Stars & Planets

Solar System
Problems Sheet 1
Solutions to these problems should be handed in outside Room 4.13 by 12:30, Monday October
13th.
1. Using Zeilik & Gregory, or some other source, write down the names of the major solarsystem planets in decreasing order of their mass. Roughly what fraction of their total mass is
contributed by the planet that is most massive?
2. How much energy (in eV) is carried by a photon of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength
(a) 0.046 nm, (b) 11.2 m, (c) 21.1 cm? To which regions of the electromagnetic spectrum do
these photons belong?
3. Using the Wien approximation for the Planck Function, I = 2hc2 5 ehc/kT , differentiate
with respect to (remembering to use the product rule) to show that I has a maximum at
peak = hc/5kT . Here h, c and k are constants (Planck, speed of light, Boltzmann, respectively).
By what percentage does this approximate value of peak differ from the one given by Wiens
law (peak = 2.898 103 /T m K)? [If you get stuck on the differentiation, which some may
find tricky, at least answer the last sentence.]
4. The radius of the Sun is 6.96 108 m and its effective surface temperature is about 5780 K.
Its mean distance from the Earth is 1.50 1011 m.
a) Taking the Sun to be a good approximation to a blackbody, find its luminosity.
b) What solid angle does the sun subtend at the eye of a terrestrial observer?
c) Calculate a value for the flux, F , of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun, in kW m2 , at
the top of the Earths atmosphere.
d) Find an expression for the equilibrium temperature, in terms of F and the albedo, A. Solve
it to find the Earths expected temperature if you adopt A = 0.3.
5. (a) Show that we can rewrite the Doppler effect equation in your notes, o = (1 + v/c)e , as
/e = v/c, where is the shift between the emitted and observed wavelengths.
(b) The Earth has a rotational velocity of around 0.5 km s1 at the equator. By what fraction would the observed wavelength from stellar emission at a particular emitted wavelength be
shifted between two stars, one in the direction of rotation and one in the opposite direction,
from this velocity alone?