Horizons: Exploring the Universe (MindTap Course List)
14th Edition
ISBN: 9781305960961
Author: Michael A. Seeds, Dana Backman
Publisher: Cengage Learning
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Chapter 12, Problem 8P
If the Sun is 4.6 billion years old, how many times has it orbited the galaxy?
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Suppose that the outer stars of a galaxy have an orbital velocity of 150 km/s. If the radius of the galaxy is 4.0 kpc (1??? = 3.1 × 1016 ??), what is the orbital period of the outer
stars in years?
given:
a (distance to center of galaxy in AU) = 1,717,914,439 AU
P (suns orbital period in years) = 203,782,828.3 years
M (mass of milky way galaxy in solar masses) = 1.22 x 10^11 Msun
Question:
Assume the Milky Way Galaxy is made up entirely of stars like the Sun, i.e. on average each star has the mass of 1 MSun. Under this assumption, approximately how many stars are there in our galaxy? Express this answer in billions of stars (1 billion = 109).
If the sun is 4.6 billion years old, how many times has it orbited the Milky Way? (The sun is 8,300 pc from the cemetery of the Milky Way, and orbits the center at a speed of 225 km/s.)
______ times
Chapter 12 Solutions
Horizons: Exploring the Universe (MindTap Course List)
Ch. 12 - Why is it difficult to specify the dimensions of...Ch. 12 - Why didn’t astronomers before Shapley realize how...Ch. 12 - Prob. 3RQCh. 12 - Prob. 4RQCh. 12 - Prob. 5RQCh. 12 - Prob. 6RQCh. 12 - Prob. 7RQCh. 12 - Prob. 8RQCh. 12 - Prob. 9RQCh. 12 - Prob. 10RQ
Ch. 12 - Prob. 11RQCh. 12 - Prob. 12RQCh. 12 - Prob. 13RQCh. 12 - Prob. 14RQCh. 12 - Prob. 15RQCh. 12 - Prob. 16RQCh. 12 - Prob. 1DQCh. 12 - Prob. 2DQCh. 12 - Prob. 1PCh. 12 - Prob. 2PCh. 12 - Prob. 3PCh. 12 - Prob. 4PCh. 12 - Prob. 5PCh. 12 - Prob. 6PCh. 12 - Prob. 7PCh. 12 - If the Sun is 4.6 billion years old, how many...Ch. 12 - Prob. 9PCh. 12 - Prob. 10PCh. 12 - Prob. 11PCh. 12 - Prob. 12PCh. 12 - Prob. 1LTLCh. 12 - Prob. 2LTL
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- If the Sun is 4.6 billion years old, how many times has it orbited the Milky Way galaxy? (The Sun is 8,300 pc from the center of the Milky Way, and orbits the center at a speed of 225 km/s.) timesarrow_forwardWhat will be the long-term future of our Galaxy?arrow_forwardThe Sun orbits the center of the Galaxy in 225 million years at a distance of 26,000 light-years. Given that a3=(M1+M2)P2 , where a is the semimajor axis and P is the orbital period, what is the mass of the Galaxy within the Sun’s orbit?arrow_forward
- What evidence contradicts the top-down hypothesis for the origin of our Galaxy?arrow_forwardLet us assume that our galaxy consists of 2.5 × 1011 stars each of one solar mass. How long will a star at a distance of 50,000 ly from the galactic centre take to complete one revolution ? Take the diameter of the Milky Way to be 105 light year.arrow_forwardA given star orbits the center of its galaxy at an average speed of v_star, at a distance of r_star from the center. The galaxy has 2 spiral arms, and the arms themselves orbit slower than the star -- at the same radius, they orbit at a speed of v_arm (in the same direction as the star). The galaxy's age is t_gal. In the history of this galaxy, how many times did this star cross through a spiral arm? Values: v_star = 200 km/s, r_star = 9 kpc, v_arms = 46 km/s, t_gal = 4 Gyrarrow_forward
- Our sun was born approximately 4.6 billion years ago. How many journeys around the centre of our galaxy has the sun made? 21 25 35 50arrow_forwardIf you find a galaxy that is the same size and mass as our Milky Way Galaxy, what orbital velocity would a small satellite galaxy have if it orbits 51 kpc from the center of the larger galaxy? (Assume the total mass of our galaxy is about 4.0 1011 solar masses, M.)arrow_forwardSuppose that stars were born at random times over the last 1010 years. The rate of star formation is simply the number of stars divided by 1010 years. The fraction of stars with detected extrasolar planets is at least 11 %. The rate of star formation can be multiplied by this fraction to find the rate planet formation. How often (in years) does a planetary system form in our galaxy? Assume the Milky Way contains 3 × 1011 stars.arrow_forward
- If a standard passenger aircraft can fly at 0.32 km/s (716 mph), how long (in yr) would it take to reach the sun? ______ yr How long (In yr) would it take to reach the galactic center? (Note: 1 pc = 3.1 x 10^13 km. The radius of the suns orbit around the galactic center is approximately 8,300 pc.) ______ yrarrow_forwardBased on comparison with the Moon, it can be calculated that Andromeda would have to have a diameter of 35,000 km if it were at the same distance from us as the Moon. But it turns out that the distance from Earth to the Andromeda galaxy has been measured to be 6 × 1013 times farther than to the Moon. That's 60 trillion times farther. What is the true diameter of Andromeda, based on these numbers?arrow_forwardOur galaxy is approximately 100,000 light years in diameter and 2,000 light years thick through the plane of the galaxy. If we were to compare the ratio of the diameter galaxy and its thickness to the ratio of the diameter of a CD and its thickness (CD has a diameter of 12 cm and thickness of 0.6 mm), what would be the factor differentiating those ratios? Put differently, if the galaxy were scaled down to the diameter of a CD, how many times thicker or thinner would the galaxy be than the CD? (For example if it would be twice as thick, you would answer 2 and if it were twice as thin you would answer 0.5 (aka 1/2))arrow_forward
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