Study Questions Week 12 Astronomy 104:
Stellar Astronomy Fall 2002
Study questions from Chapter 23
- What are the characteristics of Cepheid variable stars?
- Explain the process for using Cepheid variable stars to determine distance.
- What is the period-luminosity relation?
- What is the difference between a RR Lyra and Cepheid variables?
- Describe the overall structure of the Milky Way. What is its overall size and
shape? Describe each of the different parts of the Milky Way. What type of
objects are found in each part?
- What are population I and population II stars?
- What are the differences between stars found in the halo and those in the
disk.
- Describe the appearance of the Milky Way in different wavelengths.
- What is a rotation curve?
- How do we determine the mass of the galaxy?
- Approximately how many stars are in our galaxy? How do we estimate this
number?
- Describe the orbital motion of stars in different parts of the galaxy.
- Describe the orbit of the Sun around the galaxy. How many orbits has the sun
made since it formed?
- What is "dark matter’. Discuss why astronomers think there is dark
matter. Why is dark matter called "dark" ?
- What are "spiral arms"?
Review and Discussion:
Ch. 23: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 15, 16, 19
Study questions from other weeks:
week 1
| week2 | week 3 | week 4
| week 5 | week 6 |
week 7 | week 8 | week 9 |
week 10 | week 11 | week 12 | week 13 | week 14|
week 15 | week16