Gravitational Collapse of Double Trios:Saiph (Kappa Orion)

Contents
Articles
User:Rajah2770 1
Star 5
Star system 30
Multiple star 33
Kappa Orionis 40
Schwarzschild radius 41
Bhatia-Hazarika limit 46
Gravitational collapse 47
Dark energy 48
Radiative transfer 57
References
Article Sources and Contributors 60
Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 62
Article Licenses
License 63
User:Rajah2770 1
User:Rajah2770
Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika
Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika
[[File:File:Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika & his two kids.jpg||alt=]]
Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika with Laquit(son) and Danisha(daughter)
Born Azad Bin Rajib HazarikaJuly 2, 1970Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India
Residence Nagaon, Assam, India
Nationality Indian
Ethnicity AssameseMuslim
Citizenship India
Education PhD, PDF, FRAS
Alma mater University of Jodhpur

Jai Narayan Vyas University
[1]
Institute of Advanced Study in Science & Technology
[2]
Kendriya Vidyalaya
[3]
Poona College of Arts, Science &Commerce
Occupation Assistant Professor(Lecturer), Diphu Govt. College , Diphu,Assam,India
Years active 2004- onwards
Employer Diphu Government College

Government of Assam,Assam Education Service
Known for Lecturer ,Assistant Professor,Mathematician,Academician,Fusion,Astronomy
Home town Nagaon, Assam, India
Salary Rs 40000 per month
Height 6 feet and 2 inches
Weight 100 kg
Title Doctorate, Dr., FRAS (London), Assam Education Service, AES
Board Member of Scientific and Technical committee & Editorial review board of Natuaral and Applied sciences World Academy of
member of [4]
Science ,Engineering & Technology
Religion Sunni Islam,
Spouse Helmin Begum Hazarika
Children Laquit Ali Hazarika(son), Danisha Begum Hazarika(daughter)
Parents Rosmat Ali Hazarika@Rostam Ali Hazarika@Roufat Ali Hazarika and Anjena Begum Hazarika
Call-sign Drabrh or Raja
Website
[5]
[6] [7] [8] [9]
User:Rajah2770 2
Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika with Laquit (son) and Danisha(daughter)
Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika (born July 02, 1970, in Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India) is Assistant
Professor(Lecturer) Diphu Government College ,Diphu in Karbi Anglong district , Government of Assam [10] , [11] ,
Karbi Anglong,Assam's largest conglomerate by Government of Assam . He is also the Fellow of Royal
Astronomical Society[12] ,London ,Member of International Association of Mathematical Physics, World Academy
of Science ,Engineering & Technology, Focus Fusion Society, Dense Plasma Focus, Plasma Science Society of
India, Assam Science Society, Assam academy of mathematics,International Atomic Energy Agency,Nuclear and
Plasma Sciences Society,Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics,German Academy of Mathematics and
Mechanics,Fusion Science & Technology Society,Indian National Science Academy,Indian Science Congress
Association,Advisory Committee of Mathematical Education,Royal Society,International Biographical Centre.
Early life
Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika was born into the famous Hazarika family, a prominent family belonging to Dhing's wealthy
Muslim Assamese community of Nagaon district. He was born to Anjena Begum Hazarika and Rusmat Ali
Hazarika. He is eldest of two childrens of his parents younger one is a Shamim Ara Rahman(nee Hazarika)daughter .
Early career
Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika completed his PhD degree in Mathematics from J N Vyas University of Jodhpur in 1995 with
specialization in Plasma instability, the thesis was awarded “best thesis” by Association of Indian Universities in
1998 and the Post-Doctoral Fellow Program from Institute of Advanced Study in Science & Technology [13] in
Guwahati Assam in 1998 as Research Associate in Plasma Physics Division in theory group studying the Sheath
phenomenon. As a Part-time Lecturer in Nowgong college, Assam before joining the present position in Diphu
Government College ,Diphu in Karbi Anglong district[14] ,[15] He is a member of the wikipedia[16] , [17] . He is
Fellow of Royal Astronomical Society[18] ,member of International Association Mathematical Physics[19] , member
of World Academy of Science,Engineering & Technology [20] ,[21] , member of Plasma science Society of India [22] ,
[23]
,member of Focus Fusion Society forum [24] ,member of Dense Plasma Focus [25] , Member of Assam Science
Society [26] , Member of Assam Academy of Mathematics [27]
User:Rajah2770 3
He joined the Diphu Government College in July2004 as Lecturer in Mathematics (Gazetted officer), through Assam
Public Service commission [28] in Assam Education Service [29] , AES-I. [30] now redesignated as Assistant
Professor.
Career
In May 1993, Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika was awarded Junior Research Fellowship,University Grants Commission,
National Eligibility Test and eligibility for Lecturership ,Govt. of India and worked as JRF(UGC,NET) in
Department of Mathematics and Statistics of J N Vyas University in Jodhpur. Later on in May 1995 got Senior
Research Fellowship(UGC,NET) and continued research for completion of PhD on 27th Dec 1995 .From 1993
onwards taught in Kamala Nehru College for women, Jodhpur and in Faculty of Science in J N Vyas University in
Jodhpur up to the completion of PhD .In 1998 May joined Plasma Physics Division of Institute of Advanced Study
in Science & Technology in Guwahati as Research Associate for PDF in theory group to study the sheath
phenomena of National Fusion Programme [31] of Govt. of India . Then joined Nowgong College as a part-time
Lecturer after which in 2004, July joined the present position of Lecturer in Diphu Government College which is
redesignated as Assistant Professor.
Research
During PhD [32] [33] [34] [35] [36]
The research was based on Astronomy,Astrophysics, Geophysics , for plasma instability with the title of thesis as
“Some Problems of instabilities in partially ionized and fully ionized plasmas” which later on in 1998 was assessed
as best thesis of the year by Association of Indian Universities in New Delhi. He is known for Bhatia-Hazarika
limitResearch at Diphu Govt. College [37] , [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] Applied for patent in US patent and
trademarks office [45] [46]
Research guidance is given to students in Mathematics for MPhil. He has written six books entitled Inventions of
Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika on future devices and Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika's Pattern recognition on fusion
,Application of Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika's conceptual devices , Green tecnology for next genration , Invention of
Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika's devices ,VASIMR DANISHA:A Hall Thruster Space Odyssey ,[47] , [48] , [49]
He has derived a formula Hazarika's constant for VASIMR DANISHA as Hazarika constant Ch=1+4sin3φ sin θ-2sin
φ-2sin θ the value is 2.646
Personal life
Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika has a metallic Scarlet red Tata Indigo CS of Tata motors make and loves to drive himself.He
is married to Helmin Begum Hazarika and have two chidrens Laquit(son) and Danisha(daughter).
Quotes
• "Fakir(saint) and lakir(line) stops at nothing but at destination"
• "Expert criticizes the wrong but demonstrates the right thing"
• “Intellectuals are measured by their brain not by their age and experience”
• “Two type of persons are happy in life one who knows everything another who doesn’t know anything”
• “Implosion in device to prove every notion wrong for fusion”
• “Meditation gives fakir(saint) long life and fusion devices the long lasting confinement”
User:Rajah2770 4
Awards and recognition

Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika got Junior Research Fellowship,Government of India
Senior Research Fellowship,Government of India
Research AssociateshipDSTGovernment of India
Fellowof Royal Astronomical Society [50]
Member of Advisory committee of Mathematical Education Royal Society London
Member of Scientific and Technical committee & editorial review board on Natural and applied sciences of World
Academy of Science ,Engineering &Technology [51]
Leading professional of the world-2010 as noted and eminent professional from International Biographical Centre
Cambridge
References
[1] http:/ / www. iasst. in
[2] http:/ / www. kvafsdigaru. org
[3] http:/ / www. akipoonacollege. com
[4] http:/ / www. waset. org/ NaturalandAppliedSciences. php?page=45
[5] http:/ / www. facebook. com/ Drabrajib
[6] http:/ / in. linkedin. com/ pub/ dr-a-b-rajib-hazarika/ 25/ 506/ 549
[7] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ Special:Contributions/ Drabrh
[8] http:/ / www. diphugovtcollege. org
[9] http:/ / www. karbianglong. nic. in/ diphugovtcollege. org/ teaching. html
[10] http:/ / www. karbianglong. nic. in/ diphugovtcollege/ teaching. html
[11] http:/ / www. diphugovtcollege. org/ DGC%20prospectus%2008-09. pdf
[12] http:/ / www. ras. org. uk/ member?recid==5531
[13] http:/ / www. iasst. in
[14] {{cite web|url=http:/ / www. diphugovtcollege. org/ DGC%20prospectus%2008-09. pdf
[15] http:/ / karbianglong. nic. in/ diphugovtcollege/ teaching. html
[16] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ User:Drabrh
[17] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ Special:Contributions/ Drabrh
[18] http:/ / www. ras. org. uk/ member?recid=5531,
[19] http:/ / www. iamp. org/ bulletins/ old-bulletins/ 201001. pdf
[21] http:/ / www. waset. org/ Search. php?page=68& search=
[22] http:/ / www. plasma. ernet. in/ ~pssi/ member/ pssi_new04. doc
[23] http:/ / www. ipr. res. in/ ~pssi/ member/ pssidir_new-04. doc
[24] http:/ / www. focusfusion. org/ index. php/ forums/ member/ 4165
[25] http:/ / www. denseplasmafocus. org/ index. php/ forum/ member/ 4165
[26] http:/ / www. assamsciencesociety. org/ member
[27] http:/ / www. aam. org. in/ member/ 982004
[28] http:/ / apsc. nic. in
[29] http:/ / aasc. nic. in/ . . . / Education%20Department/ The%20Assam%20Education%20Service%20Rules%201982. pdf
[30] (http:/ / www. diphugovtcollege. org/ DGC prospests 08-09. pdf)
[31] http:/ / nfp. pssi. in
[32] http:/ / www. iopscience. iop. org/ 1402-4896/ 51/ 6/ 012/ pdf/ physcr_51_6_012. pdf
[33] http:/ / www. iopsciences. iop. org/ 1402-4896/ 53/ 1/ 011/ pdf/ 1402-4896_53_1_011. pdf,
[34] http:/ / www. niscair. res. in/ sciencecommunication/ abstractingjournals/ isa_1jul08. asp
[35] http:/ / en. wiktionary. org/ wiki/ Wikitionary%3ASandbox
[36] http:/ / adsabs. harvard. edu/ abs/ 1996PhyS. . 53. . . 578
[37] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ Special:Contributions/ Drabrh/ File:Drabrhdouble_trios_saiph_star01. pdf
[38] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ File:Drabrh_bayer_rti. pdf
[39] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ File:Columb_drabrh. pdf
[40] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ File:Drabrh_double_trios. pdf
[41] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ File:Drabrhiterparabolic2007. pdf
[42] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ File:Drabrh_mctc_feedbackloop. pdf
[43] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ File:Drabrh_tasso_07. pdf
User:Rajah2770 5
[44] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ File:Abstracts. pdf?page=2

[45] http:/ / upload. wikimedia. org/ wikipedia/ en/ 5/ 50/ EfilingAck5530228. pdf
[46] http:/ / upload. wikimedia. org/ wikipedia/ en/ c/ c4/ EfilingAck3442787. pdf
[47] http:/ / www. pothi. com
[48] http:/ / i-proclaimbookstore. com
[49] http:/ / ipppserver. homelinux. org:8080/ view/ creators/ Hazarika=3ADr=2EA=2EB=2ERajib=3A=3A. html
[50] http:/ / www. ras. org. uk/ members?recid=5531
External links
• (http://www.diphugovtcollege.org/)
• Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika's profile on the Linkedin Website (http://in.linkedin.com/pub/dr-a-b-rajib-hazarika/25/
506/549=)
• (http://www.facebook.com/Drabrajib)
Rajah2770 (talk) 18:12, 7 February 2011 (UTC)
Star
A star is a massive, luminous celestial body
of plasma held together by gravity. At the
end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a
proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest
star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source
of most of the energy on Earth. Other stars
are visible from Earth during the night when
they are not outshone by the Sun or blocked
by atmospheric phenomena. Historically, the
most prominent stars on the celestial sphere
were grouped together into constellations
and asterisms, and the brightest stars gained
proper names. Extensive catalogues of stars A star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud. NASA/ESA image
have been assembled by astronomers, which
provide standardized star designations.
For at least a portion of its life, a star shines due to thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen in its core releasing energy that
traverses the star's interior and then radiates into outer space. Almost all naturally occurring elements heavier than
helium were created by stars, either via stellar nucleosynthesis during their lifetimes or by supernova nucleosynthesis
when stars explode. Astronomers can determine the mass, age, chemical composition and many other properties of a
star by observing its spectrum, luminosity and motion through space. The total mass of a star is the principal
determinant in its evolution and eventual fate. Other characteristics of a star are determined by its evolutionary
history, including diameter, rotation, movement and temperature. A plot of the temperature of many stars against
their luminosities, known as a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (H–R diagram), allows the age and evolutionary state of
a star to be determined.
A star begins as a collapsing cloud of material composed primarily of hydrogen, along with helium and trace
amounts of heavier elements. Once the stellar core is sufficiently dense, some of the hydrogen is steadily converted
into helium through the process of nuclear fusion.[1] The remainder of the star's interior carries energy away from the
core through a combination of radiative and convective processes. The star's internal pressure prevents it from
Star 6
collapsing further under its own gravity. Once the hydrogen fuel at the core is exhausted, those stars having at least
0.4 times the mass of the Sun[2] expand to become a red giant, in some cases fusing heavier elements at the core or in
shells around the core. The star then evolves into a degenerate form, recycling a portion of the matter into the
interstellar environment, where it will form a new generation of stars with a higher proportion of heavy elements.[3]
Binary and multi-star systems consist of two or more stars that are gravitationally bound, and generally move around
each other in stable orbits. When two such stars have a relatively close orbit, their gravitational interaction can have
a significant impact on their evolution.[4] Stars can form part of a much larger gravitationally bound structure, such
as a cluster or a galaxy.
Observation history
Historically, stars have been important to civilizations
throughout the world. They have been part of religious
practices and used for celestial navigation and orientation.
Many ancient astronomers believed that stars were
permanently affixed to a heavenly sphere, and that they were
immutable. By convention, astronomers grouped stars into
constellations and used them to track the motions of the
planets and the inferred position of the Sun.[5] The motion of
the Sun against the background stars (and the horizon) was
used to create calendars, which could be used to regulate
agricultural practices.[7] The Gregorian calendar, currently People have seen patterns in the stars since ancient times.
[5]
used nearly everywhere in the world, is a solar calendar based This 1690 depiction of the constellation of Leo, the lion, is
[6]
on the angle of the Earth's rotational axis relative to its local by Johannes Hevelius.
star, the Sun.
The oldest accurately dated star chart appeared in ancient Egyptian astronomy in 1534 BC.[8] The earliest known star
catalogues were compiled by the ancient Babylonian astronomers of Mesopotamia in the late 2nd millennium BC,
during the Kassite Period (ca. 1531-1155 BC).[9]
The first star catalogue in Greek astronomy was created by Aristillus in approximately 300 BC, with the help of
Timocharis.[10] The star catalog of Hipparchus (2nd century BC) included 1020 stars and was used to assemble
Ptolemy's star catalogue.[11] Hipparchus is known for the discovery of the first recorded nova (new star).[12] Many of
the constellations and star names in use today derive from Greek astronomy.
In spite of the apparent immutability of the heavens, Chinese astronomers were aware that new stars could
appear.[13] In 185 AD, they were the first to observe and write about a supernova, now known as the SN 185.[14] The
brightest stellar event in recorded history was the SN 1006 supernova, which was observed in 1006 and written about
by the Egyptian astronomer Ali ibn Ridwan and several Chinese astronomers.[15] The SN 1054 supernova, which
gave birth to the Crab Nebula, was also observed by Chinese and Islamic astronomers.[16] [17] [18]
Medieval Islamic astronomers gave Arabic names to many stars that are still used today, and they invented numerous
astronomical instruments that could compute the positions of the stars. They built the first large observatory research
institutes, mainly for the purpose of producing Zij star catalogues.[19] Among these, the Book of Fixed Stars (964)
was written by the Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, who discovered a number of stars, star clusters
(including the Omicron Velorum and Brocchi's Clusters) and galaxies (including the Andromeda Galaxy).[20] In the
11th century, the Persian polymath scholar Abu Rayhan Biruni described the Milky Way galaxy as a multitude of
fragments having the properties of nebulous stars, and also gave the latitudes of various stars during a lunar eclipse
in 1019.[21]
Star 7
The Andalusian astronomer Ibn Bajjah proposed that the Milky Way was made up of many stars which almost
touched one another and appeared to be a continuous image due to the effect of refraction from sublunary material,
citing his observation of the conjunction of Jupiter and Mars on 500 AH (1106/1107 AD) as evidence.[22]
Early European astronomers such as Tycho Brahe identified new stars in the night sky (later termed novae),
suggesting that the heavens were not immutable. In 1584 Giordano Bruno suggested that the stars were actually
other suns, and may have other planets, possibly even Earth-like, in orbit around them,[23] an idea that had been
suggested earlier by the ancient Greek philosophers, Democritus and Epicurus,[24] and by medieval Islamic
cosmologists[25] such as Fakhr al-Din al-Razi.[26] By the following century, the idea of the stars as distant suns was
reaching a consensus among astronomers. To explain why these stars exerted no net gravitational pull on the solar
system, Isaac Newton suggested that the stars were equally distributed in every direction, an idea prompted by the
theologian Richard Bentley.[27]
The Italian astronomer Geminiano Montanari recorded observing variations in luminosity of the star Algol in 1667.
Edmond Halley published the first measurements of the proper motion of a pair of nearby "fixed" stars,
demonstrating that they had changed positions from the time of the ancient Greek astronomers Ptolemy and
Hipparchus. The first direct measurement of the distance to a star (61 Cygni at 11.4 light-years) was made in 1838
by Friedrich Bessel using the parallax technique. Parallax measurements demonstrated the vast separation of the
stars in the heavens.[23]
William Herschel was the first astronomer to attempt to determine the distribution of stars in the sky. During the
1780s, he performed a series of gauges in 600 directions, and counted the stars observed along each line of sight.
From this he deduced that the number of stars steadily increased toward one side of the sky, in the direction of the
Milky Way core. His son John Herschel repeated this study in the southern hemisphere and found a corresponding
increase in the same direction.[28] In addition to his other accomplishments, William Herschel is also noted for his
discovery that some stars do not merely lie along the same line of sight, but are also physical companions that form
binary star systems.
The science of stellar spectroscopy was pioneered by Joseph von Fraunhofer and Angelo Secchi. By comparing the
spectra of stars such as Sirius to the Sun, they found differences in the strength and number of their absorption
lines—the dark lines in a stellar spectra due to the absorption of specific frequencies by the atmosphere. In 1865
Secchi began classifying stars into spectral types.[29] However, the modern version of the stellar classification
scheme was developed by Annie J. Cannon during the 1900s.
Observation of double stars gained increasing importance during the 19th century. In 1834, Friedrich Bessel
observed changes in the proper motion of the star Sirius, and inferred a hidden companion. Edward Pickering
discovered the first spectroscopic binary in 1899 when he observed the periodic splitting of the spectral lines of the
star Mizar in a 104 day period. Detailed observations of many binary star systems were collected by astronomers
such as William Struve and S. W. Burnham, allowing the masses of stars to be determined from computation of the
orbital elements. The first solution to the problem of deriving an orbit of binary stars from telescope observations
was made by Felix Savary in 1827.[30]
The twentieth century saw increasingly rapid advances in the scientific study of stars. The photograph became a
valuable astronomical tool. Karl Schwarzschild discovered that the color of a star, and hence its temperature, could
be determined by comparing the visual magnitude against the photographic magnitude. The development of the
photoelectric photometer allowed very precise measurements of magnitude at multiple wavelength intervals. In 1921
Albert A. Michelson made the first measurements of a stellar diameter using an interferometer on the Hooker
telescope.[31]
Important conceptual work on the physical basis of stars occurred during the first decades of the twentieth century.
In 1913, the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram was developed, propelling the astrophysical study of stars. Successful
models were developed to explain the interiors of stars and stellar evolution. The spectra of stars were also
successfully explained through advances in quantum physics. This allowed the chemical composition of the stellar
Star 8
atmosphere to be determined.[32]
With the exception of supernovae, individual stars have primarily been observed in our Local Group of galaxies,[33]
and especially in the visible part of the Milky Way (as demonstrated by the detailed star catalogues available for our
galaxy[34] ). But some stars have been observed in the M100 galaxy of the Virgo Cluster, about 100 million light
years from the Earth.[35] In the Local Supercluster it is possible to see star clusters, and current telescopes could in
principle observe faint individual stars in the Local Cluster—the most distant stars resolved have up to hundred
million light years away[36] (see Cepheids). However, outside the Local Supercluster of galaxies, neither individual
stars nor clusters of stars have been observed. The only exception is a faint image of a large star cluster containing
hundreds of thousands of stars located one billion light years away[37] —ten times the distance of the most distant
star cluster previously observed.
Designations
The concept of the constellation was known to exist during the Babylonian period. Ancient sky watchers imagined
that prominent arrangements of stars formed patterns, and they associated these with particular aspects of nature or
their myths. Twelve of these formations lay along the band of the ecliptic and these became the basis of astrology.[38]
Many of the more prominent individual stars were also given names, particularly with Arabic or Latin designations.
As well as certain constellations and the Sun itself, stars as a whole have their own myths.[39] To the Ancient Greeks,
some "stars", known as planets (Greek πλανήτης (planētēs), meaning "wanderer"), represented various important
deities, from which the names of the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were taken.[39] (Uranus and
Neptune were also Greek and Roman gods, but neither planet was known in Antiquity because of their low
brightness. Their names were assigned by later astronomers.)
Circa 1600, the names of the constellations were used to name the stars in the corresponding regions of the sky. The
German astronomer Johann Bayer created a series of star maps and applied Greek letters as designations to the stars
in each constellation. Later a numbering system based on the star's right ascension was invented and added to John
Flamsteed's star catalogue in his book "Historia coelestis Britannica" (the 1712 edition), whereby this numbering
system came to be called Flamsteed designation or Flamsteed numbering.[40] [41]
Under space law, the only internationally recognized authority for naming celestial bodies is the International
Astronomical Union (IAU).[42] A number of private companies sell names of stars, which the British Library calls an
unregulated commercial enterprise.[43] [44] However, the IAU has disassociated itself from this commercial practice,
and these names are neither recognized by the IAU nor used by them.[45] One such star naming company is the
International Star Registry, which, during the 1980s, was accused of deceptive practice for making it appear that the
assigned name was official. This ISR practice has been informally labeled a scam and a fraud,[46] [47] [48] [49] and the
New York City Department of Consumer Affairs issued a violation against ISR for engaging in a deceptive trade
practice.[50] [51]
Units of measurement
Most stellar parameters are expressed in SI units by convention, but CGS units are also used (e.g., expressing
luminosity in ergs per second). Mass, luminosity, and radii are usually given in solar units, based on the
characteristics of the Sun:
Star 9
solar mass: [52]

