Coverage of Topics and Study Notes:

I chose our text partly because of the excellent way Chapter 16 is written! Chapter 16 focuses very well on what's fundamentally important in the study of the sun as applied to stellar astronomy. The topics invloved in stellar internal structure and energy generation in Physical Properties of the Sun, 16.1, The Heart of the Sun, 16.2, and The Solar Interior, 16.3, are not repeated later in the text when we study other stars, so they are very important.

The interpretation of absorption line spectra in The Solar Atmosphere,16.4, as shown in Figure 16.12, Spectral Line Formation, is hard to understand in detail, and you do not need to get hung up on a detailed undestanding.  Just remember that it is possible to study different levels by careful analysis of spectral lines.

From an overview of stellar astronomy as a whole, stellar structure is very important, but also pretty much a closed subject as research. The Active Sun 16.5, is more relevant as current research. It shows the importance of magnetic fields in stars and is quite fascinating.

Observations of Solar Neutrinos, 16.6, had formed one of the outstanding unsolved problems in astronomy, but its details are of secondary importance. It is less important than the other topics because, as the authors conclude, "Apparently the solar neutrino problem has at last been solved..."

Review Questions: Study all of them except as noted.

Review and Discussion.

Number 2: it's fine just to know that the sun is much more massive than the earth.

Number 3: these numbers are worth remembering for comparison to other stars in subsequent chapters.

Number 4: only know the definition of luminosity.

Skip: Number 10, it's way too vague.

Number 18 and 19 should be phrased in past tense.

Number 20's answer is millions of years. (I don't think it was emphasized that it takes millions of years for energy to work its way out from the core of the sun. Even though it travels as radiation in the radiation zone, it scatters around in a tortuous way which takes a very long time. Furthermore, the transport of energy by convection can only go as fast as the hot gas can flow, which seems fast by our standards, but is quite slow for the distance inolvolved in the convection zone. However, the neutrinos don't scatter much at all and so they arrive at the earth in minutes.)

Conceptual Self Test.

Self Test: Fill in the Blank: Number 11.  You only need to know that the Sun is a lot bigger than the Earth.

Number 16:  You only need to remember that the  temperature and density are both peaked at the core of the sun.

Number 17:  You don't need to remember this one, but you should know what granules are.

Number 20:  Put in past tense.

Problems.

There is so much material to cover in this chapter that I won't emphasize problems like these.