Betelgeuse is a nearby supergiant that will eventually explode into a supernova. Let's see how awesome it would look. At peak brightness, the supernova will have a luminosity of about 10 billion times the Sun. It is 600 light-years away. All stellar brightnesses are compared with Vega, which has an intrinsic luminosity of about 60 times the Sun, a distance of 25 light-years, an absolute magnitude of 0.6 and an apparent magnitude of 0 (by definition). a) At peak brightness, how many times brighter will Betelgeuse be than Vega? b) Approximately what apparent magnitude does this correspond to? c) The Sun is about -26.5 apparent magnitude. What fraction of the Sun's brightness will Betelgeuse be?

Betelgeuse is a nearby supergiant that will eventually explode into a supernova. Let's see how awesome it would look. At peak brightness, the supernova will have a luminosity of about 10 billion times the Sun. It is 600 light-years away. All stellar brightnesses are compared with Vega, which has an intrinsic luminosity of about 60 times the Sun, a distance of 25 light-years, an absolute magnitude of 0.6 and an apparent magnitude of 0 (by definition). a) At peak brightness, how many times brighter will Betelgeuse be than Vega? b) Approximately what apparent magnitude does this correspond to? c) The Sun is about -26.5 apparent magnitude. What fraction of the Sun's brightness will Betelgeuse be?

Astronomy

1st Edition

ISBN:9781938168284

Author:Andrew Fraknoi; David Morrison; Sidney C. Wolff

Publisher:Andrew Fraknoi; David Morrison; Sidney C. Wolff

Chapter18: The Stars: A Celestial Census

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 50E: If a 100 solar mass star were to have a luminosity of 107 times the Sun’s luminosity, how would such...

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