kg
solar luminosity: [52]

watts
solar radius: [53]

m
Large lengths, such as the radius of a giant star or the semi-major axis of a binary star system, are often expressed in
terms of the astronomical unit (AU)—approximately the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun (150 million
km or 93 million miles).
Formation and evolution

Stars are formed within extended regions of higher density in the interstellar medium, although the density is still
lower than the inside of an earthly vacuum chamber. These regions are called molecular clouds and consist mostly of
hydrogen, with about 23–28% helium and a few percent heavier elements. One example of such a star-forming
region is the Orion Nebula.[54] As massive stars are formed from molecular clouds, they powerfully illuminate those
clouds. They also ionize the hydrogen, creating an H II region.
Protostar formation
The formation of a star begins with a gravitational instability inside a molecular cloud, often triggered by shock
waves from supernovae (massive stellar explosions) or the collision of two galaxies (as in a starburst galaxy). Once a
region reaches a sufficient density of matter to satisfy the criteria for Jeans instability it begins to collapse under its
own gravitational force.[55]
As the cloud collapses, individual
conglomerations of dense dust and gas form
what are known as Bok globules. As a
globule collapses and the density increases,
the gravitational energy is converted into
heat and the temperature rises. When the
protostellar cloud has approximately
reached the stable condition of hydrostatic
equilibrium, a protostar forms at the core.[56]
These pre–main sequence stars are often
surrounded by a protoplanetary disk. The
period of gravitational contraction lasts for
about 10–15 million years.
Early stars of less than 2 solar masses are

Artist's conception of the birth of a star within a dense molecular cloud. NASA
called T Tauri stars, while those with greater image
mass are Herbig Ae/Be stars. These newly
born stars emit jets of gas along their axis of rotation, which may reduce the angular momentum of the collapsing
star and result in small patches of nebulosity known as Herbig-Haro objects.[57] [58] These jets, in combination with
radiation from nearby massive stars, may help to drive away the surrounding cloud in which the star was formed.[59]
Star 10
Main sequence
Stars spend about 90% of their lifetime fusing hydrogen to produce helium in high-temperature and high-pressure
reactions near the core. Such stars are said to be on the main sequence and are called dwarf stars. Starting at zero-age
main sequence, the proportion of helium in a star's core will steadily increase. As a consequence, in order to maintain
the required rate of nuclear fusion at the core, the star will slowly increase in temperature and luminosity[60] –the
Sun, for example, is estimated to have increased in luminosity by about 40% since it reached the main sequence 4.6
billion years ago.[61]
Every star generates a stellar wind of particles that causes a continual outflow of gas into space. For most stars, the
amount of mass lost is negligible. The Sun loses 10−14 solar masses every year,[62] or about 0.01% of its total mass
over its entire lifespan. However very massive stars can lose 10−7 to 10−5 solar masses each year, significantly
affecting their evolution.[63] Stars that begin with more than 50 solar masses can lose over half their total mass while
they remain on the main sequence.[64]
The duration that a star spends on the
main sequence depends primarily on
the amount of fuel it has to fuse and
the rate at which it fuses that fuel, i.e.
its initial mass and its luminosity. For
the Sun, this is estimated to be about
1010 years. Large stars consume their
fuel very rapidly and are short-lived.
Small stars (called red dwarfs)
consume their fuel very slowly and last
tens to hundreds of billions of years.
At the end of their lives, they simply
become dimmer and dimmer.[2]
However, since the lifespan of such
stars is greater than the current age of
the universe (13.7 billion years), no red
dwarfs are expected to have yet
reached this state.
Besides mass, the portion of elements

heavier than helium can play a
significant role in the evolution of
stars. In astronomy all elements
An example of a Hertzsprung–Russell diagram for a set of stars that includes the Sun
heavier than helium are considered a
(center). (See "Classification" below.)
"metal", and the chemical
concentration of these elements is
called the metallicity. The metallicity can influence the duration that a star will burn its fuel, control the formation of
magnetic fields[65] and modify the strength of the stellar wind.[66] Older, population II stars have substantially less
metallicity than the younger, population I stars due to the composition of the molecular clouds from which they
formed. (Over time these clouds become increasingly enriched in heavier elements as older stars die and shed
portions of their atmospheres.)
Star 11
Post-main sequence
As stars of at least 0.4 solar masses[2] exhaust their supply of hydrogen at their core, their outer layers expand greatly
and cool to form a red giant. For example, in about 5 billion years, when the Sun is a red giant, it will expand out to a
maximum radius of roughly 1 astronomical unit (150 million kilometres), 250 times its present size. As a giant, the
Sun will lose roughly 30% of its current mass.[61] [67]
In a red giant of up to 2.25 solar masses, hydrogen fusion proceeds in a shell-layer surrounding the core.[68]
Eventually the core is compressed enough to start helium fusion, and the star now gradually shrinks in radius and
increases its surface temperature. For larger stars, the core region transitions directly from fusing hydrogen to fusing
helium.[69]
After the star has consumed the helium at the core, fusion continues in a shell around a hot core of carbon and
oxygen. The star then follows an evolutionary path that parallels the original red giant phase, but at a higher surface
temperature.
Massive stars
During their helium-burning phase, very high mass stars with more
than nine solar masses expand to form red supergiants. Once this fuel
is exhausted at the core, they can continue to fuse elements heavier
than helium.
The core contracts until the temperature and pressure are sufficient to
fuse carbon (see carbon burning process). This process continues, with
the successive stages being fueled by neon (see neon burning process),
oxygen (see oxygen burning process), and silicon (see silicon burning
process). Near the end of the star's life, fusion can occur along a series
of onion-layer shells within the star. Each shell fuses a different
element, with the outermost shell fusing hydrogen; the next shell
Betelgeuse is a red supergiant star approaching fusing helium, and so forth.[70]
the end of its life cycle.
The final stage is reached when the star begins producing iron. Since
iron nuclei are more tightly bound than any heavier nuclei, if they are
fused they do not release energy—the process would, on the contrary, consume energy. Likewise, since they are
more tightly bound than all lighter nuclei, energy cannot be released by fission.[68] In relatively old, very massive
stars, a large core of inert iron will accumulate in the center of the star. The heavier elements in these stars can work
their way up to the surface, forming evolved objects known as Wolf-Rayet stars that have a dense stellar wind which
sheds the outer atmosphere.
Collapse
An evolved, average-size star will now shed its outer layers as a planetary nebula. If what remains after the outer
atmosphere has been shed is less than 1.4 solar masses, it shrinks to a relatively tiny object (about the size of Earth)
that is not massive enough for further compression to take place, known as a white dwarf.[71] The
electron-degenerate matter inside a white dwarf is no longer a plasma, even though stars are generally referred to as
being spheres of plasma. White dwarfs will eventually fade into black dwarfs over a very long stretch of time.
Star 12
In larger stars, fusion continues until the iron core has grown so
large (more than 1.4 solar masses) that it can no longer support its
own mass. This core will suddenly collapse as its electrons are
driven into its protons, forming neutrons and neutrinos in a burst
of inverse beta decay, or electron capture. The shockwave formed
by this sudden collapse causes the rest of the star to explode in a
supernova. Supernovae are so bright that they may briefly outshine
the star's entire home galaxy. When they occur within the Milky
Way, supernovae have historically been observed by naked-eye
observers as "new stars" where none existed before.[72]
Most of the matter in the star is blown away by the supernova

explosion (forming nebulae such as the Crab Nebula[72] ) and what
remains will be a neutron star (which sometimes manifests itself as The Crab Nebula, remnants of a supernova that was
a pulsar or X-ray burster) or, in the case of the largest stars (large first observed around 1050 AD
enough to leave a stellar remnant greater than roughly 4 solar

masses), a black hole.[73] In a neutron star the matter is in a state known as neutron-degenerate matter, with a more
exotic form of degenerate matter, QCD matter, possibly present in the core. Within a black hole the matter is in a
state that is not currently understood.
The blown-off outer layers of dying stars include heavy elements which may be recycled during new star formation.
These heavy elements allow the formation of rocky planets. The outflow from supernovae and the stellar wind of
large stars play an important part in shaping the interstellar medium.[72]
Distribution
In addition to isolated stars, a multi-star system can
consist of two or more gravitationally bound stars that
orbit around each other. The most common multi-star
system is a binary star, but systems of three or more
stars are also found. For reasons of orbital stability,
such multi-star systems are often organized into
hierarchical sets of co-orbiting binary stars.[74] Larger
groups called star clusters also exist. These range from
loose stellar associations with only a few stars, up to
enormous globular clusters with hundreds of thousands
of stars.
It has been a long-held assumption that the majority of

A white dwarf star in orbit around Sirius (artist's impression). NASA
image stars occur in gravitationally bound, multiple-star
systems. This is particularly true for very massive O
and B class stars, where 80% of the systems are believed to be multiple. However the portion of single star systems
increases for smaller stars, so that only 25% of red dwarfs are known to have stellar companions. As 85% of all stars
are red dwarfs, most stars in the Milky Way are likely single from birth.[75]
Stars are not spread uniformly across the universe, but are normally grouped into galaxies along with interstellar gas
and dust. A typical galaxy contains hundreds of billions of stars, and there are more than 100 billion (1011) galaxies
in the observable universe.[76] While it is often believed that stars only exist within galaxies, intergalactic stars have
been discovered.[77] A 2010 star count estimate was 300 sextillion (3 × 1023) in the observable universe.[78]
Star 13
The nearest star to the Earth, apart from the Sun, is Proxima Centauri, which is 39.9 trillion kilometres, or 4.2
light-years away. Light from Proxima Centauri takes 4.2 years to reach Earth. Travelling at the orbital speed of the
Space Shuttle (8 kilometres per second—almost 30,000 kilometres per hour), it would take about 150,000 years to
get there.[79] Distances like this are typical inside galactic discs, including in the vicinity of the solar system.[80] Stars
can be much closer to each other in the centres of galaxies and in globular clusters, or much farther apart in galactic
halos.
Due to the relatively vast distances between stars outside the galactic nucleus, collisions between stars are thought to
be rare. In denser regions such as the core of globular clusters or the galactic center, collisions can be more
common.[81] Such collisions can produce what are known as blue stragglers. These abnormal stars have a higher
surface temperature than the other main sequence stars with the same luminosity in the cluster .[82]
Characteristics
Almost everything about a star is determined by its initial mass,
including essential characteristics such as luminosity and size, as well
as the star's evolution, lifespan, and eventual fate.
Age
Most stars are between 1 billion and 10 billion years old. Some stars
may even be close to 13.7 billion years old—the observed age of the
universe. The oldest star yet discovered, HE 1523-0901, is an
estimated 13.2 billion years old.[83] [84] The Sun is the nearest star to Earth.
The more massive the star, the shorter its lifespan, primarily because
massive stars have greater pressure on their cores, causing them to burn hydrogen more rapidly. The most massive
stars last an average of about one million years, while stars of minimum mass (red dwarfs) burn their fuel very
slowly and last tens to hundreds of billions of years.[85] [86]
Chemical composition
When stars form in the present Milky Way galaxy they are composed of about 71% hydrogen and 27% helium,[87] as
measured by mass, with a small fraction of heavier elements. Typically the portion of heavy elements is measured in
terms of the iron content of the stellar atmosphere, as iron is a common element and its absorption lines are relatively
easy to measure. Because the molecular clouds where stars form are steadily enriched by heavier elements from
supernovae explosions, a measurement of the chemical composition of a star can be used to infer its age.[88] The
portion of heavier elements may also be an indicator of the likelihood that the star has a planetary system.[89]
The star with the lowest iron content ever measured is the dwarf HE1327-2326, with only 1/200,000th the iron
content of the Sun.[90] By contrast, the super-metal-rich star μ Leonis has nearly double the abundance of iron as the
Sun, while the planet-bearing star 14 Herculis has nearly triple the iron.[91] There also exist chemically peculiar stars
that show unusual abundances of certain elements in their spectrum; especially chromium and rare earth
elements.[92]
Star 14
Diameter
Due to their great distance from the Earth, all stars except the Sun
appear to the human eye as shining points in the night sky that twinkle
because of the effect of the Earth's atmosphere. The Sun is also a star,
but it is close enough to the Earth to appear as a disk instead, and to
provide daylight. Other than the Sun, the star with the largest apparent
size is R Doradus, with an angular diameter of only 0.057
arcseconds.[93]
The disks of most stars are much too small in angular size to be
Stars vary widely in size. In each image in the
observed with current ground-based optical telescopes, and so
sequence, the right-most object appears as the
left-most object in the next panel. The Earth
interferometer telescopes are required in order to produce images of
appears at right in panel 1 and the Sun is second
these objects. Another technique for measuring the angular size of stars
from the right in panel 3.
is through occultation. By precisely measuring the drop in brightness
of a star as it is occulted by the Moon (or the rise in brightness when it
reappears), the star's angular diameter can be computed.[94]
Stars range in size from neutron stars, which vary anywhere from 20 to 40 km in diameter, to supergiants like
Betelgeuse in the Orion constellation, which has a diameter approximately 650 times larger than the Sun—about 0.9
billion kilometres. However, Betelgeuse has a much lower density than the Sun.[95]
Kinematics
The motion of a star relative to the Sun can
provide useful information about the origin
and age of a star, as well as the structure and
evolution of the surrounding galaxy. The
components of motion of a star consist of
the radial velocity toward or away from the
Sun, and the traverse angular movement,
which is called its proper motion.
Radial velocity is measured by the doppler

