The 2nd International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics

Bandung, Indonesia
Saturday, 23 August 2008
Theoretical Competition

Please read this carefully:

1. Every student receives problem sheets in English and/or in native language,
an answer book and a scratch book.
2. The time available is 5 hours for the theoretical competition. There are fifteen short
questions (Theoretical Part 1), and three long questions (Theoretical Part 2).
3. Use only Black or dark blue pen
4. Use only the front side of answer sheets. Write only inside the boxed area.
5. Begin answering each question on a separate sheet.
6. Numerical results should be written with as many digits as are appropriate.
7. Write on the blank answer sheets whatever you consider is required for the solution of
each question. Please express your answer primarily in term of equations, numbers,
figures, and plots. If necessary provide your answers with concise text. Full credit will
be given to correct answer with detailed steps for each question. Underline your final
result.
8. Fill in the boxes at the top of each sheet of paper with your country code and your
student code.
9. At the end of the exam place the books inside the envelope and leave everything on
your desk.
Theoretical Competition 2nd IOAA August 23, 2008

Astronomical and Physical Constants

Quantity Value
Astronomical unit (AU) 149 597 870 691 m
Light year (ly) 9.4605 × 1015 m = 63,240 AU
Parsec (pc) 3.0860 × 1016 m = 206,265 AU
Sidereal year 365.2564 days
Tropical year 365.2422 days
Gregorian year 365.2425 days
Sidereal month 27.3217 days
Synodic month 29.5306 days
Mean sidereal day 23h56m4s.091 of mean solar time
Mean solar day 24h3m56s.555 of sidereal time
Mean distance, Earth to Moon 384 399 000 m
Earth mass (M ⊕) 5.9736 × 1024 kg
Earth mean radius 6 371 000 m
Earth mean velocity in orbit 29 783 m/s
Moon mass (M
) 7.3490 × 1022 kg
Moon mean radius 1 738 000 m
Sun mass (M) 1.9891 × 1030 kg
Sun radius (R) 6.96 × 108 m
Sun luminosity (L) 3.96 × 1026 J s-1
Sun effective temperature (Teff) 5 800 oK
Sun apparent magnitude (m) -26.8
Sun absolute magnitude (M) 4.82
Sun absolute bolometric magnitude (Mbol) 4.72
Speed of light (c) 2.9979 × 108 m/s
Gravitational constant (G) 6.6726× 10-11 N m2 kg-2
Boltzmann constant (k) 1.3807 × 10-23 J K-1
Stefan-Boltzmann constant (σ) 5.6705× 10-8 J s-1 m-2 K- 4
Planck constant (h) 6.6261 × 10-34 J s
Electron charge (e) 1.602 × 10-19 C = 4.803 × 10-10 esu
Electron mass (me) 5.48579903 × 10-4 amu = 9.11 × 10-31 kg
Proton mass (mp) 1.00727647 amu = 1.67268 × 10-27 kg

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Theoretical Competition 2nd IOAA August 23, 2008

Neutron mass (mn) 1.008664904 amu = 1.67499 × 10-27 kg

Deuterium nucleus mass (md) 2.013553214 amu = 3.34371 × 10-27 kg
Hydrogen mass 1.00794 amu = 1.67379 × 10-27 kg
Helium mass 4.002603 amu = 1.646723 × 10-27 kg

Conversion table
1Å 0.1 nm = 10-10 m
1 barn 10-28 m2
1G 10-4 T
1 erg 10-7 J = 1 dyne cm
1 esu 3.3356 × 10-10 C
1 amu (atomic mass unit) 1.6606 × 10-27 kg
1 atm (atmosphere) 101,325 Pa = 1.01325 bar
1 dyne 10-5 N

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Theoretical Competition 2nd IOAA August 23, 2008

THEORETICAL PART 1

(300 points for 15 Theoretical Part-1 questions, 20 points for each question)
Show your method of solution step by step in the answer sheets completely as your final
answer. The scratch sheet is to be used for your personal calculation and will not be
marked. Partial credits will be given for answers without showing method of solution.

1. Two persons, on the equator of the Earth separated by nearly 180° in longitude,
observe the Moon’s position with respect to the background star field at the same time.
If the declination of the Moon is zero, sketch the situation and calculate the difference
in apparent right ascension seen by those two persons.

2. On April 2, 2008 a telescope (10 cm diameter, f/10) at the Bosscha Observatory was
used to observe the Sun and found an active region 0987 (based on the NOAA
number) at 8o South and 40o West from the center of the solar disk. The region was
recorded with a CCD SBIG ST-8 Camera (1600 × 1200 pixels, (9 µm × 9 µm)/ pixel)
and its size was 5 × 4 pixels. According to the Astronomical Almanac, the solar
diameter is 32'. How large is the corrected area of the active region in unit of millionth
of solar hemisphere (msh)?

3. A full moon occurred on June 19, 2008 at 00h 30m West Indonesian Time (local civil
time for western part of Indonesia with meridian of 105° E). Calculate the minimum
and maximum possible values of duration of the Moon above the horizon for observers
at Bosscha Observatory (longitude: 107º 35' 00″.0 E, latitude: 6º 49' 00″.0 S,
Elevation: 1300.0 m). Time zone = UT +7h 00m.

4. Suppose a star has a mass of 20 M. If 20% of the star's mass is now in the form of
helium, calculate the helium-burning lifetime of this star. Assume that the luminosity
of the star is 100 L, in which 30% is contributed by helium burning. The carbon mass,
12
C, is 12.000000 amu. Helium burning to Carbon: 3 4He 12
C + γ.

