Suppose you gathered a ball of interstellar gas that was equal to the size of the Earth (a radius of about 6400 km). If this gas has a density of 2.8 hydrogen atoms per cm3, typical of the interstellar medium, what would its total mass be? (For comparison, a bowling ball has a mass of about 5 kg) (HINT: 2.8 hydrogen atoms per cm3 corresponds to a density of 4.68 × 10−21 kg/m3)
Stellar evolution
We may see thousands of stars in the dark sky. Our universe consists of billions of stars. Stars may appear tiny to us but they are huge balls of gasses. Sun is a star of average size. Some stars are even a thousand times larger than the sun. The stars do not exist forever they have a certain lifetime. The life span of the sun is about 10 billion years. The star undergoes various changes during its lifetime, this process is called stellar evolution. The structure of the sun-like star is shown below.
Red Shift
It is an astronomical phenomenon. In this phenomenon, increase in wavelength with corresponding decrease in photon energy and frequency of radiation of light. It is the displacement of spectrum of any kind of astronomical object to the longer wavelengths (red) side.
Suppose you gathered a ball of interstellar gas that was
equal to the size of the Earth (a radius of about 6400 km). If
this gas has a density of 2.8 hydrogen atoms per cm3, typical
of the interstellar medium, what would its total mass be?
(For comparison, a bowling ball has a mass of about 5 kg)
(HINT: 2.8 hydrogen atoms per cm3
corresponds to a density
of 4.68 × 10−21 kg/m3)
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