shift of the star's spectral lines, and is given
in units of km/s. The proper motion of a star
is determined by precise astrometric
measurements in units of milli-arc seconds
(mas) per year. By determining the parallax The Pleiades, an open cluster of stars in the constellation of Taurus. These stars
[96]
of a star, the proper motion can then be share a common motion through space. NASA photo
converted into units of velocity. Stars with

high rates of proper motion are likely to be relatively close to the Sun, making them good candidates for parallax
measurements.[97]
Once both rates of movement are known, the space velocity of the star relative to the Sun or the galaxy can be
computed. Among nearby stars, it has been found that population I stars have generally lower velocities than older,
population II stars. The latter have elliptical orbits that are inclined to the plane of the galaxy.[98] Comparison of the
kinematics of nearby stars has also led to the identification of stellar associations. These are most likely groups of
stars that share a common point of origin in giant molecular clouds. [99]
Star 15
Magnetic field
The magnetic field of a star is generated within regions of the
interior where convective circulation occurs. This movement
of conductive plasma functions like a dynamo, generating
magnetic fields that extend throughout the star. The strength
of the magnetic field varies with the mass and composition of
the star, and the amount of magnetic surface activity depends
upon the star's rate of rotation. This surface activity produces
starspots, which are regions of strong magnetic fields and
lower than normal surface temperatures. Coronal loops are
arching magnetic fields that reach out into the corona from
active regions. Stellar flares are bursts of high-energy particles
that are emitted due to the same magnetic activity.[100]
Young, rapidly rotating stars tend to have high levels of

surface activity because of their magnetic field. The magnetic
Surface magnetic field of SU Aur (a young star of T Tauri
field can act upon a star's stellar wind, however, functioning type), reconstructed by means of Zeeman-Doppler imaging
as a brake to gradually slow the rate of rotation as the star
grows older. Thus, older stars such as the Sun have a much slower rate of rotation and a lower level of surface
activity. The activity levels of slowly rotating stars tend to vary in a cyclical manner and can shut down altogether
for periods.[101] During the Maunder minimum, for example, the Sun underwent a 70-year period with almost no
sunspot activity.
Mass
One of the most massive stars known is Eta Carinae,[102] with 100–150 times as much mass as the Sun; its lifespan is
very short—only several million years at most. A study of the Arches cluster suggests that 150 solar masses is the
upper limit for stars in the current era of the universe.[103] The reason for this limit is not precisely known, but it is
partially due to the Eddington luminosity which defines the maximum amount of luminosity that can pass through
the atmosphere of a star without ejecting the gases into space. However, a star named R136a1 in the RMC 136a star
cluster has been measured at 265 solar masses, putting this limit into question.[104]
Star 16
The first stars to form after the Big Bang may have
been larger, up to 300 solar masses or more,[105] due to
the complete absence of elements heavier than lithium
in their composition. This generation of supermassive,
population III stars is long extinct, however, and
currently only theoretical.
With a mass only 93 times that of Jupiter, AB Doradus

C, a companion to AB Doradus A, is the smallest
known star undergoing nuclear fusion in its core.[106]
For stars with similar metallicity to the Sun, the
theoretical minimum mass the star can have, and still
undergo fusion at the core, is estimated to be about 75
times the mass of Jupiter.[107] [108] When the
metallicity is very low, however, a recent study of the
faintest stars found that the minimum star size seems to
be about 8.3% of the solar mass, or about 87 times the
The reflection nebula NGC 1999 is brilliantly illuminated by V380
mass of Jupiter.[108] [109] Smaller bodies are called Orionis (center), a variable star with about 3.5 times the mass of the
brown dwarfs, which occupy a poorly defined grey area Sun. The black patch of sky is a vast hole of empty space and not a
between stars and gas giants. dark nebula as previously thought. NASA image
The combination of the radius and the mass of a star determines the surface gravity. Giant stars have a much lower
surface gravity than main sequence stars, while the opposite is the case for degenerate, compact stars such as white
dwarfs. The surface gravity can influence the appearance of a star's spectrum, with higher gravity causing a
broadening of the absorption lines.[32]
Stars are sometimes grouped by mass based upon their evolutionary behavior as they approach the end of their
nuclear fusion lifetimes. Very low mass stars with masses below 0.5 solar masses do not enter the asymptotic giant
branch (AGB) but evolve directly into white dwarfs. Low mass stars with a mass below about 1.8–2.2 solar masses
(depending on composition) do enter the AGB, where they develop a degenerate helium core. Intermediate-mass
stars undergo helium fusion and develop a degenerate carbon-oxygen core. Massive stars have a minimum mass of
7–10 solar masses, but this may be as low as 5–6 solar masses. These stars undergo carbon fusion, with their lives
ending in a core-collapse supernova explosion.[110]
Rotation
The rotation rate of stars can be approximated through spectroscopic measurement, or more exactly determined by
tracking the rotation rate of starspots. Young stars can have a rapid rate of rotation greater than 100 km/s at the
equator. The B-class star Achernar, for example, has an equatorial rotation velocity of about 225 km/s or greater,
giving it an equatorial diameter that is more than 50% larger than the distance between the poles. This rate of
rotation is just below the critical velocity of 300 km/s where the star would break apart.[111] By contrast, the Sun
only rotates once every 25 – 35 days, with an equatorial velocity of 1.994 km/s. The star's magnetic field and the
stellar wind serve to slow down a main sequence star's rate of rotation by a significant amount as it evolves on the
main sequence.[112]
Degenerate stars have contracted into a compact mass, resulting in a rapid rate of rotation. However they have
relatively low rates of rotation compared to what would be expected by conservation of angular momentum—the
tendency of a rotating body to compensate for a contraction in size by increasing its rate of spin. A large portion of
the star's angular momentum is dissipated as a result of mass loss through the stellar wind.[113] In spite of this, the
rate of rotation for a pulsar can be very rapid. The pulsar at the heart of the Crab nebula, for example, rotates 30
Star 17
times per second.[114] The rotation rate of the pulsar will gradually slow due to the emission of radiation.
Temperature
The surface temperature of a main sequence star is determined by the rate of energy production at the core and the
radius of the star and is often estimated from the star's color index.[115] It is normally given as the effective
temperature, which is the temperature of an idealized black body that radiates its energy at the same luminosity per
surface area as the star. Note that the effective temperature is only a representative value, however, as stars actually
have a temperature gradient that decreases with increasing distance from the core.[116] The temperature in the core
region of a star is several million kelvins.[117]
The stellar temperature will determine the rate of energization or ionization of different elements, resulting in
characteristic absorption lines in the spectrum. The surface temperature of a star, along with its visual absolute
magnitude and absorption features, is used to classify a star (see classification below).[32]
Massive main sequence stars can have surface temperatures of 50,000 K. Smaller stars such as the Sun have surface
temperatures of a few thousand K. Red giants have relatively low surface temperatures of about 3,600 K, but they
also have a high luminosity due to their large exterior surface area.[118]
Radiation
The energy produced by stars, as a by-product of nuclear fusion, radiates into space as both electromagnetic radiation
and particle radiation. The particle radiation emitted by a star is manifested as the stellar wind[119] (which exists as a
steady stream of electrically charged particles, such as free protons, alpha particles, and beta particles, emanating
from the star’s outer layers) and as a steady stream of neutrinos emanating from the star’s core.
The production of energy at the core is the reason why stars shine so brightly: every time two or more atomic nuclei
of one element fuse together to form an atomic nucleus of a new heavier element, gamma ray photons are released
from the nuclear fusion reaction. This energy is converted to other forms of electromagnetic energy, including
visible light, by the time it reaches the star’s outer layers.
The color of a star, as determined by the peak frequency of the visible light, depends on the temperature of the star’s
outer layers, including its photosphere.[120] Besides visible light, stars also emit forms of electromagnetic radiation
that are invisible to the human eye. In fact, stellar electromagnetic radiation spans the entire electromagnetic
spectrum, from the longest wavelengths of radio waves and infrared to the shortest wavelengths of ultraviolet,
X-rays, and gamma rays. All components of stellar electromagnetic radiation, both visible and invisible, are typically
significant.
Using the stellar spectrum, astronomers can also determine the surface temperature, surface gravity, metallicity and
rotational velocity of a star. If the distance of the star is known, such as by measuring the parallax, then the
luminosity of the star can be derived. The mass, radius, surface gravity, and rotation period can then be estimated
based on stellar models. (Mass can be measured directly for stars in binary systems. The technique of gravitational
microlensing will also yield the mass of a star.[121] ) With these parameters, astronomers can also estimate the age of
the star.[122]
Star 18
Luminosity
In astronomy, luminosity is the amount of light, and other forms of radiant energy, a star radiates per unit of time.
The luminosity of a star is determined by the radius and the surface temperature. However, many stars do not radiate
a uniform flux—the amount of energy radiated per unit area—across their entire surface. The rapidly rotating star
Vega, for example, has a higher energy flux at its poles than along its equator.[123]
Surface patches with a lower temperature and luminosity than average are known as starspots. Small, dwarf stars
such as the Sun generally have essentially featureless disks with only small starspots. Larger, giant stars have much
bigger, much more obvious starspots,[124] and they also exhibit strong stellar limb darkening. That is, the brightness
decreases towards the edge of the stellar disk.[125] Red dwarf flare stars such as UV Ceti may also possess prominent
starspot features.[126]
Magnitude
The apparent brightness of a star is measured by its apparent magnitude, which is the brightness of a star with respect
to the star’s luminosity, distance from Earth, and the altering of the star’s light as it passes through Earth’s
atmosphere. Intrinsic or absolute magnitude is directly related to a star’s luminosity and is what the apparent
magnitude a star would be if the distance between the Earth and the star were 10 parsecs (32.6 light-years).
Number of stars brighter than magnitude

Apparent Number
magnitude of Stars[127]
0 4
1 15
2 48
3 171
4 513
5 1,602
6 4,800
7 14,000
Both the apparent and absolute magnitude scales are logarithmic units: one whole number difference in magnitude is
equal to a brightness variation of about 2.5 times[128] (the 5th root of 100 or approximately 2.512). This means that a
first magnitude (+1.00) star is about 2.5 times brighter than a second magnitude (+2.00) star, and approximately 100
times brighter than a sixth magnitude (+6.00) star. The faintest stars visible to the naked eye under good seeing
conditions are about magnitude +6.
On both apparent and absolute magnitude scales, the smaller the magnitude number, the brighter the star; the larger
the magnitude number, the fainter. The brightest stars, on either scale, have negative magnitude numbers. The
variation in brightness (ΔL) between two stars is calculated by subtracting the magnitude number of the brighter star
(mb) from the magnitude number of the fainter star (mf), then using the difference as an exponent for the base
number 2.512; that is to say:
Relative to both luminosity and distance from Earth, absolute magnitude (M) and apparent magnitude (m) are not
equivalent for an individual star;[128] for example, the bright star Sirius has an apparent magnitude of −1.44, but it
has an absolute magnitude of +1.41.
Star 19
The Sun has an apparent magnitude of −26.7, but its absolute magnitude is only +4.83. Sirius, the brightest star in
the night sky as seen from Earth, is approximately 23 times more luminous than the Sun, while Canopus, the second
brightest star in the night sky with an absolute magnitude of −5.53, is approximately 14,000 times more luminous
than the Sun. Despite Canopus being vastly more luminous than Sirius, however, Sirius appears brighter than
Canopus. This is because Sirius is merely 8.6 light-years from the Earth, while Canopus is much farther away at a
distance of 310 light-years.
As of 2006, the star with the highest known absolute magnitude is LBV 1806-20, with a magnitude of −14.2. This
star is at least 5,000,000 times more luminous than the Sun.[129] The least luminous stars that are currently known
are located in the NGC 6397 cluster. The faintest red dwarfs in the cluster were magnitude 26, while a 28th
magnitude white dwarf was also discovered. These faint stars are so dim that their light is as bright as a birthday
candle on the Moon when viewed from the Earth.[130]
Classification
Surface Temperature Ranges for

Different Stellar Classes[131]
Class Temperature Sample star
O 33,000 K or more Zeta Ophiuchi
B 10,500–30,000 K Rigel
A 7,500–10,000 K Altair
F 6,000–7,200 K Procyon A
G 5,500–6,000 K Sun
K 4,000–5,250 K Epsilon Indi
M 2,600–3,850 K Proxima Centauri
The current stellar classification system originated in the early 20th century, when stars were classified from A to Q
based on the strength of the hydrogen line.[132] It was not known at the time that the major influence on the line
strength was temperature; the hydrogen line strength reaches a peak at over 9000 K, and is weaker at both hotter and
cooler temperatures. When the classifications were reordered by temperature, it more closely resembled the modern
scheme.[133]
There are different single-letter classifications of stars according to their spectra, ranging from type O, which are
very hot, to M, which are so cool that molecules may form in their atmospheres. The main classifications in order of
decreasing surface temperature are: O, B, A, F, G, K, and M. A variety of rare spectral types have special
classifications. The most common of these are types L and T, which classify the coldest low-mass stars and brown
dwarfs. Each letter has 10 sub-divisions, numbered from 0 to 9, in order of decreasing temperature. However, this
system breaks down at extreme high temperatures: class O0 and O1 stars may not exist.[134]
In addition, stars may be classified by the luminosity effects found in their spectral lines, which correspond to their
spatial size and is determined by the surface gravity. These range from 0 (hypergiants) through III (giants) to V
(main sequence dwarfs); some authors add VII (white dwarfs). Most stars belong to the main sequence, which
consists of ordinary hydrogen-burning stars. These fall along a narrow, diagonal band when graphed according to
their absolute magnitude and spectral type.[134] Our Sun is a main sequence G2V yellow dwarf, being of intermediate
temperature and ordinary size.
Additional nomenclature, in the form of lower-case letters, can follow the spectral type to indicate peculiar features
of the spectrum. For example, an "e" can indicate the presence of emission lines; "m" represents unusually strong
Star 20
levels of metals, and "var" can mean variations in the spectral type.[134]
White dwarf stars have their own class that begins with the letter D. This is further sub-divided into the classes DA,
DB, DC, DO, DZ, and DQ, depending on the types of prominent lines found in the spectrum. This is followed by a
numerical value that indicates the temperature index.[135]
Variable stars
Variable stars have periodic or random changes in luminosity
because of intrinsic or extrinsic properties. Of the intrinsically
variable stars, the primary types can be subdivided into three
principal groups.
During their stellar evolution, some stars pass through phases
where they can become pulsating variables. Pulsating variable
stars vary in radius and luminosity over time, expanding and
contracting with periods ranging from minutes to years, depending
on the size of the star. This category includes Cepheid and
cepheid-like stars, and long-period variables such as Mira.[136]
Eruptive variables are stars that experience sudden increases in

