
civilization will see the neutron star as a pulsar.
Section 14.3
• (p. 372, SIFY) Drawing a triangle on the surface of a ball is a classic
demonstration of how a curved spatial geometry affects angles.
• (p. 377) X-ray bursts are bursts of fusion on the surface of an
accreting neutron star. A black hole does not have a surface, only an
event horizon that accreting material passes right through. Thus, an X-
ray binary that contains a black hole cannot exhibit X-ray bursts.

Visual Skills Check
1. b
2. d
3. b
4. c
5. d
Review Questions
1. Degeneracy pressure is a kind of pressure that arises when subatomic
particles are packed as closely as the laws of quantum mechanics allow.
Degeneracy pressure is important to neutron stars and white dwarfs
because it is what allows them to resist the pull of gravity. In the case
of white dwarfs, the degeneracy pressure is provided by electrons, so
that version is called electron degeneracy pressure. In neutron stars, it
is the neutrons that provide the pressure, and this version of degeneracy
pressure is therefore called neutron degeneracy pressure.
2. A typical white dwarf has about the mass of the Sun packed into a ball the
radius of Earth. This compact object has a very high density: A teaspoon of
a white dwarf would weigh as much as a small truck. Because the white
dwarf is supported by degeneracy pressure, adding mass to the white dwarf
causes it to shrink in radius.
3. As the mass of a white dwarf increases, the pressure must increase to resist
gravity. To do this, the electrons must move faster. However, there is a limit
to how fast the electrons are allowed to move: the speed of light. If mass of
the white dwarf becomes so great that the electrons would have to move faster
than light to resist the gravity, the white dwarf must collapse into a neutron
star. This white dwarf limit is about 1.4MSun.
4. An accretion disk is a disk of orbiting material that is falling toward a
central body, such as a white dwarf. We see these only in close binary

systems (not isolated stars) because they require material to be transferred

from one star to another. As the material falls onto the white dwarf,
gravitational energy is turned into heat. The heat provides the white dwarf
with a new energy source, allowing it to glow in the ultraviolet.
5. A nova is the glow from the thermonuclear flash from the onset of fusion in
a hydrogen shell on the surface of a white dwarf. The hydrogen shell comes
from accretion when the white dwarf steals material from its companion. As
the hydrogen builds up on the surface, the pressure and temperature rise, and
eventually hydrogen fusion becomes possible.
6. A white dwarf supernova occurs when the white dwarf gains enough mass
for the carbon interior of the star to begin carbon fusion. The fusion begins
almost instantly throughout the star, so the entire star ignites and the white
dwarf explodes completely. These supernovae, unlike the massive star
supernovae, lack hydrogen lines in their spectra, allowing astronomers to
tell the two types of supernovae apart.
7. A neutron star packs a greater mass than the Sun into a ball about
10 kilometers in radius. Something so massive and compact is extremely
dense: A paperclip made of neutron star material would weigh more than
a mountain. If a neutron star came to my hometown, it would destroy
my town and the entire Earth, crushing the planet into a shell no thicker
than my thumb.
8. We know that pulsars are neutron stars because we have found pulsars at the
centers of supernova remnants, right where we expect to see neutron stars.
We are also confident that pulsars are neutron stars because we know of no
other objects that could spin as fast as pulsars must.
Not all neutron stars are pulsars. Older neutron stars have lost so much
of their magnetic fields and their spins have slowed so much that we would
not see pulses. Even a young neutron star would not necessarily be a pulsar:
If the beam of radio waves was not oriented to sweep over Earth, we would
not see a pulsar even though observers on some other planet might.
9. In a close binary, a neutron star can accrete matter from its companion. As this
material falls down in the neutron star’s intense gravity, its potential energy is
converted to heat. This process makes the inner region of the disk so hot that it
glows in X rays. We call such a system an X-ray binary. In some systems, we
see bursts of X rays. These bursts are caused by a process similar to what
occurs in white dwarf novae, except that in this case it is helium fusion, not
hydrogen fusion, that powers the burst. Because a steady stream of hydrogen
pours onto the neutron star, the pressure and temperature at the bottom of the
hydrogen shell are high enough for hydrogen fusion to occur. Accretion builds
up a layer of helium, which can eventually ignite, releasing a burst of X rays.
10. A black hole is like a hole in spacetime because it represents a part of the
universe we can never observe and from which we could never return if we
went in. The event horizon is the boundary between the inside of the black
hole and the outside universe. The radius of the event horizon is called the
Schwarzschild radius. Black holes have only three measurable properties:
mass, spin, and charge.

11. A singularity is a mathematical concept in which the math becomes

undefined (like division by zero, or infinity). In this chapter, a singularity is
defined as the point where all of the mass of a black hole is crushed into a
point. Unfortunately, general relativity (which describes gravity) disagrees
with quantum mechanics (which describes the physics of the very small) at
this extreme limit of tiny sizes, but Fg =  at the center of a black hole, so
our current theories are inadequate to describe what happens precisely at the
singularity.
12. If we were to fall into a black hole, we would perceive our own time as
passing normally. We would see the rest of the universe run faster and
faster around us as we fell farther into the black hole. Unfortunately,
as we got very close to the black hole, the tidal forces would stretch us
out and eventually tear us apart, if the extreme radiation environment
did not kill us first.
13. We think that black holes should sometimes be formed by supernovae
because models indicate that in some supernovae, the outer layers of the star
are not completely blown away. The extra mass can push the core of the
neutron star over the mass limit for neutron stars and make it a black hole.
We have strong evidence for black holes in X-ray binary systems where the
masses of the unseen companions are larger than the mass limit for neutron
stars. The only kind of object we currently know of that these companions
could be are black holes. We also have evidence for supermassive black
holes in the centers of many galaxies.
14. Gamma ray bursts are brief but incredibly energetic outbursts of radiation
(primarily gamma rays) coming from locations well outside our galaxy. We
hypothesize that a gamma-ray burst may be caused by a supernova that forms
a black hole, releasing many times more gravitational potential energy than
the kind of supernova that forms a neutron star. It is also possible that some
gamma-ray bursts are caused by neutron stars merging with each other.
15. According to Einstein’s general theory of relativity, closely orbiting
compact objects will lose substantial amounts of energy to gravitational
waves, thereby causing their orbits to decay until the objects ultimately
merge. White dwarf mergers may lead to a white dwarf supernova; neutron
star mergers may be the source of many rare elements; black hole mergers
will result in the black holes combining to form a larger black hole (though
the total mass will be less than the sum of the original black hole masses
because of the loss of mass-energy of gravitational waves). The first direct
detection of gravitational waves, apparently from the merger of two black
holes, was made by the LIGO detectors in 2015 (reported in 2016).
Does It Make Sense?
16. The white dwarf at the center of the Helix Nebula has a mass three times the
mass of our Sun. This statement does not make sense. A 3MSun star would
exceed the white dwarf mass limit of 1.4 solar masses.

