Project Overview
You will be given some information about an unknown star, from which you have to find the following characteristics:
- Distance
- Inherent brightness (luminosity/magnitude)
- Temperature
- Spectral class and sketch of spectrum
- Radius
- Mass
- Place on the HR diagram
- Introduction: Here you will explain what your purpose is in this paper (i.e. what the purpose of the project is). You should outline how you plan on calculating the above characteristics of your star. For example, if I wanted to figure out how much energy a beam of light carried, and I was told the wavelength, I would say "Since I know the wavelength of the light, I can use the equation relating wavelength to frequency and frequency to energy to find the energy of my beam of light." Something to illustrate the logic behind your methods.
- Data: Here you will list the data that I provide to you. For instance, going back to my beam of light example, I would include the wavelength of the light in this section. The best way to represent data is with a table, but as long as it's neat and I can understand it, it doesn't matter too much. Make sure to include any necessary units with your data. For instance, if I wrote "my wavelength is 700." 700 what? 700m? 700ft? I would need to explictly say "700nm" for it to make any sense.
- Calculations: Here is where your actual calculations are placed. In Microsoft Word or Google Docs, there is an equation editor that allows you to type out equations. Your calculations must show each step neatly in your report. Don't just tell me the answer; I need to see the process.
- Results and Conclusions: Here I want you to list all of your results (the distance, brightness, temperature, etc.) in a table (or an alternative, neatly presented way). You need to include an HR diagram with the location of your star labeled on it (you could use Microsoft PowerPoint or Paint, for example, or any other way you know how to edit a picture). In your conclusions, discuss what type of star this is. Is it a main sequence? Red giant? Etc.
What you will turn in will be a detailed report, with the following sections:
For the sketch of spectrum, you should draw a rough blackbody curve, for wavelengths 400nm to 900nm (the visible spectrum), with two features: the correct peak wavelength for the temperature of your unknown star, and important spectral lines for the spectral class of your unknown star, drawn at roughly the correct wavelengths. Part of the work you'll have to do is figuring out what the wavelengths of the correct spectral lines are by Googling them; which spectral lines are present for a given spectral class is given in a table in the Chapter 17 slides.
Project Due Date: Friday, July 20
Student Data Sets
Campos, Anthony | Data Set |
Dupont, Chante | Data Set |
Herrera, Brian | Data Set |
Khabbazeh, Ahmad | Data Set |
La Ciacera, Giuseppe | Data Set |
Masiak, Anthony | Data Set |
McMahon, Marijayne | Data Set |
Miuccio, Devon | Data Set |
Thomas, Tyler | Data Set |
Toro, Melanie | Data Set |