luminosity because of flares or mass ejection events.[136] This
The asymmetrical appearance of Mira, an oscillating group includes protostars, Wolf-Rayet stars, and Flare stars, as
variable star. NASA HST image well as giant and supergiant stars.
Cataclysmic or explosive variables undergo a dramatic change in
their properties. This group includes novae and supernovae. A binary star system that includes a nearby white dwarf
can produce certain types of these spectacular stellar explosions, including the nova and a Type 1a supernova.[4] The
explosion is created when the white dwarf accretes hydrogen from the companion star, building up mass until the
hydrogen undergoes fusion.[137] Some novae are also recurrent, having periodic outbursts of moderate
amplitude.[136]
Stars can also vary in luminosity because of extrinsic factors, such as eclipsing binaries, as well as rotating stars that
produce extreme starspots.[136] A notable example of an eclipsing binary is Algol, which regularly varies in
magnitude from 2.3 to 3.5 over a period of 2.87 days.
Structure
The interior of a stable star is in a state of hydrostatic equilibrium: the forces on any small volume almost exactly
counterbalance each other. The balanced forces are inward gravitational force and an outward force due to the
pressure gradient within the star. The pressure gradient is established by the temperature gradient of the plasma; the
outer part of the star is cooler than the core. The temperature at the core of a main sequence or giant star is at least on
the order of 107 K. The resulting temperature and pressure at the hydrogen-burning core of a main sequence star are
sufficient for nuclear fusion to occur and for sufficient energy to be produced to prevent further collapse of the
star.[138] [139]
As atomic nuclei are fused in the core, they emit energy in the form of gamma rays. These photons interact with the
surrounding plasma, adding to the thermal energy at the core. Stars on the main sequence convert hydrogen into
helium, creating a slowly but steadily increasing proportion of helium in the core. Eventually the helium content
becomes predominant and energy production ceases at the core. Instead, for stars of more than 0.4 solar masses,
fusion occurs in a slowly expanding shell around the degenerate helium core.[140]
Star 21
In addition to hydrostatic equilibrium, the interior of a stable star will also maintain an energy balance of thermal
equilibrium. There is a radial temperature gradient throughout the interior that results in a flux of energy flowing
toward the exterior. The outgoing flux of energy leaving any layer within the star will exactly match the incoming
flux from below.
The radiation zone is the region within
the stellar interior where radiative
transfer is sufficiently efficient to
maintain the flux of energy. In this
region the plasma will not be perturbed
and any mass motions will die out. If
this is not the case, however, then the
plasma becomes unstable and
convection will occur, forming a
convection zone. This can occur, for
example, in regions where very high
energy fluxes occur, such as near the
core or in areas with high opacity as in
the outer envelope.[139]
This diagram shows a cross-section of a solar-type star. NASA image The occurrence of convection in the
outer envelope of a main sequence star
depends on the mass. Stars with several times the mass of the Sun have a convection zone deep within the interior
and a radiative zone in the outer layers. Smaller stars such as the Sun are just the opposite, with the convective zone
located in the outer layers.[141] Red dwarf stars with less than 0.4 solar masses are convective throughout, which
prevents the accumulation of a helium core.[2] For most stars the convective zones will also vary over time as the star
ages and the constitution of the interior is modified.[139]
The portion of a star that is visible to an observer is called the photosphere. This is the layer at which the plasma of
the star becomes transparent to photons of light. From here, the energy generated at the core becomes free to
propagate out into space. It is within the photosphere that sun spots, or regions of lower than average temperature,
appear.
Above the level of the photosphere is the stellar atmosphere. In a main sequence star such as the Sun, the lowest
level of the atmosphere is the thin chromosphere region, where spicules appear and stellar flares begin. This is
surrounded by a transition region, where the temperature rapidly increases within a distance of only 100 km. Beyond
this is the corona, a volume of super-heated plasma that can extend outward to several million kilometres.[142] The
existence of a corona appears to be dependent on a convective zone in the outer layers of the star.[141] Despite its
high temperature, the corona emits very little light. The corona region of the Sun is normally only visible during a
solar eclipse.
From the corona, a stellar wind of plasma particles expands outward from the star, propagating until it interacts with
the interstellar medium. For the Sun, the influence of its solar wind extends throughout the bubble-shaped region of
the heliosphere.[143]
Star 22
Nuclear fusion reaction pathways
Overview of the proton-proton chain
The carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle
A variety of different nuclear fusion reactions take place inside the cores of stars, depending upon their mass and
composition, as part of stellar nucleosynthesis. The net mass of the fused atomic nuclei is smaller than the sum of the
constituents. This lost mass is released as electromagnetic energy, according to the mass-energy equivalence
relationship E = mc2.[1]
The hydrogen fusion process is temperature-sensitive, so a moderate increase in the core temperature will result in a
significant increase in the fusion rate. As a result the core temperature of main sequence stars only varies from 4
million kelvin for a small M-class star to 40 million kelvin for a massive O-class star.[117]
In the Sun, with a 10-million-kelvin core, hydrogen fuses to form helium in the proton-proton chain reaction:[144]
41H → 22H + 2e+ + 2νe (4.0 MeV + 1.0 MeV)
21H + 22H → 23He + 2γ (5.5 MeV)
23He → 4He + 21H (12.9 MeV)
These reactions result in the overall reaction:
41H → 4He + 2e+ + 2γ + 2νe (26.7 MeV)
where e+ is a positron, γ is a gamma ray photon, νe is a neutrino, and H and He are isotopes of hydrogen and helium,
respectively. The energy released by this reaction is in millions of electron volts, which is actually only a tiny
amount of energy. However enormous numbers of these reactions occur constantly, producing all the energy
necessary to sustain the star's radiation output.
Star 23
Minimum stellar mass required for fusion

Element Solar
masses
Hydrogen 0.01
Helium 0.4
Carbon [145]
5
Neon 8
In more massive stars, helium is produced in a cycle of reactions catalyzed by carbon—the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen
cycle.[144]
In evolved stars with cores at 100 million kelvin and masses between 0.5 and 10 solar masses, helium can be
transformed into carbon in the triple-alpha process that uses the intermediate element beryllium:[144]
4
He + 4He + 92 keV → 8*Be
4
He + 8*Be + 67 keV → 12*C
12*
C → 12C + γ + 7.4 MeV
For an overall reaction of:
34He → 12C + γ + 7.2 MeV
In massive stars, heavier elements can also be burned in a contracting core through the neon burning process and
oxygen burning process. The final stage in the stellar nucleosynthesis process is the silicon burning process that
results in the production of the stable isotope iron-56. Fusion can not proceed any further except through an
endothermic process, and so further energy can only be produced through gravitational collapse.[144]
The example below shows the amount of time required for a star of 20 solar masses to consume all of its nuclear
fuel. As an O-class main sequence star, it would be 8 times the solar radius and 62,000 times the Sun's
luminosity.[146]
Burn
Fuel Temperature Density duration
material (million kelvins) (kg/cm3) (τ in years)
H 37 0.0045 8.1 million
He 188 0.97 1.2 million
C 870 170 976
Ne 1,570 3,100 0.6
O 1,980 5,550 1.25
S/Si 3,340 33,400 [147]

0.0315
Star 24
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Star 29
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Further reading
• Pickover, Cliff (2001). The Stars of Heaven. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-514874-6.
• Gribbin, John; Mary Gribbin (2001). Stardust: Supernovae and Life—The Cosmic Connection. Yale University
Press. ISBN 0-300-09097-8.
• Hawking, Stephen (1988). A Brief History of Time. Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-17521-1.
External links
• Green, Paul J (2005). "Star" (http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/star_worldbook.html). World Book Online
Reference Center. World Book, Inc. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
• Kaler, James. "Portraits of Stars and their Constellations" (http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/sow.html).
University of Illinois. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
• "Query star by identifier, coordinates or reference code" (http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/sim-fid.pl). SIMBAD.
Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
• "How To Decipher Classification Codes" (http://www.assa.org.au/sig/variables/classifications.asp).
Astronomical Society of South Australia. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
• "Live Star Chart" (http://www.mydob.co.uk/community_star.php). Dobsonian Telescope Community.
Retrieved 2010-08-20. View the stars above your location
• Prialnick, Dina; Wood, Kenneth; Bjorkman, Jon; Whitney, Barbara; Wolff, Michael; Gray, David; Mihalas,
Dimitri (2001). "Stars: Stellar Atmospheres, Structure, & Evolution" (http://www-star.st-and.ac.uk/~kw25/
teaching/stars/stars.html). University of St. Andrews. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
Star system 30
Star system
A star system or stellar system is a small number of stars which orbit each other,[1] bound by gravitational
attraction. A large number of stars bound by gravitation is generally called a star cluster or galaxy, although, broadly
speaking, they are also star systems. Star system may also be used to refer to a system of a single star together with a
planetary system of orbiting smaller bodies.[2] [3]
Binary star systems

A stellar system of two stars is known as a binary star, binary star system or physical double star. If there are no
tidal effects, no perturbation from other forces, and no transfer of mass from one star to the other, such a system is
stable, and both stars will trace out an elliptical orbit around the center of mass of the system indefinitely. See
Two-body problem.
Examples of binary systems are Sirius, Procyon and Cygnus X-1, the last of which probably consists of a star and a
black hole.
Multiple star systems

Multiple star systems or physical multiple stars are systems of more than two stars.[4] [5] Multiple star systems are
called triple, trinary or ternary if they contain three stars; quadruple or quaternary if they contain four stars;
quintuple with five stars; sextuple with six stars; septuple with seven stars; and so on. These systems are smaller than
open star clusters, which have more complex dynamics and typically have from 100 to 1,000 stars.[6]
Dynamics
Theoretically, modelling a multiple star system is more difficult than modelling a binary star, as the dynamical
system involved, the n-body problem, may exhibit chaotic behavior. Many configurations of small groups of stars are
found to be unstable, as eventually one star will approach another closely and be accelerated so much that it will
escape from the system.[7] This instability can be avoided if the system is what Evans[8] has called hierarchical. In a
hierarchical system, the stars in the system can be divided into two smaller groups, each of which traverses a larger
orbit around the system's center of mass. Each of these smaller groups must also be hierarchical, which means that
they must be divided into smaller subgroups which themselves are hierarchical, and so on. In this case, the stars'
motion will continue to approximate stable Keplerian orbits around the system's center of mass,[9] unlike the more
complex dynamics of the large number of stars in star clusters and galaxies.
Star system 31
Observation
Most multiple star systems known are triple; for higher
multiplicities, the number of known systems with a
given multiplicity decreases exponentially with
multiplicity.[10] For example, in the 1999 revision of
Tokovinin's catalog[5] of physical multiple stars, 551
out of the 728 systems described are triple. However,
because of selection effects, our knowledge of these
statistics is very incomplete.[11] , §2.
Because of the dynamical instabilities mentioned

earlier, triple systems are generally hierarchical: they
contain a close binary pair which has a more distant
Artist's impression of the orbits of HD 188753, a triple star system
companion. Systems with higher multiplicities are also
generally hierarchical.[10] Systems with up to six stars
are known; for example, Castor (Alpha Geminorum), which consists of a binary pair in a distant orbit of two closer
binary pairs.[12] Another system known with six stars is ADS 9731, which consists of a pair of two triple systems,
each of which is a spectroscopic binary in orbit together with a single star.[13]
Examples
Binary
• Sirius, a binary consisting of a main-sequence type A star and a white dwarf.
• Epsilon Aurigae, an eclipsing binary.
Triple
• Polaris, the north star, is a triple star system in which the closer companion star is extremely close to the main
star—so close that it was only known from its gravitational tug on Polaris A until it was photographed by the
Hubble Space Telescope in 2006.
• Alpha Centauri is a triple star composed of a main binary yellow dwarf pair (Alpha Centauri A and Alpha
Centauri B), and an outlying red dwarf, Proxima Centauri. A and B are a physical binary star, with an eccentric
orbit in which A and B can be as close as 11 AU or as far away as 36 AU. Proxima is much further away
(~15,000 AU) from A and B than they are to each other. Although this distance is still small compared to other
interstellar distances, it is debatable whether Proxima is gravitationally bound to A and B.[14]
• HD 188753 is a triple star system located approximately 149 light-years away from Earth in the constellation
Cygnus. The system is composed of HD 188753A, a yellow dwarf; HD 188753B, an orange dwarf; and HD
188753C, a red dwarf. B and C orbit each other every 156 days, and, as a group, orbit A every 25.7 years.
Star system 32
Quadruple
• 4 Centauri[15]
• Mizar is often said to have been the first binary star discovered when it was observed in 1650 by Giovanni
Battista Riccioli[16] , p. 1; ,[17] but it was probably observed earlier, by Benedetto Castelli and Galileo. Later,
spectroscopy of its components Mizar A and B revealed that they are both binary stars themselves.[18]
• HD 98800
Quintuple
• 91 Aquarii
• Delta Orionis
Sextuple
• Castor[12]
• ADS 9731[13]
Septuple
• Nu Scorpii[19]
References
[1] "Star system" in Modern Dictionary of Astronomy and Space Technology. A.S. Bhatia, ed. New Delhi: Deep & Deep Publications, 2005.
ISBN 81-7629-741-0
[2] Astronomers discover a nearby star system just like our own Solar System (http:/ / outreach. jach. hawaii. edu/ pressroom/ 1998_epseri/ ),
Joint Astronomy Centre, press release, July 8, 1998. Accessed on line September 23, 2007.
[3] Life unlikely in asteroid-ridden star system (http:/ / www. newscientist. com/ article/ dn6123-life-unlikely-in-asteroidridden-star-system.
html), Maggie McKee, NewScientist.com news service, July 7, 2004. Accessed on line August 27, 2009.
[4] p. 16, Understanding Variable Stars, John R. Percy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007, ISBN 0521232538.
[5] MSC—a catalogue of physical multiple stars (http:/ / adsabs. harvard. edu/ abs/ 1997A& AS. . 124. . . 75T), A. A. Tokovinin, Astronomy and
Astrophysics Supplement Series 124 (1997), 75–84; online versions at VizieR (http:/ / cdsweb. u-strasbg. fr/ viz-bin/ VizieR?-source=J/ A+
AS/ 124/ 75) and the Multiple Star Catalog (http:/ / www. ctio. noao. edu/ ~atokovin/ stars/ ).
[6] p. 24, Galactic Dynamics, James Binney and Scott Tremaine, Princeton University Press, 1987, ISBN 0691084459.
[7] Multiple Stellar Systems: Types and Stability, Peter J. T. Leonard, in Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics, P. Murdin, ed., online
edition at the Institute of Physics (http:/ / eaa. iop. org/ ), orig. ed. published by Nature Publishing Group, 2001.
[8] Stars of Higher Multiplicity (http:/ / adsabs. harvard. edu/ abs/ 1968QJRAS. . . 9. . 388E), David S. Evans, Quarterly Journal of the Royal
Astronomical Society 9 (1968), 388–400.
[9] Dynamics of multiple stars: observations (http:/ / www. ctio. noao. edu/ ~atokovin/ papers/ dynamics. pdf), A. Tokovinin, in "Massive Stars
in Interacting Binaries", August 16–20, 2004, Quebec (ASP Conf. Ser., in print).
[10] Statistics of multiple stars: some clues to formation mechanisms (http:/ / www. aip. de/ IAU200/ proc/ tokovinin. ps. gz), A. Tokovinin, in
the proceedings of IAU Symposium 200, The Formation of Binary Stars, Potsdam, Germany, April 10–15, 2000. Bibcode
2001IAUS..200...84T (http:/ / adsabs. harvard. edu/ abs/ 2001IAUS. . 200. . . 84T).
[11] Statistics of multiple stars (http:/ / adsabs. harvard. edu/ abs/ 2004RMxAC. . 21. . . . 7T), A. Tokovinin, in The Environment and Evolution
of Double and Multiple Stars, Proceedings of IAU Colloquium 191, held 3–7 February 2002 in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, edited by Christine
Allen and Colin Scarfe, Revista Mexicana de Astronomía y Astrofísica (Serie de Conferencias) 21 (August 2004), pp. 7–14.
[12] Castor A and Castor B resolved in a simultaneous Chandra and XMM-Newton observation (http:/ / adsabs. harvard. edu/ abs/ 2003A& A. . .
402. . 719S), B. Stelzer and V. Burwitz, Astronomy and Astrophysics 402 (May 2003), pp. 719–728.
[13] ADS 9731: A new sextuple system (http:/ / adsabs. harvard. edu/ abs/ 1998AstL. . . 24. . 795T), A. A. Tokovinin, N. I. Shatskii, and A. K.
Magnitskii, Astronomy Letters, 24, #6 (November 1998), pp. 795–801.
[14] Are Proxima and α Centauri Gravitationally Bound? (http:/ / adsabs. harvard. edu/ abs/ 2006AJ. . . . 132. 1995W), Jeremy G. Wertheimer,
Gregory Laughlin, Astronomical Journal 132, #5 (November 2006), pp. 1995–1997.
[15] 4 Centauri (http:/ / www. ctio. noao. edu/ ~atokovin/ stars/ index. php?cat=HD& number=120955), entry in the Multiple Star Catalog (http:/
/ www. ctio. noao. edu/ ~atokovin/ stars/ ).
[16] The Binary Stars, R. G. Aitken, New York: Semi-Centennial Publications of the University of California, 1918.
Star system 33
[17] Vol. 1, part 1, p. 422, Almagestum Novum (http:/ / leo. astronomy. cz/ mizar/ riccioli. htm), Giovanni Battista Riccioli, Bononiae: Ex
typographia haeredis Victorij Benatij, 1651.
[18] A New View of Mizar (http:/ / leo. astronomy. cz/ mizar/ article. htm), Leos Ondra, accessed on line May 26, 2007.
[19] Nu Scorpii (http:/ / www. ctio. noao. edu/ ~atokovin/ stars/ index. php?cat=HD& number=145501), entry in the Multiple Star Catalog (http:/
/ www. ctio. noao. edu/ ~atokovin/ stars/ ).
External links
• Triple star system, APOD (http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap020911.html)
• Alpha Centauri system, APOD (http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030323.html)
• Alpa Centauri, APOD, 2002 April 25 (http://apod.oa.uj.edu.pl/apod/ap020425.html)
Multiple star
A multiple star consists of three or more stars which
appear from the Earth to be close to one another in the
sky. This may result from the stars being physically
close and gravitationally bound to each other, in which
case it is physical, or this closeness may be merely
apparent, in which case the multiple star is optical.[1] [2]
[3]
Physical multiple stars are also commonly called
multiple stars or multiple star systems.
Most multiple star systems are triple stars, also called

trinary or ternary. Larger systems, such as quadruple
stars (4 components), quintuple stars (5 components),
sextuple stars (6 components), and so on are
statistically less likely to occur.[2] Artist's impression of the orbits of HD 188753, a triple star system
Multiple stars have sizes intermediate between binary

systems, with two stars in a stable orbit, and open star clusters, which have more complex dynamics and typically
have from 100 to 1,000 stars.[4] They can be divided into two classes corresponding dynamically to these two
extremes. Most multiple stars are organized in a hierarchical manner, with smaller orbits nested inside larger orbits.
In these systems there is little interaction between the orbits and, as in binary stars, the orbits are stable.[2] [5] Other
multiple stars, termed trapezia, are usually very young, unstable systems. These are thought to form in stellar
nurseries, and quickly fragment into stable multiple stars, which in the process may eject components as galactic
high velocity stars. An example of such a system is the Trapezium in the heart of the Orion nebula.[6] [7]
Hierarchical systems
Triple star systems

In a physical triple star system, each star orbits the center of mass of the system. Usually, two of the stars form a
close binary system, and the third orbits this pair at a distance much larger than that of the binary orbit. This
arrangement is called hierarchical.[8] [9] The reason for this is that if the inner and outer orbits are comparable in
size, the system may become dynamically unstable, leading to a star being ejected from the system.[10] Triple stars
that are not all gravitationally bound might comprise a physical binary and an optical companion, such as Beta
Cephei, or rarely, a purely optical triple star, such as Gamma Serpentis.
Multiple star 34
Higher multiplicities
Hierarchical multiple star systems with
more than three stars can produce a number
of more complicated arrangements, which
can be illustrated by what Evans (1968) has
called a mobile diagram. These are similar
to ornamental mobiles hung from the
ceiling. Some examples can be seen in the
figure to the left. Each level of the diagram
illustrates the decomposition of the system
into two or more systems with smaller size.
Evans calls a diagram multiplex if there is a
node with more than two children, i.e., if the
decomposition of some subsystem involves
two or more orbits with comparable size.
Since, as we have already seen for triple
stars, this may be unstable, multiple stars are
expected to be simplex, meaning that at each
level there are exactly two children. Evans
calls the number of levels in the diagram its
hierarchy.[11]
A simplex diagram of hierarchy 1, as

