Question 1: (10 marks)

Explain and discuss the modern theory of the formation of our solar system
making reference to:
expansion and cooling of the Universe

subsequent loss of particle kinetic energy

gravitational attraction between particles

lumpiness of the gas cloud that then allows gravitational collapse inner

and outer planets and accretion.

1 Introduction
The universe can be extremely complex, making it extremely hard for scientist to
determine its formation and by extension the formation of the star system like
this solar system. FAR AWAY BIG
1

The start of the universe

2.1 Big Bang

The big bang theory(In Astronomy) is a prevailing theory in cosmology which
refers the set of descriptions detailing the expansion of the universe from a
infinitesimal dense and hot singularity to the universe known to mankind today.
2.2 Expansion
Big Bang occurred roughly 13.6 billion years ago, followed by the rapid
expansion and cooling of the universe.
At 10^-35 seconds after the Big Bang, the universe underwent a period of
inflation, which expanded the universe by a factor of 10^60. The cosmos
inflation theory can largely explain the isotropic distribution of the Cosmic
Microwave Background(CMB), whose formation will be discussed later in this
report, as the inflation may causes the quantum fluctuations to become much
smoother. At this stage, the universe is estimated to have the temperature of
10^27K, and some of the energy may have decayed to fundamental subatomic
particles.
At 10^-4 seconds, the quarks would be combined to form protons and neutrons.
Particles that atoms are made of, like protons and neutrons are formed from the
quarks. Neutrinos, electrons were also present accompanied by high level of
Electromagnetic(EM) radiation; however since the universe was still quite dense,
the radiation could not propagate for a long distance as it may collide with other
particles, thus making it opaque.
2.3 Cooling
At 10^-2 seconds, the amount of matter making up the universe would be fixed.
The size of the universe will expand from the size of the solar system to about 10
light years in diameter before 1 second. At this stage, the universe had a density
of approximately 10^4 g per cubic centimetre and a temperature of estimated
10^10 K.
During the next minute, the hot dense plasma of highly ionized matter initiated
thermonuclear fusion, creating elements/isotopes such as deuterium, helium and
some lithium.

The estimation of the ratios of those nuclei closely matches the current
estimation of those elements in the universe, acting as a compelling evidence of
the Big Bang.
This plasma can largely resist the propagation of light(EM waves) a few thousand
lightyears before it interact with the plasma .
By the time when the universe was about 380,000 years of age, the period of
recombination occurs. The subsequent loss of particle energy manifested as a
loss in its thermal energy(temperature). The universe was about 3000K, enough
for electrons to combine the atomic nuclei and form electorally neutral atoms,
allowing light to propagate through space. The light emitted from the hot dense
plasma is what the scientist believes to be the source of the CMB radiation,
which, as we are moving away from their source, have redshifted from high
energy waves to lower energy microwaves.
1

Early Gas Clouds

3.1 Lumpiness of the gas cloud

Right after the recombination, the universe was largely made of the hydrogen
gas with other elements present, almost perfect spread out from space.
Should the gas cloud be completely uniform, there would be no net gravitational
force on any object and thus the universe would retain its uniformity. But as the
current universe obviously is not in such condition, lumpiness in the gas must
have occurred.
Indeed, as shown through the CMB, there are some disorder and lumpiness in the
gas which contributes to the some area of the gas cloud with more mass than
others. Over the next 200 million years, gravity began to pull the gas back
together, creating galaxies.
3.2 Problems with the Lumpiness
When gas are compressed, its pressure starts to increase, causing the gaseous
object pushed in by gravity to increase its temperature and density, creating a
outward force which slows/stops further contraction.
However, by analysing the outward pressure exerted by the gas cloud and
compare that to the force of gravity, James Jeans discovered that there is a
critical mass above which gravity can overcome this resisting force.
1

Formation of the galaxy

This report focuses on the accretion disk theory of galaxy formation; however,
please note that there are other possible theories existing in the scientific
community.
4.1 Jeans Critical Mass
As there are some part of the gas cloud that satisfy the Jean critical mass, the
particles surrounding that centre of mass would start to contract in that area.

As the gas cloud shrinks, it tend to become a rather complex structure of cold
dense clouds and hot diffuse gas.
An example of this irregular shaped structure would be a nebula.

