Astronomy 100

Section 2, Fall 2008

Homework I

Answers

1. The primary distances to the stars are found by
e) parallax (Triangulation by observing from different points in the Earth's orbit.)

2. The parallax of a star is 0.01 seconds of arc. What is its distance?
d) 100 pc (Distance in parsecs = 1/parallax

3. What is the color of a star with a temperature of 3000 K?
e) red

4. What characterizes the spectrum of an A star?
b) strong hydrogen

5. What characterizes the spectrum of an M star?
a) titanium oxide

6. Of those spectral classes below, the hottest is
d) B (Only O stars are hotter.)

7. The Sun has what absolute magnitude and is of what spectral class?
c) +5, G2

8. A class F dwarf star is typically made mostly of
e) hydrogen

9. The standard spectral sequence is a result of
a) different stellar temperatures

10. The most luminous dwarf stars below are of class
a) O

11. The most common stars are
e) M, L, and T dwarfs

12. White dwarfs are typically about the size of
c) Earth

13. We know that supergiants are really larger than giants because supergiants
b) are brighter than giants that have the same temperatures

14. Stellar masses are found from
b) double stars

15. As you go down the main sequence from class A, stellar masses
b) decrease

16. What is the minimum mass for a star that will run full hydrogen fusion (in solar units)?
c) 0.08

17. The masses of white dwarfs are similar to that of
d) the Sun

18. The coolest and brightest M supergiants are about at big as the orbit of
d) Jupiter or Saturn

19. Open clusters are found in the
a) Milky Way (the disk of our Galaxy)

20. Brown dwarfs are
a) stars below the proton-proton chain mass cutoff

21. The spectra of class T stars are characterized by
a) methane

22. Globular clusters are
e) all of the above (found in the Galaxy's halo, much more massive than open clusters, are the oldest objects known, are much rarer than open clusters)

23. Old star clusters are missing
b) their upper main sequences (since high mass stars die first)

24. How old are the oldest star clusters in billions of years?
d) 12

25. The classic case of a white dwarf is the companion to
d) Sirius