Lecture 1

Lecture 2: Heavy Elements

We saw in Lecture 1 that four elements - H, O, C, and N - comprise more than 95% (by
weight) of what we know as living material. Of these, only hydrogen was available for the
first 200 million years of the Universes existence.
Astronomers consider all elements other than hydrogen and helium heavy.
Today we will look at how the heavy elements are built up by nuclear fusion reactions
inside stars fuelled by primordial hydrogen and helium.
Many of todays illustrations were taken from Astronomy A Beginners Guide to the
Universe by E. Chaisson & S. McMillan (6
th
Ed. 2010).
PHYS1040 Planets and the Search for Life
Lecture 1
Lecture 1
Nuclear fusion: overcoming repulsion
Fusion occurs when two light nuclei (A and B) combine to form a heavier nucleus (C).
Nuclei are positively charged and therefore will repel each other. The
magnitude of the effect depends on the multiple of charges Q
A
! Q
B
.
Fusion requires the nuclei come close enough together for the short-range strong
nuclear force to overcome their electrostatic repulsion and bind them together.
This sticky collision can only occur if the nuclei are moving fast enough. High speeds are
associated with high temperatures.
Hydrogen nuclei (protons) are the lightest nuclei and carry only
one positive charge each, so
1
H +
1
H !
2
H is the first reaction
to get going. The protons slam together at several hundred km/s,
corresponding to a gas temperature of ~ 10
7
K.
PHYS1040 Planets and the Search for Life
Lecture 1
Nuclear fusion: energy release
PHYS1040 Planets and the Search for Life
The total mass decreases in a fusion reaction. It is not lost but rather converted into energy
according to E = mc
2
.
Taking hydrogen fusing to form helium as an example:
Mass of 4 hydrogen nuclei = 6.693 ! 10
-27
kg
Mass of 1 helium nucleus = 6.645 ! 10
-27
kg
Mass lost = 0.048 ! 10
-27
kg
Energy released E = mc
2

