Homework #6, Due Wednesday, December 3
1. Calculate the number of "peices" expected in the Milky Way
halo given a total stellar mass of 10^9 solar masses, and
adopting a mass distribution of the consitutuents of N(M)
is proportional to M^-2. Note that the upper limit of a
possible "peice" is the total mass, and for a lower limit,
adopt 10^5 solar masses, since objects less massive than
this tend to have their gas always photoionized by diffuse
intergalactic radiation. If you want, you can try different
lower mass limits.
2. (a) If the density of stars is 0.05 pc^-3, and assuming the Sun
is a typical star, what fraction of the volume is occupied by stars?
(b) If a star passes through a disk 1 kpc thick of stars of this
density, what is the probability it will collide with one of them?
The idea of this problem is to make clear how rare stellar collisions are.