Use the Starry Night Enthusiast'M program to examine the nearby stars. Click on Favourites \(>\) Stars > Local Neighborhood and Stop time. Select View \(>\) Feet to hide the spacesuit image. Center this view upon the Sun by opening the Find pane and doubleclicking on Sun. You are now \(16.41\) light years from the Sun, looking at the labeled nearby stars. Increase current elevation to about 70,000 light-years using the button on the toolbar below the Viewing Location box (an upward-pointing triangle) to see these nearby stars within the Milky Way Galaxy. You can rotate the galaxy by placing the mouse cursor over the image and holding down the Shift key while holding down the mouse button and moving the mouse. (On a twobutton mouse, hold down the left mouse button). Decrease current elevation to a distance of about 100 light-years from the Sun to return to the solar neighborhood. Again, you can rotate this swarm of stars by holding down the Shift key while holding down the mouse button and moving the mouse. Open the Info pane. If you click the mouse while the cursor is over a star, you will see the star's apparent magnitude as seen from Earth in the Other Data layer and its distance from the Sun in the Position in Space layer of the Info pane. (a) Select at least 5 stars within 50 light-years of the Sun and note their names, apparent magnitudes, luminosities, and distances from the Sun in a list. Which of these stars would be visible from Earth with the naked eye from a dark location? Which are visible with the naked eye from a brightly lit city? (Hint: The naked eye can see stars as faint as apparent magnitude \(m=+6\) from a dark location, but only as faint as \(m=+4\) from an inner city.) (b) Increase current elevation once more to about 1000 light- years from Earth and locate at least 5 stars that are further than 500 light- years from the Sun, making a list of these stars, their names, apparent magnitudes, luminosities and distances from the Sun. Which of these stars are visible from Earth with the naked eye from a dark location? Are the naked-eye stars more likely to be giants or supergiants, or are they more likely to be main-sequence stars? Explain your answer.

Step by step solution

01

Identify stars within 50 light-years from the Sun

Using the Starry Night Enthusiast'M program, select Favourites > Stars > Local Neighborhood. Use the Find pane to center our view on the Sun. Using the toolbar, increase our current elevation to about 70,000 light years. Decrease this elevation to about 100 light years to return to the solar neighborhood. Select at least five stars within 50 light-years of the Sun and note down their names, apparent magnitudes, luminosities, and distances from the Sun.

02

Identify stars visible to the naked eye

From the bright city, only those stars are visible to the naked eye that have an apparent magnitude of \(m=+4\) or brighter. In a dark location, those with an apparent magnitude of \(m=+6\) or brighter are visible to the naked eye. Compare the apparent magnitudes of the stars identified to these numbers to identify which of them are visible.

03

Identify stars that are more than 500 light-years from the Sun

Increase the current elevation once again to about 1,000 light-years from Earth. Select at least five stars that are more than 500 light-years away from the Sun. Note down their names, apparent magnitudes, luminosities, and distances.

04

Analyze the types of stars that are visible

From among the five stars identified in the previous step, identify which are visible from a dark location. Based on their characteristics, identify whether these stars are more likely to be giants or supergiants, or main-sequence stars.

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