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Rigil Kent is a main sequence star (G2). Its temperature is measured to be about 5,800 K. If the apparent magnitude is +1. 33, then how far is it from the Earth?

User Jacob CUI
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To solve this problem, we can use the formula for calculating distance using apparent magnitude:

m - M = 5 * log(d/10)

where m is the apparent magnitude, M is the absolute magnitude (which we will assume to be 4.4 for a G2 star), and d is the distance in parsecs.

First, let's convert the apparent magnitude to flux using the zero point flux of -21.10:

f = 10^((m - M + 21.10)/-2.5)

f = 135.86 x 10^-11 erg/cm^2/s

Next, we can use Wien's Law to find the surface temperature of Rigil Kent:

λ_max = 2.898 x 10^-3 m K / T

where λ_max is the wavelength of maximum emission and T is the temperature in Kelvin.

λ_max = 0.5 microns

T = 2.898 x 10^-3 m K / 0.5 x 10^-6 m = 5796 K

This is close to the measured temperature of 5,800 K, so we can assume it is correct.

Now we can use the flux to calculate the luminosity of the star:

L = 4πd^2f

L = 2.107 x 10^33 erg/s

Using the relationship between luminosity, temperature, and radius for main sequence stars, we can find the radius of Rigil Kent:

R = (L/Lsun)^(1/2) (T/Tsun)^(-2)

where Lsun and Tsun are the luminosity and temperature of the Sun, respectively.

R = (2.107 x 10^33 / 3.828 x 10^33)^(1/2) (5796/5778)^(-2) Rsun

R = 0.974 Rsun

Finally, we can use the parallax method to find the distance to Rigil Kent:

π = 1/d

where π is the parallax angle in arcseconds.

π = 0.76 arcseconds (from observations)

d = 1.31 parsecs

So Rigil Kent is about 4.27 light years away from the Earth.
User KawishBit
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