Use the Starry Night Enthusiast™ program to measure the dimensions of the Milky Way Galaxy. Select Favorites Stars Sun in Milky Way to move to a position 0.15 Mly above the galactic plane, directly...



Use the Starry Night Enthusiast™ program to measure the


dimensions of the Milky Way Galaxy. Select Favorites


Stars Sun in Milky Way to move to a position 0.15 Mly


above the galactic plane, directly above the position of the


Sun. (If the Milky Way does not appear immediately, click


once on the Zoom button.) Remove the image of the astronaut’s feet by clicking on View Feet. You can rotate the


Milky Way Galaxy by putting the mouse cursor over the image, holding down the Shift key and the mouse button, and


moving the mouse. (a) Rotate the Galaxy so that you are seeing it face-on. Use the Hand Tool to measure the distance on


the screen from the position of the Sun to the center of the


Galaxy, noting this value in both linear distance in light-years


and in the subtended angle when viewed from the observer’s


position. This measurement will calibrate angular measurements in terms of linear distance when seen from this viewpoint. (b) Use the Hand Tool to measure several distances


from galactic center to the fringes of the galaxy. (Note: These


distances will often be displayed in both angular and linear


dimensions.) Estimate the diameter of the galaxy in lightyears. (c) Rotate the Galaxy so that you are seeing it edgeon. Use the Hand Tool to mea sure the angle subtended from


the center of the galaxy to the upper edge of the central bulge


of the Galaxy. Use the above measurements of the Sun-Galactic Center in both angle and linear dimension and simple proportions to calculate the half-width of the galactic bulge and


multiply this number in light years by 2 to determine the


bulge diameter. You can use the relationship between parsecs


and light-years (1 pc 3.26 light-years) to calculate this diameter in parsecs. (d) Calculate the thickness-to-diameter ratio of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Jan 04, 2022
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