Advanced Observational Astrophysics: PHYS362
Advanced Observational Astrophysics: PHYS362
Advanced Observational Astrophysics: PHYS362
Advanced Observational
Astrophysics
— 2020 —
Ricardo Schiavon
[email protected]
[email protected] 1
Contents
1. Basic properties of Electromagnetic radiation
2. Measurements & errors
3. Telescopes
4. Detectors
5. Imaging
6. Photometry
7. Adaptive Optics
8. Spectroscopy
2
Bibliography
• George H. Rieke: Measuring the Universe, CUP, 2012
• C.R. Kitchin: Astrophysical techniques, 4th edition, IoP 2003
• David F. Gray: The Observation and Analysis of Stellar
Photospheres, 3rd Edition, CUP, 2005
• Edmund Sutton: Observational Astronomy, Techniques and
Instrumentation, CUP, 2012
• Jon Holtzman: Lecture notes on Observational techniques - ASTRO
535, New Mexico State University, http://astronomy.nmsu.edu/
holtz/a535/index.html
• Steven Majewski Lectures notes on Astronomy 5110, University of
Virginia: http://www.faculty.virginia.edu/ASTR5110/
lectureindex.html
• J.J. Condon & S.M. Ransom: Essential Radio Astronomy, NRAO,
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~sransom/web/Ch2.html
• And additional topic-specific sources referred to in the lecture
slides. 3
Time Table
Ricardo Schiavon
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1. Basic Properties of EM
Radiation
1. Radiometry, definitions
2. Absorption and emission by Earth’s atmosphere
I. Appendix 1: The electromagnetic spectrum
II. Appendix 2: Radiative transfer
III. Appendix 3: Magnitudes and solid angle
IV. Appendix 4: Blackbody radiation
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Reading Assignment
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Carriers of astrophysical
information
• Electromagnetic spectrum: light
• Neutrinos
• Cosmic rays (protons, α particles, electrons, etc.)
• In situ analysis, collection (solar system only)
• Gravitational waves (detected for the first time in 2015)
Energy radiated per unit time, per unit area, per unit
frequency (or wavelength), and per unit solid angle
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Properties of Iν
Where the module accounts for the fact that ν and λ are
inversely proportional to each other. Therefore:
• Energy flow per unit area, per unit time, per unit frequency
(or wavelength)
• Distance dependent: Fν r -2
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Units
• We will use a mixture of SI and cgs units
• Energy
– The erg (1 erg = 10-7 J)
– The electron Volt (1 eV = 1.6 x 10-19 J)
• Wavelength
– The Angstrom (1 Å = 10-10 m = 0.1 nm)
– The micron (1 μ = 10-6 m)
• Flux Density
– The Jansky (1 Jy = 10-26 W/m2/Hz)
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Summary Table of Key Physical Quantities
Definition units Symbol used in
astronomy
Specific Intensity: Iν, Iλ
Power leaving unit (W m−2 sr−1 Hz−1)
projected surface
area into unit solid (W m−2 sr−1 Å−1)
angle per unit
frequency or
wavelength
Intensity: specific (W m−2 sr−1) I
intensity integrated
over ν or λ
Luminosity: power (W) L
emitted by source
of area A
Flux density: power (W m−2 Hz−1) Sν, Sλ or Fν, Fλ
received at unit (W m−2 Å−1)
surface element per
unit frequency or
unit wavelength
Flux: power received at W m−2 F
unit surface element
(integrated flux
density)
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THE EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE
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Atmospheric transparency
H2O, CO2, O2
O2, O, N2,O3
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Components of atmospheric
absorption
• Radio astronomy is ground-based. Atmosphere transparent between
~10 MHz and 100 GHz. Below 10 MHz, ionosphere (100+ km) is
opaque; AM radio waves reflect off it.
• Infrared: water vapour, carbon dioxide, ozone (O3). Only few
relatively narrow windows.
• Optical: little absorption, thus can be done from the ground.
• Ultraviolet: ozone, Rayleigh scattering by molecules
• X-rays: Bound-free transitions knock off electrons from N2, O2.
• Gamma-rays: photons interact with electron, atomic nuclei. At TeV
energies, interactions produce Čerenkov radiation.
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Components of atmospheric
emission
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Sky line emission - Optical and far red
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Concepts to keep in mind
1. Solid Angle
2. Intensity
3. Flux
4. Luminosity
5. Emission and absorption of radiation by Earth’s
atmosphere
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Detectors
1. Types of detectors
2. Quantum efficiency
3. Charge coupled device
4. The array equation
5. Digitisation
Reading assignments: Chapter 3 of Rieke’s textbook; Page 1-29 of 4th edition of Kitchin’s
textbook (slightly different in other editions. Consult with me in case you do not have
access to the 4th edition.)
Types of Detectors
Nearly all detectors transform light into an electrical signal
that can be amplified.
In bold face are the detectors we will discuss during this module
Quantum Efficiency
If absorption doesn’t vary along the detector (constant αλ), and the detector has
thickness d, the flux emerging from the bottom of the detector is given by:
Where R is the loss due to reflection off of the surface of the detector. This is of
course an ideal situation. There are other factors affecting quantum efficiency, such
as:
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An Example:
A given detector is 20 $m thick and has n=3.5. It detects photons at
λ=0.83 $m, where a(0.83 $m) = 1,000 cm-1. What is its reflectivity and
quantum efficiency?
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Appendix 1: The electromagnetic
spectrum
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Appendix 1
Multi-Wavelength
Observations
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Appendix 1
X-rays
UV
Optical Mid-IR 37
Appendix 2: Radiative transfer
When light goes through matter, energy may be added or
subtracted by emission or absorption processes and the specific
intensity will not in general remain constant. Scattering of
photons into and out of the beam may also occur.
Simple cases
Emission only: αν = 0. Then dIν/ds = jν, which has the solution
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Appendix 3
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Appendix 4. Blackbody Radiation
A black body absorbs all radiation
incident upon it. The intensity radiated
by a black body depends only on its
temperature (T).
Specific intensity:
Bν(T) = (2hν3/c2)/[exp(hν/kT)-1]
A thermally insulated box in
thermodynamic equilibrium emits Bλ(T) = (2hc2/λ5)/[exp(hc/λkT)-1]
through a hole on its wall like a BB 42
Appendix 4
The data points are measurements performed by the FIRAS (Far InfraRed
Absolute Spectrometer) on board the COBE (COsmic Background
Explorer) satellite. The curve is a black body function with T~2.7 K
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Appendix 4
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Appendix 4
Stefan-Boltzmann Law
The bolometric flux from a black body integrated over all
directions is also a function of temperature only.