projects

Project 1 - Classifying Stars   Project 2 - Hubble's Law

NOAOStellar Spectroscopy

Adapted from the material provided by Research-Based Science Education for Undergraduates (RBSEU), a collaborative program between the University of Alaska Anchorage and Indiana University. RBSEU is funded through a CCLI grant from the National Science Foundation.

Project 1 - Classifying Stars Project 2 - Hubble's Law

Introduction

  • The Power of Spectroscopy
  • Spectroscopy as an Identification Tool
  • The Continuum Spectrum and Wien's Law
  • Spectral Absorption and Emission Lines
  • Spectral Classification

Tutorial

  • Studying the Spectra of Stars
  • The Spectrum of 41 Cygni

Project 1 Application Exercise 1 [PDF]
Project 1 Application Exercise 1 (.doc)

Project 1 Exercise 1 is to be completed only after working through the Introduction and Tutorial for this project.

Procedure

In Exercise 2, we will take the information we found in the tutorial and, along with some on-line research, expand it to determine the following for the 4 tutorial stars in Cygnus:

  • The apparent magnitudes
  • The parallax values and thus the distances to the stars in parsecs
  • The absolute magnitudes
  • The luminosity in terms of the Sun's luminosity
  • The radii in terms of the Sun's radius
  • Where these stars fit on an H-R diagram
  • Characteristics of a few of the 31 additional stars selected from available spectra

Project 1 Exercise 2 Answer Sheet [PDF]
Project 1 Exercise 2 Answer Sheet (.doc)

Hubble's Law: determining the expansion rate of the Universe

  • Procedure - PART I: Finding the value of the Hubble constant (two methods outlined)
  • Procedure - PART II: Age of the Universe (all methods converge here)

Each part of the procedure will have separate due dates - check with your TA!