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Aum Amritheswariye Namaha !

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham

School of Engineering
ASTROPHYSICS (PH325/PHY274-Elective)
End Semester Exam (B.Tech - Dec 2011)
Date/ Session FN / AN

No. of additional sheets used: .

Semester/Degree/Branch .
Register Number

Q.No Marks Q.No Marks Q.No Marks

Q.No

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21

31

12

22

32

13

23

33

14

24

34

15

25

35

16

26

17

27

18

28

19

29

10

20

30

Total

Total

Total

Marks

Total

GRAND TOTAL
(Marks in words) ..

Signature of the Reviewer with Date


Name in CAPITALS

Signature of the Examiner with Date


Name in CAPITALS

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Aum Amritheswariye Namaha !

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham 2


End Semester Examination, Dec. 2011

Astrophysics (Elective- PHY 325/ 274)


(B.Tech, Common to all Branches)
Time: 3 hours
Answer all questions
Maximum Marks: 100
INSTRUCTIONS
a) Answer in the question paper itself.
b) No additional sheet to be used except for rough which is to be attached.
d) Answer to the point only. Precision and clarity will be highly appreciated.
e) Diagrams should not be avoided wherever necessary.
f) Mathematical expressions should be clearly stated both in problems and
theory wherever applicable.
g) Write clearly and legibly. Ambiguous answers will not be evaluated.
Use appropriate Constants from the table for calculation
Hubble constant, Ho
65 km s-1 Mpc-1.
Gravitational constant , G
6.67 X10 -11 m3 kg-1 s-2.
Solar mass, Mo
1.99 X 10 30 kg.
Solar Radius, Ro
695000 km
Solar Luminosity, Lo
3.9 x 1026 J/s
1 Astronomical Unit
1.49 X 10 8 km
Boltzmans Constant, k
1.381X 10-23 J /K
Stefans constant
5.67 X 10-8 W / m2 K4
Weins Constant
2.998 X 10-3 m.K
1 parsec
3.085 x 1013 km
PART A [10 x 1 mark = 10 marks]

1. If the red shift of a galaxy is 0.3 the recessional velocity of it would be approximately
(a) 3c
(b) 3.0c
(c) 0.3c
(d) 0.15c
2. The farthest celestial object that can be seen with naked eye of human being is

3. Sirius is the . star in the night sky.


4. The largest planet in the Solar system is .
5. 1 Kpc equals to . a.u.
6. According to the modern consensus, the Big Bang happened at
(a) 13.67 light years away (b) 13.67 million light years away (c) 13.67 billion years
ago (d) 13.67 million years ago

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7. Both the absolute and apparent magnitude of a star is + 3.454. The distance of the star
is .light years.
8. What is a quasar?
a) An extremely bright center of distant galaxy, thought to be powered by massive
black hole.
(b) A specialized astronomical instrument for observing distant stars
(c) Another name for very bright O-type star
(d) A star like object that actually represents a bright patch of gas in the Milky Way.
9. The cosmic background radiation is
(a) The faint glow along the ecliptic, caused by sunlight scattering by dust particles.
(b) The radio noise from hot gas in rich clusters of galaxies.
(c) The faint glow produced in super explosions.
(d) The electromagnetic remnants of the Big Bang.
10.

When we say that a cluster of galaxies is acting as a gravitational lens, what do we


mean?
(a) It magnifies the effects of gravity that we see in a cluster.
(b) The overall shape of the cluster is that of a lens.
(c) It is an unusually large cluster of galaxies that has a lot of gravity.
(d) It bends the light coming from galaxies located behind it distorting the
image of the galaxy.
PART B (5 x 2 marks = 10 marks)

11.

The Schwarzschild radius of a black hole of mass 106 M is km.

12.

The radius of a neutron star with mass two solar mass is .. km.

13.

The surface temperature of a star that emits the maximum intensity at a wavelength
of 3000 is K.

14.

An astronomer finds that its recessional velocity of a distant galaxy is 12000 km/s.
Assuming Hubble's constant, Ho to be 55 km s-1 Mpc-1 the distance to the galaxy is
(a) 21.8 Mpc

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(b) 66 Gpc

(c) 218 Mpc

(d) 660 Gpc

The period of revolution of Uranus is 84 years. The distance of it from the Sun is
...... a.u.

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PART C ( 16 x 5 marks = 80 Marks)
16.

Two binary stars A and B are approximately at the same distance from the Earth.
The apparent and absolute magnitude of a star A is +6.0. -1.35 respectively. If the
apparent magnitude of star B is +5.60 calculate its absolute magnitude neglecting
interstellar absorption.

17.

If the luminosity and surface temperature of the star Sirius are 10Lo and 10,000 K
respectively, calculate its radius.

18.

An astronaut Mary travels in a spaceship at a speed of 0.80c to Barnard's star (the


second nearest star to our solar system) which is 10 ly away. The spaceship travels
slowly around the star system for 6 years doing research before returning back to
Earth. Her twin Frank stays on Earth.
(i) How much time does the journey take?
(ii) How much older is her twin Frank when she returns?

19.

Explain the concept of statistical parallax. Explain the concept of Local Standard of
Rest and hence derive the mathematical expression for it.

20.

Give a short account of moving cluster parallax and arrive at the expression for the
distance measurement.

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21.

Write a short note on how to estimate find the distance of variable stars.

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22.

Describe Oblers paradox and how and its resolution.

23.

With the help of a neat diagram explain the salient features of Hertzsprung-Russel
diagram.

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24.

Obtain a mathematical expression for the gravitational potential at point outside a


spherical shell and hence outside a solid isotropic body.

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25.

Prove that that the areal velocity of a planet moving round the Sun is a constant and
hence angular momentum. Discuss the second law of Kepler in this context.

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26.

With the help of classical mechanics prove third law of Kepler rigorously.

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27.

Compute the Hubble time of Big Bang (in billion years). Estimate the velocity and
the red shift of a galaxy which is at 100 Mpc? (Take the Hubble parameter to be
0.65).

28.

The eccentricity of a planet is 0.1 compute its distance from the Sun when its right
anomaly is 60o. (Assume that its perihelion is 2.5 a.u and the aphelion is 3.0 a.u.).

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29.

Compute the total mass of Sun and Earth combined from the knowledge of the
value of a.u.

30.

Explain how Hubbles theory led to the discovery of expansion of the universe and
hence the modern cosmology.

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31.

Starting from the Keplers equation discuss the various possibilities of the above
results showing that the trajectory of body moving under an isotropic gravitational
potential forms various forms of conic section.

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