5. The average temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is currently

T = 2.73 K, and it yields the origin of CMB to be at redshift zCMB =1100. The current
densities of the Dark Energy, Dark Matter, and Normal Matter components of the
Universe as a whole are ρDE = 7.1 × 10−30 g/cm3, ρDM = 2.4 × 10−30 g/cm3, and

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Theoretical Competition 2nd IOAA August 23, 2008

ρNM = 0.5 × 10−30 g/cm3, respectively. What is the ratio between the density of Dark
Matter to the density of Dark Energy at the time CMB was emitted, if we assume that
the dark energy is vacuum energy?

6. Radio wavelength observations of gas cloud swirling around a black hole in the center
of our galaxy show that radiation from the hydrogen spin-flip transition (rest frequency
= 1420.41 MHz) is detected at a frequency of 1421.23 MHz. If this gas cloud is
located at a distance of 0.2 pc from the black hole and is orbiting in a circle, determine
the speed of this cloud and whether it's moving toward or away from us and calculate
the mass of the black hole.

7. A main sequence star at a distance 20 pc is barely visible through a certain space-based

telescope which can record all wavelengths. The star will eventually move up along
the giant branch, during which time its temperature drops by a factor of 3 and its radius
increases 100 times. What is the new maximum distance at which the star can still be
(barely) visible using the same telescope?

8. Gravitational forces of the Sun and the Moon lead to the raising and lowering of sea
water surfaces. Let ϕ be the difference in longitude between points A and B, where
both points are at the equator and A is on the sea surface. Derive the horizontal
acceleration of sea water at position A due to Moon’s gravitational force at the time
when the Moon is above point B according to observers on the Earth (express it in ϕ ,
the radius R of Earth, and the Earth-Moon distance r ).

9. The radiation incoming to the Earth from the Sun must penetrate the Earth’s
atmosphere before reaching the earth surface. The Earth also releases radiation to its
environment and this radiation must penetrate the Earth’s atmosphere before going out
to the outer space. In general, the transmittance (t1) of the Sun radiation during its
penetration through the Earth’s atmosphere is higher than that of the radiation from the
Earth (t2). Let T eff  be the effective temperature of the Sun, R the radius of the Sun,
r⊕ the radius of the Earth, and x the distance between the Sun and the Earth. Derive the
temperature of the Earth’s surface as a function of the aforementioned parameters.

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Theoretical Competition 2nd IOAA August 23, 2008

10. The coordinates of the components of Visual Binary Star µ Sco on August 22, 2008
are given in the table below

α (RA) δ (Dec)
h m s
µ Sco 1 (primary) 20 17 38 .90 -12˚ 30' 30"
µ Sco 2 (secondary) 20h 18m 03s.30 -12˚ 32' 41"

The stars are observed using Zeiss refractor telescope at the Bosscha Observatory with
aperture and focal length are 600 mm and 10 780 mm, respectively. The telescope is
equipped with 765 × 510 pixels CCD camera. The pixel size of the chip is
9 µm × 9 µm.
a. Can both components of the binary be inside the frame? (“YES” or “NO”, show it
in your computation!)
b. What is the position angle of the secondary star, with respect to the North?

11. Below is a picture on a 35 mm film of annular solar eclipse in Dumai, Riau, Indonesia
on August 22, 1998, taken with a telescope having effective diameter 10 cm and f-ratio
15. The diameter of the Sun’s disk in original picture on the film is 13.817 mm and the
diameter of the Moon’s disk is 13.235 mm. Determine the distances of the Sun and the
Moon (expressed in km) from the Earth and the percentage of the solar disk covered by
the Moon during the annular solar eclipse.

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Theoretical Competition 2nd IOAA August 23, 2008

12. Consider a type Ia supernova, in a distant galaxy, which has a luminosity of

5.8 × 109L at maximum light. Suppose you observe this supernova using your
telescope and find that its brightness is 1.6 × 10−7 times the brightness of Vega. The
redshift of its host galaxy is known to be z = 0.03. Calculate the distance of this galaxy
(in pc) using the data of the supernova and also the Hubble time.

13. In the journey of a space craft, scientists make a close encounter with an object and
they would like to investigate the object more carefully using their on-board telescope.
For simplicity, we assume this to be a two-dimensional problem and that the position
of the space craft is stationary in (0,0). The shape of the object is a disk and the
boundary has the equation
x 2 + y 2 − 10 x − 8 y + 40 = 0.
Find the exact values of maximum and minimum of tan ϕ where ϕ is the angle of the
telescope with respect to the x direction during investigation from one edge to the
other edge.

14. Consider a Potentially Hazardous Object (PHO) moving in a closed orbit under the
influence of the Earth’s gravitational force. Let u be the inverse of the distance of the
object from the Earth and p be the magnitude of its linear momentum. As the object
travels, the graph of u as a function of p passes through points A and B as shown in the
following table. Find the mass and the total energy of the object, and express u as a
function of p and sketch the shape of u curve from A to B.

p (×109 kg m s-1) u (×10-8 m-1)

A 0.052 5.15
B 1.94 194.17

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Theoretical Competition 2nd IOAA August 23, 2008

15. Galaxy NGC 2639 is morphologically identified as an Sa galaxy with measured

maximum rotational velocity vmax of 324 km/s. After corrections for any extinction, its
apparent magnitude in B is mB = 12.22. It is customary to measure a radius R25 (in units
of kpc) at which the galaxy’s surface brightness falls to 25 magB/arcsec2. Spiral
galaxies tend to follow a typical relation:
log R25 = −0.249MB − 4.00,
where MB is the absolute magnitude in B. Apply the B-band Tully-Fisher relation for
Sa spirals
MB = −9.95 log vmax + 3.15 (vmax in km/s)
to calculate the mass of NGC 2639 out to R25. If colour index of the sun is (mB – mV)
= 0.64, write the mass (of NGC 2639) in units of solar mass M and its luminosity B-
band in unit of L .