Grace Adornetto Interpreting Stellar Data

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Bucks County Community College *

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102

Subject

Astronomy

Date

Dec 6, 2023

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pdf

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Uploaded by GeneralLyrebird2546

Interpreting Stellar Data Background: This week we continue learning about the properties of stars. One of these key properties is luminosity. Luminosity is the power a star emits. We measure luminosity using Absolute Magnitude. The more negative the Absolute Magnitude, the more powerful the star. As we will see with next week’s Learning Activity, Luminosity is one of the properties used to create the H-R Diagram. Despite how powerful the star, though, to us on Earth we may not necessarily know how powerful a star really is because it only appears so bright to us. The star could be the most powerful in the universe, but if it is really far away, we may only see a dim light. How bright a star appears to us is called the star’s Apparent Brightness. Apparent Brightness is a second key stellar property, and we measure it using Apparent Magnitude. Just like with Absolute Magnitude, the more negative the value for Apparent Magnitude, the brighter the star is to us, or the greater its Apparent Brightness. A third stellar property is the star’s surface temperature. We measure that using the star’s Spectral Type/Class (or color), and we categorize the different spectral types as OBAFGKM. The star’s surface temperature is the second property used to construct the H-R diagram. O stars are bluish in color and have very high surface temperatures, whereas M stars are redder and cooler. Instructions: Use the table below, the information above, and your notes to answer the questions that follow about the stars in this table. Star Absolute Magnitude Apparent magnitude Spectral Type/Class Aldebaran -0.2 +0.9 K5 Alpha Centauri A +4.4 0.0 G2 Antares -4.5 +0.9 M1 Canopus -3.1 -0.7 F0 Fomalhaut +2.0 +1.2 A3 Regulus -0.6 +1.4 B7

Sirius +1.4 -1.4 A1 Spica -1.6 +0.9 B1 Q1. Which star appears brightest in our sky? ● Sirius Q2. Which star appears faintest in our sky? ● Regulus Q3. Which star has the greatest luminosity? ● Antares Q4. Which star has the least luminosity? ● Alpha Centauri A Q5. Which star has the highest temperature? ● Spica Q6. Which star has the lowest temperature? ● Antares Q7. Which star is most similar to our Sun? ● Alpha Centauri A Q8. Place the stars in the table in order from greatest luminosity (1) to least luminosity (8). (1) Antares (5) Aldebaran (2) Canopus (6) Sirius (3) Spica (7) Fomalhaut (4) Regulus (8) Alpha Centauri A

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