AST 301 - Introduction to Astronomy

home

department of astronomy

mcdonald observatory

research

hobby-eberly telescope

directory

university of texas

Introduction to Astronomy
Astronomy 301 - Spring 2003

back to course main

AST 301
Homework #7
Due Friday March 21

1. (Problems 2 & 3 in chapter 10)
a) The Ring Nebula in Lyra (p. 190) is a planetary nebula with an angular diameter of 72 arcseconds and a distance of 5000 ly. What is its linear diameter? (Hint: see By The Numbers 3-1, or convert 72 arcsec to degrees and use the formula we've used before.)
b) If the Ring Nebula is expanding at 15 km/s, typical of a planetary nebula, how old is it?

2. In a few sentences say what a planetary nebula is and how it forms.

back to course main

17 March 2003
Astronomy Program · The University of Texas at Austin · Austin, Texas 78712
prospective student inquiries: studentinfo@astro.as.utexas.edu
site comments: www@www.as.utexas.edu