SPA6311 Physical Cosmology, Spring 2016

Coursework sheet 1 Dr. K. Malik

These questions are designed to help you understand the material covered in the lectures.
Exercise sheets will typically be made available online on Wednesday afternoon. Please
hand the solutions in by the following Thursday, 1600. Put your full name and student
number on the top of your solutions.

1. a) What is the cosmic distance ladder ? What are standard candles? [30 pts.]

b) The Hubble law is given as

v = H0 r .
Explain its meaning. Assuming that H0 = 68kms−1 M p−1 , what velocity has an
object at a distance of 1AU , 3 lightyears, 108 parsec? [30 pts.]

2. The Milky Way has about 1011 stars. Assuming that each star weighs about M? '
2 × 1031 kg, and that galaxies are typically separated 1 MPc, calculate the average
density of the universe (in SI units). [20 pts.]

3. We have measured the distance to a close by galaxy, with apparent magnitude

m1 = 6, to be d1 = 1MPc (e.g. using Cepheids as standard candles). We now
assume that all galaxies are similar and have therefore the same intrinsic or absolute,
luminosity (a very crude approximation!). Then measuring the apparent magnitude
of a second galaxy to be m2 = 21, estimate the distance to that galaxy. [20 pts.]