Loose Leaf For Explorations: Introduction To Astronomy
9th Edition
ISBN: 9781260432145
Author: Thomas T Arny, Stephen E Schneider Professor
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education
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Question
Chapter 16, Problem 10TQ
To determine
The change in how the night sky looks if there was no dust or gas in the Milky Way and when the Milky Way is very old and has used up all its star-forming materials.
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The Milky Way galaxy has about 5 x 10⁹ solar masses of gas in total. If 13 solar masses of that gas is turned into stars each year, how many more years could the Milky Way keep up with such a star formation rate?
years
(Note for comparison that the age of the universe is about 13.5 billion years, which can be written 1.35e10 years. Also, the value given is in the ballpark of how much gas in the Milky Way is used to make new stars each year.)
Imagine that you have achieved immortality and you used it to travel outside of the Milky Way (you will be leaving today and you will be traveling with the speed of 1/10th of the speed of light). Describe how the Milky Way would look from the outside if you could watch it for the next 100 billion years.
If the sun is 4.6 billion years old, how many times has it orbited the Milky Way? (The sun is 8,300 pc from the cemetery of the Milky Way, and orbits the center at a speed of 225 km/s.)
______ times
Chapter 16 Solutions
Loose Leaf For Explorations: Introduction To Astronomy
Ch. 16 - Prob. 1QFRCh. 16 - How do we know our Galaxy is a flat disk?Ch. 16 - Prob. 3QFRCh. 16 - Prob. 4QFRCh. 16 - Prob. 5QFRCh. 16 - Prob. 6QFRCh. 16 - Prob. 7QFRCh. 16 - Prob. 8QFRCh. 16 - Prob. 9QFRCh. 16 - Prob. 10QFR
Ch. 16 - Prob. 11QFRCh. 16 - Prob. 12QFRCh. 16 - Prob. 13QFRCh. 16 - Prob. 14QFRCh. 16 - Prob. 15QFRCh. 16 - Prob. 16QFRCh. 16 - Prob. 17QFRCh. 16 - Prob. 18QFRCh. 16 - Prob. 19QFRCh. 16 - Prob. 20QFRCh. 16 - Prob. 21QFRCh. 16 - Prob. 1TQCh. 16 - Prob. 2TQCh. 16 - Prob. 3TQCh. 16 - Prob. 4TQCh. 16 - Prob. 5TQCh. 16 - Prob. 7TQCh. 16 - Prob. 8TQCh. 16 - Prob. 9TQCh. 16 - Prob. 10TQCh. 16 - Prob. 1PCh. 16 - Prob. 2PCh. 16 - Prob. 3PCh. 16 - Prob. 4PCh. 16 - Prob. 5PCh. 16 - Prob. 6PCh. 16 - Prob. 7PCh. 16 - Prob. 8PCh. 16 - Prob. 9PCh. 16 - Prob. 1TYCh. 16 - Prob. 2TYCh. 16 - Prob. 3TYCh. 16 - Prob. 4TYCh. 16 - Prob. 5TYCh. 16 - Prob. 6TYCh. 16 - Prob. 7TYCh. 16 - Prob. 8TYCh. 16 - Prob. 9TYCh. 16 - Prob. 10TY
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Need a deep-dive on the concept behind this application? Look no further. Learn more about this topic, physics and related others by exploring similar questions and additional content below.Similar questions
- Suppose three stars lie in the disk of the Galaxy at distances of 20,000 light-years, 25,000 light-years, and 30,000 light-years from the galactic center, and suppose that right now all three are lined up in such a way that it is possible to draw a straight line through them and on to the center of the Galaxy. How will the relative positions of these three stars change with time? Assume that their orbits are all circular and lie in the plane of the disk.arrow_forwardSuppose the stars in an elliptical galaxy all formed within a few million years shortly after the universe began. Suppose these stars have a range of masses, just as the stars in our own galaxy do. How would the color of the elliptical change over the next several billion years? How would its luminosity change? Why?arrow_forwardStars form in the Milky Way at a rate of about 1 solar mass per year. At this rate, how long would it take for all the interstellar gas in the Milky Way to be turned into stars if there were no fresh gas coming in from outside? How does this compare to the estimated age of the universe, 14 billion years? What do you conclude from this?arrow_forward
- What will be the long-term future of our Galaxy?arrow_forwardSuppose that the outer stars of a galaxy have an orbital velocity of 150 km/s. If the radius of the galaxy is 4.0 kpc (1??? = 3.1 × 1016 ??), what is the orbital period of the outer stars in years?arrow_forwardSuppose that stars were born at random times over the last 10e10 years. The rate ofstar formation is simply the number of stars divided by 10e10 years. The fraction ofstars with detected extrasolar planets is at least 9 %. The rate of star formation can bemultiplied by this fraction to find the rate planet formation. How often (in years) doesa planetary system form in our galaxy? Assume the Milky Way contains 7 × 10e11 stars. I've done this problem 3 different times from scratch and looked at similar problems here. Each time my answer is 1.587 (1.59 rounded to 2 significant figures), but when I submit, it says the answer is wrong. What do you think?arrow_forward
- The Sun is moving at 220 ??/? around the Galactic Center at a more-or-less constant distance of 8.5 ???. To appreciate how remarkable this is, consider the following questions: a) How massive would the Sun have to be for the Earth to have an orbital velocity of 220 km/s at 1 AU? b) How fast would the Earth move if it was in orbit around the Sun at a distance of 8.5 kpc? Of course, you may ignore the effects of all other stars in this calculation.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_forwardWhich of the following statements best describes our galaxy, the Milky Way? O A bulge dominated system, with little or no disk, approximately 27,000 light years across. A disk 100,000 lightyears across filled with gas and stars, with a bulge of older stars in the galaxy centre. A disk 27,000 light years across with a bulge of gas and newly formed stars in the galaxy centre. O A spherical (elliptical) galaxy, 100,000 lightyears across, with no gas and no new stars.arrow_forward
- Let us assume that our galaxy consists of 2.5 × 1011 stars each of one solar mass. How long will a star at a distance of 50,000 ly from the galactic centre take to complete one revolution ? Take the diameter of the Milky Way to be 105 light year.arrow_forwardThe Milky Way grew through merging with many smaller galaxies. What are the observational signatures of this process? O The motion of old stars in the bulge and halo of our galaxy are randomly orientated, meaning they were formed from collisions of small, accreted, galaxies all on different paths. O The ordered motion of the bulge / halo stars means that they came from many objects. The random motions of stars in the disk means it was formed from collisions of small, accreted, galaxies. O The motion of young stars in the disk are all in the same direction, meaning they came in as seperate objects.arrow_forward
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