PHYSICS 231: Introductory Astrophysics – Final Exam Solution Key

1. [30 points] Short Answer (5 points each)

(a) Mars has a diameter of 6800km and is a distance of 1.52 AU from the sun. What is the approximate
angular size of Mars at opposition in arcseconds?
Sol.
The important thing to realize is that at opposition, the order of the objects is Sun-Earth-Mars,
and thus the distance is 0.52 AU. Thus the angle is:
l
θ = 206, 265”
D
6.8 × 106 m
= 206, 265”
0.52 × 1.5 × 1011 m
= 20”
(b) The universe, as you know, has been around for about 13.8 Gy. Supposing you’d spent all of that
time on a Neutron star (M = 1.5M⊙ , R = 12km). How much time will have passed according to
your personal clock?
Sol.
No matter how you try to write this, remember that time runs slow in a strong gravitational field.
Thus, the time dilation effect is:
 
Φ
t = t0 1 − 2
c
 
GM
= 13.8Gy × 1 − 2
c R
6.67 × 10−11 N m2 /kg 2 × 3 × 1030 kg
 
= 13.8Gy × 1 −
9 × 1016 m2 /c2 × 12000m
= 13.8Gy × (1 − 0.185)
= 11.2Gy

(c) What is the Hubble classification of this galaxy? (Remember, the “Hubble Classification Scheme”
has a capital letter followed by something else – a number, a letter, or a couple of letters).

Also, please tell me something about:

i. The typical age of the brightest stars (old versus young)
ii. The dust and gas content
iii. the color
Sol.
The galaxy is M51, also known as the Whirlpool galaxy. It is an Sb, an unbarred spiral. As such,
it is blue, filled (in the disk, at least) with newly formed, young stars, and has lots of gas to make
new stars.
I will give cred
 (d) A photon has an energy of 2 eV. What is the wavelength of the photon? If that wavelength
corresponds to the peak of a blackbody, what is the temperature of the blackbody?
Sol.
The wavelength of a photon is:
hc
λ=
E
so
6.626 × 10−34 Js × 3 × 108 m/s
λ= = 621nm
2 × 1.6 × 1019 eV
which is red, incidentally.
The Wien displacement law says:
0.0029Km 0.0029Km
T = = = 4669K
λ 6.21 × 10−7 m

(e) Give at least two distinct pieces of observational evidence (each in a sentence or so) indicating
the existence of non-baryonic dark matter.
Sol.
i. The rotation curves of galaxies and the velocity dispersions of clusters are flat well outside of
the regions where there are stars and gas.
ii. Lensing of galaxy clusters (especially the Bullet cluster) indicate that mass and gas don’t
align.
iii. The acceleration of the universe is consistent with a mass density of ΩM = 0.27, much higher
than the apparent baryonic content.
iv. The deuterium abundance in the lowest stars indicates a low density of baryonic mass.
v. The best fit of cosmic microwave background perturbations yields a large dark matter distri-
bution compared to baryonic.
vi. Microlensing indicates that MACHOs don’t make up the mass in the halos of galaxies.
(f) What is the significance of the Planck time (∼ 10−44 s)? Please answer in a sentence or two.
Sol.
The Planck time indicates the scale on which quantum mechanics and general relativity collide.
At timescales earlier than the Planck scale, black holes can be created which span the size of the
entire universe. Thus, the Planck time indicates our starting point for any reasonable discussion
about the beginning of the universe.
2. [15 points] The following questions were most frequently answered incorrectly on the pre-test. Let’s
see what you’ve learned:
(a) The orbit of the earth (and other planets) around the sun is an ellipse. Exagerate the ellipse
somewhat, and draw the earth in orbit around the sun.
Sol.

(b) A person is reading a newspaper while standing 5 feet away from a table that has on it an unshaded
100-watt light bulb. Imagine that the table were moved to a distance of 10 feet. How many light
bulbs in total would have to be placed on the table to light up the newspaper to the same amount
of brightness as before?
i. One bulb.
 ii. Two bulbs.
iii. Three bulbs.
iv. Four bulbs.
v. More than four bulbs.
Sol.
iv) 4 bulbs.
(c) Where does the Sun’s energy come from?
i. The combining of light elements into heavier elements
ii. The breaking apart of heavy elements into lighter ones
iii. The glow from molten rocks
iv. Heat left over from the Big Bang
Sol.
i) T he combining of light elements into heavier elements.

3. [16 points] Consider a star with a mass of 8M⊙ .

(a) Consider a planet in orbit around the star with a semi-major axis of 2 AU. What is the period of
the orbit? How does that value change if/when the star turns into a black hole?
Sol.
Simplest calculation:
a3
P2 =
M
where all are in solar units.
8
P2 = = 1
8
1year

T his would not change if the star became a black hole.

