Download Station A Star Charts I

Station A
Star Charts I
Instructions
Use the star charts provided to answer the questions.
All questions at this station are worth one (1) point.
Push if needed. It won’t do anything,
but it might make you feel better.
The star chart below shows the sky at midnight (local time), in either April or
October, at a latitude of 36°N or 36°S.
I
F
J
H
K
E
G
L
B
M
D
C
A
A1. Which combination describes the above star chart?
A. Northern hemisphere, April
C. Southern hemisphere, April
B. Northern hemisphere, October
D. Southern hemisphere, October
For questions A2–A9, find the letter in the star chart to the left that corresponds
to the constellation named. Some letters may not be used here. If the
constellation does not appear on the chart, write “X” on your answer sheet.
A2.
A3.
A4.
A5.
Leo
Gemini
Ophiuchus
Hydrus
A6.
A7.
A8.
A9.
Canis Minor
Scorpius
Cygnus
Cassiopeia
For questions A10–A17, find the letter in the star chart to the left that is closest to
the star/DSO named. Some letters may not be used here. If the star or DSO does
not appear on the chart, write “X” on your answer sheet.
A10.W3 Main
A11.Mizar & Alcor
A12.Spica
A13.Capella
A14.Altair
A15.Procyon
A16.Arcturus
A17.30 Doradus
The star chart below shows the sky at midnight (local time), in either April or
October, at a latitude of 36°N or 36°S.
G
F
I
H
E
D
C
J
A
B
A18.Which combination describes the above star chart?
A. Northern hemisphere, April
C. Southern hemisphere, April
B. Northern hemisphere, October
D. Southern hemisphere, October
For questions A19–A26, find the letter in the star chart to the left that
corresponds to the constellation named. Some letters may not be used here. If
the constellation does not appear on the chart, write “X” on your answer sheet.
A19.Hydrus
A20.Taurus
A21.Sagittarius
A22.Canis Major
A23.Virgo
A24.Dorado
A25.Ursa Major
A26.Bootes
For questions A27–A34, find the letter in the star chart to the left that is closest to
the star/DSO named. Some letters may not be used here. If the star or DSO does
not appear on the chart, write “X” on your answer sheet.
A27.Deneb
A28.NGC 3603
A29.Spica
A30.Procyon
A31.Regulus
A32.Zeta Ophiuchi
A33.Large Magellanic Cloud
A34.M17
Station B
Star Charts II
Instructions
Use the star charts provided to answer the questions.
All questions at this station are worth one (1) point.
Push if needed. It won’t do anything,
but it might make you feel better.
The star chart below shows the sky at midnight (local time), in either April or
October, at a latitude of 36°N or 36°S.
G
J
I
H
F
E
A
D
C
B
B1. Which combination describes the above star chart?
A. Northern hemisphere, April
C. Southern hemisphere, April
B. Northern hemisphere, October
D. Southern hemisphere, October
For questions B2–B9, find the letter in the star chart to the left that corresponds
to the constellation named. Some letters may not be used here. If the
constellation does not appear on the chart, write “X” on your answer sheet.
B2.
B3.
B4.
B5.
Carina
Orion
Aquarius
Ursa Major
B6.
B7.
B8.
B9.
Canis Major
Cygnus
Hydrus
Monoceros
For questions B10–B17, find the letter in the star chart to the left that is closest to
the star/DSO named. Some letters may not be used here. If the star or DSO does
not appear on the chart, write “X” on your answer sheet.
B10. Betelgeuse
B11. Sgr A*
B12. Aldebaran
B13. Capella
B14. NGC 7293
B15. Algol
B16. Vega
B17. Antares
The star chart below shows the sky at midnight (local time), in either April or
October, at a latitude of 36°N or 36°S.
G
F
D
E
H
I
L
K
C
J
A
B
B18. Which combination describes the above star chart?
A. Northern hemisphere, April
C. Southern hemisphere, April
B. Northern hemisphere, October
D. Southern hemisphere, October
For questions B19–B26, find the letter in the star chart to the left that
corresponds to the constellation named. Some letters may not be used here. If
the constellation does not appear on the chart, write “X” on your answer sheet.
