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Chapter 13: Problem 2

Star A and star B are two nearby stars. Star A is blue, and star B is red. Which of the following statements must be true? a. Star A is hotter than star B. b. Star A is cooler than star B. c. Star A is farther away than star B. d. Star A is more luminous than star B.

Short Answer

Expert verified
Statement a is correct: Star A is hotter than star B.

Step by step solution

01

- Understand the Properties of Star Colors

Stars emit different colors based on their surface temperatures. Blue stars are typically hotter than red stars.
02

- Analyze Color and Temperature Relationship

Given that star A is blue and star B is red, star A must have a higher surface temperature than star B. This is due to the fact that blue stars are hotter than red stars.
03

- Evaluate the Given Statements

From the analysis, the statement 'Star A is hotter than star B' aligns with the properties observed in step 1 and step 2. Therefore, statement a is true.
04

- Consider Other Statements

Statements b, c, and d cannot be directly inferred from the given information. The color of a star does not determine its distance or luminosity without additional data.

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Key Concepts

These are the key concepts you need to understand to accurately answer the question.

Star Temperature
Stars come in different colors that indicate their surface temperatures.
A fundamental principle in astronomy is that the color of a star is directly related to its temperature.
Blue stars are among the hottest, with surface temperatures ranging from roughly 10,000 to 50,000 Kelvin.
Red stars, on the other hand, are cooler, generally with temperatures below 3,500 Kelvin.
Therefore, if we know a star is blue, we can infer that it is significantly hotter than a red star.
Understanding this concept is essential because temperature affects many other characteristics of a star, such as its lifespan and the types of nuclear reactions happening in its core.
Star Color
The color of a star provides valuable information about its physical properties.
In the same way that a glowing metal changes color as its temperature increases, stars emit different colors based on their temperatures.
The sequence is usually red, orange, yellow, white, and blue.
Red stars are the coolest, and blue stars are the hottest.
By examining the color of a star, astronomers can gauge its approximate temperature without needing to be physically close.
This is possible because stars emit light across a spectrum, and the peak wavelength shifts to shorter wavelengths as the temperature increases, which follows Wien's displacement law.
Luminosity
Luminosity refers to the total amount of light that a star emits.
It depends on both the star's temperature and its size.
Hotter stars are generally more luminous because they emit more energy per unit surface area.
However, a cool but large star can also be very luminous if it has a vast surface area emitting light.
This is why luminosity can't be determined just by knowing a star's color or temperature alone; we also need to consider the star's radius.
Luminosity is important for understanding a star's lifecycle, energy production, and distance from Earth (through calculations like the inverse square law).

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Most popular questions from this chapter

An eclipsing binary system has a primary eclipse (star A is eclipsed by star \(\mathrm{B}\) ) that is deeper (more light is removed from the light curve) than the secondary eclipse (star B is eclipsed by star \(A\) ). What does this tell you about stars \(A\) and \(B ?\) a. Star A is hotter than star B. b. star B is hotter than star A. c. Star B is larger than star A. d. Star B is moving faster than star A.

Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, has a parallax of 0.379 arcsec. What is its distance in parsecs? in light-years? How long does it take light to reach Earth?

Star A and star B are two stars nearly the same distance from Earth. Star A is blue, and star \(\mathrm{B}\) is red, but they have equal brightness. Which of the following statements is true? a. Star A is more luminous than star B. b. Star A is larger than star B. c. Star \(A\) is smaller than star \(B\). d. Star A is less luminous than star B.

Citizen science: Go to the website for the Stellar Classification Online Public Exploration (SCOPE) project (http://scope.pari edu/takepart.php. This project uses crowd sourcing to classify stars seen on old photographic plates of photographs taken in the Southern Hemisphere. Create an account, review the science and the FAQ, and then click on "To Take Part" to see some practice examples. Then go to "Classify," choose a photographic plate, and classify a few stars.

Star A and star B are two nearby stars. Star A has a parallactic angle 4 times as large as star \(\mathrm{B}\) 's. Which of the following statements is true? a. Star A is one-quarter as far away as star B. b. Star A is 4 times as far away as star B. c. Star A has moved through space one-quarter as far as star B. d. Star A has moved through space 4 times as far as star \(B\).
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