Mobile diagrams: (a) multiplex; (b) simplex, binary system; (c) simplex, triple in (b), describes a binary system.
system; (d) simplex, quadruple system, hierarchy 2; (e) simplex, quadruple system, A simplex diagram of hierarchy 2
hierarchy 3; (f) simplex, quintuple system, hierarchy 4.
may describe a triple system, as in (c),
or a quadruple system, as in (d).
A simplex diagram of hierarchy 3 may describe a system with anywhere from four to eight components. The
mobile diagram in (e) shows an example of a quadruple system with hierarchy 3, consisting of a single distant
component orbiting a close binary system, with one of the components of the close binary being an even closer
binary.
A real example of a system with hierarchy 3 is Castor, also known as Alpha Geminorum or α Gem. It consists
of what appears to be a visual binary star which, upon closer inspection, can be seen to consist of two
spectroscopic binary stars. By itself, this would be a quadruple hierarchy 2 system as in (d), but it is orbited by
a fainter more distant component, which is also a close red dwarf binary. This forms a sextuple system of
hierarchy 3.[12]
The maximum hierarchy occurring in A. A. Tokovinin's Multiple Star Catalogue, as of 1999, is 4.[13] For
example, the stars Gliese 644A and Gliese 644B form what appears to be a close visual binary star; since
Gliese 644B is a spectroscopic binary, this is actually a triple system. The triple system has the more distant
visual companion Gliese 643 and the still more distant visual companion Gliese 644C, which, because of their
common motion with Gliese 644AB, are thought to be gravitationally bound to the triple system. This forms a
quintuple system whose mobile diagram would be the diagram of level 4 appearing in (f).[14]
Higher hierarchies are also possible.[9] [15] Most of these higher hierarchies either are stable or suffer from internal
perturbations.[16] [17] [18] Others consider complex multiple stars will in time theoretically disintegrate into less
complex multiple stars, like more common observed triples or quadruples are possible.[19] [20]
Multiple star 35
Trapezia
A second known class of multiple stars consists of the young trapezia, named after the multiple star known as the
Trapezium in the heart of the Orion Nebula.[6] Such systems are not rare, and commonly appear close to or within
bright nebulae. These stars have no standard hierarchical arrangements, but compete for stable orbits, where the
center of gravity is not fixed at some point but moves as the stars change their mutual positions. This relationship is
called interplay.[21] Such stars eventually settle down to a close binary with a distant companion, with the other
star(s) once in the system, being unceremoniously ejected into interstellar space at high velocities.[21] Example of
such events may explain the runaway stars that might have been ejected during a collision of two binary star groups
or a multiple system. This event is credited with ejecting AE Aurigae, Mu Columbae and 53 Arietis at above
200 km·s−1 and has been traced to the Trapezium cluster in the Orion Nebula some two million years ago.[22] [23]
Orbital motion in multiple stars
Calculating the center of mass in binary stars

In a simple binary case, r1, the distance from the center of the first star to the center of mass, is given by:
where:
a is the distance between the two stellar centers and
m1 and m2 are the masses of the two stars.
If a is taken to be the semimajor axis of the orbit of one body around the other, then r1 will be the semimajor axis of
the first body's orbit around the center of mass or barycenter, and r2 = a - r1 will be the semimajor axis of the second
body's orbit. When the center of mass is located within the more massive body, that body will appear to wobble
rather than following a discernible orbit.
Center of mass animations

Images are representative, not simulated. The position of the red cross indicates the center of mass of the system.
(a.) Two bodies of similar mass orbiting around (b.) Two bodies with a difference in mass (c.) Two bodies with a major difference in mass
a common center of mass, or barycenter. orbiting around a common barycenter, like the orbiting around a common barycenter (similar to
Charon-Pluto system the Earth-Moon system)
Multiple star 36
(d.) Two bodies with an extreme difference in

mass orbiting around a common barycenter
(similar to the Sun-Earth system)
(e.) Two bodies with similar mass orbiting in an ellipse around a common barycenter.
Designations and nomenclature
Multiple star designations

The components of multiple stars can be specified by appending the suffixes A, B, C, etc., to the system's
designation. Suffixes such as AB may be used to denote the pair consisting of A and B. The sequence of letters B, C,
etc. may be assigned in order of separation from the component A.[24] [25] Components discovered close to an
existing component may be assigned suffixes such as Aa, Ba, and so forth.[25]
Nomenclature in the Multiple Star Catalogue

A. A. Tokovinin's Multiple Star Catalogue uses a system in which each
subsystem in a mobile diagram is encoded by a sequence of digits. In the
mobile diagram (d) above, for example, the widest system would be given the
number 1, while the subsystem containing its primary component would be
numbered 11 and the subsystem containing its secondary component would
be numbered 12. Subsystems which would appear below this in the mobile
diagram will be given numbers with three, four, or more digits. When
describing a non-hierarchical system by this method, the same subsystem
number will be used more than once; for example, a system with three visual
components, A, B, and C, no two of which can be grouped into a subsystem,
would have two subsystems numbered 1 denoting the two binaries AB and
AC. In this case, if B and C were subsequently resolved into binaries, they
would be given the subsystem numbers 12 and 13.[26]
Subsystem notation in Tokovinin's
Multiple Star Catalogue.
Future multiple star system nomenclature

The current nomenclature for double and multiple stars can cause confusion as binary stars discovered in different
ways are given different designations (for example, discoverer designations for visual binary stars and variable star
designations for eclipsing binary stars), and, worse, component letters may be assigned differently by different
authors, so that, for example, one person's A can be another's C.[27] Discussion starting in 1999 resulted in four
proposed schemes to address this problem:[27]
• KoMa, a hierarchical scheme using upper- and lower-case letters and Arabic and Roman numerals;
• The Urban/Corbin Designation Method, a hierarchical numeric scheme similar to the Dewey Decimal system;[28]
Multiple star 37
• The Sequential Designation Method, a non-hierarchical scheme in which components and subsystems are
assigned numbers in order of discovery;[29] and
• WMC, the Washington Multiplicity Catalog, a hierarchical scheme in which the suffixes used in the Washington
Double Star Catalog are extended with additional suffixed letters and numbers.
For a designation system, identifying the hierarchy within the system has the advantage that it makes identifying
subsystems and computing their properties easier. However, it causes problems when new components are
discovered at a level above or intermediate to the existing hierarchy. In this case, part of the hierarchy will shift
inwards. Components which are found to be nonexistent, or are later reassigned to a different subsystem, also cause
problems.[30] [31]
During the 24th General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in 2000, the WMC scheme was
endorsed and it was resolved by Commissions 5, 8, 26, 42, and 45 that it should be expanded into a usable uniform
designation scheme.[27] A sample of a catalog using the WMC scheme, covering half an hour of right ascension, was
later prepared.[32] The issue was discussed again at the 25th General Assembly in 2003, and it was again resolved by
commissions 5, 8, 26, 42, and 45, as well as the Working Group on Interferometry, that the WMC scheme should be
expanded and further developed.[33]
The sample WMC is hierarchically organized; the hierarchy used is based on observed orbital periods or separations.
Since it contains many visual double stars, which may be optical rather than physical, this hierarchy may be only
apparent. It uses upper-case letters (A, B, ...) for the first level of the hierarchy, lower-case letters (a, b, ...) for the
second level, and numbers (1, 2, ...) for the third. Subsequent levels would use alternating lower-case letters and
numbers, but no examples of this were found in the sample.[27]
Examples
• HR 3617 is a multiple star with three component
stars, HR 3617A, HR 3617B, and HR 3617C. A and
B form a physical binary star, while C appears to be
optical.
• Alpha Centauri is a triple star composed of a main
binary yellow dwarf pair (Alpha Centauri A and
Alpha Centauri B), and an outlying red dwarf,
Proxima Centauri. Both A and B form a physical
binary star, designated as Alpha Centauri AB, α Cen
AB, or RHD 1 AB, where the AB donates this is a
binary system.[34] The moderately eccentric orbit of
the binary can make the components be as close as
11 AU or as far away as 36 AU. Proxima is much
HD 98800 is a quadruple star system located in the TW Hydrae
further away (~15,000 AU) from α Cen AB than association
they are to each other. Although this distance is still
comparatively small to interstellar distances, it is still debatable whether Proxima, whose orbital period would be
more than 500,000 years, is gravitationally bound to α Cen AB.[35]
• HD 188753 is a physical triple star system located approximately 149 light-years away from Earth in the
constellation Cygnus. The system is composed of HD 188753A, a yellow dwarf; HD 188753B, an orange dwarf;
and HD 188753C, a red dwarf. B and C orbit each other every 156 days, and, as a group, orbit A every 25.7 years.
A hot Jupiter type extrasolar planet was claimed to be in orbit around the primary star HD 188753A,[36] however
its existence has been called into question by a more recent study.[37]
• Polaris or Alpha Ursa Minoris (α UMi), the north star, is a triple star system in which the closer companion star is
extremely close to the main star—so close that it was only known from its gravitational tug on Polaris A (α UMi
Multiple star 38
A) until it was imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2006.
References
[1] Hipparcos: Double and Multiple Stars (http:/ / www. rssd. esa. int/ index. php?project=HIPPARCOS& page=Double_stars), web page,
accessed October 31, 2007.
[2] MSC - a catalogue of physical multiple stars (http:/ / adsabs. harvard. edu/ abs/ 1997A& AS. . 124. . . 75T), A. A. Tokovinin, Astronomy and
Astrophysics Supplement Series 124 (July 1997), pp. 75–84.
[3] Binary and Multiple Stars (http:/ / www. seds. org/ messier/ bina. html), web page, accessed May 26, 2007.
[4] p. 24, Galactic Dynamics, James Binney and Scott Tremaine, Princeton University Press, 1987, ISBN 0691084459.
[5] Heintz, W. D. (1978). Double Stars. D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht. pp. 1. ISBN 9027708851.
[6] Heintz, W. D. (1978). Double Stars. D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht. pp. 67–68. ISBN 9027708851.
[7] Runaway Stars, Trapezia, and Subtrapezia, Christine Allen, Arcadio Poveda, and Alejandro Hernández-Alcántara, Revista Mexicana de
Astronomía y Astrofísica (Serie de Conferencias) 25 (2006), pp. 13–15, Bibcode: 2006RMxAC..25...13A.
[9] Evans, David S. (1968). "Stars of Higher Multiplicity". Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 9: 388–400.
Bibcode 1968QJRAS...9..388E.
[10] A Note on the Stability of Hierarchical Triple Stars with Initially Circular Orbits, L. G. Kiseleva, P. P. Eggleton, and J. P. Anosova, Monthly
Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 267, #1 (March 1994), pp. 161–166, Bibcode: 1994MNRAS.267..161K.
[11] pp. 393–394, Evans, David S. (1968). "Stars of Higher Multiplicity". Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 9: 388–400.
Bibcode 1968QJRAS...9..388E.
[12] Heintz, W. D. (1978). Double Stars. D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht. p. 72. ISBN 9027708851.
[13] MSC - a catalogue of physical multiple stars, A. A. Tokovinin, 1997–1999, CDS ID J/A+AS/124/75 (http:/ / cdsarc. u-strasbg. fr/ viz-bin/
Cat?J/ A+ AS/ 124/ 75).
[14] Studies of multiple stellar systems - IV. The triple-lined spectroscopic system Gliese 644, Tzevi Mazeh et al., Monthly Notices of the Royal
Astronomical Society 325, 1 (July 2001), pp. 343–357, Bibcode: 2001MNRAS.325..343M, doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04419.x; see §7–8
for a discussion of the quintuple system.
[16] (http:/ / adsabs. harvard. edu/ abs/ 1970AJ. . . . . 75. 1140H), Harrington, R.S., Astronomical Journal, 75 (1970), pp.114-118.
[17] (http:/ / adsabs. harvard. edu/ abs/ 1987VA. . . . . 30. . . 69F), Fekel, Francis C., Vistas in Astronomy,30 (1987), pp. 69-76-118.
[18] (http:/ / adsabs. harvard. edu/ abs/ 2006POBeo. . 80. . 155Z), Zhuchkov, R. Ya.; Orlov, V. V.; Rubinov, A. V., Publications of the
Astronomical Observatory of Belgrade,,80 (2006), pp. 155-160.
[19] (http:/ / adsabs. harvard. edu/ abs/ 2004ARep. . . 48. . . 45R), Rubinov, A. V., Astronomy Reports 48 (2004), pp. 155-160.
[20] (http:/ / adsabs. harvard. edu/ abs/ 1977RMxAA. . . 3. . 209H), Harrington, R. S., Rev. Mex. Astron. Astrofis 3 (1977), pp. 209.
[21] Heintz, W. D. (1978). Double Stars. D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht. p. 68. ISBN 9027708851.
[22] Blaauw, A.; Morgan, W.W. (1954). "The Space Motions of AE Aurigae and mu Columbae with Respect to the Orion Nebula".
Astrophysical Journal 119: 625. Bibcode 1954ApJ...119..625B. doi:10.1086/145866.
[23] Hoogerwerf, R.; de Bruijne, J.H.J., P.T. de Zeeuw, P.T (2000). "The origin of runaway stars". Astrophysical Journal 544 (2): 133–136.
doi:10.1086/317315.
[24] Heintz, W. D. (1978). Double Stars. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company. p. 19. ISBN 9027708851.
[25] Format, The Washington Double Star Catalog (http:/ / ad. usno. navy. mil/ wds/ wdsweb_format. txt), Brian D. Mason, Gary L. Wycoff, and
William I. Hartkopf, Astrometry Department, United States Naval Observatory. Accessed on line August 20, 2008.
[26] §2.4, MSC - a catalogue of physical multiple stars (http:/ / adsabs. harvard. edu/ abs/ 1997A& AS. . 124. . . 75T), A. A. Tokovinin,
Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series 124 (July 1997), pp. 75–84.
[27] William I. Hartkopf & Brian D. Mason. "Addressing confusion in double star nomenclature: The Washington Multiplicity Catalog" (http:/ /
ad. usno. navy. mil/ wds/ wmc/ wmc_post191. html). United States Naval Observatory. . Retrieved 2008-09-12.
[28] "Urban/Corbin Designation Method" (http:/ / ad. usno. navy. mil/ wds/ wmc/ uc. txt). United States Naval Observatory. . Retrieved
2008-09-12.
[29] "Sequential Designation Method" (http:/ / ad. usno. navy. mil/ wds/ wmc/ seq. txt). United States Naval Observatory. . Retrieved
2008-09-12.
[30] A. Tokovinin (April 18, 2000). "On the designation of multiple stars" (http:/ / ad. usno. navy. mil/ wds/ wmc/ toko_hwds. txt). . Retrieved
2008-09-12.
[31] A. Tokovinin (April 17, 2000). "Examples of multiple stellar systems discovery history to test new designation schemes" (http:/ / ad. usno.
navy. mil/ wds/ wmc/ toko_exam. txt). . Retrieved 2008-09-12.
[32] William I. Hartkopf & Brian D. Mason. "Sample Washington Multiplicity Catalog" (http:/ / ad. usno. navy. mil/ wds/ wmc/ wmc110_intro.
html). United States Naval Observatory. . Retrieved 2008-09-12.
[33] A new classification scheme for double and multiple stars, R. W. Argyle, The Observatory 124 (April 2004), pp. 94–96,
Bibcode: 2004Obs...124...94A.
Multiple star 39
[34] Mason, B.D.; Wycoff, G.L. I. Hartkopf, W.I.. (2008). "Washington Visual Double Star Catalog, 2006.5 (WDS)" (http:/ / ad. usno. navy. mil/
wds/ ). U. S.Naval Observatory, Washington D.C.. .
[35] Are Proxima and α Centauri Gravitationally Bound? (http:/ / adsabs. harvard. edu/ abs/ 2006AJ. . . . 132. 1995W), Jeremy G. Wertheimer,
Gregory Laughlin, Astronomical Journal 132, #5 (November 2006), pp. 1995–1997.
[36] Konacki, M. (2005). "An extrasolar giant planet in a close triple-star system". Nature 436 (7048): 230–233. Bibcode 2005Natur.436..230K.
doi:10.1038/nature03856. PMID 16015323.
[37] Eggenberger, A.; Udry, S.; Mazeh, T.; Segal, Y.; Mayor, M. (2007). "No evidence of a hot Jupiter around HD 188753 A". Astronomy and
Astrophysics 466 (3): 1179–1183. Bibcode 2007A&A...466.1179E. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20066835.
External links
• The Double Star Library (http://ad.usno.navy.mil/wds/dsl.html) is located at the U.S. Naval Observatory
• Naming New Extrasolar Planets (http://www.space.com/searchforlife/090319-seti-planet-nomenclature.html)
Individual specimens
• Triple star system, APOD (http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap020911.html)
• Alpha Centauri system, APOD (http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030323.html)
• Alpha Centauri, APOD, 2002 April 25 (http://apod.oa.uj.edu.pl/apod/ap020425.html)
Kappa Orionis 40
Kappa Orionis
Kappa Orionis
Observation data
Epoch J2000 Equinox J2000
Constellation Orion
Right ascension 05h 47m 45.4s
Declination -09° 40′ 11″
Apparent magnitude (V) 2.06
Characteristics
Spectral type B0.5 Iavar
U−B color index -1.03
B−V color index -0.17
Variable type Slightly
Astrometry
Radial velocity (Rv) 21 km/s
Proper motion (μ) RA: 1.55 mas/yr