B19. Perseus
B20. Aquila
B21. Bootes
B22. Ursa Minor
B23. Cassiopeia
B24. Scorpio
B25. Auriga
B26. Lyra
For questions B27–B34, find the letter in the star chart to the left that is closest to
the star/DSO named. Some letters may not be used here. If the star or DSO does
not appear on the chart, write “X” on your answer sheet.
B27. Zeta Ophiuchi
B28. Algol
B29. Castor & Pollux
B30. Tycho’s SNR
B31. M1 (the Crab Nebula)
B32. Cygnus X-1
B33. Altair
B34. Rigel
Station C
Stellar evolution & the
electromagnetic spectrum
Instructions
Use your knowledge and the provided figures to answer the questions on
your answer sheet.
Unless specified otherwise, all questions are worth one (1) point.
Push if needed. It won’t do anything,
but it might make you feel better.
Use Figures 1–4 below to answer questions C1–C9 on the opposite page.
1
2
3
4
C1. Which star or deep sky object is the subject of all of the figures on the opposite page?
C2. In which constellation would you find it?
For questions C3–C6, choose from the list on the right. Write the letter, not the
word, on your answer sheet. There may be more than one correct answer; all of
them must be given for credit.
C3. Figure 1 is a true color image. Which part of the EM spectrum was
used in Figure 1?
A. Radio
B. Microwave
C4. (2 pts) Which part(s) of the EM spectrum was/were used for Figure 2?
C. Infrared
C5. (2 pts) Which part(s) of the EM spectrum was/were used for Figure 3?
D. Visible
E. Ultraviolet
C6. (2 pts) Which part(s) of the EM spectrum was/were used for Figure 4?
C7. (2 pts) Which part(s) of the EM spectrum can be observed from the
ground—that is, aren’t absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere?
F. X-ray
G. Gamma-ray
C8. Which figure on the opposite page uses light of the highest energy?
A. Figure 1
C. Figure 3
B. Figure 2
D. Figure 4
C9. In Figure 3, the peaks at 18 and 24 Angstroms are at roughly the same height on the plot. At
which wavelength do we receive more energy from the object?
A. 18 Å
C. Both wavelengths are equally bright
B. 24 Å
D. None of the above
C10. Which of the following also increases if the wavelength of light increases? There may be
more than one correct answer; all must be given for credit
A. Its frequency
D. Its color
B. Its energy
E. Its intensity
C. Its speed
F. None of the above increase
C11. Which color will stars never appear to be?
A. Bluish white
C. Red
B. Yellow
D. Green
E. White
F. Orange
C12. In question C11, why is this color impossible?
A. Stars’ spectra are too broad to fit into this one color.
B. No elements have emission lines that are this color.
C. This color is associated with negative temperatures, which (of course) aren’t possible.
D. This color is only produced by degenerate matter, not plasma.
C13. Which color do the hottest stars appear to be?
A. Bluish white
C. Red
B. Yellow
D. Green
E. White
F. Orange
C14. Which color do the coolest stars appear to be?
A. Bluish white
C. Red
B. Yellow
D. Green
E. White
F. Orange
C15. Which color do the largest stars (by volume) appear to be?
A. Bluish white
C. Red
E. White
B. Yellow
D. Green
F. Orange
C16. What sits at the middle of the object shown in the figures on the previous page?
A. A white dwarf
B. A weakly interacting massive particle
C. A black hole
D. A neutron star
C17. (2 pts) Which star or deep sky object on your list is biggest?
C18. (2 pts) Which star or deep sky object on your list is smallest (by volume)?
C19. Which of these stars is no longer fusing hydrogen into helium at its core?
A. Aldebaran
C. Altair
B. Algol
D. Alcor
C20. Which of these stars will end its life in a supernova?
A. Regulus
C. Betelgeuse
B. Arcturus
D. Castor
C21. Which of these stars will end its life as a white dwarf?
A. Zeta Ophiuchi
C. Rigel
B. Procyon
D. Antares
For questions C22–C29, use the diagram below.
C22. What is the common name for this
kind of figure?
