Tuesday, May 6, 2008

If all the stars on the main sequence of a star cluster are typically only one-hundredth as bright as their main-sequence counterparts in the Hyades C

Question: If all the stars on the main sequence of a star cluster are typically only one-hundredth as bright as their main-sequence counterparts in the Hyades Cluster, then that cluster's distance is:

Background: I was walking on the street the other day, when this conversation took place:

GUY #1: Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful man:
Affliction is enamour'd of thy parts,
And thou art wedded to calamity.

GUY #2: Father, what news? what is the prince's doom?
What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand,
That I yet know not?

GUY #1: Too familiar
Is my dear son with such sour company:
I bring thee tidings of the prince's doom.

GUY #2: What less than dooms-day is the prince's doom?

GUY #1: A gentler judgment vanish'd from his lips,
Not body's death, but body's banishment.

GUY #2: Ha, banishment! be merciful, say 'death;'
For exile hath more terror in his look,
Much more than death: do not say 'banishment.'

GUY #1: Hence from Verona art thou banished:
Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.

GUY #2: Hey, if all the stars on the main sequence of a star cluster are typically only one-hundredth as bright as their main-sequence counterparts in the Hyades Cluster, then that cluster's distance is what?


Naturally, I had to answer that here.

Answer: 10 times as far as the Hyades's distance.

1 comment:

Clandestine said...

haha thank you. I googled this question because I was too tired to look up the answer in the book.