Horizons: Exploring the Universe (MindTap Course List)
Horizons: Exploring the Universe (MindTap Course List)
14th Edition
ISBN: 9781305960961
Author: Michael A. Seeds, Dana Backman
Publisher: Cengage Learning
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Chapter 9, Problem 3DQ
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What observation proves that stars don’t live forever?

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Astronomers frequently say that “there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on all the beaches on the earth”. Given that a typical grain of sand is about 0.5 – 1.0 mm in diameter, estimate the number of grains of sand on all the earth’s beaches.  The diameter of the Earth is 12,742 km. About 1011       About 1016                                 About 1021.
Most stars (Main sequence) generate light through the same mechanism. Because of this, there is an empirical relation between their mass, M, and their Luminosity, L. This relation could be written in the form L/Lsun = (M/Msun, This relation is shown in the log-log diagram below. Find the value of a and round it to the nearest integer. 10 104 102 10-2 10-4 0.1 1.0 2.0 0.2 0.5 5.0 10.0 20.0 Mam (solar masses) Luminosty (solar units)
Suppose we find an Earth-like planet around one of our nearest stellar neighbors, Alpha Centauri (located only 4.4 light-years away). If we launched a "generation ship" at a constant speed of 1500.00 km/s from Earth with a group of people whose descendants will explore and colonize this planet, how many years before the generation ship reached Alpha Centauri? (Note there are 9.46 ××1012 km in a light-year and 31.6 million seconds in a year.
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