Dec.: -1.20 mas/yr
Parallax (π) 4.52 ± 0.77 mas
Distance approx. 700 ly

(approx. 220 pc)
Absolute magnitude (MV) -4.66
Details
Mass 15-17 M☉
Radius 11 R
☉
Luminosity 57,500 L
☉
Temperature 26,000 K
Metallicity ?
Rotation ~82 km/s.
Age ? years
Other designations
Saiph, 53 Orionis, HR 2004, BD -09°1235, HD 38771, SAO 132542, FK5 220, HIP 27366.
Kappa Orionis (κ Ori, κ Orionis, 53 Orionis) is the sixth-brightest star in the constellation of Orion. It has the
traditional name Saiph. Of the four bright stars that compose Orion's main quadrangle, it is the star at the
south-eastern corner. A northern-hemisphere observer facing south would see it at the lower left of Orion, and a
southern-hemisphere observer facing north would see it at the upper right. The name is from the Arabic saif al
jabbar, literally sword of the giant.
Kappa Orionis 41
Kappa Orionis is the sixth brightest star in Orion. At 720 light years away and 15-17 solar masses, it is about the
same distance away from the Sun, and about the same luminosity, as Rigel. It has a much higher magnitude value
(2.06) than Rigel because, as a much hotter star with a surface temperature of 26,000 K, it emits most of its energy in
the ultraviolet region of the spectrum, invisible to the human eye and thus making it appear relatively dimmer. Large
stars such as Saiph (and many other stars in Orion) are destined to collapse on themselves and explode as
supernovae.
External links
• Saiph (Kappa Orionis) [1]
References
[1] http:/ / www. daviddarling. info/ encyclopedia/ S/ Saiph. html
Schwarzschild radius
The Schwarzschild radius (sometimes

historically referred to as the
gravitational radius) is the distance
from the center of an object such that, if
all the mass of the object were
compressed within that region, the
escape speed would equal the speed of
light. Once a stellar remnant collapses
within this radius, light cannot escape
and the object is no longer visible.[1] It
is a characteristic radius associated with
every quantity of mass. It is the radius
of a sphere in space, that if containing a
correspondingly sufficient amount of
mass (and, therefore, reaching a certain
density), the force of gravity from the
contained mass would be so great that
no known force or degeneracy pressure
could stop the mass from continuing to
collapse in volume into a point of
infinite density: a gravitational
singularity (colloquially referred to as a
The relation between properties of mass and their associated physical constants. Every
black hole because no light can escape
massive object is believed to exhibit all five properties, however, due to extremely large
it). The term is used in physics and or extremely small constants, it is generally impossible to verify more than two or three
astronomy, especially in the theory of properties for any object. The Schwarzschild radius (rs) represents the ability of mass to
gravitation, and general relativity. cause curvature in space and time.The standard gravitational parameter (μ) represents the
ability of a massive body to exert Newtonian gravitational forces on other bodies.Inertial
mass (m) represents the Newtonian response of mass to forces.Mass–energy
equivalenceRest energy (E0) represents the ability of mass to be converted into other
forms of energy.The Compton wavelength (λ) represents the quantum response of mass
to local geometry.
In 1915, Karl Schwarzschild obtained an exact solution[2] [3]

to Einstein's field equations for the gravitational field
outside a non-rotating, spherically symmetric body (see Schwarzschild metric). Using the definition ,
the solution contained a term of the form ; where the value of making this term singular has come to be
known as the Schwarzschild radius. The physical significance of this singularity, and whether this singularity could
ever occur in nature, was debated for many decades; a general acceptance of the possibility of a black hole did not
occur until the second half of the 20th century.
The Schwarzschild radius of an object is proportional to the mass. Accordingly, the Sun has a Schwarzschild radius
of approximately 3.0 km while the Earth's is only about 9.0 mm, the size of a peanut. That is, if all the Sun's mass
were contained in a sphere with a radius of 3 km, then the volume of the Sun would continue to collapse into a
singularity, due to the force of gravity. The same would happen if the Earth's mass were contained within a radius of
9 mm.
An object smaller than its Schwarzschild radius is called a black hole. The surface at the Schwarzschild radius acts
as an event horizon in a non-rotating body. (A rotating black hole operates slightly differently.) Neither light nor
particles can escape through this surface from the region inside, hence the name "black hole". The Schwarzschild
radius of the (currently hypothesized) supermassive black hole at our Galactic Center would be approximately 13.3
million kilometres.
History
The significance of the singularity at (in natural units) was first raised by Jacques Hadamard, who, during
a conference in Paris in 1922, asked what might happen if a physical system could ever obtain this singularity. Albert
Einstein insisted that it could not, pointing out the dire consequences for the universe, and jokingly referred to the
singularity as the "Hadamard disaster".[4]
Schwarzschild's original model of a star assumed an incompressible fluid; Einstein pointed out that this was an
unreasonable assumption, as sound waves would propagate at infinite speed. In his own work, Einstein reconsidered
a model of a star where the components of the star were orbiting masses, and showed that the orbital velocities
would exceed the speed of light at the Schwarzschild radius. In 1939, he used this to argue that no such thing can
happen, and so the singularity could not occur in nature.[5] The same year, Robert Oppenheimer and Hartland Snyder
considered a model of a dust cloud, where the dust particles of the cloud were moving radially, towards a single
point, and showed that the dust particles could reach the singularity in finite proper time. After passing the limit,
Oppenheimer and Snyder noted that light cones were directed inwards, and that no signal could escape outside.[6]
Formula for the Schwarzschild radius

The Schwarzschild radius is proportional to the mass with a proportionality constant involving the gravitational
constant and the speed of light:
where:
is the Schwarzschild radius;
is the gravitational constant;
is the mass of the gravitating object;
is the speed of light in vacuum.
The proportionality constant, 2G/c2, is approximately 1.48 × 10−27 m/kg, or 2.95 km/solar mass.
An object of any density can be large enough to fall within its own Schwarzschild radius,
where:
is the volume of the object;
is its density.
Classification by Schwarzschild radius
Supermassive black hole

If one accumulates matter at normal density (1 g/cm3, for example, the density of water) up to about 150,000,000
times the mass of the Sun, such an accumulation will fall inside its own Schwarzschild radius and thus it would be a
supermassive black hole of 150,000,000 solar masses. (Supermassive black holes up to 18 billion solar masses have
been observed.[7] ) The supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy (4.5 +/- 0.4 million solar masses)
constitutes observationally the most convincing evidence for the existence of black holes in general. It is thought that
large black holes like these don't form directly in one collapse of a cluster of stars. Instead they may start as a
stellar-sized black hole and grow larger by the accretion of matter and other black holes. An empirical correlation
between the size of supermassive black holes and the stellar velocity dispersion of a galaxy bulge [8] is called the
M-sigma relation.
Stellar black hole

If one accumulates matter at nuclear density (the density of the nucleus of an atom, about 1018 kg/m3; neutron stars
also reach this density), such an accumulation would fall within its own Schwarzschild radius at about 3 solar masses
and thus would be a stellar black hole.
Primordial black hole

Conversely, a small mass has an extremely small Schwarzschild radius. A mass similar to Mount Everest has a
Schwarzschild radius smaller than a nanometre. Its average density at that size would be so high that no known
mechanism could form such extremely compact objects. Such black holes might possibly be formed in an early stage
of the evolution of the universe, just after the Big Bang, when densities were extremely high. Therefore these
hypothetical miniature black holes are called primordial black holes.
Other uses for the Schwarzschild radius
The Schwarzschild radius in gravitational time dilation

Gravitational time dilation near a large, slowly rotating, nearly spherical body, such as the earth or sun can be
reasonably approximated using the Schwarzschild radius as follows:
where:
is the elapsed time for an observer at radial coordinate "r" within the gravitational field;
is the elapsed time for an observer distant from the massive object (and therefore outside of the gravitational
field);
is the radial coordinate of the observer (which is analogous to the classical distance from the center of the
object);
is the Schwarzschild radius.
The results of the Pound, Rebka experiment in 1959 were found to be consistent with predictions made by general
relativity. By measuring Earth’s gravitational time dilation, this experiment indirectly measured Earth’s
Schwarzschild radius.
The Schwarzschild radius in Newtonian gravitational fields

The Newtonian gravitational field near a large, slowly rotating, nearly spherical body can be reasonably
approximated using the Schwarzschild radius as follows:
where:
is the gravitational acceleration at radial coordinate "r";
is the Schwarzschild radius of the gravitating central body;
is the radial coordinate;
On the surface of the Earth:
The Schwarzschild radius in Keplerian orbits

For all circular orbits around a given central body:
where:
is the orbit radius;
is the Schwarzschild radius of the gravitating central body;
is the orbital speed;
This equality can be generalized to elliptic orbits as follows:
where:
is the semi-major axis;
is the orbital period.
For the Earth orbiting the Sun:
Relativistic circular orbits and the photon sphere

The Keplerian equation for circular orbits can be generalized to the relativistic equation for circular orbits by
accounting for time dilation in the velocity term:
This final equation indicates that an object orbiting at the speed of light would have an orbital radius of 1.5 times the
Schwarzschild radius. This is a special orbit known as the photon sphere.
References
[1] Chaisson, Eric, and S. McMillan. Astronomy Today. San Francisco, CA: Pearson / Addison Wesley, 2008. Print.
[2] K. Schwarzschild, "Uber das Gravitationsfeld eines Massenpunktes nach der Einsteinschen Theorie", Sitzungsberichte der Deutschen
Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Klasse fur Mathematik, Physik, und Technik (1916) pp 189.
[3] K. Schwarzschild, "Uber das Gravitationsfeld einer Kugel aus inkompressibler Flussigkeit nach der Einsteinschen Theorie", Sitzungsberichte
der Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Klasse fur Mathematik, Physik, und Technik (1916) pp 424.
[4] Moradi, Hamed (2004). "An Early History of Black Holes" (http:/ / www. maths. monash. edu. au/ ~hmoradi/ Honours_Essay_2004. pdf).
Monash University. .
[5] Einstein A (1939). "On a Stationary System with Spherical Symmetry Consisting of Many Gravitating Masses". Annals of Mathematics.
[6] Oppenheimer JR, Snyder H (1939). "On Continued Gravitational Contraction". Physical Review 56: 455.
[7] Bryner, Jenna (2008-01-09). "Colossal Black Hole Shatters the Scales" (http:/ / www. space. com/ scienceastronomy/
080109-aas-massive-black-holes. html). Space.com. . Retrieved 2008-04-02.
[8] Gultekin K, et al. (2009). "The M and M-L Relations in Galactic Bulges, and Determinations of Their Intrinsic Scatter". Astrophsical
Journal 698 (1): 198–221. Bibcode 2009ApJ...698..198G. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/698/1/198.
Bhatia-Hazarika limit
Bhatia-Hazarika limit
P.K.Bhatia and A.B.Rajib Hazarika[1] for his theoretical research work on Gravitational instability and gravitational
collapse Mstar=23/2 Msun as a new formula for Chandrasekhar limit now known as Bhatia-Hazarika limit, when the
rotating neutron star, pulsars are formed. When the mass of the star is more than this limit a neutron star shrinks or
abberates due to gravitational collapse up to a point size in space. As it is known that when the star passes limit of
the size of old star more than three times that of mass of sun it passes the Schwarzchild radius and there on is a black
hole from where we can receive no more information as its gravitational field is too intense to permit anything , even
photons to escape.
References
[1] http:/ / iopscience. iop. org/ 1402-4896/ 53/ 1/ 011
Gravitational collapse
Gravitational collapse is the inward fall of a body due to the influence
of its own gravity. In any stable body, this gravitational force is
counterbalanced by the internal pressure of the body. If the inwards
pointing gravitational force, however, is stronger than all outward
pointing forces, this equilibrium is disturbed and a collapse occurs until
the internal pressure might rise sufficiently to counterbalance again the
gravity.
Gravitational collapse is at the heart of structure formation in the

universe. An initial smooth distribution of matter will eventually Gravitational collapse of a star
collapse and cause the hierarchy of structures, such as clusters of
galaxies, stellar groups, stars and planets. For example, a star is born
through the gradual gravitational collapse of a cloud of interstellar
matter. The compression caused by the collapse raises the temperature
until nuclear fuel ignites in the center of the star and the collapse
comes to a halt. The thermal pressure gradient (leading to expansion)
compensates the gravity (leading to compression) and a star is in
dynamical equilibrium between these two forces.
Gravitational collapse of a star occurs at the end of its lifetime, also

called the death of the star. When all stellar energy sources are
exhausted, the star will undergo a gravitational collapse. In this sense a
star is in a "temporary" equilibrium state between a gravitational
collapse at stellar birth and a further gravitational collapse at stellar NGC 6745 produces material densities
death. The end states are called compact stars. sufficiently extreme as to trigger star formation
through gravitational collapse
The types of compact stars are:
• White dwarfs, in which gravity is opposed by electron degeneracy pressure;
• Neutron stars, in which gravity is opposed by neutron degeneracy pressure and short-range repulsive
neutron-neutron interactions mediated by the strong force;
• Black holes, in which the physics at the center is unknown.
The collapse to a white dwarf takes place over tens of thousands of years, while the star blows off its outer envelope
to form a planetary nebula. If it has a companion star, a white dwarf-sized object can accrete matter from a
companion star until it reaches the Chandrasekhar limit, at which point gravitational collapse takes over again. While
it might seem that the white dwarf might collapse to the next stage (neutron star), they instead undergo runaway
carbon fusion, blowing completely apart in a Type Ia supernova. Neutron stars are formed by gravitational collapse
of larger stars, the remnant of other types of supernova.
Even more massive stars, above the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff limit cannot find a new dynamical equilibrium
with any known force opposing gravity. Hence, the collapse continues with nothing to stop it. Once it collapses to
within its Schwarzschild radius, not even light can escape from the star, and hence it becomes a black hole.
According to theories, at some point later the collapsing object will reach the maximum possible energy density for a
certain volume of space or the Planck density (as there is nothing that can stop it), where the known laws of gravity
cease to be valid.[1] There are competing theories as to what occurs at this point, but it can no longer really be
considered gravitational collapse at that stage.
It might be thought that a sufficiently large neutron star could exist inside its Schwarzschild radius and appear like a
black hole without having all the mass compressed to a singularity at the center; however, this is a misconception.
Within the event horizon, matter would have to be accelerated outwards faster than the speed of light in order to
remain stable and avoid collapsing to the center. No physical force can therefore prevent the star from collapsing to a
singularity (at least within the currently understood framework of general relativity). A model for nonspherical
collapse in general relativity with emission of matter and gravitational waves was presented in [2]
References
[1] (http:/ / www. physicsforums. com/ blog. php?b=199)
[2] Bedran, ML et al.(1996)."Model for nonspherical collapse and formation of black holes by emission of neutrinos, strings and gravitational
waves", Phys. Rev. D 54(6),3826.
External links
• Gravitational collapse on arxiv.org (http://xstructure.inr.ac.ru/x-bin/theme3.py?level=2&index1=201706)
Dark energy
In physical cosmology, astronomy and celestial mechanics, dark energy is a hypothetical form of energy that
permeates all of space and tends to increase the rate of expansion of the universe.[1] Dark energy is the most accepted
theory to explain recent observations and experiments that the universe appears to be expanding at an accelerating
rate. In the standard model of cosmology, dark energy currently accounts for 73% of the total mass-energy of the
universe.[2]
Two proposed forms for dark energy are the cosmological constant, a constant energy density filling space
homogeneously,[3] and scalar fields such as quintessence or moduli, dynamic quantities whose energy density can
vary in time and space. Contributions from scalar fields that are constant in space are usually also included in the
cosmological constant. The cosmological constant is physically equivalent to vacuum energy. Scalar fields which do
change in space can be difficult to distinguish from a cosmological constant because the change may be extremely
slow.
High-precision measurements of the expansion of the universe are required to understand how the expansion rate
changes over time. In general relativity, the evolution of the expansion rate is parameterized by the cosmological
equation of state (the relationship between temperature, pressure, and combined matter, energy, and vacuum energy
density for any region of space). Measuring the equation of state of dark energy is one of the biggest efforts in
observational cosmology today.
Adding the cosmological constant to cosmology's standard FLRW metric leads to the Lambda-CDM model, which
has been referred to as the "standard model" of cosmology because of its precise agreement with observations. Dark
energy has been used as a crucial ingredient in a recent attempt to formulate a cyclic model for the universe.[4]
Evidence for dark energy
Supernovae
In 1998, published observations of Type Ia supernovae ("one-A") by the High-z Supernova Search Team [5] followed
in 1999 by the Supernova Cosmology Project [6] suggested that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.[7] Since
then, these observations have been corroborated by several independent sources. Measurements of the cosmic
microwave background, gravitational lensing, and the large scale structure of the cosmos as well as improved
measurements of supernovae have been consistent with the Lambda-CDM model.[8]
Dark energy 49
Supernovae are useful for cosmology because they are excellent standard candles across cosmological distances.
They allow the expansion history of the Universe to be measured by looking at the relationship between the distance
to an object and its redshift, which gives how fast it is receding from us. The relationship is roughly linear, according
to Hubble's law. It is relatively easy to measure redshift, but finding the distance to an object is more difficult.
Usually, astronomers use standard candles: objects for which the intrinsic brightness, the absolute magnitude, is
known. This allows the object's distance to be measured from its actual observed brightness, or apparent magnitude.
Type Ia supernovae are the best-known standard candles across cosmological distances because of their extreme, and
extremely consistent, brightness.
Recent observations of supernovae are consistent with a universe made up 71.3% of dark energy and 27.4% of a
combination of dark matter and baryonic matter.[9]
Cosmic Microwave Background

The existence of dark energy, in
whatever form, is needed to reconcile
the measured geometry of space with
the total amount of matter in the
universe. Measurements of cosmic
microwave background (CMB)
anisotropies, most recently by the
WMAP spacecraft, indicate that the
universe is close to flat. For the shape
of the universe to be flat, the
mass/energy density of the universe
must be equal to a certain critical
Estimated distribution of dark matter and dark energy in the universe
density. The total amount of matter in
the universe (including baryons and
dark matter), as measured by the CMB, accounts for only about 30% of the critical density. This implies the
existence of an additional form of energy to account for the remaining 70%.[8] The WMAP five-year analysis
estimate a universe made up of 74% dark energy, 22% dark matter, and 4% ordinary matter.[10] More recently, the
WMAP seven-year analysis gave an estimate of 72.8% dark energy, 22.7% dark matter and 4.6% ordinary matter.[2]
Large-Scale Structure
The theory of large scale structure, which governs the formation of structures in the universe (stars, quasars, galaxies
and galaxy clusters), also suggests that the density of matter in the universe is only 30% of the critical density.
Late-time Integrated Sachs-Wolfe Effect

