Provide comprehensive answers to the following questions. Remember to support your arguments where necessary by websites and pictures.
Chapter 9 Readings
1. Why are Earth-based parallax measurements limited to the nearest stars?
2. What do the word absolute and visual mean in the definition of absolute visual magnitude?
3. What does luminosity measure that is different from what absolute visual magnitude measures?
4. Why are titanium oxide features visible in the spectra of only the coolest star?
5. Why does the luminosity of a star depend on both its radius and its temperature?
6. What evidence shows that white dwarfs must be very small?
7. Why does the orbital period of a binary star depend on its mass?
8. Why is it difficult to find out how common the most luminous stars are?
9. What is the most common type of star?
10. If you look only at the brightest star in the night sky, what type of star are you likely to be observing? Why?
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