Full-Page Question) Trapped on an alien planet I awaken to find myself abandoned
ID: 1790562 • Letter: F
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Full-Page Question) Trapped on an alien planet I awaken to find myself abandoned on an alien planet with only a telescope and a device that can split apart the different colors of light into a spectrum. A) I'd like to know how long the year on this planet is. Describe one thing I can watch the star doing which will help me figure out the length of the year. B) I look around with my telescope and I see lava (liquid rock) flowing out of a volcano. First of all, what kind of spectrum should the lava itself be giving off and why? C) I actually look at the lava and I see a different spectrum than the one I expected to in part B. What type of spectrum do I actually see and what is it that is causing me to see this different spectrum? D) What is different about the light that comes to me from the lava compared to the light that comes to me from a nearby tree (even if both looked to be the same color)? E) I notice the star of this solar system is an O-star, where do you expect the Ice Line (also known as the Frost Line or the Snow Line) to be in this solar system? Why?Explanation / Answer
a. To find planetary year- determine the angle by which star moves in a given period of time- this can help us to find the time it takes to move 360 degrees
b. Lava is hot liquid rock -it is glowing - and hence is source of light-by analysing the spectrum we can find the temperature, composition of the subtance contained in the lava.
c. Diffrent spectrum - not what is expected in part (b)- we expect continuous spectrum as we see in sun light but we may actually find line spectra ,representing the elements of which lava is composed.
d. Light we see from a tree is reflected Sun light which contains all colours including various green wavelengths . When it is reflected from a leaf only green is reflected and rest of colours are absorbed. In contrast the green you see from lava will be light emitted by molecules comprising of the lava.
e. These are very high temperature stars and hence, Ice line will be very far away from centre.
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