(NASA, Jeff Hester, and Paul Scowen [Arizona State University] )

When the particles first contracts into the centre of mass, its gravitational
potential energy is converted into its kinetic energy, thus causing the particles to
move at a rapid rate.
The high kinetic energy with the shrinking process causes the material to heat
up, and as the particles collide with each other, light(EM radiation) may be
emitted, mostly in the range of Infrared and Visible light.
4.2 Shirking issues

However, if the gas cloud irradiated all its energy away, it would shrink
indefinitely and possibly forms a black hole; there doesn't seem to be evidence
that this occurred on a large scale.
This suggest that other factors may have affected this situation. Some scientist
theorised that the neighbouring gas cloud also exerted a gravitational force on
the gas cloud.

(Swinburne University of Technology, 2010 )

The gravitational attraction from the green cloud provided some angular
momentum for the yellow cloud.
4.3 Accretion disk.
As a spinning object are reduced in size, since its angular momentum is
conserved, the object would spin at a faster rate, causing the fastest spinning
object to shift outward, creating an accretion disk.
Shown through the diagram below.

(How stuff works)

This accretion disk theory is very similar to some of the solar system formation
theory discussed below.
5 Formation of the Solar system
5.1 Laplace's Nebula theory
In 1796, Laplace formulated a model previously envision by Descartes, Kant and
Herschel. This theory suggested that a slowly spinning sphere of gas and dust,
possibly in a nebula, can collapse due to its lumpy nature, when the density of
some area of this nebula exceeds its Jeans' critical mass.

(the book)
As the mass contracts into a smaller area, it continues to spin. However, as the
angular momentum must be conserved, the rotational momentum of the gas
cloud increase, that results in a bulge at the equator.

As the gas cloud continues to spin, the original ball like object begins to flatten,
allowing the material on the equatorial plane to gain a free orbit and thus making
the cloud to take a lenticular form. In simpler terms, the mass begins to orbit the
center of the mass, rather than being a single mass.

The inner collapse of the most dense and concentrated material would become
the sun.
Further contractions would allow the gas cloud to become an accretion disk for
the proto-sun, in which rings of gas clouds can form.

In these annular rings, some of the material can amalgamate due to gravity,
leading to objects that form planetesimals due to its difference in orbital velocity.
Those planetesimal can undergo similar process to the formation of the proto
star and form proto planets with its own accretion discs and form their own
satellite.
However, some planetesimals may experience orbital decay due to the loess of
their kinetic energy, causing them to collide with the sun.

Other times, the matter in the accretion disk of proto planets losses their kinetic
energy their causing orbital decays, leaving it with some condensed satellite and
other objects collide with the planets themselves.
In the nebula hypothesis, the disk has higher temperature on the inside of the
disk so that materials would have be condensed from plasma and gas phases to
solid phase at different orbits. The heavier elements such as Iron can condense
at a high temperature (closer to the inside of the disk where the temperature is
higher[<2000K]), while other substances such as ammonia and methane can
only be condensed at a higher orbit (closer to the outside of the disk where the
temperature is lower[<270K])
Scientist uses the term ice line to refer to the perihelion orbital height that allow
water molecules to form solids.
The cores of the inner planets have heavier metals mainly concentrated on the
core and the lighter material mainly on the outer layers, suggesting in the early
stages of solar system formation, those planets may be molten to allow this to
occur.

5.2 Problems with the model

A the distribution of angular momentum was quite peculiar. The sun has
99.86% of the total mass in this solar system but only retains roughly 1% of
the total angular momentum. Such strange distribution is largely considered
to be implausible if this theory were to be correct.
A this model requires the forming gas cloud to be spinning at a slow rate,
which was not explained by Laplace how and where those kinds of gas could
be formed.
A it can be inferred from his theory that all planets should orbit from W to E.
However, the later discovery of Pluto and Neptune which have E to W orbits
may disprove Laplace's theory that all planets are formed from a gas cloud
rotating monodirectionally. However, this may also suggest that these
planets were captured to the solar system after it formed.
5.3 The Jeans Tidal Model
In 1919, Jeans proposed an alternate theory on solar system formation using an
idea similar to that proposed by Chamberlin and Moulton. The ejection of solar
matter from the Sun would be caused by another passing by star with a
significantly larger mass. An important distinction is that in the Jeans theory,
solar prominence was not involved.