Accelerated cosmic expansion causes gravitational potential wells and hills to flatten as photons pass through them,
producing cold spots and hot spots on the CMB aligned with vast supervoids and superclusters. This so-called
late-time Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect (ISW) is a direct signal of dark energy in a flat universe,[11] and has recently
been detected at high significance by Ho et al.[12] and Giannantonio et al.[13]
Dark energy 50
Nature of dark energy

The nature of this dark energy is a matter of speculation. It is known to be very homogeneous, not very dense and is
not known to interact through any of the fundamental forces other than gravity. Since it is not very dense—roughly
10−29 grams per cubic centimeter—it is hard to imagine experiments to detect it in the laboratory. Dark energy can
only have such a profound impact on the universe, making up 74% of universal density, because it uniformly fills
otherwise empty space. The two leading models are quintessence and the cosmological constant. Both models
include the common characteristic that dark energy must have negative pressure.
Negative pressure
Independently from its actual nature, dark energy would need to have a strong negative pressure (i.e. effects, acting
repulsively) in order to explain the observed acceleration in the expansion rate of the universe.
According to General Relativity, the pressure within a substance contributes to its gravitational attraction for other
things just as its mass density does. This happens because the physical quantity that causes matter to generate
gravitational effects is the Stress-energy tensor, which contains both the energy (or matter) density of a substance
and its pressure and viscosity.
In the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker metric, it can be shown that a strong constant negative pressure in all
the universe causes an acceleration in universe expansion if the universe is already expanding, or a deceleration in
universe contraction if the universe is already contracting. More exactly, the second derivative of the universe scale
factor, , is positive if the equation of state of the universe is such that .
This accelerating expansion effect is sometimes labeled "gravitational repulsion", which is a colorful but possibly
confusing expression. In fact a negative pressure does not influence the gravitational interaction between
masses—which remains attractive—but rather alters the overall evolution of the universe at the cosmological scale,
typically resulting in the accelerating expansion of the universe despite the attraction among the masses present in
the universe.
Cosmological constant
The simplest explanation for dark energy is that it is simply the "cost of having space": that is, a volume of space has
some intrinsic, fundamental energy. This is the cosmological constant, sometimes called Lambda (hence
Lambda-CDM model) after the Greek letter Λ, the symbol used to mathematically represent this quantity. Since
energy and mass are related by E = mc2, Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that it will have a
gravitational effect. It is sometimes called a vacuum energy because it is the energy density of empty vacuum. In
fact, most theories of particle physics predict vacuum fluctuations that would give the vacuum this sort of energy.
This is related to the Casimir Effect, in which there is a small suction into regions where virtual particles are
geometrically inhibited from forming (e.g. between plates with tiny separation). The cosmological constant is
estimated by cosmologists to be on the order of 10−29g/cm3, or about 10−120 in reduced Planck units. However,
particle physics predicts a natural value of 1 in reduced Planck units, a large discrepancy which is still not explained.
The cosmological constant has negative pressure equal to its energy density and so causes the expansion of the
universe to accelerate. The reason why a cosmological constant has negative pressure can be seen from classical
thermodynamics; Energy must be lost from inside a container to do work on the container. A change in volume dV
requires work done equal to a change of energy −P dV, where P is the pressure. But the amount of energy in a box of
vacuum energy actually increases when the volume increases (dV is positive), because the energy is equal to ρV,
where ρ (rho) is the energy density of the cosmological constant. Therefore, P is negative and, in fact, P = −ρ.
A major outstanding problem is that most quantum field theories predict a huge cosmological constant from the
energy of the quantum vacuum, more than 100 orders of magnitude too large.[14] This would need to be cancelled
almost, but not exactly, by an equally large term of the opposite sign. Some supersymmetric theories require a
Dark energy 51
cosmological constant that is exactly zero, which does not help. The present scientific consensus amounts to
extrapolating the empirical evidence where it is relevant to predictions, and fine-tuning theories until a more elegant
solution is found. Technically, this amounts to checking theories against macroscopic observations. Unfortunately, as
the known error-margin in the constant predicts the fate of the universe more than its present state, many such
"deeper" questions remain unknown.
Another problem arises with inclusion of the cosmological constant in the standard model: i.e., the appearance of
solutions with regions of discontinuities (see classification of discontinuities for three examples) at low matter
density.[15] Discontinuity also affects the past sign of the pressure assigned to the cosmological constant, changing
from the current negative pressure to attractive, as one looks back towards the early Universe. A systematic,
model-independent evaluation of the supernovae data supporting inclusion of the cosmological constant in the
standard model indicates these data suffer systematic error. The supernovae data are not overwhelming evidence for
an accelerating Universe expansion which may be simply gliding.[16] A numerical evaluation of WMAP and
supernovae data for evidence that our local group exists in a local void with poor matter density compared to other
locations, uncovered possible conflict in the analysis used to support the cosmological constant.[17] A recent
theoretical investigation found the cosmological time, dt, diverges for any finite interval, ds, associated with an
observer approaching the cosmological horizon, representing a physical limit to observation. This is a key
component required for a complete interpretation of astronomical observations, particularly pertaining to the nature
of dark energy.[18] The identification of dark energy as a cosmological constant does not appear to be consistent with
the data. These findings should be considered shortcomings of the standard model, but only when a term for vacuum
energy is included.
In spite of its problems, the cosmological constant is in many respects the most economical solution to the problem
of cosmic acceleration. One number successfully explains a multitude of observations. Thus, the current standard
model of cosmology, the Lambda-CDM model, includes the cosmological constant as an essential feature.
Quintessence
In quintessence models of dark energy, the observed acceleration of the scale factor is caused by the potential energy
of a dynamical field, referred to as quintessence field. Quintessence differs from the cosmological constant in that it
can vary in space and time. In order for it not to clump and form structure like matter, the field must be very light so
that it has a large Compton wavelength.
No evidence of quintessence is yet available, but it has not been ruled out either. It generally predicts a slightly
slower acceleration of the expansion of the universe than the cosmological constant. Some scientists think that the
best evidence for quintessence would come from violations of Einstein's equivalence principle and variation of the
fundamental constants in space or time. Scalar fields are predicted by the standard model and string theory, but an
analogous problem to the cosmological constant problem (or the problem of constructing models of cosmic inflation)
occurs: renormalization theory predicts that scalar fields should acquire large masses.
The cosmic coincidence problem asks why the cosmic acceleration began when it did. If cosmic acceleration began
earlier in the universe, structures such as galaxies would never have had time to form and life, at least as we know it,
would never have had a chance to exist. Proponents of the anthropic principle view this as support for their
arguments. However, many models of quintessence have a so-called tracker behavior, which solves this problem. In
these models, the quintessence field has a density which closely tracks (but is less than) the radiation density until
matter-radiation equality, which triggers quintessence to start behaving as dark energy, eventually dominating the
universe. This naturally sets the low energy scale of the dark energy.
In 2004, when scientists fit the evolution of dark energy with the cosmological data, they found that the equation of
state had possibly crossed the cosmological constant boundary (w=-1) from above to below. A No-Go theorem has
been proved that to give this scenario at least two degrees of freedom are required for dark energy models. This
scenario is so-called Quintom scenario.
Dark energy 52
Some special cases of quintessence are phantom energy, in which the energy density of quintessence actually
increases with time, and k-essence (short for kinetic quintessence) which has a non-standard form of kinetic energy.
They can have unusual properties: phantom energy, for example, can cause a Big Rip.
Alternative ideas
Some theorists think that dark energy and cosmic acceleration are a failure of general relativity on very large scales,
larger than superclusters. However most attempts at modifying general relativity have turned out to be either
equivalent to theories of quintessence, or inconsistent with observations.
Alternative ideas for dark energy have come from string theory, brane cosmology and the holographic principle, but
have not yet proved as compelling as quintessence and the cosmological constant.
On string theory, an article in the journal Nature described:
String theories, popular with many particle physicists, make it possible, even desirable, to think that the
observable universe is just one of 10500 universes in a grander multiverse, says [Leonard Susskind, a
cosmologist at Stanford University in California]. The vacuum energy will have different values in
different universes, and in many or most it might indeed be vast. But it must be small in ours because it
is only in such a universe that observers such as ourselves can evolve.[14]
Paul Steinhardt in the same article criticizes string theory's explanation of dark energy stating "...Anthropics and
randomness don't explain anything... I am disappointed with what most theorists are willing to accept".[14]
Yet another, "radically conservative" class of proposals aims to explain the observational data by a more refined use
of established theories rather than through the introduction of dark energy, focusing, for example, on the
gravitational effects of density inhomogeneities, or on consequences of electroweak symmetry breaking in the early
universe. If we are located in an emptier-than-average region of space, the observed cosmic expansion rate could be
mistaken for a variation in time, or acceleration.[19] [20] [21] [22]
Another class of theories attempts to come up with an all-encompassing theory of both Dark Matter and Dark Energy
as a single phenomenon that modifies the laws of gravity at various scales. An example of this type of theory is the
theory of Dark Fluid. Another class of theories that unifies Dark Matter and Dark Energy are suggested to be
covariant theories of modified gravities. These theories alter the dynamics of the space-time such that the modified
dynamic stems what have been assigned to the presence of Dark Energy and Dark matter.[23]
Another set of proposals is based on the possibility of a double metric tensor for space-time.[24] [25] It has been
argued that time reversed solutions in general relativity require such double metric for consistency, and that both
Dark Matter and Dark Energy can be understood in terms of time reversed solutions of general relativity.[26]
Implications for the fate of the universe