(b) In class, we found that the sun has a Main Sequence lifetime of about 10Gy, and that the luminosity
of Main Sequence stars scales as:
L ∝ M3
Given that, what is the approximate Main Sequence lifetime of the star?
Sol.
We’ve done this exercise a number of times. The luminosity is thus:

L = (83 )L⊙ = 512L⊙

and the energy store is:

E = 8E⊙
so the lifetime is:  
E 8
t= = t0 = 156M y
L 512
(c) As a reminder, the observed HR diagram of nearby stars is:
 What is the approximate surface temperature of a 8M⊙ Main Sequence star? You may find your
previous answer to be helpful.
Sol.
Looking at 512L⊙ on the diagram, we find a temperature of roughly 20,000K.
(d) E.C. Using the information at hand (including your answer from the last part), what is the
approximate radius of the star during its main sequence lifetime?
Sol.
Using a temperature of 20, 000K = 3.44T⊙, we note:

L ∝ R2 T 4

so r
L
R∝
T4
in solar units:
s
512
R = R⊙ = 1.91R⊙
(3.44)4
or
R = 1.3 × 109 m
√
By the way, in class we derived the approximate result, R ∝ M , which would have given us
2.8R⊙ .
(e) In a sentence or two for each, describe (and name) the two evolutionary stages immediately after
the star runs out of hydrogen in the core.
Sol.
• Red Giant (H shell burning)
• Horizontal Branch (He burning in the core)
 (f) Suppose the star does end its life as a black hole. What is the Schwarzschid radius?
Sol.

2GM 2 × 6.67 × 10−11 N m2 /kg 2 × 8 × 2 × 1030 kg

Rs = 2
= = 24km
c 9 × 1016 m2 /s2
4. [15 points] The Milky Way
The sun orbits at around 8.5kpc from the center of the Galaxy at a speed of approximately 220 km/s.

(a) Sketch the major components of the Milky Way (and other Spirals), seen edge-on. There should
be at least 4 components (and just to be clear, I’m not counting “thin” and “thick” disks as
separate components). A 5th component will give you a point of extra credit.
Sol.

1
0 1
0
0
1 0
1
Globular Clusters
1
0
0
1
1
0
0
1 11
00
1
0 11
00
0
1
1
0
Bulge 1
0
1
0 1
0
0
1 0
1
0
1
Disk
1
0
0
1
1
0
0
1 1
0
1
0 1
0
0
1
0
1
1
0
0
1
0
1
1
0
0
1
1
0
0
1

Halo

Black Hole
Note that I will also accept “Spiral Arms” within the disk, but that’s more difficult to draw
edge-on.
(b) What is the mass of the Milky Way interior to the orbit of the sun?
Sol.
The mass is:
v2 R (2.2 × 105 m/s)2 (8.5 × 3.086 × 1019 m)
M= = = 1.9 × 1041 kg = 9.5 × 1010 M⊙
G 6.67 × 10−11 N m2 /kg 2

(c) Assuming the rotation curve is flat out to 17kpc (twice the solar radius), what is the integrated
mass out to 17kpc?
Sol.
Under those circumstances, we have an isothermal distribution, and we’ve proven many times
that under those circumstances:
Mr ∝ r
so
M (17kpc) = 2M (8.5kpc) = 1.9 × 1011 M⊙

5. [24 points] Cosmology

(a) What are the currently accepted values of ΩM , ΩΛ , h, and ΩK , and in a sentence, what do each of
those parameters mean? You need not necessarily give an equation. I am looking for a description.
Sol.
 • ΩM ≃ 0.27 - The dimensionless mass density of the universe in terms of the critical.
• ΩΛ ≃ 0.73 - The dark energy (or cosmological constant) fraction in the universe.
• h ≃ 0.72 - The dimensionless Hubble constant (H0 /(100km/s/M pc)). This describes how
quick the universe is expanding.
P
• ΩK ≃ 0 - The “curvature” constant of the universe, given by 1 − i Ωi .
(b) A photon is emitted from a distant galaxy with a redshift of z = 0.25. How much smaller (or
larger) was the universe at that time? Express as the expansion factor at the time.
Sol.

1 1
ae = = = 0.8
1+z 1.25
(c) Approximately how far away is the galaxy? Use your Hubble constant from part a).
Sol.

cz 3 × 105 km/s × 0.25

d= = = 750h−1M pc = 1.04Gpc
H0 100hkm/s/M pc
(d) Apart from the Hubble relation, describe briefly at least 2 methods for measuring extragalactic
distances.
Sol.
• Cepheid variable stars have a known period-luminosity relation.
• Type Ia supernova are standard candles.
• The rotations curves and velocity dispersions of galaxies can be used to calibrate the lumi-
nosities of the galaxies (Tully-Fisher and Faber-Jackson relations).
• Strong lensing of galaxies allows a geometric measure of distances.
(e) Imagine we lived in a universe with ΩM = 2, and nothing else. What is ΩK in that universe?
And correspondingly, what is the shape (or geometry) of the universe?
Sol.
The universe is closed, also known as positive curvature.

Ωk = 1 − 2 = −1

(f) What is the fate of such a high-mass universe? Will it expand forever or recollapse. Use the
Friedmann equation to justify your answer, and if it recollapses, please indicate how much larger
the universe will be when it happens.
Sol.
It will recollapse. When?
 
ΩM ΩK
H 2 = H02 3
+ 2
a a
The bit in the middle will equal zero (turnaround) when:

ΩM ΩK
= −
a3 a2
2 1
=
a3 a2

or
a=2