Those filaments are not gravitationally stable and can be broken up to multiple
parts , forming small bodies of planetesimals, which are then collided to form
proto planets. The previous argument on the ice line of the solar system can still
be explained by a similar process, where the heavier element can condense
closer to the sun, while lighter substances can only be condensed further from
the sun.

The angular momentum of those proto planets are supplied by the massive star's
gravitational attraction, thus allowing a perihelion orbit to be formed.

The natural satellites of planets can be explained through the sun's tidal effects.
When those proto-planets first orbit the sun, its tidal force may be strong enough
to give rise to satellites.
(Created based Jeans' argument)
5.4 Jeans Model Limitations
A As Jeffery in 1929 has pointed out, Jeans' theory require a high mass star to
pass by the sun. The probability of such event occurring may be quite low,
while its still possible. However, personally, from the discovery of a large
amount of exoplanet, the probability of such theory on planetary formation
would be extremely low.
A As measured on earth and various other planets, there are some significant
amount of heavy element such as iron present on those planets. However,
based on the current understanding of the sun, not only the top layer is
considered to be convective, causing lower density elements to be on the
top layer of the star, but also the production of those heavy element in the
amount required to form stars can not be found on the sun nor does it has
the fusion capability to produce those heavy element.
A The problem of orbit directions is still present in this theory as the direction
of the massive star does not change. Similarly, those planets could be
captured.
5.5 The modern Laplace Nebula theory
The modern Laplace Nebula theory is proposed by Prentice in 1974 that follows a
very similar idea to the Laplacian theory, although with some major differences.

The angular momentum problem has been addressed in this theory by proposing
that some of the solid hydrogen at a very low temperature are present in the gas
cloud. The gas drag would remove some of the angular momentum as the grain
settles. This could explain a Steller mass condensation with 1/100th of the
Angular momentum compared with a gaseous collapse.
Another important part of this theory is the supersonic convective ejection from
the proto-sun, similar to the mass ejection of T-Tari stars. Those ejection occurs
at a speed of 200 km*s^-1 and returns at a speed of roughly 10 km*s^-1,
significantly lowering the moment of inertia factor.
As the protostar continues to collapse, the shell concentrated more and more in
the equatorial zone, causing the outer layer to form a torus. Later, rotational
instability of this torus of material led to the separation of tis forming different
tori, that can collapse into planets.
This theory has successfully predicted many configuration in the solar system.
For example before voyager reached Neptune, this theory has correctly predicted
the satellite configurations, which it voyager later verified.
Note that understandings of the formation of the solar system are still being
developed and experimented on; this report only included three exemplar
theories that may explain the formation of the solar system.
1

Asteroid Belt

6.1 Description
The asteroid belt refers to the regions of our solar system between the orbit of
Jupiter and Mars. It consists of mainly asteroids and dwarf planets. Some of the
objects in this belt ranges in different size, with some reaching the size of 1/4 of
the moon(Ceres), while other asteroids are less than 10 meters in diameter.
6.2 Formation
Some Cosmologists in the earlier days believed that the asteroid belt is the
remanet of a planet that was destroyed by a comet or collided with other protoplanet in the earlier days of the formation. However, the total mass of the astroid
belt does not seem to corroborate this theory as the total mass of the asteroid.
Additionally, the chemical composition of those asteroids also largely discredit
the theory that they came from the same planet.
Instead, most scientist believes that in the early days of planetary system
formation, the main belt is believed to have planetesimals with aggregate mass
enough to accrete in a relatively short amount of time in cosmic scale.
Planetesimals in this reason combined to planet-embryos, with up to 2-3 earth
like mass, according to some research. However, as described earlier, the
asteroid belt has lost significant amount of mass. This may be explained by the
orbital resonance with Jupiter due to the strong gravitational perturbations
between the newly formed planet embryos.