17. I observed a white dwarf supernova occurring at the location of an isolated

white dwarf (not a member of a binary system). This statement does not
make sense. A white dwarf supernova requires that the white dwarf have a
companion of some kind (possibly another white dwarf) to contribute matter
or to merge with.
18. If you want to find a pulsar, you should look near the remnant of a supernova
described by ancient Chinese astronomers. This statement makes sense. Other
pulsars have been discovered in supernova remnants such as the Crab Nebula.
Pulsars are the product of supernova explosions; therefore, it makes sense to
look for them in supernova remnants or in locations where supernovae were
noted historically.
19. Scientists have just learned that there is a 10MSun black hole lurking near
Pluto’s orbit. This statement does not make sense. A black hole of 10 solar
masses would exert a profound gravitational influence on the orbits of the
planets, even if the black hole lurked beyond the orbit of Pluto.
20. If your spaceship flew within a few thousand kilometers of a black hole, you
and your ship would be rapidly sucked into it. This statement does not make
sense. The orbit of the ship around or past the black hole would depend on
its initial kinetic energy and angular momentum. (Black holes do not suck.)
21. We can detect black holes with X-ray telescopes because matter falling into
a black hole emits X rays after it smashes into the event horizon. This
statement does not make sense. The black hole has no surface for material to
smash into. X-ray telescopes can detect black holes because the gas falling
into a black hole can be very hot despite the black hole’s lack of a surface.
22. From your point of view, an object falling toward a black hole will never
cross the event horizon. This statement makes sense. From the observer’s
point of view (at least before the light becomes redshifted to invisibility)
time slows down for the object and stops at the event horizon.
23. The best way to search for black holes is to look for small black circles in
the sky. This statement does not make sense, because the Schwarzschild
radius of even a massive black hole is incredibly tiny compared to the
distance it is from us.
24. Gamma-ray bursts are more likely to be observed in galaxies that are
rapidly forming new stars than in galaxies containing only old stars. This
statement makes sense. If gamma-ray bursts are associated with massive star
supernovae, such events will be more common in galaxies that are rapidly
forming stars.
25. Gravitational waves are best observed with the Hubble Space Telescope.
This statement does not make sense. Gravitational waves are not a form of
light or electromagnetic radiation, and therefore cannot be detected by the
Hubble Space Telescope.

Quick Quiz
26. a. a 1.2MSun white dwarf (It is about Earth’s size, and the 0.6MSun white dwarf
has a larger radius.)
27. a. a 1.2MSun white dwarf (The other two have about the same radius, 10
kilometers.)
28. c. a white dwarf in a binary system
29. c. Earth would remain in the same orbit.
30. b. Its spin would slow down.
31. b. Gravitational waves from close neutron binary star systems carry away
orbital energy and angular momentum.
32. a. an X-ray binary containing an O star and another object of equal mass
33. c. Its flashes would shift to the infrared part of the spectrum (and slow
down).
34. a. a 10MSun black hole
35. c. extremely distant galaxies
Process of Science
36. One of the most convincing cases for the existence of a black hole comes
from Doppler studies of the companion star’s orbit in the close binary system
Cygnus X-1. The binary star system consists of an 18–19MSun star orbiting a
15MSun companion, which is clearly more massive than any neutron star could
be, based on our understanding of neutron star pressure support.
37. There are many unanswered questions related to black holes. Here are a few
examples. How many black holes are there, and how big are they? How do
black holes affect their environment? What happens to matter and light
when they fall into a black hole? What is a black hole like near and inside
the event horizon? How does a black hole get bigger?
Group Work Exercise
38. Below are the approximate estimates the groups should derive. Note that in
this Group Work Exercise, the students are assigned roles, but also specific
tasks to complete.
a. Inspection of Figure 12.10 shows that an O-type supergiant is about
100 solar radii in size.
b. A black hole of 15 solar masses has an effective radius of about
30 km, based on the formula in Cosmic Calculation 14.1.
c. A solar radius is about 700,000 km, so the ratio of the two sizes is
about 100  700, 000 km/30 km   2.3 10 6 .
d. If the O star in the figure is 5 cm across (diameter), the black hole will
have a radius 2.3 million times smaller: 5 cm/2.3  106  2.2  10–6
cm, or 220 angstroms. Since this is only about 220 times the size of a
typical hydrogen atom, it is really impossible to represent a 10 MSun
black hole “to scale” in a figure together with the O star. The black
hole in the figure is only about 10 times smaller than the O star, so it is
about 230,000 times too big.

