Absolute Concentration Lab Report

Sirius A has an absolute visual magnitude of 1.42 and Sirius B, 11.18. The age of the star system is estimated to be between 200 and 300 million years.

It is easy to flip to the index of an astronomy textbook to discover that, say, the Sun lies 150 million kilometers away from Earth.  It is far more difficult (if not impossible), however, to picture this distance in the human mind.  In this exercise, we will learn to access the often unpalatable distances encountered in astronomy by simply scaling the huge distances to more recognizable, pedestrian numbers.  So long as every distance within the system of interest is scaled by the same factor, we retain the meaningful information about relative distances between objects.

The brightness a star would have if it were at 10 pc from Earth is called its: A. Absolute Magnitude.

The Sun is one astronomical unit away so in actuality, it’s 0.00001581 light years away. Sirius looks smaller than the sun because it’s almost 9 light years away, which means it’s 92,919,000 or the astronomical units away. Sirius has a dwarf or twin star next to it, this star is called Sirius B. Sirius B was assumed to exist in 1844 but it wasn’t actually discovered until almost 18 years later!

The first term, R*, is the rate at which stars in the galaxy form. If I were to take an educated guess on the numerical number associated with R*, it would be approximately one. Originally, Dr. Frank Drake thought R* was closer to 10. When astronomers looked further, they discovered that it is much more difficult to find a star that is exactly what we need when discovering possible habitable planets to go along with it. When coming up with this number, astronomers must first take a general population number of the surrounding stars and take into account the size and the life span the star has as well as comparing the given star to others that fit the criteria that they need for a habitable planet.

It also has the ability to collect sufficient light from the dim and distant stars. After information was captured, it was then reviewed on a computer. The focus was placed on the black vertical lines known as absorption lines which corresponded with different chemical elements in the outer shell of the star. The information that has been collected and analyzed over the past years shows both halo stars and dim dwarf galaxy stars have weak absorption lines. When the photon energy is close to the energy difference between the lower and higher states, the process is called resonance, this produces high absorption. When the opposite is true, the absorption is small (Frebel,

When we set the coordinates to a specific asteroid that was quite larger than the others it seemed like the same old coordination skills and math. I ordered a nearby sergeant to give a set of coordinates and how many light years it will be to consider the amount of fuel we should consume. It came back to 389.96 light years away from our stationed headquarters. It looked very dim from the point of view I was at, and I knew it was a very large star compared to the other stars I’ve seen. I guess that’s the effect of apparent magnitude, from when it looks close but really it is high in brightness

Astronomers use Cepheid stars to measure distance. First, the period of a distant Cepheid is measured. The period is the length of time between brightness peaks. Next, they measure the peak luminosity of the star itself; this gives them the apparent brightness. Then, assuming that all Cepheids of the same period have the same absolute brightness, the distance is computed

It is magnitude 2.2 and 120 light years from Earth. The beta star in Cassiopeia is called Caph, meaning hand in Arabic and Hebrew. It is magnitude 2.3 and located 42 light years from Earth. The gamma star is called Cih, meaning whip in Chinese. It is 780 light years away, and its brightness varies sporadically from magnitude 1.6 to

There are seven major spectral types. Stars range from blue and hot to red and cool. The spectral types are: O, B, A, F, G, K, and M (from hottest to coolest). Each of these letters is divided into 10 numerical classes, from hotter to cooler: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. For example, our Sun has the spectral type G2. Spectroscopy is a scientific technique in which the visible light coming from objects (like stars and nebulae) is examined to determine the object's composition, temperature, density, and velocity. The spectrum is the band of colors that white light is composed of, in the order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet (from long to short wavelength). Newton first discovered that sunlight could be divided into the visible spectrum. The compositions of stars are determined through spectroscopy. Spectroscopy is the study of something using spectra. Recall from the Electromagnetic Radiation chapter that a spectrum is what results when you spread starlight out into its individual

The first experiment was the process of plotting the HR diagram for the Pleiades cluster. This was done by using V-B apparent magnitudes and the main sequence stars. In comparison they show a similar pattern, but with a high luminosity. Although, the stars are plotted in about the same distance the stars have variations

     Stars are a marvelous wonder to many people, that is why some people spend most of their lives wondering what is “above the world so high” (Gardner 98). These people study and map the little twinkling stars in order to get a better meaning of them; they are astronomers. Great astronomers like Edwin Hubble, Immanuel Kant, and William Huggins, never stopped valuing the beauty of the stars. While they developed great astronomical principals. One astronomer who fits this mold most is, Edwin Powell Hubble. Wondering about what was

It is important to know the positions of things to best understand our own personal views. Measuring stellar distances is an interesting and complex method of attempting this positioning. The purpose of this essay is to explain how distances of stars are calculated. The essay will also comment on the units of measurement and the limitations of the methods used to calculate this information.

A couple of assignments later we did Star brightness on page 28. Basically it was how bright a star appears from Earth, called apparent magnitude. Apparent magnitude helps determine the distance a star is from Earth. There is also absolute magnitude which is the amount of light a star actually gives off but it is sometimes referred to as intrinsic luminosity. I wrote a top 5 key points list about star brightness. The most important point I listed was the brightness of a star depends on its size temperature, and distance from Earth. The next time you look at the sky don’t forget the star that appears brighter may not be brighter at all. Last but not least I chose Kepler's law. Here we learned about Kepler himself who was a very smart man that overcame many obstacles. Kepler taught us that a planet's orbits is elliptical, which followed the three laws. His realization about the orbit led to the first law called the law of ellipse. This law helps us determine the way the move which is in a squashes circle, or as people refer to it as an ellipse. The law of areas was his second law. Kepler discovered the sun sweeps out at an

Red Giant-A Red Giant star is a dying star in the last stages of steller evoultion.In a few years(billions) our own sun the thing that gives us light,that helps us survive on this dang earth will turn into a Red Giant Star.A red giant star reaches to about 100million to 1 billion kilometers.100 to 1000 times the size of the sun today.The energy is spread across a larger