Question 2: (10 marks)

Explain how the colour and brightness of a star can give scientists information
about the temperature and relate brightness to luminosity and distance.
1 Introduction into how stars emit radiation
According to Kirchhoffs 1st Law, as stars are generally composed of hot dense
gas in a spherical configuration, they emit light at a continuous spectrum, which
approximates a blackbody spectrum. As temperature gradually increase, the
atomic collision becomes more violent and frequent, and thus the temperature
increase would cause the distribution of energy with wavelength shift to
predominately shorter wavelength.
1

Colour determining Temperature

The variation in temperature and its correlation to the colour emitted by a star
can be expressed mathematically by Wien's law, which determines the
wavelength of peal emission in a spectrum(max), in other words, its "Colour".

The max value is measured in ngstroms, a unit of length(10^-10 m), and T

refers to the temperature in kelvins.
The spectra of stars with different temperature is shown in the diagram below.
The higher the star's temperature, the shorter the peak wavelength would be.

(The Pennsylvania State University Astrostatistics Department, 2014)

1 Luminosity determining temperature
Another clear indication of a star's temperature is its luminosity. Generally, for a
main sequence star, the temperature of the star is directly proportional to its
luminosity. As the temperature in a star increases, the more powerful the nuclear
fusion is, enabling the luminosity of the star to increase. This is modelled by
Stefan-Boltzmann law, which states "The thermal energy radiated by a blackbody
radiator per second per unit area is proportional to the fourth power of
the absolute temperature." Such relationship is illustrated in the HertzsprungRussel diagram below.

(The Pennsylvania State University Astrostatistics Department, 2014)

White trend line added to highlight the relationship.
However, note that there are groups of stars which does not obey this trend such
as the white dwarfs and the yellow-red giants. In the case of white dwarfs, this
could be due to the different stellar activities that happens inside the cores of
white dwarfs; For example, they are supported by the electron degeneracy
pressure rather than pure fusion.
1 Brightness, Luminosity and distance
Brightness refers to the intensity of light (electromagnetic radiation; EM) seen
from a certain distance (measured in W*M^-2. The apparent brightness or
magnitude) of a star is defined as its light intensity when measured on earth.
Conversely, the luminosity of a star is the amount of energy generated by the
total amount of light it emit from its surface per second (measured in watts).
Because stars emit light to all directions, a large portion of the light from a
distant star will be lost. Similarly, the apparent brightness from a near by
star(e.g. the sun) will be quite high. This spherical dispersion means that the
intensity of EM radiation have an inverse relationship with its distance squared.
This spherical dissipation of energy can be modelled by the equation below.

(Hyperphysics)
Sometimes this equation is further simplified to

Scientists tend to use a method called parallax, to determine the distance of a

interstellar object is. By acquiring information about that object's distance,
scientist can determine its luminosity and would be able to reconstruct its
thermal spectra curve.
S = I* 4**r^2 can be used to determine the original intensity.
Additionally, information regarding distance can also help scientist to correct for
the redshift on the recovered spectra curve, thus reconstruct a more correct
thermal spectra curve.
Alternatively, Stefan-Boltzmann Law may be used to determine the original
luminosity of an blackbody like a star.
By using the Wien approximation, scientist can determine the temperature of the
star and possibly the type of star with their usual radius.
Then the equation for the Stefan-Boltzmann law(stated below) could be used to
determine the luminosity.
L = 4 R^2 ^4
L refers to the luminosity in Watts, R refers to the radius of the star in meters, T
refers to temperature in Kelvin and , unsurprisingly refers to the StefanBoltzmann constant(5.67 x 10^-8)
When scientist have enough information on an object's luminosity and their
apparent brightness, they can use the inverse square law to determine the
distance. Using the rearranged equation below.
r(distance) = Sqrt(S/4I)
Question 3: (10 marks)
Describe the life cycle of a star similar to our own sun including the energy

source and the

position on a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram at each stage.
Introduction
There are many processes involved in the aging of a G type main sequence
similar to our sun. This report shall describe some of the most widely accepted
theory on G type main sequence star can evolve into a white dwarf.
1 Star formation
(100 million years)
According to the nebula hypothesis, nearly all stars are formed in a Nebulae,
which simply refers to a cloud of gas and dust in the interstellar space. Some
disturbance in these moving gas molecules may allow dust and gas in a nebulae
to condense due to effect of gravity. The condensing molecules can start to
increase temperature as a result of the conversion of gravitational potential
energy. As this protostar becomes more massive, it can start its own fusion
reaction of turning hydrogen into helium.
1.1 position on the HR diagram

