Magnitude Scale
What object has the brightest apparent magnitude in the sky?
The Sun.
What method of measuring stellar distances relies primarily on geometry?
Triangulation/The parallax method.
What is the Sun's spectral type?
G2.
Which star on the diagram is the hottest?
Star 1.
Before it officially becomes a star, the "pre-star" object is called a __________.
Protostar
Star A has a magnitude of -1, and Star B has a magnitude of 4. Which star is dimmer?
Star B is dimmer.
What do we call this equation? (Nick, use your prop)
The Distance Modulus.
What is the second-hottest spectral type of star?
B-type stars.
What do we call the region labeled A on the diagram?
The Main Sequence.
What do we call the region in which many new stars could be born? (Two acceptable answers)
Molecular Cloud or Emission Nebula
If Star A has an absolute magnitude of 5, and Star B has an absolute magnitude of 10, how much brighter/dimmer is Star A than Star B?
Star A is 100x brighter than Star B.
Who was it that discovered that a Cepheid variable star's period was proportional to its luminosity?
Henrietta Leavitt.
Which Harvard computer came up with the letter-scheme we still use for spectral classification?
Annie Jump Cannon.
In what region do we find stars that are hot and white, but somehow also relatively dim?
Region D... these are the white dwarfs!
Similar to an ice skater pulling in their arms, as a "globule" of hydrogen gas collapses to eventually form a star, its rotational speed ___________.
Increases
What is the dimmest apparent magnitude that we can see with the naked eye (in perfect conditions)?
Apparent magnitude of 6.
Using Henrietta Leavitt's period-luminosity relation for Cepheid variable stars, Edwin Hubble calculated the distance of a particular object to be much farther than we would have ever imagined, and discovered that the entire universe stretched far beyond the Milky Way. What was the name of that object?
Andromeda Nebula (a.k.a. Andromeda Galaxy!)
What color would a M8 star be?
Reddish.
Which two stars are supergiants?
Stars 5 and 6.
Daily Double...well, for an additional 100 points: How can a cooler star like star 5 be as bright as star 6?
When gravity compresses a "globule" of gas, the gas will try to resist the compression. We called this outward-pushing resistance force ____________.
Gas Pressure
Who came up with the magnitude scale?
Hipparchus.
Measured in arcseconds, what would the parallax angle of a star be if it was one parsec away?
1 arcsecond.
What mnemonic device do YOU use to remember the order of the stellar spectral sequence?
O B A F G K M
Okay, but actually, farmers grow killer marionberries.
Which two stars share a spectral type?
Stars 2 and 4.
Daily Double...well, for an additional 100 points: How can star 4 be brighter than star 2 if they are the same temperature?
As a "globule" of hydrogen gas collapses to eventually form a star, its rotational speed changes. This change in rotational speed as the star gets smaller is due to a physical law called the Law of Conservation of ___________.
Angular Momentum