Question 16 – Classification of stars (A-level only) - Questions

KOI-4878 A and KOI-4878 B are two stars that appear very close to each other when viewed from Earth.

There are two possible reasons for this:

In an orbiting binary system, the difference between the apparent magnitude and the absolute magnitude for each star is similar.

The table below shows data about these two stars.

	Temperature / $K\text{K}$	Radius of star / $m\text{m}$	Apparent magnitude
KOI-4878 A	$9500$	$1.2 \times 10^{10}$	$5.4$
KOI-4878 B	$4200$	$1.5 \times 10^{11}$	$6.2$

Discuss the appearance of the two stars to an astronomer on the Earth. In your answer you should:

KOI-4878 A and KOI-4878 B are two stars that appear very close to each other when viewed from Earth.

There are two possible reasons for this:

In an orbiting binary system, the difference between the apparent magnitude and the absolute magnitude for each star is similar.

The table below shows data about these two stars.

	Temperature / $K\text{K}$	Radius of star / $m\text{m}$	Apparent magnitude
KOI-4878 A	$9500$	$1.2 \times 10^{10}$	$5.4$
KOI-4878 B	$4200$	$1.5 \times 10^{11}$	$6.2$

Discuss the appearance of the two stars to an astronomer on the Earth. In your answer you should:

Classification of stars (A-level only)