e. It should be clear that it is very difficult for matter to fall into an object
this size.
f, g. The angle of the stream is not discussed in the text, so be prepared for
student protests! They want to look up the answer, and they won’t find
it in the textbook (or on the Web for that matter). But if the Skeptic
asks questions along the lines of “Would the matter fall directly in,
like jumping into a small bucket from a very tall height?” and “What if
you were orbiting over the bucket, would the trajectory be ‘straight
down’?” the group may be able to suggest why the stream goes off to
the side. It might be useful to have the group do parts (f) and (g) more
or less simultaneously, especially if the students do not know where to
start with part (f).
h. This part asks the students to summarize the results of their discussion,
which may have included the thinness of the stream in addition to its
angle.
39–42. These are extended essays; answers will vary. (Note: Many students really
enjoy these questions, but you will need adequate resources to grade these
essays if you assign them.) The student’s story should identify key points in
stellar evolution that lead to these various end states.
43. White dwarfs are more common than neutron stars and black holes because
they are the result of the evolution of low-mass stars, which are far more
numerous than high-mass stars.
44. If X-ray bursts are not powerful enough to accelerate material beyond the
escape velocity of the surface of a neutron star, any accreted material will
settle back on the neutron star, even if it experiences violent nuclear fusion
explosions. Eventually, the neutron star will increase in mass until it exceeds
the mass density that can be supported by neutron degeneracy pressure and
becomes a black hole.
45. In order to fall into a black hole, an object must lose enough of its initial
angular momentum to get close enough to cross the event horizon. The event
horizon of a stellar black hole is tiny compared to typical orbits, so the object’s
orbit would have to become extremely eccentric (almost falling directly at the
black hole) in order for it to have a chance of crossing the horizon.
46. The life preserver would have to counteract the stretching force of the
black hole. Let’s say the person is falling in feet first. The hoop around the
person’s waist would have to pull the person’s head down (toward his or her
waist) and pull the person’s feet up toward the waist. The tidal force is
pulling harder on the person’s head than on the feet, so the life preserver’s
gravitational forces subtract from the tidal forces and make it possible for
the person to live a tiny bit longer.

47. a. For the 108MSun black hole, the Schwarzschild radius is
10 8 MSun
RS  3  km  3  108 km
MSun
The Schwarzschild radius of a 108MSun black hole is about 300 million
kilometers, or about 2 AU (twice the distance from Earth to the Sun).
Because of the relatively large size of such a black hole, tidal forces across
a small object—such as a person or a spaceship—will be less significant
than those caused by a smaller black hole. It might be possible to survive a
trip across the event horizon of a massive black hole, but what would you
find when you got there?
b. The Schwarzschild radius of a 5MSun black hole is
5MSun
RS  3  km  15 km
MSun
The Schwarzschild radius of a 5MSun black hole is about 15 kilometers.
c. The first formula in Cosmic Calculations 14.1 is more useful in this case.
The mass of the Moon is about 7.4  1022 kg, so its Schwarzschild radius is
 m3 
2   6.67 1011 2 
(7.4  1022 kg)
2 GM  kg  s 
RS  2
 2
 1.1 104 m  0.11 mm
c  8 m
 3  10 
 s 
The Schwarzschild radius of the Moon is barely a tenth of a millimeter.
The Moon would have to be crushed to smaller than a pinhead to
become a black hole.
d. Your Schwarzschild radius will depend slightly on your mass. Let’s take
50 kilograms as a typical mass for a person. Then, your Schwarzschild
radius would be about
 m 
2   6.67 1011  (50 kg)
2 GM  kg  s 2 
RS  2
 2
 7 1026 m
c  8 m
 3 10 
 s 
Your Schwarzschild radius is about 7  10–26 m. Recall that the typical
size of an atom is about 10–10 meter and the typical size of an atomic
nucleus is about 10–15 meter. You would have to be crushed to some
10 billion times smaller than an atomic nucleus to become a black hole.

48. The estimated age of the Crab Pulsar is

p
age 
2r
0.0333 s

2  (4.2 1013 s / s)
 3.96 1010 s
We can convert to years in the usual way to get 1250 years for the age of the
Crab Pulsar. This implies that the Crab Pulsar formed in A.D. 750, which is
about three centuries earlier than when the supernova was actually observed.
49. Cosmic Calculations 14.1 tells us that the Schwarzschild radius of a black
hole is given by the expression:
M
RS  (3 km)
MSun
For this problem, we convert 3 kilometers to 3  105 cm because we want a
volume in g/cm3. The volume of a sphere is 43  r 3 . Knowing that the density
is the mass over the volume, we can write an expression for the density:
mass
density 
volume
M

4
 RS3
3
Using the formula for RS gives the following:
3M
density  3
 M 
4   (3 10 cm)
5

 M Sun 
3
3M Sun

4  M 2 (2.7 1016 cm3 )
For this problem, we are given the density and asked to find the mass of the
black hole. We therefore solve for the mass:
M 3MSun

M Sun 4   (density)  (2.7  1016 cm 3 )
The mass of the Sun is 2  1030 kg, or 2  1033 g. We are told that the
density we seek is 1 g/cm3. The mass of the black hole is therefore
M 3(2  10 33 g)

MSun 4   (1 g/cm 3 )  (2.7  1016 cm 3 )
 1.33  10 8
The black hole would need a mass 133 million times the mass of the Sun to
have an average density of water. (There are supermassive black holes that
are this massive, so this is not unreasonable.)

50. To answer this question, we will use 1.5MSun as the typical mass of a
neutron star. This comes out to be about 3  1030 kg. The radius of the
neutron star is given as 10 kilometers, but we will convert it to 1  104 m.
Using the formula for gravitational potential energy released:
GM 2
energy released =
r
we find that about 6.00  1046 joules are released.
In order to compare this figure to the total energy output of the Sun over
its lifetime, we will need the Sun’s expected lifetime. The Sun is expected to
live about 10 billion years, or 3.16  1017 seconds. The Sun puts out 3.8 
1026 watts of energy, so the total energy output of the Sun over its entire
lifetime is the product of the energy generation rate and the lifetime.
Multiplying the values, we find that the Sun will produce 1.20  1044 joules
of energy in its entire life. The energy produced in a supernova is around
500 times the Sun’s total lifetime energy output.
51. The sum of the masses of the individual black holes before the merger was
29MSun + 36MSun = 65MSun. The mass of the merged black hole is 62MSun.
Therefore, a mass of 3MSun, or 6  1030 kg, must have been converted into
energy in the form of gravitational waves. We can therefore use the formula
E = mc2 to calculate the total energy released in this form:
E  mc 2   6  10 30 kg   3  10 8 m/s   5.4  10 47 joules
2
This is about 4500 times the energy released by the supernova in Problem 50.

Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
OUR DUTIES.
[Contents]
Introduction.
The king, in Rabbi Jehudah ha-levi’s Cuzari, anxious to lead a good

and religious life, was told by an angel who appeared to him in a
dream that his heart was good, but his deeds were not acceptable.
The purity and goodness of our heart certainly ennobles our deeds
and gives them the stamp of sincerity and holiness, though they may
not be marked by absolute perfection. But an inner voice, our
conscience, does not allow us to be content with the goodness of the
heart; we feel the necessity of seeking also perfection of words and
deeds. We wish not only our heart but also our entire self to be good,
so that our inner life and outer life, our feeling and thinking, our
speaking and doing, may combine into one harmonious whole, which
comes as near perfection as possible.
It has been shown above that one of the principles of faith which we
confess is our belief in the Divine origin of the Torah, and in the
obligatory character of its precepts. When we pray to God to make
us understand the Torah we are not content with the mere
knowledge of the words of the Law; we also seek God’s assistance
to enable us “to obey, to observe, and to [234]perform” all that He has
commanded us. Man’s nature is not the same in all individuals; one
person finds special delight in the performance of this duty, another
in the performance of that. Every one likes to devote his energies to
that work for which he considers himself best qualified, and which
promises to yield the best fruit. But this individual liking or aptitude
must not mislead us into thinking that the Law is divided into
important and unimportant precepts. So far as they represent the
Will of the Almighty they are all alike, and equally demand our
attention and our obedience. Thus the ‫‏קבלת עול שמים‬‎, 1 our
unconditional submission to the Will of the Almighty as our King, is
followed in our Service by ‫‏קבלת עול מצות‬‎, 1 the acknowledgment of
the binding force of His precepts.
There are persons who question the wisdom and usefulness of the
precepts; they call it legalism, and are opposed to the tendency of
subjecting every act of ours to the control of the Law. They argue
that legalism tends to weaken our regard for the Law, and trains
hypocrites rather than true servants of the Lord. It is a bold assertion,
but one that rests on imagination and prejudice. Is it possible that
such a constant reminder of God’s presence as the Divine precepts
supply should not have a beneficent influence over us, by making us
feel encouraged by His presence when we are engaged in a good
cause, and discouraged when we are about to do wrong? If persons
are found who are [235]devout worshippers at one time and criminals
at another, it only shows human weakness in the moment of trial in
spite of good resolves and genuine devotion; and were it not for the
effect of such devotion, the number of crimes would probably be far
greater.
A truly pious man will never imagine that he may freely transgress
one set of the precepts, if he strictly obeys another set; that he may,
e.g., wrong his neighbour, and compensate for his sins by regular
attendance at the place of worship, or by a strict observance of the
dietary laws, or the laws of Sabbath and Festivals; or that he may
freely break the latter, if only he is honest, just, and charitable. The
precepts have all the same Divine origin; the all-wise and all-kind
God, who has commanded us to walk in the way of justice and
righteousness, has also ordained the Sabbath, given the dietary
laws, and established the sacrificial service. He who selects some of
the precepts and rejects the rest substitutes his own authority for that
of the Almighty, and places his own wisdom above the wisdom of
Him who gave us the Law.
“Be as zealous in the performance of an unimportant precept as of

an important one,” is one of the maxims taught in the “Sayings of the
Fathers.” A difference between precept and precept is here admitted,
but only in so far as they seem to us more or less important, with
regard to the good which their observance produces or the evil which
is caused by their neglect. In case of a conflict of two duties we give
the preference to that which seems to us more important. In times of
religious persecution the question frequently arose how far
resistance was necessary, and how far religious practice might
[236]yield to physical force. The rule has been laid down, that when
our life is threatened we may transgress any precept; but we must
not allow ourselves, under any circumstances, to be forced to
idolatry, murder, or adultery (‫‏עבודה זרה גלוי עריות ושפיכות דמים‬‎); we
must prefer death to committing any of these sins. But in times of
trouble and persecution the spirit of resistance is as a rule too strong
to be kept within the strict lines of demarcation, and life is willingly
and heroically sacrificed for any religious duty. This is not surprising,
for every religious act which is chosen by the enemy as a test to
prove the faithfulness or the faithlessness of the persecuted sect to
its own religion, receives thereby the stamp of great importance.
Similar questions are also asked in times of peace, when some of

