Life in the Universe (4th Edition)
4th Edition
ISBN: 9780134089089
Author: Jeffrey O. Bennett, Seth Shostak
Publisher: PEARSON
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Chapter 3, Problem 22TYU
At a middle school talent show, 14-year-old Sam Smally read off the names he had given to each of the 100 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy.
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The distance from the Sun to the nearest star is about 4 x 1016 m. The Milky Way galaxy (shown) is roughly a disk of diameter 1021 m and thickness ~ 1019 m. Find the order of magnitude of the number of stars in the Milky Way. Assume the distance between the Sun and our nearest neighbor is typical.
Our sun was born approximately 4.6 billion years ago.
How many journeys around the centre of our galaxy has the sun made?
21
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Recent findings in astrophysics suggest that the observable universe can be modeled as a sphere of radius R=13.7x109 light-years=13.0 x 1025m with an average total mass density of about 1x10-26 kg/m3 Only about 4% of total mass is due to “ordinary” matter (such as protons, neutrons, and electrons). Estimate how much ordinary matter (in kg) there is in the observable universe. (For the light-year, see Problem 19.)
Chapter 3 Solutions
Life in the Universe (4th Edition)
Ch. 3 - List three major ideas of astronomy that help...Ch. 3 - Briefly define and describe each of the various...Ch. 3 - Describe the solar system as it looks on the...Ch. 3 - Prob. 4RQCh. 3 - Prob. 5RQCh. 3 - Prob. 6RQCh. 3 - Prob. 7RQCh. 3 - What do we mean when we say that Earth and life...Ch. 3 - Imagine describing the cosmic calendar to a...Ch. 3 - Prob. 10RQ
Ch. 3 - Prob. 11RQCh. 3 - Prob. 12RQCh. 3 - What is the difference between matter in the...Ch. 3 - Define and give examples of kinetic energy,...Ch. 3 - Prob. 15RQCh. 3 - Prob. 16RQCh. 3 - Briefly describe the four major features of our...Ch. 3 - Briefly describe the nebular theory and how it...Ch. 3 - What was the close encounter hypothesis for our...Ch. 3 - How have recent discoveries led scientists to...Ch. 3 - Prob. 21TYUCh. 3 - At a middle school talent show, 14-year-old Sam...Ch. 3 - SETI researchers announced today that if they...Ch. 3 - A noted physicist today announced that he has...Ch. 3 - Prob. 25TYUCh. 3 - Astronomers have discovered a galaxy in the far...Ch. 3 - Inventor John Johnson has patented a device that...Ch. 3 - Prob. 28TYUCh. 3 - Prob. 29TYUCh. 3 - Using new, powerful telescopes, biologists today...Ch. 3 - Prob. 31TYUCh. 3 - Prob. 32TYUCh. 3 - A television advertisement claiming that a product...Ch. 3 - When we say the universe is expanding, we mean...Ch. 3 - Prob. 35TYUCh. 3 - The age of our solar system is about (a) one-third...Ch. 3 - Prob. 37TYUCh. 3 - How many of the planets orbit the Sun in the same...Ch. 3 - Prob. 39TYUCh. 3 - Prob. 40TYUCh. 3 - Explaining the Past. Is it really possible for...Ch. 3 - A Strange Star System. Suppose that we discovered...Ch. 3 - Prob. 44IFCh. 3 - Alien Technology. Some people believe that Earth...Ch. 3 - Atomic Terminology Practice. a. The most common...Ch. 3 - Prob. 49IFCh. 3 - Prob. 50IFCh. 3 - Patterns of Motion. In one or two paragraphs,...Ch. 3 - Two Kinds of Planets. The jovian planets differ...Ch. 3 - Pluto and Eris. How does the nebular theory...Ch. 3 - Rocks from Other Solar Systems. Many leftovers...Ch. 3 - Prob. 55IFCh. 3 - Prob. 56IFCh. 3 - Scale of the Solar System. The real diameters of...Ch. 3 - Prob. 58IFCh. 3 - Prob. 59IFCh. 3 - Prob. 60IFCh. 3 - Prob. 61IFCh. 3 - Prob. 62IFCh. 3 - Prob. 63IFCh. 3 - Prob. 67WPCh. 3 - Tour of the Solar System. Visit one of the many...