(background from http://astro.unl.edu/naap/hr/animations/hrExplorer.html,

added relevant point, corresponding with the formation of the sun)
A: The protostar continues to shrink and increase in thermal energy due to the
converted gravitational potential energy.
B: The surface temperature of the protostar increases as radiation is becoming
the dominate mode of energy.
C: The fusion rate increases, forming a main sequence star with a stable
hydrostatic equilibrium.
1 Main sequence
(10 billion years)
At this stage, the star can start to emit light and other EM radiation. The star now
becomes a main-sequence star. The energy source for stars at this stage is
mainly the fusion reaction which fuse hydrogen into helium.
This fusion reaction allows the star to have high thermal energy, enabling it to
emit EM radiation. A main sequence star is usually composed of up to 98%
hydrogen and helium. Since helium is considered to be much heavier, it

condenses in to a star's core. A star typically spent 90% of its life span in this
stage before 1/3 of its hydrogen is converted into helium when the core does not
have sufficient hydrogen fuel.
2.1 Its position on the HR diagram

1 Red Giant H shell burning

(1 billion years)
At this point, the current size of the star would not allow the star to maintain the
hydrostatic equilibrium. As the outward forces decreases due to the slowing
down of hydrogen to helium fusion, gravity begins to dominate. As the core
contracts due to gravity, the inner atomic motion begins to increase, causing
temperature to increase dramatically. Eventually, this heightened temperature
would reach a point that allow the hydrogen surrounding the inert helium core to
reinitiate fusion. The star is no longer fusing directly in the core, but in the layer
outside the core where the temperature has increased sufficient enough for
hydrogen fusion to occur. As hydrogen shell burning releases more energy than
core burning, the heat would build up in the star, causing a disequilibrium. This
disequilibrium will cause the star to expand their outer layers and grow up to 100
times their original size. The result of this expansion is a red-giant star. Because
the red-giant has expanded, its surface area increased, causing its temperature
to decrease and the distance between molecules are very large, effectively
making the outer layer a better vacuumed than humans can make currently.
However, because the size of the star is very large, the total energy being
emitted are very high thus accounting for the large luminosity.
3.1 H Shell burning on HR diagram

(http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast162/Unit2/lowmass.html)

As the star is moving away from main sequence, it moves in up right direction as
its luminosity is increasing while the temperature is decreasing.
1 Horizontal Branch
(100 million years)
The core of a red-giant is becoming constantly denser and denser as helium, the
waste of hydrogen fusion, fall down to the core. The inert helium core shrinks
and heats until the core reaches 100 million K, when a Helium flash occurs,
causing the star to enter the horizontal branch. Core fusion has restarted, but
the important distinction is that the core is fusing Helium compared to hydrogen.
The primary energy source of this stage is the Helium fusion occurs in the core of
the star while additional energy are generated from the hydrogen shell burring.
Thus, the huge amount of energy released by this Helium flash allows the
temperature of the star to increase and at the same time the star decreases in
luminosity as a result of a decrease in size. With the star start to fuse Helium, it
is back to hydrostatic equilibrium. Hydrogen and helium burning produces
enough energy to balance out the gravitational force. The core builds up in
carbon and oxygen as a result of the Helium burning, but is not hot enough to
initiate carbon fusion. However, the Helium burning process, referred to as the
triple alpha process, is quite inefficient in producing energy, thus this stage can
only last up to 100 million yrs for a star like the sun.
4.1 position on the HR diagram.

(http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast162/Unit2/lowmass.html)
1 Asymptotic Giant Branch Phase
(100 thousand years)
Likewise, when the Helium and Hydrogen burning is no longer sustainable, the
core of carbon and oxygen starts to contract. This allows some of the shell,
where it used to be too cool for Hydrogen or Helium fusion to occur , to be
heated up, allowing Hydrogen fusion and Helium burning to occur in shells.
Shown by the diagram below.

