Title: Week 4 Writing Assignment
Course: ASTRON103: The Evolving Universe: Stars, Galaxies, and Cosmology (001) DHH SU18 > Section: Week 4

This Day in Stellar History

Light has a finite speed often referred to as the cosmic speed limit. The consequences of this are vast, but one important fact is that the light we see on Earth was emitted in the (sometimes distant) past. The farther the object from us, the older the light we see!

For this assignment, you will select one star from your Sky Pamphlet project and write about this day in history — was happening here on Earth when the light we observe today was originally emitted by the star. For example, if a star is 600 light years away, you should write about what happened on Earth 600 years ago, in the year 1418 CE.

Tasks

1. Select one star and find it on the SIMBAD astronomical catalog (for an overview of how to use SIMBAD, see the special topics video).
  1. Find the star's parallax
  2. Calculate the distance to the star in parsecs
  3. Calculate the distance to the star in light years. The time associated with this distance gives you the number of years back in time that the light we observe was originally emitted from your star.
2. Research some additional information about your star (NOTE: You should already have some information for your Sky Pamphlet.)
  1. What spectral type is your star?
  2. What evolutionary stage is this star currently in?
  3. Will the star have changed much during the time it has taken for its light to reach us? (You may wish to peek at Table 22.1 and Figure 22.5 in the textbook to help you answer this question)
3. Research some history on Earth corresponding to a time when the observed light was emitted from the star.
  1. What interesting events happened around this time with humans?
  2. Were there any major events (wars, plagues, ice age, extinction events, etc.)

Depending on the star you choose, your time period may be very different than anything today, so feel free to expand on any topic you find interesting.

Write-Up

Your final write-up should be 1–2 pages in length (around 800 words), uploaded as a Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx) or Portable Document Format (.pdf) file.  You must incorporate all of the points mentioned above in your written piece for full credit. You may (and are encouraged to) expand your piece to cover any other topics or issues you find interesting, but please limit the length to 2 pages.

Note: Make sure you clearly state your stars parallax and show some work on how you convert this to various distance measures (parsecs and light years).