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UPDATED TO 2023-2025 SYLLABUS

EDEXCEL IGCSE
PHYSICS
SUMMARIZED NOTES ON THE THEORY SYLLABUS
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EDEXCEL IGCSE PHYSICS

Our galaxy is a spiral galaxy called the Milky Way.

1. Astrophysics The colours of stars tell us about their temperatures. A
very hot star emits blue in its spectrum and therefore
looks blue, a medium star like our Sun looks yellow and
1.1. Motion in the Universe cooler stars appear red.
There are three different ways in which astronomers
The universe is a large collection of billions of galaxies. describe the brightness of a star:
A galaxy is a large collection of billions of stars. The apparent brightness or magnitude of a star. This
Our solar system is in the Milky Way galaxy. is the easiest method and is simply a measure of how
There is always a force of attraction between any two bright a star is as seen from the Earth.
objects. This attraction is due to the masses of the The absolute brightness or magnitude. This is a
objects. This force is called gravitational force. measure of how bright stars would appear if they
The size of this force depends on the: were all placed the same distance away from the
masses of the two objects Earth.
distance between the masses. The luminosity of a star. This measures how much
The Sun is the gravitational attraction between this mass energy in the form of light is emitted from a star's
and each of the planets that holds the Solar System surface every second.
together and causes the planets to follow their curved When a star first forms, gravitational forces are pulling
paths. particles together.
Those planets that are closest to the Sun feel the When nuclear reactions begin, the high temperatures
greatest attraction and so follow the most curved paths. create forces that try to push the particles When these
Planets that are the furthest from the Sun feel the two forces are balanced, the star is said to be in its main
weakest pull and follow the least curved path. stable period.
A satellite is an object that orbits a planet. There are two A star in this main stable period is referred to as a main
types of the satellite: natural and artificial (human- sequence star.
made). Towards the end of this stable period, there are fewer
Comets are large rock-like pieces of ice that orbit the hydrogen nuclei and eventually, the hydrogen fusion
Sun. They have very elliptical (elongated) orbits, which reactions stop.
sometimes take them very close to the Sun. As the star shrinks in size, there is a large increase in
The strength of gravity on a planet or moon is called its temperature. So high that fusion reactions between
gravitational field strength and is given the symbol g. helium nuclei begin. The energy released by these
Different planets have different masses and different reactions causes the star to expand to many times its
radii. original size.
The larger the mass of a planet, the greater its As it expands, it becomes a little cooler, and more of its
gravitational field strength. light energy is emitted in the red part of the spectrum.
The larger the radius of a planet, the smaller the The star is changing into a red giant.
gravitational field strength at its surface. Sometime later, when most of the helium nuclei have
On the Moon, the gravitational field strength is only one- fused (joined) together, new nuclear reactions begin, but
sixth that of the Earth's. now the compressive or squashing forces are larger, and
The distance a satellite moves is the circumference of a the star begins to get smaller or contract.
circle with the radius, r. This contraction causes an increase in temperature, so
The time period, T, is the time for one complete orbit. the star again changes colour.
2 πr It now emits more blue and white light. It has changed
v= ​

into a white dwarf star.

T
Finally, as a white dwarf star cools, it changes into a cold
1.2. Stellar Evolution black dwarf star.

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EDEXCEL IGCSE PHYSICS

The Universe is expanding and at some time in the past,

all the matter in the Universe was in one place just
before an explosion. This theory is called the Big Bang
theory.
A star that is much larger than our Sun will expand into a The equation below shows us how to calculate the speed
large red supergiant. at which a star or galaxy is moving relative to us.
As it contracts, it becomes unstable. It explodes, change in wavelength, △λ velocity of a galaxy,
throwing dust and gas into space to form a new stellar = ​

ref erence in wavelength, λ speed of light, c

nebula. This exploding star is called a supernova.
Any matter remaining will form a very dense neutron λ − λ0 Δλ v
= =
​

star. If the neutron star has a mass that is approximately

​ ​ ​

λ0 ​ λ0 c ​

five times greater than that of our Sun or more, it

collapses further to become a black hole. The Doppler effect is a property of all waves.
When astronomers look at light spectra from distant
stars and galaxies, they can see the Doppler effect.
In the 1960s scientists detected this afterglow of energy.
They are microwaves and can be detected in all
directions in the Universe. They became known as
cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation.
Red-shift indicates that the source of the light waves is
moving away from the observer. Blue-shift would
indicate that the source of light is moving towards the
observer.
When we compare the light emitted from all the different
galaxies a clear pattern emerges.
Almost all the galaxies emit light with red-shift.
The further away a galaxy is the greater the red-shift and
The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (HR diagram): therefore the faster it is moving away from us.
shows the relationship between the brightness,
temperature and classification of a star.

1.3. Cosmology

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Edexcel IGCSE
Physics

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