Understanding Our Universe
3rd Edition
ISBN: 9780393614428
Author: PALEN, Stacy, Kay, Laura, Blumenthal, George (george Ray)
Publisher: W.w. Norton & Company,
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Question
Chapter 15, Problem 40QAP
To determine
The time taken by globular cluster to complete one trip around the center of the galaxy.
(b)
To determine
The number of rotation since the given time.
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n(r) = 1ge
where r represents the distance from the centre of the Galaxy, Ro is
the distance of the Sun from the centre of the Galaxy, Ra is the typical
size of disk and no is the stellar density of disk at the position of the
Sun. All distances are expressed in kpc. An astronomer observes the
center of the Galaxy within a small field of view. We take a particular
type of Red giant stars as the standard candles for the observation with
approximately constant absolute magnitude of M = -0.2,
(a) A telescope has a limiting magnitude of m = 18. Calculate the
maximum distance to which this telescope can detect these red
giant stars. For simplicity we ignore the presence of interstellar
medium so there is no extinction.
(b) Assume an extinction of 0.7 mag/kpc for the interstellar medium.
Repeat the calculation as done in the part 5a and obtain a rough
number for the maximum distance these red giant stars can be
observed.
(c) Give an expression for the number of these red giant stars per mag-…
A star at a distance of 50000 light years from the center of a galaxy has an orbital speed of 100 km/s around the galactic center. What is the total mass of the galaxy located at distances smaller than 50000 light years from the center?
A. 7.6 ×1010 solar masses
B. 4.2 ×1011 solar masses
C. 3.5 ×1010 solar masses
D. 1.4 ×1011 solar masses
Is the answer C?
M = (r x v^2) / G
= 50000 x 9.46e15 x (100000^2) / 6.67e-11 / 2e30 (the Sun's mass)
= 3.55e10 solar masses
What is the name for the spherical cloud of thinly scattered stars and globular clusters that contain only about 2 percent as many stars as the disk of the galaxy and has very little gas and dust?
a.
the core
b.
the nuclear bulge
c.
the spiral arms
d.
the halo
e.
none of these
Chapter 15 Solutions
Understanding Our Universe
Ch. 15.1 - Prob. 15.1CYUCh. 15.2 - Prob. 15.2CYUCh. 15.3 - Prob. 15.3CYUCh. 15.4 - Prob. 15.4CYUCh. 15 - Prob. 1QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 2QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 3QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 4QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 5QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 6QAP
Ch. 15 - Prob. 7QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 8QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 9QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 10QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 11QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 12QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 13QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 14QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 15QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 16QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 17QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 18QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 19QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 20QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 21QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 22QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 23QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 24QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 25QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 26QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 27QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 28QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 29QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 30QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 31QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 32QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 33QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 34QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 35QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 36QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 37QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 38QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 39QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 40QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 41QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 42QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 43QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 44QAPCh. 15 - Prob. 45QAP
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- If you want to find a sizeable collection of Population Il stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, where would be a good place to look? A. near the Sun B. in a globular cluster high above the Galaxy's disk C. in the Orion Spur D.on the outer surface of giant molecular clouds E. in an open cluster, especially one with a lot of dust in and around itarrow_forwardFigure 2 shows the "rotation curve" of NGC 2742. It plots the “radial velocity (V)" (how fast material is moving either toward or away from us) that is measured for objects at different distances (R = radius") from the center of the galaxy. The center of the galaxy is at 0 kpc (kiloparsecs) with a speed of 9 km/sec away from us. (These velocities have been corrected for the observed tilt of the galaxy and represent true orbital velocities of the stars and gas.) 200 100 U4779 -100 As you can see, one side of the galaxy is moving with a negative velocity (spinning toward us), while the other side has a positive velocity (spinning away from us). Using Newton's gravity equation, we will be able to determine the gravitational mass of the entire galaxy and how the mass varies versus distance from the galaxy's center. -200 -8 8 -4 Radius (kpc) Read the following text carefully and follow the instructions: Select five radii spaced evenly from 0-10 kpc across the galaxy. Your selections should…arrow_forwardA given star orbits the center of its galaxy at an average speed of v_star, at a distance of r_star from the center. The galaxy has 2 spiral arms, and the arms themselves orbit slower than the star -- at the same radius, they orbit at a speed of v_arm (in the same direction as the star). The galaxy's age is t_gal. In the history of this galaxy, how many times did this star cross through a spiral arm? Values: v_star = 200 km/s, r_star = 9 kpc, v_arms = 46 km/s, t_gal = 4 Gyrarrow_forward
- The Tully-Fischer method relies on being able to relate the mass of a galaxy to its rotation velocity. Stars in the outer-most regions of the Milky Way galaxy, located at a distance of 50 kpc from the galactic centre, are observed to orbit at a speed vrot determine the mass in the Milky Way that lies interior to 50 kpc. Express your answer in units of the Solar mass. 250 km s-1. Using Kepler's 3rd Law,arrow_forwardObservations indicate that each galaxy contains a supermassive black hole at its center. These black holes can be hundreds of thousands to billions of times more massive than the Sun. Astronomers estimate the size of such black holes using multiple methods. One method, using the orbits of stars around the black hole, is an application of Kepler's third law. The mass of the black hole can be found by using the given equation, where a is the semi-major axis in astronomical units, P is the period in years, and k is a constant with a value of 1 Mo X year²/ AU³. a³ M = k- p² What is the mass of a supermassive black hole if a star orbits it with a semimajor axis of 959 AU and a period of 13.3 years? mass: Another method measures the speed of gas moving past the black hole. In the given equation, v is the velocity of the gas (in kilometers per second), r is the distance of the gas cloud from the black hole (in kilometers), and G is Newton's gravitational constant. In this equation, G = 1.33 ×…arrow_forwardAs we discussed, clouds are made of a great many small drops. Really - a great many. Imagine a liquid cloud that fills a volume of 1 km3. The clouds contains 100 drops per cubic centimeter; for the sake of argument assume that each is 10 microns (micrometers) in radius. A. How many drops does the cloud contain? Compare this to a big number - say, the number of stars in the galaxy. B. What mass of water does the cloud contain? Compare this to something big - elephants, trucks, that sort of thing. C. What fraction of the cloud volume is filled with condensed water? One way to approach this is to compare the density of the suspended liquid water to the density of the surrounding air. D. How many 1 mm drizzle drops could you make from all the cloud drops? E. How much energy was released when this water condensed from vapor to liquid? If the water condensed in 20 minutes (a reasonable lifetime for a small cloud), what was the (energy per time)? powerarrow_forward
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