Question

What measurements would you make (assuming you have the money, time, & equipment) to determine a star’s surface temperature? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

Answer:

use special filters on the telescope

Explanation:

Assuming you have access to a very high-grade telescope you would need to use special filters on the telescope that allows you to view the star's color spectrum. The color spectrum represents different levels of heat that a star is generating. This spectrum ranges from red to blue. Therefore in order to calculate the surface temperature, you would need to apply both a blue and red filter onto the telescope. Once you have these measurements you would need to compare them in order to pinpoint the correct variation of color which would give a close enough estimate of the surface temperature of the star.