Transcript What`s Out There? - Queen`s University

The Sun
Telescopes with Mirrors
Queen’s University Telescope
Gemini 8m Telescope
Keck 10m Telescope
Hubble Space Telescope
What’s the
most famous
telescope in
the world???
HST – Saturn
HST – Eagle Nebula
HST – Whirlpool Galaxy (M51)
Liquid Mirror Telescope
30m Telescope!
Overwhelmingly Large Telescope
(OWL)– 100m Mirror!
The Sun
The Sun is a
star– the
nearest star!
How Big is the Sun?
-1.4 million km across
→ you could put 100
Earths across Sun
→ 1 million Earths
inside the Sun!
- Sun weighs
~330,000x Earth
Inside the Sun
15 million degrees!
The Sun is a (big)
ball of hot gas!
– Mostly Hydrogen
and Helium
6000 degrees
Where all the Sun’s
energy comes from
How the Sun Makes Energy
• Like a big nuclear bomb
• 2 Hydrogen atoms join to make 1 Helium
atom– light and heat are produced!
Studying the Sun from the Earth
Picture of the Sun from Earth
Things on the Sun
… and from Space
Ulysses
SOHO
SOHO Picture
Sun-Earth Viewer
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/sunearthday/media_viewer/flash.html
Northern Lights
Northern Lights
Northern Lights on Saturn!
Solar Eclipses
Annular Eclipse Oct 3
Rainbows
Rainbows Explained
Forming a Rainbow
Splitting Light into Colours
Sundogs
Colours and Temperatures of Stars
Colour: hot stars are blue (20,000—35,000 deg)
cool stars are red (~3000 deg)
Sizes of Stars
Stars come in all sizes:
•
Small: dwarf stars,
1/10th size of Sun
•
Large: giant and
supergiant stars, up
to ~1000x size of Sun
Comparing the Sun to other Stars
Stars come in all
sizes:
Small: dwarf stars,
10 times smaller
than Sun
Large: giant and
supergiant stars,
up to ~100 times
bigger than Sun
The Sun
• How old is the Sun?
~5 billion years old, halfway through its life
•
Sun balances gravity against pressure
from hot gas
• How do we know about the Sun?