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- Orion the Hunter is the Star Constellation that is easy to find in the winter months. In the southern sky the bright star Betelgeuse is the Hunter’s right hand. The Blue Supergiant Star Rigel is his left foot. The three stars at the Hunter’s waist band have a “sword” connected to the waist at his right side. The “sword” is the Orion Nebula (M42).
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- The Orion Nebula is a giant molecular cloud of gas and dust. It is 1,400 lightyears away and a region of massive star formation. When massive stars form they emit large amounts of ultraviolet light. The UV radiation is absorbed by the atoms in the surrounding interstellar medium. The radiation energy kicks the electrons to higher energy levels and out of the atoms hold. The nucleus left is a positively charged ion, and the electron is a free negative charge.
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- When free electrons recombine with an atom it will emit a light spectrum equal to the energy absorbed between the atoms energy bands. Ions are absorbing electrons and emitting radiation at the unique spectrum frequencies for that particular element. Astronomers use these light spectrum to gather a wealth of information about the source. By isolating the emission lines and absorption lines in the spectrum astronomers can measure:
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---------------------------- velocity
---------------------------- temperature
---------------------------- density
---------------------------- chemical composition.
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- The Orion Nebula tells us:
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------------- The gas is radiating at a temperature of 9,000 Kelvin, 15,700 degrees Fahrenheit.
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------------ The densest part of the nebula contains 10,000 atoms per cubic centimeter.
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------------ The chemical composition of elements heavier than helium is slightly more that that of the Sun.
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----------- Images of the nebula show many stars with dusty accretion disks. The angular momentum of these spinning disks holds the material for planet formation.
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----------- Evidence tells us that the Orion Nebula star formations have been going on for 2,500,000 years.
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----------- Infrared light spectrum from the Herschel Space Observatory have detected these elements and molecules:
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--------------- Methanol, Hydrogen cyanide, Sulfur dioxide, Hydrogen sulfide, Formaldehyde, Dimethyl ether, Deuterium Cyanide, Water, Carbon monoxide, Acrylonitrile, Methyl formate. WATER.
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- Each electron energy level is unique and emit’s a unique frequency when electron falls from a higher energy level to a lower energy level. An atom’s energy is always seeking the lowest energy level called the “ground state”. When an electron falls from energy level 3 to energy level 2 in the hydrogen atom it emit’s a photon of wavelength 656 nanometers wavelength.
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- Many of these spectrum emissions are in the visible light frequency range:
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------------- double ionized hydrogen ------ 656 nanometers ------ red
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------------- singly ionized oxygen ---------- 375 nanometers ------- blue
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------------- doubly ionized neon ---------- 398 nanometers ------- blue
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------------- atomic hydrogen ---------- 410 nanometers ------- blue
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------------- atomic hydrogen ---------- 433 nanometers ------- light blue
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------------- atomic helium ---------- 447 nanometers ------- light blue
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------------- atomic hydrogen ---------- 486 nanometers ------- green
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------------- doubly ionized oxygen ---------- 500 nanometers ------- green
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- Google a picture of the Orion Nebula and you can see all these beautiful colors. In addition to the emission lines there are reflected colors. Starlight reflected from grains of dust produce blue colors, like our blue sky, because the size of the interstellar dust grains scatter blue light much more readily than red light.
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- The black regions in the Nebula are dark, dusty gas clouds that block our view of the stars beyond them. A good example to Google is the “ Horsehead Nebula”.
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- To illustrate the physics that give us these spectrum lines select the hydrogen atom. The electron in its ground state is at - 13.6 electron volts energy level. When the electron absorbs energy and jumps to the next higher energy level it is at -3.4 electron volts. The electron absorbed 10.2 electron volts of energy. If the electron falls back to the ground state it will emit the same amount of energy, 10.2 electron volts.
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- In the case of the double ionized hydrogen the energy gap from band 2 to band 3 goes from 3.4 eV to 1.51 eV, a difference in energy of 1.89 eV.
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-------------- double ionized hydrogen ------ 656 nanometers ------ red
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- The energy of the photon is proportion to the frequency of oscillation, ( f ). The constant of proportionality is Plancks Constant of Action, ( h ) :
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------------------------------- E = h * f
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---------- Plancks Constant of Action is equal to 4.136*10^-15 electron volt * seconds / cycle.
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---------------------------- f = E / h
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---------------------------- f = 1.89 electron volts * cycle / 4.136*10^-15 eV * sec
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--------------------------- f = 0.457 * 10^15 cycles per second.
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- The velocity of the wave, in this case the speed of light, ( c ), is equal to the wavelength times the frequency:
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---------------------------- wavelength = c / f
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---------------------------- wavelength = 3* 10^8 meters / second // 0.457 * 10^15 meters per cycle.
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--------------------------- wavelength = 656 nanometers., which is in the red visible light frequency range.
-------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------
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707-536-3272, Wednesday, November 7, 2012
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