The Milky Way Galaxy:Assignments

Tushar Prabhu
October 8, 2017

Note: Submit on or before 6 October 2017

1. Rayleigh scattering cross section is given by
2
2 5 d6 n2 1

s =
3 4 n2 + 2
where d is the diameter of scattering molecule and n is its refractive index.
For hydrogen molecules, d = 0.74A and n = 1.00014. Assuming an average
interstellar density of 104 molecules per m3 , what fraction of light at 500
nm wavelength is lost per parsec of path length? [2]
2. Neglecting the interstellar extinction resulted in an underestimate of the
size of the Galaxy estimated by Kapteyn, while overestimated the size
estimated by Shapley. How? [2]
3. Kapteyn assumed a density function
D(y) = C0 exp{(y y0 )2 /2k 2 }
and the luminosity function
1
(M ) = exp{(M M0 )2 /2 2 }
2
to derive that A(m) has a form
A(m) = Kexp{(m m0 )2 /22 }
where K is a constant, m0 = y0 + 3k 2 + M0 , and 2 = k 2 + 2 , =
1/5 log10 e. [4]
Hint: Substitute y = mM and integrate over M = and + for fixed
m. Bringing the integrand to the form exp{A[(M M0 ) B(m m0 )]}
is convenient since the differential of the term in square brackets is dM .
4. The standard interstellar extinction law gives E(UB )/E(B V )=0.64. On
the other hand, the reddening line for stars of a particular type is
E(U B)
= 0.72 + 0.05E(B V )
E(B V )
. Explain the reason for the difference in these values. [1]
5. Derive the expression for the Reddening-free parameter Q in the (U
B) (B V ) plane. [1]