A. Two-color plot
B. MKK series
C. Kippenhahn diagram
D. Hertzsprung-Russell diagram
F
A
E
D
C23. Which letter on the diagram
represents the largest stars?
C24. Which letter on the diagram
represents stars of spectral class O?
B
C
C25. Which letter on the diagram is closest to
where Deneb would be plotted?
C26. Which letter on the diagram is closest to where the Sun would be plotted?
C27. Which letter on the diagram has the greatest brightness/luminosity?
C28. Which letter on the diagram has the lowest temperature?
C29. (3 pts) Which sequence of letters, in the correct order, describes the stages in the Sun’s life
on this diagram? (You may ignore the various protostar stages.)
Station D
Numerical questions
Instructions
Answer the questions on your answer sheet. Use scratch paper for your
work—DO NOT WRITE ON THE TEST. If you need more paper, raise your
hand and one of the volunteers (quickly!) will bring some.
The point values for each question are given in parentheses after the
question number.
Quick note: examples of numbers with
Two significant figures
150,000
72,000
2300
680
One significant figure
30,000
5000
200
70
6
99
.1
4.2
.11
.09
Push if needed. It won’t do anything,
but it might make you feel better.
.053
D1. (3 pts) The central star of NGC 2440 has been measured at an astonishing 200,000 K in
temperature (for comparison, our Sun’s temperature is 5800 K). It is rapidly decreasing in size
as it blows off its outer layers, and at present has a radius of just 0.028 RSun. How many times
more luminous than the Sun is the central star of NGC 2440? Give your answer to two
significant figures.
D2. (2 pts) The apparent magnitude of a distant supergiant is 2.5, and its distance modulus is
12.1. What is the absolute magnitude of the star, to the nearest tenth?
D3. (3 pts) The size distribution for stars being born in the Milky Way is given by the initial
mass function:
−2.3
N ( m) = k ⋅ m
In words, the number of stars born with a mass equal to m is proportional to m-2.3; the
constant k is the same for all stars. Using this function, how many times more stars are born
with masses of 1 MSun than are born with masses of 20 MSun? Give your answer to two
significant figures.
D4. (3 pts) Use the equation in question D3 here also. How many times more is the total mass
of all the newly-born 1 MSun stars than the total mass of all the newly-born 20 MSun stars?
Give your answer to two significant figures.
D5. (4 pts) Use the equation in question D3 here also. In addition, remember from the regional
test (if you don’t remember, sorry you got roped into doing this event at the state level) that
the lifetime of a star depends on its mass:
−3.5
LT (m) = c ⋅ m
The constant c is the same for all stars. Since larger stars live shorter lives than smaller ones,
there are even fewer of them than the IMF in question D3 would suggest. For every one star
with a mass 10 MSun, how many stars of mass 1 MSun exist? You can (must) assume that the
star formation rate hasn’t changed for a very long time. Give your answer to two significant
figures.
D6. (2 pts) When modern astronomers redesigned the magnitude system, they set the scale
so that every five magnitudes is 100 times brighter (or dimmer, depending on direction). If
star A is 1 magnitude brighter than star B, how many times brighter is it? Give your answer to
the nearest thousandth.
D7. (2 pts) One of the most luminous stars in the Milky Way is Cygnus OB2#12. Based on its
size and distance from the Earth astronomers expect that its apparent magnitude should be
1.5. However, interstellar dust causes its apparent magnitude to be 11.4. How many times
brighter (or fainter) does the star actually appear compared to how it should appear? Give
your answer to two significant figures, and circle B or F on your sheet for brighter/fainter.
D8. (2 pts) The frost line of the Solar System is the distance at which surface ice won’t be
melted away by the Sun’s light. It is currently 5.1 AU from the Sun, where 1 AU is the EarthSun distance. How much dimmer is the Sun when viewed from the frost line compared to
when it is viewed from Earth? Give your answer to two significant figures.
D9. (3 pts) The surface of planet COROT-7b is a very inhospitable place. COROT-7b orbits a star
46% as bright as the Sun, but at a distance of just 0.017 AU. How many times more energy
does COROT-7b receive from its star than Earth receives from the Sun? Give your answer to
two significant figures.