our brethren reject the authority of the Oral Law, while others refuse
even to recognise the authority of the Written Law, when some set
aside the Divine precepts out of convenience, and others from
principle, and still others from ignorance; when some limit their
Judaism to the nominal membership of the Jewish race, and others
to a negation of other creeds. Are all these Jews? Whatever the
answer to this question may be from a practical, political, social, and
communal point of view, the fact is that they are Jews. They may
have forfeited certain privileges, they may be disqualified for certain
religious offices, they may be dangerous to the religious peace of our
family or community: they are notwithstanding Jews, and are bound
to live in accordance with the Law which the Almighty has given to
the Jews and for the Jews. Our Sages say: ‫‏אף על פי שחטא ישראל הוא‬‎,
“Although a man may have sinned, he [237]is an Israelite still.” No
theologian, Rabbi, or teacher, or Beth-din, or Sanhedrin, has the
power of granting absolution, or telling those who break or reject any
portion of the Divine precepts that they are not doing wrong. No
human being has the authority to abrogate laws revealed by God.
Why then, some may ask, do prophets and moralists, the Rabbis of
the Talmud not excluded, single out ethical principles for special
recommendation to their fellow-men, generally observing silence
about the rest of the Divine commands? The answer is simple. The
ethical principles and the Divine commandments embodying them
are different in kind from the rest of the commandments. The latter
are distinct, well defined, and the punishment for their transgression
is fixed; they are unchangeable, and not capable of expansion.
The dietary laws, e.g., are exactly the same now as they were in the
days of Moses. So also the laws concerning Sabbath. What was
then prohibited by the Sabbath is prohibited still. The ethical
principles, however, are capable of development, and the moral
standard rises with the progress of civilisation. Hence the constant
dissatisfaction of prophets, preachers, and teachers with the moral
principles of their followers. They have a higher standard of morality,
and strive to raise the moral consciousness of their generations to
their own height.
It is, therefore, no wonder that the prophet Isaiah exhorts his

brethren: “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your
doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil: learn to do well:
seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for
the widow” (i. 16, 17). “He that walketh righteously, [238]and speaketh
uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his
hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of
blood, and shutteth his eyes from looking upon evil, he shall dwell on
high,” &c. (Ibid. xxxiii. 15, 16). In the same sense the virtuous man is
described by all prophets; also in Ps. xv. and Ps. xxiv.
R. Akiba says: “ ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’ (Lev. xix.
18) is an important principle in the Torah,” but at the same time he
shows what importance he ascribes to all other principles and
precepts of the Law by most carefully examining the details of every
one of them alike. The great Hillel told the Gentile who desired to
become a Jew: “ ‘Do not to thy neighbour what is hateful to you;’ this
is our whole religion;” but that he did not ignore the remainder of the
Torah, or consider it as not essential, is proved by the additional
words: “The rest is its explanation; go and learn” (Babyl. Talmud,
Sabbath, 31a). Hillel only gave the proselyte a lesson which would
lead him to obey all the words of the Almighty.
Rabbi Simlai (Yalkut on Micah vi. 8) said: “Six hundred and thirteen
commandments were given to Moses on Mount Sinai; David reduced
them to eleven (Ps. xv.); Isaiah reduced them to six (xxxiii. 16, 17);
Micah (vi. 8) to three; then Isaiah reduced them again to two (lvi. 1);
and Habakkuk to one—Faith (ii. 4).” This Rabbi does certainly not
mean to say that Isaiah cancelled some of the eleven virtues
mentioned by David, or that Habakkuk only demanded Faith, and did
not consider it essential that man should be righteous, truthful, &c.
Rabbi Simlai intended only [239]to point out that by training ourselves
in the practice of certain virtues, the fulfilment of all Divine precepts
will be greatly facilitated.
All the commandments of the holy Torah are equally Divine. Laws
concerning justice and humanity, and laws concerning Sabbath and
Holydays, are equally introduced by the declaration, “And the Lord
spake unto Moses, saying.” The commandments, “Thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself,” and “A garment of diverse kinds, of linen
and wool, shall not come upon thee,” stand side by side in the same
paragraph. The equality of all the precepts as the expression of the
Will of the Almighty is clearly set forth in the Law, in the frequent
exhortations that the Israelites should obey all the precepts,
whatever their nature may be, whether they be of the class of
“statutes” or of “judgments,” or of any other class of Divine
commands. (Comp. Exod. xv. 25, 26; Lev. xxvi. 15, 43; Num. xv. 39,
40; Deut. iv. 1, 5, 8, &c.)
As to the various terms employed in the Pentateuch to designate the

Divine precepts: words (‫‏דברים‬‎), commandments (‫‏מצוות‬‎), statutes
(‫‏חקים‬‎), judgments (‫‏משפטים‬‎), and laws (‫‏תורות‬‎), they may be
considered as synonyms signifying similar things. But even
synonyms are as a rule distinguished from each other by a certain
variation in their meaning, especially when the terms occur in one
and the same sentence. A definition of these terms is not given in
the Pentateuch or in the Bible; from the context, however, in which
they occur the following distinction may be drawn:—
‫‏חק‬‎or ‫‏חקה‬‎, “statute,” is applied to those laws which are absolute and
do not depend on certain conditions, [240]whilst mishpat, “judgment,”
is a law the performance of which varies according to circumstances.
Thus the Paschal sacrifice is called chukkah, and must absolutely be
performed, whilst the civil laws concerning slaves, damages, &c., are
mishpatim, because cases of slavery or damages need not occur,
and the respective precepts are then not carried into effect. In a
similar manner Jewish theologians divide the Divine precepts into
‫‏מצות שמעיות‬‎and ‫‏מצות שכליות‬‎precepts which our duty of obedience to
God makes us perform, and precepts which, without distinct Divine
command, our own reason would impel us to do.—The other terms,
mitsvah, “commandment,” and mishmereth, “charge,” are used in a
general sense, the former in reference to the Giver of the law, and
the latter in reference to those to whom it is addressed.
The division of the precepts into ‫‏שמעיות‬‎and ‫‏שכליות‬‎is a vague one,

and the line of demarcation will be moved farther to the one side or
the other, according to the judgment exercised by the interpreter. Of
greater importance is the division into positive and negative
precepts, commandments, and prohibitions, ‫‏מצות עשה‬‎and ‫‏מצות לא‬
‫תעשה‬‎. The prohibitions are of two kinds: such as admit of amends
being made for their transgression and such as do not admit: ‫‏שיש בה‬
‫קום עשה‬‎and ‫‏שאין בה קום עשה‬‎.
The number of the commandments is, according to Rabbi Simlai,

