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Chapter 23: Problem 28

Discuss how the Milky Way would appear to us if the Sun were relocated to (a) the edge of the Galaxy; (b) the galactic halo; (c) the galactic bulge.

Short Answer

Expert verified
If the sun were at the galaxy edge, the Milky Way would look like a semicircle. If it were in the galactic halo, the Milky Way would appear as a faint ring. And if it were in the galactic bulge, the Milky Way would pervade all over the sky.

Step by step solution

01

Understanding Current View

Begin by understanding why we currently see the Milky Way as a band across the sky. The Sun is located within the disk of the galaxy, specifically in one of the galaxy’s spiral arms. Hence, any direction the observer looks within the plane of the disk, they see a significant amount of stars, visible as the Milky Way.
02

Relocating the Sun to the Edge

For the first scenario where the Sun is at the edge of the galaxy, the Milky Way would appear as a bright semicircle of stars in the sky, and rest of the sky would be relatively empty. This is due to the dense star population in one direction (towards the center) and fewer stars in the other direction (towards the outside edge).
03

Moving the Sun to the Galactic Halo

Relocating the Sun to the galactic halo alters the appearance dramatically again. The halo is a spherical region surrounding the main, visible part of the galaxy where there are fewer stars. Therefore, the Milky Way would appear as a faint, irregular ring of stars against a generally empty sky.
04

Adjusting the Sun's Location to the Galactic Bulge

Finally, if the Sun were in the galactic bulge, at the center of the galaxy, the whole sky would be ablaze with stars because bulge contains a high concentration of stars. The Milky Way wouldn’t have a definite shape in the night sky, instead it would pervade all the sky

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Most popular questions from this chapter

A gas cloud located in the spiral arm of a distant galaxy is observed to have an orbital velocity of \(400 \mathrm{~km} / \mathrm{s}\). If the cloud is \(20,000 \mathrm{pc}\) from the center of the galaxy and is moving in a circular orbit, find (a) the orbital period of the cloud and (b) the mass of the galaxy contained within the cloud's orbit.

Student book bags often contain a wide collection of oddshaped objects. Each person in your group should rummage through their own book bags and find one object that is most similar to the Milky Way Galaxy in shape. List the items from each group member's belongings and describe what about the items is similar to the shape of our Galaxy and what about the items is not similar, then indicate which of the items is the closest match.

How did observations of globular clusters help astronomers determine our location in the Galaxy?

In our Galaxy, why are stars of spectral classes \(\mathrm{O}\) and \(\mathrm{B}\) only found in or near the spiral arms? Is the same true for stars of other spectral classes? Explain why or why not.

Show that the form of Kepler's third law stated in Box 23-2, \(P^{2}=4 \pi^{2} a^{3} / G\left(M+\mathrm{M}_{\odot}\right)\), is equivalent to \(M=r v^{2} / G\), provided the orbit is a circle. (Hint: The mass of the Sun (M \(\mathrm{M}_{\odot}\) ) is much less than the mass of the Galaxy inside the Sun's orbit (M).)
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