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Questions 1

This document contains questions about galaxies and counting stars. It asks about the three main galaxy types and their differences. It also asks about the relationship between apparent magnitude, absolute magnitude, and distance. Additionally, it covers deriving an equation for the number of stars brighter than a limiting magnitude, applying this reasoning to populations with different luminosities, and estimating numbers for a spherical stellar system out to 1 kpc with an absolute magnitude of 5.5 and limiting magnitude of 18. It finally addresses corrections for obscuration.

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20 views1 page

Questions 1

This document contains questions about galaxies and counting stars. It asks about the three main galaxy types and their differences. It also asks about the relationship between apparent magnitude, absolute magnitude, and distance. Additionally, it covers deriving an equation for the number of stars brighter than a limiting magnitude, applying this reasoning to populations with different luminosities, and estimating numbers for a spherical stellar system out to 1 kpc with an absolute magnitude of 5.5 and limiting magnitude of 18. It finally addresses corrections for obscuration.

Uploaded by

fuzzy_mouse
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Stars & Galaxies, Galaxies example class 1

Question 1. Short questions.

1. What are the three main galaxy types? Describe three differences.

2. Derive the equation that relates the apparent magnitude, m, the abso-
lute magnitude, M , and the distance to a star, r. Neglect obscuration.

3. Describe the three main stellar components of a spiral galaxy.

Question 2.: Long question: Counting stars

1. A stellar system has uniform density of stars, n, with identical lumi-


nosity, L. Show that the number stars, N , brighter than some limiting
magnitude, m, is log(N ) = c + 0.6 m, where c is a constant. Sketch this
relation

2. Apply your reasoning to the combined counts of two sets of stars with
different luminosities, L1 and L2 . Show that the slope of the log(N )−m
relation does not change. What does change?

3. Assume you are at the centre of a spherical stellar system, which has an
edge at 1kpc i.e. there are no stars further away than 1kpc. Compute
and sketch N (m), assuming the absolute magnitude of the stars is
M = 5.5 (as it it for the Sun), and the limiting magnitude m = 18.

4. In the case of obscuration, the distance modulus equation changes to


m − M = 5 log(d) − 5 + A d. Find the correction to log(N < m) when
the amount of obscuration is small. Sketch log(N < m) in this case.

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