613 (‫‏תר״יג‬‎), and in some editions of the Pentateuch the number of
each commandment has been noted in the margin. Rabbi Moses
ben Maimon, in the introduction to his Mishneh-torah, enumerates
the 613 mitsvoth. They are also contained in liturgical
[241]compositions, called ‫‏אזהרות‬‎“exhortations,” or “precepts,” such as
are met with in the Machzor for the Feast of Weeks.
Maimonides, in “The Guide” as well as in Mishneh-torah, treats of

the precepts of the Torah under the following fourteen heads: (1)
Fundamental principles of our faith; 2 (2) Divine worship; (3) Sabbath
and festivals; (4) Marriages; (5) Forbidden food and forbidden
relations of the sexes; (6) Vows; (7) Agriculture; (8) The Temple and
the regular sacrificial service; (9) Occasional sacrifices; (10)
Cleanness and uncleanness; (11) Compensation for damages; (12)
Transfer of property; (13) Contracts; (14) Administration of the law.
Another theologian, Rabbenu Jakob, divided the code of laws into

four sections: (1) Divine worship, Sabbath, festivals, and fasts; (2)
Things forbidden and things permitted in satisfying our bodily
desires; (3) Marriages; (4) Civil laws.
The latter work was recast by Rabbi Joseph Caro, [242]and in the
new form, with the new title Shulchan Aruch, it has become the
standard work of Jewish law and life, and its authority has been
recognised and upheld by Jews in the East and the West.
Annotations (‫‏הגהות‬‎) were added by Rabbi Moses Isserles, but his
opinion, when differing from that of Rabbi Joseph Caro, was only
accepted by the Polish and German Congregations, not by the
Sephardim.
Rabbi Joseph Caro, Rabbenu Jakob, and Maimonides appear, in

their respective codes, not as legislators but as compilers. The Torah
and the Talmud were the sources from which they all drew their laws.
But laws, minhagim or customs, and institutions (‫‏תקנות‬‎) of a post-
Talmudic date were not neglected. Questions arising in the course of
time, through new and changed conditions of life, are, as a rule,
discussed and decided in notes and commentaries on the Shulchan
Aruch. There are also numerous special works on such occasional
questions; they are called “Responsa” (‫‏תשובות‬‎“Answers,” or ‫‏שאלות‬
‫ותשובות‬‎“Questions and Answers”), and the importance attributed to
them varies according to the reputation of the respective authors.
What is the object of the Divine laws? This is a question that

naturally rises in the minds of those to whom they are addressed.
But the question has been anticipated by Him “who knoweth the
thoughts of the sons of man,” and the answer is found in clear and
distinct words in the fountain of living waters, the Torah, that never
fails to satisfy our thirst for truth: “Thou shalt keep his statutes and
his commandments which I command thee this day, that it may be
[243]well with thee and thy children after thee” (Deut. iv. 40). “And
now, O Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear
the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways and to love him, and to
serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul: to keep
the commandments of the Lord and his statutes which I command
thee this day, for thy good” (ibid. x. 12, 13). It is for our benefit, for
our well-being, that the laws were revealed to us; they serve to make
us good and happy; they train us in the mastery over our appetites
and desires, in the practice of charity and justice, and in the
conception of noble, pure, and lofty ideas, and bring us nearer and
nearer in perfection the Being in whose image and likeness we have
been created.
What share each individual precept has in the attainment of this end
we cannot state with certainty, because in the Torah the reason and
purpose of each precept is, with very few exceptions, withheld from
us. In many cases our reflection on the nature of a special law, or on
the context in which it occurs in the Pentateuch, leads to a discovery
of some reason for it. But, whatever reason we may thus discover,
we must not lose sight of the fact that it is we who have found it, we
whose knowledge is imperfect, and that we or others might in future
discover a better reason. If we, e.g., find that certain dietary laws
serve to train us in temperance, and see that the virtue of
temperance is frequently recommended in the Bible, we may well
obey these dietary laws, and strive to be temperate in every respect
in accordance with the spirit we detect in them. It would, however, be
a gross error if, believing [244]the training in temperance to be their
only object, we assumed that we could neglect them, and attain the
same object by substituting our own insufficient knowledge and
imperfect reason for the Will and Wisdom of the most perfect Being.
Moralists, our teachers and preachers of ancient and modern times,
have found in these precepts an inexhaustible treasure of lessons
exhorting to virtue and warning against vice, and the great variety of
inferences thus drawn from the same source proves the error of
those who imagine that their own exposition is the only right one.
Whatever reason we assign to a religious precept, and whatever
wholesome lesson we derive from it, our first duty towards the
commandment, and towards Him who commanded it, is strict and
unconditional obedience.
Maimonides, who may be considered as the representative of the

