Madeline Horn edited We_were_given_data_that__.tex  over 8 years ago

Commit id: d7627375c48dd3c3fdf65eb4a819a5c6c49f1886

deletions | additions      

       

We were given data that was used from studying many spiral galaxies and consisted of the mass of varying stars and the percentage of how many of that type of star is found in spiral galaxies. In order to find out the percentage of mass and luminosity, we had to use the percentage of type of stars in order to completely understand the population distribution. Below is a graph of the most common luminosities of spiral galaxies. Because the mass of the galaxy never changes with age, I did not include a graph of that. As you can see from the below figure, the stars that contribute the most to the galaxies luminosity are the most massive stars. This is important because the most massive stars leave the main sequence first and their luminosity contribution will decrease until they are no longer contributing to the luminosity of the galaxy.