= (0.048 ! 10
-27
kg) ! (3 ! 10
8
m/s)
2

= 4.3 ! 10
-12
J
The fusion of three
4
He nuclei to form
12
C releases 1.2 ! 10
-12
J
Lecture 1
Fusion in our Sun
Knowing the mass and age of our Sun and the amount of solar radiation warming the
Earth ( about 1380 Wm
-2
) it is possible to deduce that it must be nuclear powered.
The outward pressure of hot gas and radiation
balances the weight of the Suns outer layers.
Our Suns power output peaks at visible
wavelengths this indicates that the black body
temperature of its surface is about 6000 K.
Wiens law states that for black body radiation
Blue supergiant stars can reach 50,000 K, red dwarfs may be as cool as 2000 K.
PHYS1040 Planets and the Search for Life
!
peak wavelength "
1
temperature
Lecture 1
PHYS1040 Planets and the Search for Life
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A temperature of at least 10
6
K is required for
two hydrogen nuclei (protons) to collide with
enough energy for nuclear fusion to proceed.
This is exceeded in the core of the Sun at high
pressure and density.
A mass of at least 0.08 solar masses ( 80 times
the mass of Jupiter) is needed for a new star to
switch on i.e. for its core to become hot
enough to initiate fusion.
Lecture 1
Sustainability
PHYS1040 Planets and the Search for Life
1.4 ! 10
17
kg of matter must be converted per
year to keep our Sun shining (equivalent to the
mass of our Moon every 500, 000 years).
For our Sun, hydrogen in the core lasts about
10 billion (10 thousand million) years; we have
just over 5 billion years to go.
Smaller stars than our Sun actually tend to live longer because they are not as hot and
therefore not as efficient at nuclear burning. More massive stars burn more efficiently,
live fast and die young.
A star 3 times the mass of our Sun will live 500 million years, a 25 solar mass star just
3 million. This means that there is insufficient time for life to develop around the most
massive stars. Vitally it also implies that the contents of massive stars must be recycled.
Lecture 1
Evolution of a solar mass star
PHYS1040 Planets and the Search for Life
Hydrogen burns to helium fastest at the centre where it is hottest and more slowly
near the edge of the core.
The central helium rich core becomes
larger and more hydrogen deficient.
Nuclear reactions cease in the core
due to lack of fuel.
Hydrogen burning continues in a shell around it.
Outward pressure in the core drops and is overcome by gravity.
The core contracts until the central temperature reaches 10
8
K
hot enough for helium to start fusing to carbon.
Lecture 1
A carbon core forms through the triple alpha process:
It is surrounded by a helium burning shell and an
outer hydrogen burning shell.
As the core runs out of helium fuel it shrinks but
doesnt get hot enough to burn carbon.
With nuclear burning moving outwards, the outer regions of the star expand.
The triple alpha process is very sensitive to small temperature changes, so bursts of
thermonuclear explosions occur in the helium burning shell which de-stabilize the star.
During the final stages of the stars life carbon
may capture residual helium at the core-helium
shell interface to form oxygen, or hydrogen
nuclei to form nitrogen.
PHYS1040 Planets and the Search for Life
Lecture 1
Planetary nebulae
The helium, carbon and oxygen are dredged up from the depths of the star into the
outer layers by convection.
Driven by radiation from within the stars outer layers are blown out into interstellar
space to enrich the interstellar medium.
The evolution of low-mass stars is the source of virtually all of the carbon-rich dust
observed in the plane of our Galaxy (Chaisson & McMillan)
We are left with a slowly cooling core illuminating a
surrounding cloud of blown-off gas: a planetary nebula:
They are called planetary nebulae simply because
they look like planetary discs in a small telescope!
PHYS1040 Planets and the Search for Life
Lecture 1
Composition
Red: N
+
ions
! = 658 nm
PHYS1040 Planets and the Search for Life
Blue: He
+
ions
! = 469 nm
Green: O
++
ions
! = 501 nm
White: C/He core
120,000 K
The ejected gas glows as it is bathed in UV from the remnant solid core of the star.
http://hubblesite.org
Lecture 1
Ionisation & Temperature
Atoms of a gas gain energy as they collide or as they absorb high energy photons.
If enough energy is transferred an atom may lose an electron ionisation e.g. H! H
+
The hotter the gas, the faster the atoms move, so more energy is transferred per collision.
As measured in the laboratory, some elements are more easily ionised than others and for
a given element additional energy is required to remove each subsequent electron.
For example, some ionisation energies (measured in electronvolts, 1eV = 1.6!10
-19
Joules)
are: N
+
14.5 eV, He
+
24.6 eV, O
+
13.6 eV, O
++
35.1 eV, O
+++
54.9 eV. (from An Introduction
to Stellar Astrophysics, LeBlanc)
Thus astronomers can estimate how the temperature changes across a nebula by looking
at the relative abundance of ions and neutral atoms.
PHYS1040 Planets and the Search for Life
Lecture 1
Recombination lines
Recombination lines are seen when atoms have been ionised
then the electrons recombine with the nuclei.
The re-captured electron is in a high energy state (far from
the nucleus in our model), but will relax by emitting light.
In high density regions it is likely that a collision with another
atom will quickly trigger this relaxation and cause the electron
to cascade down the allowed energy levels in several steps
emitting light of various wavelengths.
In a low density region there is a better chance that relaxation
can occur in one step, via a single more energetic photon.
This is characteristic of planetary nebulae.
PHYS1040 Planets and the Search for Life
Lecture 1
Planetary nebula gallery
A typical planetary nebula contains about 0.2 solar masses of material, expanding away
from the central star at about 20 km/s.
The visible nebula is only the inner, well-illuminated part of a much larger, cooling cloud.
It is estimated that our galaxy contains up to 100,000 planetary nebulae of which we have
catalogued more than 1800.
A planetary nebula only lasts for about 50,000 years it fades away as the cooling gas
mixes with the surrounding interstellar medium.
Only about one in ten of the catalogued nebulae are disc-shaped.
PHYS1040 Planets and the Search for Life