Course Activity

Stars

This Course Activity will help you meet these educational goals:

Mathematical PracticesYou will use mathematics to model real-world situations.

InquiryYou will conduct online research in which you will collect information, make observations, and communicate your results in written form.

21^st Century SkillsYou will employ online tools for research and analysis.

Introduction

You have learned a lot about stars, the different types of stars, how they are formed, and so on. In this activity, you will expand on your knowledge of stars and learn to calculate the distance to the stars. You will also discuss and observe variable stars.

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Directions and Analysis

Task 1: Color and Temperature

You have already learned about a blackbody. How is the temperature of a blackbody related to its color?

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Task 2: The Parallex Method

Bessel's Star (61 Cygni) was the first star whose distance was calculated using the parallex method. The star is known to make an angle of 570 milliarcseconds between two opposite points of the Earth's orbit. Using this information, calculate the distance to the star.

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Task 3: Variable Stars

In the lesson, you learned about different types of variable stars. Use the Internet to find out about any variable star that you can observe from your location. Record your observations. What type of star did you observe?

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Task 4: Stellar Distances

Rigil Kent is a main sequence star (G2). Its temperature is measured to be about 5,800 K. If the apparent magnitude is +1.33, then how far is it from the Earth?

Hint: use the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram to find the absolute magnitude of a star with such characteristics.

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