AST 301 — Unit Two Outline |
| Unit Two: Surveying The Stars
(1) Motivation: To answer the question, "What are the stars?" first answer the question, "Where are the stars?"
(2) Heliocentric vs. Geocentric Theory of the Solar System
(3) Stellar Parallax and the distances to Stars (a) Small Angle Formula (b) Parsec Definition (c) Parallax Formula
(4) Inverse Square Law of Brightness and distances to celestial objects (a) Luminosity definition (b) Brightness, or Flux, definition (c) Inverse Square Law Formula (c) Apparent Brightness vs. Absolute Luminosity
(5) Proper Motions of Stars (a) Velocity Vectors (b) Proper Motion Formula
(6) Survey of the stars in the Solar Neighborhood and their motions |
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 | The University of Texas at Austin |  | Department of Astronomy |  | Astrophysics Theory Group |