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- The disk of the Milky Way galaxy contains roughly 200 billion (1 billion = 109 ) stars. The disk is not solid, but rather is a volume about 100,000 light-years in diameter (1 ly = 9500 billion kilometers) and 1000 light-years in thickness. What is the number density of stars in the Milky Way galaxy disk, in units of stars per cubic light-year? How about in units of stars per cubic km?arrow_forwardOur galaxy is approximately 100,000 light years in diameter and 2,000 light years thick through the plane of the galaxy. If we were to compare the ratio of the diameter galaxy and its thickness to the ratio of the diameter of a CD and its thickness (CD has a diameter of 12 cm and thickness of 0.6 mm), what would be the factor differentiating those ratios? Put differently, if the galaxy were scaled down to the diameter of a CD, how many times thicker or thinner would the galaxy be than the CD? (For example if it would be twice as thick, you would answer 2 and if it were twice as thin you would answer 0.5 (aka 1/2))arrow_forwardSuppose that stars were born at random times over the last 1010 years. The rate of star formation is simply the number of stars divided by 1010 years. The fraction of stars with detected extrasolar planets is at least 10 %. The rate of star formation can be multiplied by this fraction to find the rate planet formation. How often (in years) does a planetary system form in our galaxy? Assume the Milky Way contains 9 × 1011 stars.arrow_forward
- given: a (distance to center of galaxy in AU) = 1,717,914,439 AU P (suns orbital period in years) = 203,782,828.3 years M (mass of milky way galaxy in solar masses) = 1.22 x 10^11 Msun Question: Assume the Milky Way Galaxy is made up entirely of stars like the Sun, i.e. on average each star has the mass of 1 MSun. Under this assumption, approximately how many stars are there in our galaxy? Express this answer in billions of stars (1 billion = 109).arrow_forwardThe Sun and the planets of the solar system are located in a spiral galaxy , called the Milky Way . Which numbered area on the model best represents the location of the Sun in this galaxy ?arrow_forwardmathematician Archimedes, responding to a claim that the number of grains of sand was infinite, calculated that the number of grains of sand needed to fill the universe was on the order of 1063. Our understanding of the size of the universe has changed since then, and we now know that the observable universe alone is a sphere with a radius of 1026 m. Estimating the size of a grain of sand, A) Approximately how many grains of sand would fill the observable universe? B) How many times larger or smaller is this number than Archimedes' result?arrow_forward
- The Universe is approximately 13.8 Billion years old. What is the volume of the visible universe in m3?arrow_forwardA light year (LY) is the distance that light travels in one year. 1 LY = 9.46x1015 m. Suppose we have detected a planet that orbits a star that is 104 light years away. How many millions of years would it take us to get there if we used a modern rocket with a maximum speed of 20.0 km/s (about 45,000 mph)? Assume 3 sig figs.arrow_forwardAssume the observable Universe is charge neutral, and that it contains n nuclei (hydrogen plus helium nuclei, ignoring other elements). Take the helium mass fraction as 1/4. How many electrons are there in the observable Universe? Enter your answer in scientific notation with one decimal place. Value: n = 4*1080arrow_forward
- 106x 103 x 1.701 x 1013 186 x 1.701 X 10 -10 -10 106,000 miles= 316.386 x 10 ' light years Exercise: One parsec is a unit of distance equal to roughly 3.25 light-years. The prefix Mega means "million." A star system 24 Mpc (Megaparsec) away from us in the direction of Orion is home to a hostile alien civilization intent on enslaving humans and forcing us to manufacture pizza sauce for their pleasure. What is the distance to these rapacious aliens in kilometers? Use your answer from the previous exercise. 000arrow_forwardA certain radioactive material has a half-life of 8 minutes. Suppose you have a large sample of this material , containing 10^25 atoms. 5x10^24 atoms decay in the first 8 minutes and 2.5x10^24 atoms decay in the second 8 minutes. What is the ratio of the number of atoms that decay in the first 8 minutes to the number of atoms that decay in the second 8 minutes A 5/1 B 2/1 C 1/5 D 1/2arrow_forwardquestion 1: parts A, B, and C pleasearrow_forward
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