how do people calculate the size and temperature if planets and stars.
In: Mathematics
Paralax is used to measure distance, and it’s created by two different points of view. For example, if you close one eye at a time and look at an object without moving your head, you notice that the object has different views. The farther the object is the smaller the paralax effect is. Scientist take a photo from two different points of view, usually opposites sides of earth’s orbit and the distance be calculated with simple trigonometry. Scientists can compare emission spectrums from the object and find its composition, if the light emitted by the object appears to be shifted to the high energy side of the light spectrum, it’s blue shifted and moving closer to us, if it’s shifted to the low energy side, it’s red shifted and moving away from us. The hotter an object is, the brighter it is and by comparing the star to a theoritical perfect emitter of light, aka a blackbody, we know its temperature. The moon can be used to measure the star’s diameter. Scientists know how fast the moon moves through it’s orbit. They measure how long it takes for the star to be covered by the moon and with the distance calculated earlier, a measurement can be made.
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