Stellar Spectroscopy
Understand the 3 types of Stellar spectroscopy
Explain why wavelengths of light are absorbed by electrons, creating absorption lines.
Determine which stellar class a star belongs to, from data given.
Spectroscopy
Stellar spectroscopy is a method of analysing the spectrum of stars. Spectroscopy gives rise to three types of spectra:
› an emission line spectrum
› an emission continuous spectrum
› an absorption spectrum.
After heating, electrons are raised to new
energy levels, and eventually return to lower
energy levels. The atoms then emit photons at
precise characteristic energies corresponding
exactly to the spacing of the energy levels
within the atoms of the gas. The spectrum
recorded is of bright lines on a dark
background, an emission line spectrum with
the intensity and position of these lines corresponding to particular electronic transitions in the atoms of the gas.
In the time it takes atoms to drop down to a lower energy level, further atomic collisions have occurred. This results
in a blurring of the emission spectrum and the loss of any detail about the atoms in the gas, giving rise to a
continuous spectrum. This is typical of the emission spectrum obtained from the region of a star, the photosphere.
The photosphere acts as a source of visible light. This light then passes
through the outer layers of the Sun, which are much cooler and composed
mainly of hydrogen gas. Photons of the characteristic energies of the
transitions in the gas will be absorbed and atomic electrons raised to an
excited state (perhaps to the second level or shell, n = 2, or even higher
shells, n = 3, 4, 5, 6 and so on). As electrons fall back to the rest level, n = 1
(the ground state), or intermediate levels, photons are emitted, but in
random directions. The resulting spectrum comprises dark lines
(undetected photons) characteristic of an
The absorption lines for hydrogen in the visible part of the spectrum result from electrons moving from the rest
excitation level (n = 2) to higher energy levels. This leads to a
series of dark lines called the Balmer series. The intensity of
the absorption lines depends on the particular temperature
of the star’s photosphere.
Other dark lines in a star’s absorption spectrum are
characteristic of other particular elements within the gas in
the outer layers. A full analysis of the absorption lines also
reveals the state of the atoms, that is, whether they are neutral or ionised, which also depends on the temperature.
The absorption spectrum therefore not only enables identification of the elements present in the star
but also allows the temperature of
the star to be determined
accurately.
The relative strength of particular
absorption lines, and hence
temperature, gives the spectral
class of a star. We can further
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define the classification by temperature with a description of the prominent spectral absorption lines, as shown in
the table shown.
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