10. Relativity and Black Holes

Learning goals

  • Describe how the motion of the observer affects the observed velocity of objects.
  • Discuss the observable consequences of the relationship between space and time.
  • Explain how gravity is a consequence of the way mass distorts the very shape of spacetime.
  • Explain why the most massive stars end as black holes, and describe the key properties of these stellar black holes.Sketch post-main-sequence evolutionary tracks on the H-R diagram.
  • List the stages of evolution for low-mass stars.
  • Describe how planetary nebulae and white dwarfs form.
  • Explain how some close binary systems evolve differently than single stars.

Outline

  1. Relative motion affects measured velocities.
    • Aberration of Starlight.
    • Relative speeds close to the speed of light.
  2. Special relativity explains how time and space are related.
    • Time and relativity.
    • The implications of relativity.
  3. Gravity is a distortion of spacetime..
    • The Equivalence Principle.
    • Mass distorts spacetime.
    • When one physical lay supplants another.
    • Gravity waves.
  4. Black Holes.
    • How black holes form.
    • Properties of black holes.
    • “Seeing” black holes.The energetic and chemical legacy of supernovoe.
    • Neutron stars and pulsars.
    • Case Study: M1 (Crab Nebula)
    • Case Study: SN 1987a

Activities:

Extra Stuff