school which seeks to establish a rational explanation for all
precepts, admits that the reason we may assign to any of the
commandments cannot affect their validity and immutability, and we
are bound to obey them, although the supposed reason may be of a
local or temporary character. According to Maimonides, the object of
the Law is to promote the well-being of our body and the well-being
of our soul; and every commandment has therefore some bearing
upon one of the following three things: the regulation of our opinions,
the removal of sin, or the teaching of good morals. He does not
except the “statutes” from this rule, but confesses that in a few cases
he is unable to show clearly the relation of the commandment to any
of these objects. He also restricts the principle of rational
interpretation to the main element in each commandment, [245]and
does not apply it to its details; the latter, as a rule, do not demand an
explanation. He says:—
“The general object of the Law is twofold: the well-being of the soul
and the well-being of the body” (Guide, iii. 27). “I am prepared to tell
you my explanations of all these commandments (the so-called
chukkim or “statutes”), and to assign for them a true reason
supported by proof, with the exception of some minor rules and of a
few commandments. I will show that all these and similar laws must
have some bearing upon one of the following three things, viz., the
regulation of our opinions or the improvement of our social relations,
which implies two things: the removal of wrong-doing and the
teaching of good morals” (ibid. xxviii.). “The repeated assertion of our
Sages that there are reasons for all commandments, and the
tradition that Solomon knew them, refer to the general purpose of the
commandments, and not to the object of every detail. This being the
case, I find it convenient to divide the six hundred and thirteen
precepts into classes; each class to include many precepts of the
same kind. I will first explain the reason of each class of precepts,
and show their common object, and then I shall discuss the
individual commandments and expound their reasons. Only very few
will be left unexplained, the reason for which I have been unable to
trace unto this day. I have also been able to comprehend in some
cases even the object of many of the conditions and details of the
laws as far as it can be discovered” (ibid. xxvi.).
“It is also important to note that the Law does not take into account
exceptional circumstances; it is not based on conditions which rarely
occur.” “We must [246]therefore not be surprised when we find that
the object of the Law does not fully appear in every individual case.”
“From this consideration it follows that the Law cannot, like medicine,
vary according to the different conditions of persons and times.
Whilst the cure of a person depends on his particular constitution at
the particular time, the Divine guidance contained in the Law must
be certain and general, although it may be effective in some cases
and ineffective in others. If the Law depended on the varying
conditions of man, it would be imperfect in its totality, each precept
being left indefinite. For this reason, it would not be right to make the
fundamental principles of the Law dependent on a certain time or a
certain place. On the contrary, the statutes and the judgments must
be definite, unconditional, and general, in accordance with the Divine
words: ‘As for the congregation, one ordinance shall be for you and
for the stranger’ (Num. xv. 15). They are intended, as has been
stated before, for all persons and for all times” (ibid. xxxiv.).
In the present treatise our religious duties will be expounded under

the following seven heads:—
Exposition
1. of the Decalogue.
General
2. ethical principles—
Duties
(a.) towards God.
(b.) our fellow-men.
,, ,,
(c.) ourselves.
,, ,,
Outward
3. reminders of God’s Presence.
Sabbath,
4. Festivals, and Fasts.
Divine
5. Worship.
Dietary
6. Laws.
Jewish
7. Life.
[247]
[Contents]
I. The Ten Commandments. ‫‏עשרת הדברות‬‎
The “Ten Words” are distinguished from all other lessons of the
Torah both on account of their intrinsic value and on account of the
extraordinary manner in which they have been revealed by the
Almighty on Mount Sinai. They form the contents of “the covenant
which God made with us” (Deut. v. 3).
But it must not be forgotten that they are not the only Divine
commandments. When, therefore, Moses repeated them before his
brethren in the plain of Moab, he prefaced it by the exhortation:
“Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the judgments which I speak unto
you to-day, and learn them and keep them to do them” (ibid. 1); and
after he had finished reciting them he reminded the Israelites how
they received the Ten Commandments from the midst of the fire, and
how they prayed that further commandments should be given to
them through Moses; adding that the Almighty, in compliance with
their petition, said to him: “Stand thou here with me, and I will tell
thee the whole commandment, both the statutes and the judgments
which thou shalt teach them” (ibid. 28).
“And God spake all these words, saying:”

First Commandment.
“I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage.”
The Israelites who now stood round Mount Sinai [248]and heard the
voice of God saying, “I am the Lord thy God,” were the same who a
very short time before had been slaves in Egypt; they were delivered
from slavery, and saw their cruel taskmasters perish in the waves of
the Red Sea. Pharaoh, the king of the Egyptians, and his people had
believed that they were the masters of the Israelites, and that they
could do with them as they pleased. And Pharaoh said, “Who is the
Lord, that I should listen to his voice? I know not the Lord, nor will I
let Israel go.” It has now been shown that Pharaoh and his people
were not the true masters; that there was a higher Being that ruled
over all men, over kings and their peoples. After the Israelites had
crossed the Red Sea, they sang with Moses: “This is my God, and I
will praise him, the God of my father, and I will exalt him.” They all
felt that their liberty was not obtained by human strength and skill;
that there must be a higher Being who is All-powerful, All-wise, and
All-good; and that it was He who freed them, and punished the
wicked Egyptians by whom they had been kept in slavery. What the
Israelites at first felt in their hearts they were now, when standing
round Sinai, taught by God Himself, in plain, clear, and intelligible
words: “I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of
Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”
This is the first commandment; it is only one commandment, but it

contains several important lessons:—
1. God has shown great kindness to our nation; we Jews must

therefore more than other people show ourselves grateful to Him,
love Him as our Deliverer [249]and Benefactor, and do willingly all that
He commands us to do.
2. When we are in trouble we must trust in God, pray to Him, and

hope that He will help us when our fellow-men cannot do so. When
they give us up as lost we need not despair; for the Almighty can
help where human wisdom and power are insufficient.
3. The wicked may for a time succeed in doing wrong, whilst the
good and just suffer; but this does not last for ever. There is a Master
above all of us, who in due time punishes the wicked and saves the
good.
Second Commandment.
“Thou shall have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto
thee a graven image, nor the form of anything that is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under
the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve
them, for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth
generation of them that hate me; and showing loving-kindness to the
thousandth generation of them that love me and keep my
commandments.”
There are no other gods in existence; it is impossible for us to have

other gods. There is only one God, as we repeatedly declare, “Hear,
O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.” The commandment is
nevertheless not superfluous. There have been whole nations, and
there are still people, who, in their ignorance [250]and folly, attribute
Divine power to things that have no Divine power, and who give the
name of god to things that are not gods. Such people are called
heathens, idolaters, or idol-worshippers. The second commandment
forbids us to do any such thing.
It was the custom in some countries to worship the king, either

during his lifetime or after his death, as a Divine being; it is still the
custom in some countries to pray to departed saints. All this our holy
religion forbids us to do. We must respect our king, we must honour
the memory and the name of good men, but only as human beings,
not as gods; we may not deify them. As to our prophets, our great
men, the Patriarchs, the kings, their names are a pride unto us, their
memory a blessing, ‫‏זכרונם לברכה‬‎—they are honoured by us as
human, mortal beings: they are not worshipped. When we visit the
graves of those near and dear to us, and honour their memory by
reflecting on their virtues, when we revere those holy men who have
devoted their lives to the service of God, or the martyrs who have
sacrificed their lives for the sanctification of the Name of God (‫‏קדוש‬
‫השם‬‎), we do not endow them with Divine attributes, and do not offer
up any prayer to them.
The second commandment, in forbidding all kinds of idolatry,