Cosmologists estimate that the acceleration began roughly 5 billion years ago. Before that, it is thought that the
expansion was decelerating, due to the attractive influence of dark matter and baryons. The density of dark matter in
an expanding universe decreases more quickly than dark energy, and eventually the dark energy dominates.
Specifically, when the volume of the universe doubles, the density of dark matter is halved but the density of dark
energy is nearly unchanged (it is exactly constant in the case of a cosmological constant).
If the acceleration continues indefinitely, the ultimate result will be that galaxies outside the local supercluster will
have a line-of-sight velocity that continually increases with time, eventually far exceeding the speed of light.[27] This
is not a violation of special relativity, because the notion of "velocity" used here is different from that of velocity in a
local inertial frame of reference, which is still constrained to be less than the speed of light for any massive object
(see Comoving distance#Uses of the proper distance for a discussion of the subtleties of defining any notion of
relative velocity in cosmology). Because the Hubble parameter is decreasing with time, there can actually be cases
where a galaxy that is receding from us faster than light does manage to emit a signal which reaches us
Dark energy 53
eventually.[28] [29] However, because of the accelerating expansion, it is projected that most galaxies will eventually
cross a type of cosmological event horizon where any light they emit past that point will never be able to reach us at
any time in the infinite future,[30] because the light never reaches a point where its "peculiar velocity" towards us
exceeds the expansion velocity away from us (these two notions of velocity are also discussed in Comoving
distance#Uses of the proper distance). Assuming the dark energy is constant (a cosmological constant), the current
distance to this cosmological event horizon is about 16 billion light years, meaning that a signal from an event
happening at present would eventually be able to reach us in the future if the event was less than 16 billion light
years away, but the signal would never reach us if the event was more than 16 billion light years away.[29]
As galaxies approach the point of crossing this cosmological event horizon, the light from them will become more
and more redshifted, to the point where the wavelength becomes too large to detect in practice and the galaxies
appear to disappear completely.[31] [32] (see Future of an expanding universe#Galaxies outside the Local Supercluster
are no longer detectable) The Earth, the Milky Way and the Virgo supercluster, however, would remain virtually
undisturbed while the rest of the universe recedes and disappears from view. In this scenario, the local supercluster
would ultimately suffer heat death, just as was thought for the flat, matter-dominated universe, before measurements
of cosmic acceleration.
There are some very speculative ideas about the future of the universe. One suggests that phantom energy causes
divergent expansion, which would imply that the effective force of dark energy continues growing until it dominates
all other forces in the universe. Under this scenario, dark energy would ultimately tear apart all gravitationally bound
structures, including galaxies and solar systems, and eventually overcome the electrical and nuclear forces to tear
apart atoms themselves, ending the universe in a "Big Rip". On the other hand, dark energy might dissipate with
time, or even become attractive. Such uncertainties leave open the possibility that gravity might yet rule the day and
lead to a universe that contracts in on itself in a "Big Crunch". Some scenarios, such as the cyclic model suggest this
could be the case. While these ideas are not supported by observations, they are not ruled out. Measurements of
acceleration are crucial to determining the ultimate fate of the universe in big bang theory.
History
The cosmological constant was first proposed by Einstein as a mechanism to obtain a stable solution of the
gravitational field equation that would lead to a static universe, effectively using dark energy to balance gravity. Not
only was the mechanism an inelegant example of fine-tuning, it was soon realized that Einstein's static universe
would actually be unstable because local inhomogeneities would ultimately lead to either the runaway expansion or
contraction of the universe. The equilibrium is unstable: if the universe expands slightly, then the expansion releases
vacuum energy, which causes yet more expansion. Likewise, a universe which contracts slightly will continue
contracting. These sorts of disturbances are inevitable, due to the uneven distribution of matter throughout the
universe. More importantly, observations made by Edwin Hubble showed that the universe appears to be expanding
and not static at all. Einstein famously referred to his failure to predict the idea of a dynamic universe, in contrast to
a static universe, as his greatest blunder. Following this realization, the cosmological constant was largely ignored as
a historical curiosity.
Alan Guth proposed in the 1970s that a negative pressure field, similar in concept to dark energy, could drive cosmic
inflation in the very early universe. Inflation postulates that some repulsive force, qualitatively similar to dark
energy, resulted in an enormous and exponential expansion of the universe slightly after the Big Bang. Such
expansion is an essential feature of most current models of the Big Bang. However, inflation must have occurred at a
much higher energy density than the dark energy we observe today and is thought to have completely ended when
the universe was just a fraction of a second old. It is unclear what relation, if any, exists between dark energy and
inflation. Even after inflationary models became accepted, the cosmological constant was thought to be irrelevant to
the current universe.
Dark energy 54
The term "dark energy", echoing Fritz Zwicky's "dark matter" from the 1930s, was coined by Michael Turner in
1998.[33] By that time, the missing mass problem of big bang nucleosynthesis and large scale structure was
established, and some cosmologists had started to theorize that there was an additional component to our universe.
The first direct evidence for dark energy came from supernova observations of accelerated expansion, in Riess et
al.[5] and later confirmed in Perlmutter et al.[6] This resulted in the Lambda-CDM model, which as of 2006 is
consistent with a series of increasingly rigorous cosmological observations, the latest being the 2005 Supernova
Legacy Survey. First results from the SNLS reveal that the average behavior (i.e., equation of state) of dark energy
behaves like Einstein's cosmological constant to a precision of 10%.[34] Recent results from the Hubble Space
Telescope Higher-Z Team indicate that dark energy has been present for at least 9 billion years and during the period
preceding cosmic acceleration.
Bibliography
• HubbleSite press release: New Clues About the Nature of Dark Energy: Einstein May Have Been Right After All
[35]
.
• 1998 paper announcing the dark energy discovery: Riess et al. [36]
• 1999 paper confirming dark energy discovery Perlmutter et al. [37].
• The group that first detected cosmic acceleration: High-Z supernova search team [38] and the group that confirmed
it Supernova Cosmology Project [39].
• Sean Carroll's technical reviews: Why is the universe accelerating? [40], The Cosmological Constant [41], and
Dark Energy and the Preposterous Universe [42].
• Jim Peebles, Testing General Relativity on the Scales of Cosmology [43].
• "The World's Most Successful Nearby Supernova Search Engine", The Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope
[44]
.
• Supernova Acceleration Probe (SNAP) [45], a proposed satellite experiment.
• A reanalysis ([46],[47] ) of an experiment [R.H. Koch, D. van Harlingen, J. Clarke, Phys. Rev. B 26 (1982) 74] to
find the broad-band spectrum of Josephson junction noise current claims to connect it to the spectral frequency
upper limit predicted by matching estimates of the dark energy density to the measured vacuum energy density.
This claim is not yet accepted. For disputes, see,.[48] [49] [50]
• Christopher J. Conselice, "The Universe's Invisible Hand," Scientific American. February, 2007.
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[2] "Seven-Year Wilson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Sky Maps, Systematic Errors, and Basic Results" (http:/ / lambda.
gsfc. nasa. gov/ product/ map/ dr4/ pub_papers/ sevenyear/ basic_results/ wmap_7yr_basic_results. pdf) (PDF). nasa.gov. . Retrieved
2010-12-02. (see p. 39 for a table of best estimates for various cosmological parameters)
[3] Sean Carroll (2001). "The cosmological constant" (http:/ / relativity. livingreviews. org/ Articles/ lrr-2001-1/ index. html). Living Reviews in
Relativity 4. . Retrieved 2006-09-28.
[4] L.Baum and P.H. Frampton (2007). "Turnaround in Cyclic Cosmology". Physical Review Letters 98 (7): 071301. arXiv:hep-th/0610213.
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[5] Adam G. Riess et al. (Supernova Search Team) (1998). "Observational evidence from supernovae for an accelerating universe and a
cosmological constant". Astronomical J. 116 (3): 1009–38. arXiv:astro-ph/9805201. Bibcode 1998AJ....116.1009R. doi:10.1086/300499.
[6] S. Perlmutter et al. (The Supernova Cosmology Project) (1999). "Measurements of Omega and Lambda from 42 high redshift supernovae".
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galaxy redshifts?". ApSS 191: 107–24. Bibcode 1992Ap&SS.191..107P. doi:10.1007/BF00644200.
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[9] Kowalski, Marek; Rubin, David (October 27, 2008). "Improved Cosmological Constraints from New, Old and Combined Supernova
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Dark energy 55
Bibcode 2008ApJ...686..749K. doi:10.1086/589937.
They find a best fit value of the dark energy density, of 0.713+0.027-0.029(stat)+0.036-0.039(sys), of the total
matter density, , of 0.274+0.016-0.016(stat)+0.013-0.012(sys) with an equation of state parameter w of
-0.969+0.059-0.063(stat)+0.063-0.066(sys).
[10] Hinshaw, Gary F. (April 30, 2008). "WMAP Cosmological Parameters Model: lcdm+sz+lens Data: wmap5" (http:/ / lambda. gsfc. nasa.
gov/ product/ map/ dr3/ params/ lcdm_sz_lens_wmap5. cfm). NASA. . Retrieved 2009-05-24.
[11] Crittenden; Neil Turok (1995). "Looking for $\Lambda$ with the Rees-Sciama Effect". Phys.Rev.Lett.76:575,1996 76 (4): 575–578.
arXiv:astro-ph/9510072. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.76.575.
[12] Shirley Ho; Hirata; Nikhil Padmanabhan; Uros Seljak; Neta Bahcall (2008). "Correlation of CMB with large-scale structure: I. ISW
Tomography and Cosmological Implications". Phys.Rev.D78:043519,2008 78 (4). arXiv:0801.0642. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.78.043519.
[13] Tommaso Giannantonio; Ryan Scranton; Crittenden; Nichol; Boughn; Myers; Richards (2008). "Combined analysis of the integrated
Sachs-Wolfe effect and cosmological implications". Phys.Rev.D77:123520,2008 77 (12). arXiv:0801.4380.
doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.77.123520.
[14] Hogan, Jenny (2007). "Unseen Universe: Welcome to the dark side". Nature 448 (7151): 240–245. doi:10.1038/448240a. PMID 17637630.
[15] A.M. Öztas and M.L. Smith (2006). "Elliptical Solutions to the Standard Cosmology Model with Realistic Values of Matter Density".
International Journal of Theoretical Physics 45 (5): 925–936. doi:10.1007/s10773-006-9082-7.
[16] D.J. Schwarz and B. Weinhorst (2007). "(An)isotropy of the Hubble diagram: comparing hemispheres". Astronomy & Astrophysics 474 (3):
717–729. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20077998.
[17] Stephon Alexander, Tirthabir Biswas, Alessio Notari, and Deepak Vaid (2008). "Local Void vs Dark Energy: Confrontation with WMAP
and Type Ia Supernovae". ArΧiv ePrint. arXiv:astro-ph/0712.0370.
[18] F. Melia and M. Abdelqadar (2009). "The Cosmological Spacetime". International Journal of Modern Physics D 18 (12): 1889–1901.
doi:10.1142/S0218271809015746.
[19] Wiltshire, David L. (2007). "Exact Solution to the Averaging Problem in Cosmology". Phys. Rev. Lett. 99 (25): 251101.
doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.251101. PMID 18233512.
[20] Mustapha Ishak; James Richardson; David Garred; Delilah Whittington; Anthony Nwankwo; Roberto Sussman (2007). "Dark Energy or
Apparent Acceleration Due to a Relativistic Cosmological Model More Complex than FLRW?". Phys.Rev.D78:123531,2008 78 (12).
arXiv:0708.2943. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.78.123531.
[21] Teppo Mattsson (2007). "Dark energy as a mirage". Gen.Rel.Grav.42:567-599,2010 42 (3): 567–599. arXiv:0711.4264.
doi:10.1007/s10714-009-0873-z.
[22] Clifton, Timothy; Pedro Ferreira (April 2009). "Does Dark Energy Really Exist?" (http:/ / www. sciam. com/ article.
cfm?id=does-dark-energy-exist). Scientific American 300 (4): 48–55. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0409-48. PMID 19363920. . Retrieved
April 30, 2009.
[23] Exirifard, Q. (2010). "Phenomenological covariant approach to gravity". General Relativity and Gravitation 43: 93–106.
doi:10.1007/s10714-010-1073-6.
[24] Hossenfelder, S. (2008). "A Bi-Metric Theory with Exchange Symmetry". Physical Review D 78 (4): 044015.
doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.78.044015.
[25] Henry-Couannier, F. (2005). International Journal of Modern Physics A 20 (11): 2341. doi:10.1142/S0217751X05024602.
[26] Ripalda, Jose M. (1999). "Time reversal and negative energies in general relativity". Eprint arXiv:gr-qc/9906012: 6012.
arXiv:gr-qc/9906012. Bibcode 1999gr.qc.....6012R.
[27] Krauss, Lawrence M.. "The End of Cosmology?: Scientific American" (http:/ / www. sciam. com/ article. cfm?id=the-end-of-cosmology).
Sciam.com. . Retrieved 2011-01-06.
[28] Is the universe expanding faster than the speed of light? (http:/ / curious. astro. cornell. edu/ question. php?number=575) (see the last two
paragraphs)
[29] Lineweaver, Charles; Tamara M. Davis (2005). "Misconceptions about the Big Bang" (http:/ / space. mit. edu/ ~kcooksey/ teaching/ AY5/
MisconceptionsabouttheBigBang_ScientificAmerican. pdf). Scientific American. . Retrieved 2008-11-06.
[30] Loeb, Abraham (2002). "The Long-Term Future of Extragalactic Astronomy". Physical Review D 65 (4). arXiv:astro-ph /0107568.
doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.65.047301.
[31] Krauss, Lawrence M.; Robert J. Scherrer (2007). "The Return of a Static Universe and the End of Cosmology". General Relativity and
Gravitation 39 (10): 1545–1550. arXiv:0704.0221. doi:10.1007/s10714-007-0472-9.
[32] Using Tiny Particles To Answer Giant Questions (http:/ / www. npr. org/ templates/ story/ story. php?storyId=102715275). Science Friday,
3 Apr 2009. According to the transcript (http:/ / www. npr. org/ templates/ transcript/ transcript. php?storyId=102715275), Brian Greene
makes the comment "And actually, in the far future, everything we now see, except for our local galaxy and a region of galaxies will have
disappeared. The entire universe will disappear before our very eyes, and it's one of my arguments for actually funding cosmology. We've got
to do it while we have a chance."
[33] The first appearance of the term "dark energy" is in the article with another cosmologist and Turner's student at the time, Dragan Huterer,
"Prospects for Probing the Dark Energy via Supernova Distance Measurements", which was posted to the ArXiv.org e-print archive in August
1998 (http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ astro-ph/ 9808133) and published in Physical Review D in 1999 (Huterer and Turner, Phys. Rev. D 60, 081301
(1999)), although the manner in which the term is treated there suggests it was already in general use. Cosmologist Saul Perlmutter has
Dark energy 56
credited Turner with coining the term in an article (http:/ / www. lbl. gov/ Science-Articles/ Archive/ dark-energy. html) they wrote together
with Martin White of the University of Illinois for Physical Review Letters (http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ astro-ph/ 9901052v2), where it is
introduced in quotation marks as if it were a neologism.
[34] Pierre Astier et al. (Supernova Legacy Survey) (2006). "The Supernova legacy survey: Measurement of omega(m), omega(lambda) and W
from the first year data set". Astronomy and Astrophysics 447: 31–48. arXiv:astro-ph/0510447. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20054185.
[35] http:/ / hubblesite. org/ newscenter/ newsdesk/ archive/ releases/ 2004/ 12/ text
[36] http:/ / xxx. lanl. gov/ abs/ astro-ph/ 9805201
[38] http:/ / cfa-www. harvard. edu/ cfa/ oir/ Research/ supernova/ HighZ. html
[39] http:/ / panisse. lbl. gov/
[44] http:/ / astron. berkeley. edu/ ~bait/ kait. html
[45] http:/ / snap. lbl. gov/
[46] http:/ / xxx. arxiv. org/ abs/ astro-ph/ 0406504
[47] "doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2004.11.060" (http:/ / www. cnd. mcgill. ca/ bios/ mackey/ pdf_pub/ darkenergy_2004. pdf) (PDF). . Retrieved
2011-01-06.
[48] [astro-ph/0411034] Has Dark Energy really been discovered in the Lab? (http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ astro-ph/ 0411034)
[49] "Scepticism greets pitch to detect dark energy in the lab" (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20080308154156/ http:/ / www. bath. ac. uk/ pr/
mrsa-nature. pdf). Archived from the original (http:/ / www. bath. ac. uk/ pr/ mrsa-nature. pdf) on 2008-03-08. . Retrieved 2011-01-06.
[50] "Scepticism greets pitch to detect dark energy in the lab" (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20041105035332/ http:/ / www. nature. com/
news/ 2004/ 040705/ pf/ 430126b_pf. html). Archived from the original (http:/ / www. nature. com/ news/ 2004/ 040705/ pf/ 430126b_pf.
html) on 2004-11-05. . Retrieved 2011-01-06.
External links
• Dark Energy (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003k9g5) on In Our Time at the BBC. ( listen now (http://
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p003k9g5/In_Our_Time_Dark_Energy))
• Dennis Overbye (November 2006). "9 Billion-Year-Old 'Dark Energy' Reported" (http://www.nytimes.com/
2006/11/17/science/space/17dark.html?em&ex=1163998800&en=f02de71136ca5dd5&ei=5087 ). The New
York Times.
• "Mysterious force's long presence" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6156110.stm) BBC News
online (2006) More evidence for dark energy being the cosmological constant
• "Astronomy Picture of the Day" (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020529.html) one of the images of the
Cosmic Microwave Background which confirmed the presence of dark energy and dark matter
• SuperNova Legacy Survey home page (http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/SNLS) The Canada-France-Hawaii
Telescope Legacy Survey Supernova Program aims primarily at measuring the equation of state of Dark Energy.
It is designed to precisely measure several hundred high-redshift supernovae.
• "Report of the Dark Energy Task Force" (http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0609591)
• "HubbleSite.org -- Dark Energy Website" (http://hubblesite.org/hubble_discoveries/dark_energy/) Multimedia
presentation explores the science of dark energy and Hubble's role in its discovery.
• "Surveying the dark side" (http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0607066)
• "Dark energy and 3-manifold topology" (http://th-www.if.uj.edu.pl/acta/vol38/pdf/v38p3633.pdf) Acta
Physica Polonica 38 (2007), p. 3633-3639
• The Dark Energy Survey (https://www.darkenergysurvey.org/)
• The Joint Dark Energy Mission (http://jdem.gsfc.nasa.gov/)
• Harvard: Dark Energy Found Stifling Growth in Universe (http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/08_releases/
press_121608.html), primary source
• April 2010 Smithsonian Magazine Article (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/
Dark-Energy-The-Biggest-Mystery-in-the-Universe.html)
• HETDEX Dark energy experiment (http://hetdex.org/)
Radiative transfer
Radiative transfer is the physical phenomenon of energy transfer in the form of electromagnetic radiation. The
propagation of radiation through a medium is affected by absorption, emission and scattering processes. The
equation of radiative transfer describes these interactions mathematically. Equations of radiative transfer have
application in wide variety of subjects including optics, astrophysics, atmospheric science, and remote sensing.
Analytic solutions to the radiative transfer equation (RTE) exist for simple cases but for more realistic media with
complex multiple scattering effects numerical methods are required.
The present article is largely focused on the condition of radiative equilibrium. [1] [2] .
Definitions
The fundamental quantity which describes a field of radiation is the spectral intensity. If we think of a very small
area element in the radiation field, there will be radiation energy flowing through that area element. The flow can be
completely characterized by the amount of energy flowing per unit time per unit solid angle, the direction of the
flow, and the wavelength interval being considered (polarization will be ignored for the moment).
In terms of the spectral intensity, , the energy flowing across an area element of area located at in time
in the solid angle about the direction in the frequency interval to is
where is the angle that the unit direction vector makes with a normal to the area element. The units of the
spectral intensity are seen to be energy/time/area/solid angle/frequency. In MKS units this would be W·m-2·sr-1·Hz-1
(watts per square-metre-steradian-hertz).
The equation of radiative transfer

The equation of radiative transfer simply says that as a beam of radiation travels, it loses energy to absorption, gains
energy by emission, and redistributes energy by scattering. The differential form of the equation for radiative transfer
is:
where is the emission coefficient, is the scattering cross section, and is the absorption cross section.
Solutions to the equation of radiative transfer

Solutions to the equation of radiative transfer form an enormous body of work. The differences however, are
essentially due to the various forms for the emission and absorption coefficients. If scattering is ignored, then a
general solution in terms of the emission and absorption coefficients may be written:
where is the optical depth of the atmosphere between and :

Local thermodynamic equilibrium

A particularly useful simplification of the equation of radiative transfer occurs under the conditions of local
thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE). In this situation, the atmosphere consists of massive particles which are in
equilibrium with each other, and therefore have a definable temperature. The radiation field is not, however in
equilibrium and is being entirely driven by the presence of the massive particles. For an atmosphere in LTE, the
emission coefficient and absorption coefficient are functions of temperature and density only, and are related by:
where is the black body intensity at temperature T. The solution to the equation of radiative transfer is then:
Knowing the temperature profile and the density profile of the atmospheric components will be enough to calculate a
solution to the equation of radiative transfer.
The Eddington approximation

The Eddington approximation is a special case of the two stream approximation. It can be used to obtain the intensity
in a plane-parallel atmosphere with isotropic frequency-independent scattering. It assumes that the intensity is a
linear function of . i.e.
where is the normal direction to the slab atmosphere. Note that expressing angular integrals in terms of
simplifies things because appears in the Jacobian of integrals in spherical coordinates.
Extracting the first few moments of the intensity with respect to yields
Thus the Eddington approximation is equivalent to setting . Higher order versions of the Eddington
approximation also exist, and consist of more complicated linear relations of the intensity moments. This extra
equation can be used as a closure relation for the truncated system of moments.
Note that the first two moments have simple physical meanings. is the isotropic intensity at a point, and is
the flux through that point in the direction.
The radiative transfer through an isotropically scattering atmosphere at local thermal equilibrium is given by
Integrating over all angles yields
Premultiplying by , and then integrating over all angles gives
Substituting in the closure relation, and differentiating with respect to allows the two above equations to be
combined to form the radiative diffusion equation
This equation shows how the effective optical depth in scattering-dominated systems may be significantly different
from that given by the scattering opacity if the absorptive opacity is small.
Further reading
• Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1960). Radiative Transfer. Dover Publications Inc.. p. 393. ISBN 0-486-60590-6.
• Jacqueline Lenoble (1985). Radiative Transfer in Scattering and Absorbing Atmospheres: Standard
Computational Procedures. A. Deepak Publishing. p. 583. ISBN 0-12-451451-0.
• Dimitri Mihalas, Barbara Weibel-Mihalas (1984). Foundations of Radiation Hydrodynamics. Dover Publications,
Inc.. ISBN 0-486-40925-2.
• George B. Rybicki, Alan P. Lightman (1985). Radiative Processes in Astrophysics. Wiley-Interscience.
ISBN 0-471-82759-2.
• G. E. Thomas and K. Stamnes (1999). Radiative Transfer in the Atmosphere and Ocean. Cambridge University
Press.. ISBN 0-521-40124-0.
References
[1] S. Chandrasekhar (1960). Radiative Transfer. Dover Publications Inc.. p. 393. ISBN 0-486-60590-6.
[2] Jacqueline Lenoble (1985). Radiative Transfer in Scattering and Absorbing Atmospheres: Standard Computational Procedures. A. Deepak
Publishing. p. 583. ISBN 0-12-451451-0.
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License 63
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Gravitational Collapse of Double Trios:Saiph (Kappa Orion)

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Residence Nagaon, Assam, India

Education PhD, PDF, FRAS

Alma mater University of Jodhpur

Occupation Assistant Professor(Lecturer), Diphu Govt. College , Diphu,Assam,India

Years active 2004- onwards

Employer Diphu Government College

Known for Lecturer ,Assistant Professor,Mathematician,Academician,Fusion,Astronomy

Home town Nagaon, Assam, India

Salary Rs 40000 per month

Height 6 feet and 2 inches

Title Doctorate, Dr., FRAS (London), Assam Education Service, AES

Religion Sunni Islam,

Spouse Helmin Begum Hazarika

Children Laquit Ali Hazarika(son), Danisha Begum Hazarika(daughter)

Call-sign Drabrh or Raja

Dr.A.B.Rajib Hazarika with Laquit (son) and Danisha(daughter)

Awards and recognition

[44] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ File:Abstracts. pdf?page=2

star, the Sun.

solar mass: [52]

solar luminosity: [52]

solar radius: [53]

Formation and evolution

Early stars of less than 2 solar masses are

Besides mass, the portion of elements

Most of the matter in the star is blown away by the supernova

enough to leave a stellar remnant greater than roughly 4 solar

It has been a long-held assumption that the majority of

Radial velocity is measured by the doppler

converted into units of velocity. Stars with

Young, rapidly rotating stars tend to have high levels of

With a mass only 93 times that of Jupiter, AB Doradus

Number of stars brighter than magnitude

Surface Temperature Ranges for

O 33,000 K or more Zeta Ophiuchi

K 4,000–5,250 K Epsilon Indi

M 2,600–3,850 K Proxima Centauri

Eruptive variables are stars that experience sudden increases in

Nuclear fusion reaction pathways

Overview of the proton-proton chain

The carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle

Minimum stellar mass required for fusion

H 37 0.0045 8.1 million

He 188 0.97 1.2 million

C 870 170 976

Ne 1,570 3,100 0.6

O 1,980 5,550 1.25

S/Si 3,340 33,400 [147]

Binary star systems

Multiple star systems

Because of the dynamical instabilities mentioned

Most multiple star systems are triple stars, also called

Multiple stars have sizes intermediate between binary

Triple star systems

A simplex diagram of hierarchy 1, as

Orbital motion in multiple stars

Calculating the center of mass in binary stars

Center of mass animations

(d.) Two bodies with an extreme difference in

Designations and nomenclature

Multiple star designations

Nomenclature in the Multiple Star Catalogue