(https://www.noao.edu/outreach/press/pr03/sb0307.html)
At this stage, the sun begins to drastically increase in luminosity, size, but
decrease in temperature.
5.1 Position on HR diagram

(http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast162/Unit2/lowmass.html)
Because stars at the AGB stages still have high effective temperatures it would
be slightly to the left of the giant branch.
1 White dwarf.
(10^15 - 10^25 years)
When a AGB stars runs out of fuel, its core contracts rapidly, but it had expanded
so much that the outer layer would be ejected due. The dying AGB star spins
slowly, blowing off a dense but slow solar wind. The ejected outer atmosphere is
usually referred to as the planetary nebula.
While, due to the lack of fusion force pushing outwards, the star contracting to a
white dwarf. The contracting process would significantly increase the white
dwarf's temperature, allowing it to still glow. The resulting white dwarf is the
remanent of the C-O core in an AGB star is held together by the electron
degeneracy pressure as electrons can not occupy the same energy states,
halting the inward force of gravity. There are no fusion reaction occurring in a
white dwarf and at this state, the star starts to irradiate all its heat away,
gradually turning into a black dwarf. However, since the universe is still very
young , black dwarfs are still not proven.
6.1 Position on the HR diagram

(http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast162/Unit2/lowmass.html)

Question 4: (5 marks)
Explain how a presentation from an expert in the field of Astronomy has
improved your understanding of this module.
The presentation in question is delivered by Professor Antoine van Oijen, UOW.
1

Validity Evaluation

This report will assess the validity of this presentation by considering how much
it
answers the question you are asking

is not influenced by bias

uses a careful controlled method of data collection

provides up-to-date information

is written by a qualified author

The presentation is mostly valid, although there are some limitations of his
presentation which may affect its validity.
The presentation has successfully delivered important information containing
most of the knowledge required to complete the task, albeit professor Oijen may
have misinterpreted question 3, as he mostly presented the demise of heavier
stars, resulting in supernovae.
Professor Oijen is definitely a qualified physicist with a focus on single molecule
biophysics. While professor Oijen has a strong physics foundation, his
publications are largely based on the biophysical model of molecules, no
astronomy citation was found. Thus, his credibility in the field of Astronomy may
be questionable.
His method of research in the presentation was not known, nor was any sources
provided in the bibliography, thus it would be very difficult to know whether he
applied a careful controlled method of data collection.
Additionally, the theory presented especially on the formation of the solar
system largely conform with the Laplace Nebula hypothesis in 1796; Since the
source of the theory was not presented, it would be extremely difficult to
determine how recent the information is. However, other parts of his
presentation concerning the big bang theory are quite contemporary, although
his large focus on those parts has detracted us from the majority of the tasks.
There may be some bias involved in this presentation, in particular "reductive
bias", which refers to the oversimplification of contents. Most of the theories
presented in this presentation have been oversimplified to fit for a high school
cohort, however, some important information to the "how" part may have largely
been ignored.
1 Reliability Evaluation
This reliability of this presentation will be assessed on how well it
Agrees with the general scientific community

uses a wide range of data

This presentation, on balance, is quite reliable.

The majority of the information presented are confirmable by other sources such
as NASA and Cornell astrophysics page. Most arguments made by Professor Oijen
are supported by multiple evidences, such as using the CMB, and the red shift to
illustrate the Big Bang theory.
However, it's also important to note that the professor did not present any
alternative theory to the majority of the theories presented, nor did he present
some of the limitations in the models involved. For example, as illustrated by Q1,
some of the conversation of angular momentum may discredit the nebula theory,
which he did not present.
In other cases, some of the information presented may be to some degree
erroneous as it does not agree with most papers on the topic. For example, he
claimed that white dwarf can still sustain fusion reaction of hydrogen on the
outer layer, but no such evidence has been found in other reliable sources
1

Understanding improvement

Apart from some small limitation with validity and reliability, the presentation
has helped me significantly. The video on the scale of the universe allowed me to
establish a base line of understanding the cosmic scale, thus furthering my
understanding of the Big Bang theory.
A lot of the core physical concepts such as red-shifts and black body radiation
are shown using a computer simulation to better illustrate their properties, which
I can use in my assessment task, and improves my understanding of a changing
universe.
The presentation on the lumpiness of the gas during the early stages of the
universe and how it coalesced into galaxies and stars enabled me to raise more
questions which I can look into in my research tasks.
Although some theories were not explained in great details such as the nebula
hypothesis, it provided me with a starting point to my research, in which I can
explore the advantages and limitations of models, improving my overall
understanding.
Similarly, the white dwarf problem encouraged me to do further research into the
topic and gather more relevant information.