includes the following prohibitions:—
The(1.)
worship of sun, moon, stars, animals, human beings,
or any part of Nature, as endowed with Divine power.
The(2.)
worship of images representing things that exist in
reality or in man’s imagination.
The(3.)
worship of angels as Divine beings. They [251]are
only messengers of God, and we must not pray to them.
The(4.)
belief in evil spirits, demons, devils, and the like, and
the fear of them.
The(5.)
belief in charms, witchcraft, fortune-telling, and
similar superstitions.
The words, “For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God,” are to be
understood in a figurative sense; we cannot say of God that He is
jealous, in the literal sense of the word. It is only because we call a
person jealous who is anxious that no one else shall enjoy the same
right or privilege as he enjoys, that we apply the term “jealous”
figuratively to God, because He does not concede Divine worship
and service to any other being. He demands of His worshippers that
they serve Him alone and none besides.
Those who break this commandment “hate God,” and will surely
receive their punishment. He “visits the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children upon the third and upon the fourth generation.” The bad
example set by a man frequently corrupts his children,
grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. In that case they will all
receive their punishment, and there is no excuse for them, that they
were misled by the bad example of their father or their forefathers. A
bad example must not be followed, even if it be set by those whom
we love dearly.
The good example of a man should always be followed, and his

good deeds bear good fruit and are the source of blessing even long
after his death. For to those that love God and keep His
commandments God “showeth mercy even to the thousandth
generation.” [252]
Third Commandment
“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the
Lord will not hold, him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”
We pronounce the name of God when we read the Bible, when we

pray, when we take an oath, or when we speak of God’s wisdom,
power, and goodness. We take the name of God in vain when we
read the Bible without attention, or pray without devotion, or take an
oath without necessity or contrary to truth. When we utter the name
of God we must bear in mind that it is the name of the most Holy and
most Perfect Being that we are pronouncing; that it is a privilege to
us to be allowed and to be able to pronounce it.
The more we meditate on the greatness and holiness of God, the

more careful should we be “not to utter the name of God in vain.” We
should guard ourselves from falling into the bad habit of uttering it
thoughtlessly to no purpose whatever. Many people are heard to
exclaim every minute, “O God,” or similar phrases. To them the
sacredness of the name is entirely lost, and they are no longer
reminded by it of the holiness of Him who is designated by that
name. Still greater is the thoughtlessness of those who swear by
God without any necessity. In swearing by God we call upon God to
bear witness that our words are true. But such a testimony is only
required when our statement is not believed. If we swear before we
know whether we are believed or not, we indicate that, according to
our estimate of ourselves, we are not [253]trustworthy, and it has
often been observed as a fact that those who swear most are least
to be believed. The worst of all forms of swearing is to swear falsely,
that is, to swear that something is the case without knowing that it is
true, or knowing that it is not true. This is a terrible crime, and is
called “the profanation of God’s name,” ‫‏חלול השם‬‎.
There is still another kind of ‫‏חלול השם‬‎“profanation of God’s name:” if

we Jews who are called by His name, the people of the Lord, or
children of the Lord, bring contempt upon God’s people by
disgraceful conduct, we profane the name of God. We sanctify it by
noble and generous deeds; by leading a pure and blameless life we
cause a ‫‏קדוש השם‬‎“sanctification of the name of God.”
The third commandment forbids us—
To utter
(1.) the name of God unnecessarily in our common
conversation.
To read
(2.) the Bible carelessly, or to pray without attention
and devotion.
To swear
(3.) otherwise than when required by the law to do
so, as, e.g., in courts of law.
To swear
(4.) when we are not fully convinced of the truth of
our declaration.
The additional sentence, “for he will not hold him guiltless who taketh
his name in vain,” is to remind us that it is against God the
Omniscient that we sin in breaking this commandment. God knows
our innermost thoughts, whether we think of what we utter or not;
whether we are convinced of what we declare on oath or not. He will
punish us if we break His commandments, although we may be able
[254]to conceal our sins from men and escape condemnation by a
human tribunal.
Fourth Commandment.
“Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou
labour and do all thy work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath unto the
Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor
thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor
thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made
heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is therein, and rested the
seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and
hallowed it.”

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Part IV: Stars

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Chapter 11. Our Star

Teaching Notes (by Section)

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when gravity overwhelms pressure, and gravitational equilibrium occurs

Section 11.2 Nuclear Fusion in the Sun

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Answers/Discussion Points for Think About It/See It for Yourself

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Solutions to End-of-Chapter Problems (Chapter 11)

Visual Skills Check

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Does It Make Sense?

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22. News of a solar flare caused concern among businesses involved in

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confident in their understanding of neutrinos and their ability to detect

Group Work Exercise

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variations in the Sun’s energetic output. X rays, in general, are produced by

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Chapter 12. Surveying the Stars

Teaching Notes (by Section)

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• The discussion of star colors, temperatures, and absorption lines assumes

Section 12.2 Patterns Among Stars

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immediately point out that the main sequence is fundamentally a sequence of

Answers/Discussion Points for Think About It/See It for Yourself

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Solutions to End-of-Chapter Problems (Chapter 12)

Visual Skills Check

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Does It Make Sense?

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29. a. a main-sequence A star

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Short Answer/Essay Questions

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b. In this problem, we must solve for the distance of a lightbulb with a

The lightbulb must be located at a distance of 17,000 meters, or 17

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d. If a star has a luminosity of 5  1029 watts and an apparent brightness of

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Chapter 13. Star Stuff