1. What do observations of the Moon suggest about its origin?
2. Below are images of two moons in the outer solar system. Describe in detail which moon has the younger surface and WHY.
3. Below are HR diagrams taken of 4 star clusters. Identify the ages of the star cluster from YOUNGEST to OLDEST and describe in detail how you can determine the relative age of each clusters. Use the HR diagram provided in Project 6 as a guide in your decision making process.
4. Describe three observational evidences which support the Big Bang theory of cosmology.
5. What is believed to account for the difference between the compositions of the terrestrial planets and the gas giants? Explain. (NOTE: do not just LIST the composition differences but WHY we see such a difference between the terrestrial and giant planets!)
6. What kind of stars eventually become white dwarfs? What kind eventually become core collapsing supernovae? What will be the ultimate fate of the Sun? Why?
7 Two starts have the same radius but have very different temperatures. The red star has a surface temperature of 3000K and the blue star has a surface temperature of 15000K. By what factor is the blue star more (or less) luminous compared to the red star? (for example, 2 times, 10 times, 100 times?) Please state which equation from the formula sheet you used in your solution. SHOW YOUR WORK!
8. HIPPARCOS (an acronym for HIgh Precision PARallax COllecting Satellite) was a scientific mission of the European Space Agency (ESA), launched in 1989 and operated between 1989 and 1993. It was the first space experiment devoted to astrometry, the accurate measurement of star positions, distances from us, parallaxes, and proper motions. If the measured parallax shift of star A was 0.1 arcsecs and the parallax shift of star B was 0.05 arcsecs, which star was farther away from the Earth, why and what is its distance in parsecs? Please state which equation from the formula sheet you used in your solution. SHOW YOUR WORK!
9. There was a great debate concerning the value of the Hubble constant. (NOTE: The presently accepted value of the Hubble constant is 72 km/s/Mpc as listed in your formula sheet.) One party believed the Hubble constant (Ho) was closer to 50 km/s/Mpc and the other party believed the Hubble constant was closer to 100 km/s/Mpc. Assuming you measure a recessional velocity of a galaxy of 10,000 km/s, what is the distance to that galaxy given the two different Hubble constants
(a). Distance to galaxy using 100 km/s/Mpc = _____ Mpc
(b). Distance to galaxy using 50 km/s/Mpc = _____ Mpc
(c). How do the different Hubble constants affect the calculated age of the universe?
10. Two optical telescopes are operating at the exact same frequency. The first telescope is a 10 m telescope that is planned to be located at the L2 Lagrangian point 1.5 million kilometers past the orbit of the Earth. The second telescope is a 2 m telescope that is planned to be placed on the far side of the moon (average distance to the moon is 380,000 km from the Earth). Which telescope will have the greater light gathering power and why? If the 10m telescope were placed on the Earth on top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii at 14000 feet instead of at L2, which telescope NOW has the greater light gathering power, by what factor and why?