Red Giants And White Dwarfs
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Stellar distances are determined by stellar parallax, which is the angular shift of stars caused by changes in the observer's position. Our solar system is part of the Milky Way galaxy, which is approximately 100,000 light years across. The basic physical stellar quantities are luminosity, temperature, chemical composition, size, and mass. A light year is approximately 9.46 x 10^12 km, and a parsec is defined as the distance where a star's parallax is 1 arcsecond, which equals 3.1 x 10^16 m or 206,263 AU. The closest stars to our solar system are Proxima Centauri and Barnard's Star.
Red Giants And White Dwarfs
- 1. Red Giants and White Dwarfs
- 2. Stellar Parallax Explain how stellar distances are determined. What is stellar parallax? Which galaxy is our solar system a part of? What is the distance across this galaxy? What are the basic physical stellar quantities?
- 3. How far is a light year? What is a parsec? Which 2 stars are our closest neighbours ? If the Sun was a marble, what would the Earth be and how far would it be? How far would our closest neighbour be from the Earth?
- 4. What is meant by “proper motion”? Answers follow
- 5. Explain how stellar distances are determined. stellar distances are determined by their parallax….
- 6. What is stellar parallax? The angular shift of stars caused by change of observer’s position.
- 7. Which galaxy is our solar system a part of? Milky way
- 8. What is the distance across this galaxy? 100,000 light years If the Milky way was reduced to 130 km, then the solar system would be a mere 2 mm across.
- 9. What are the basic physical stellar quantities? Luminosity (brightness), tempreture (color), chemical composition, size and mass
- 10. How far is a light year? Approximately 9.46 x 10 12 km
- 11. What is a parsec? The parallax in arc seconds. The distance in which a star must lie in order for its measured parallax to be exactly one arc second. 3.1 x 10 16 m or 206 263 AU
- 12. Which 2 stars are our closest neighbours ? Proxima centauri and Barnard’s star
- 13. If the Sun was a marble, what would the Earth be and how far would it be? Earth would be a grain of a sand, and it would be one meter away from the marble (Sun).
- 14. How far would our closest neighbour be from the Earth? It would be 270 km away from the Earth, and it would be a marble just like the Sun.
- 15. What is meant by “proper motion”? Proper motion is the angular movement from a star across the sky as seen from the Earth, measured in seconds of arc per year. This movement is a result of the stars’ actual motion through space.