Help Distance between Mu Leporis & Nihal?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the approximate distances between the stars Mu Leporis and Nihal, as well as their distances from the Solar System. Participants also explore potential physical effects or obstacles in interstellar travel between these stars, along with methods for calculating such distances.

Discussion Character

  • Homework-related
  • Technical explanation
  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant requests the approximate distance between Mu Leporis and Nihal for a science fiction story, expressing concerns about physical obstacles in interstellar travel.
  • Another participant estimates the distance between Mu Leporis and Nihal to be about 26 lightyears, with distances from the Solar System to Mu Leporis at 184 lightyears and to Nihal at 160 lightyears.
  • Several participants inquire about the sources and methods used to derive these distance estimates, suggesting the use of star atlases and trigonometry.
  • Concerns are raised regarding the accuracy of distance measurements and the potential for error, particularly in the context of the stars' relative motion over time.
  • One participant humorously misinterprets "Mu Lep" as a reference to the Large Electron-Positron Collider (LEP), leading to a lighthearted exchange about particle physics.
  • Another participant discusses the implications of the stars' positions as observed from Earth, questioning how their apparent positions might differ due to their actual motion through space.
  • Technical calculations related to stellar distances and luminosity are presented, although their relevance to the original question remains unclear.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree on the approximate distances provided, but there is no consensus on the methods for calculating these distances or the implications of relative motion among the stars.

Contextual Notes

Participants express uncertainty regarding the accuracy of distance measurements and the potential for significant error. The discussion also touches on the complexities of stellar motion and the implications for observational astronomy.

Who May Find This Useful

Writers and enthusiasts interested in astrophysics, particularly those looking for information on stellar distances and interstellar travel considerations.

MonstersFromTheId
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"Dammit Jim! I'm a writer, not a stellar cartographer!"

Doin some homework for a SF story.
I badly need to know the approximate distance between Mu Leporis and Nihal.

Also useful:
Distance from Sol to Mu Lep, distance from Sol to Nihal, warnings about any known odd ball physical effects or interstellar objects between Mu Lep and Nihal that shouldn't be overlooked in a chapter covering a trip between those two stars.
My impression is that there's no reason to expect a trip between Nihal and Mu Lep would involve passing through any known physical obstacles, that left uncovered in such a story, could quickly get my :-) "undying prose" covered by the remains of a knowledgeable reader’s lunch

Tx in advance for any help...
Monsters
 
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MonstersFromTheId said:
"Dammit Jim! I'm a writer, not a stellar cartographer!"

Doin some homework for a SF story.
I badly need to know the approximate distance between Mu Leporis and Nihal.
About 26 lightyears
Also useful:
Distance from Sol to Mu Lep,
184 lightyears
distance from Sol to Nihal,
160 lightyears
 
Thanks Janus!
That's one very tough set of answers to try to did up if you don't know where to look. I really apriciate the help.
 
Janus said:
About 26 lightyears

184 lightyears

160 lightyears
Janus, would you mind giving us your sources, and/or a sketch of how you came up with these numbers?

I think quite a few readers may find it useful to know how to get answers to the kind of question which MonstersFromTheID asked :approve: :smile:
 
Nereid said:
Janus, would you mind giving us your sources, and/or a sketch of how you came up with these numbers?

I think quite a few readers may find it useful to know how to get answers to the kind of question which MonstersFromTheID asked :approve: :smile:
Bet it had to do with a star atlas and a table of absolute magnitudes. After that it's converting from spherical to rectangular coordinates, the pythagorean theorem and that m-M = 5 log D thingy.

Jerry Abbott
 
So, http://archive.ast.cam.ac.uk/hipp/ and the Hubble GSC2 perhaps? Then, just trigonometry.

But what about estimates of error? There's very little error in the RA and Dec of the two stars, but the distances?

Extension question: what we see today, from here on the Earth's surface, is the position of the two stars on the celestial sphere ... but they're not 'there' anymore! We can only see where they were, ~184 and ~160 years ago. Is there any relative motion among the three stars? If you were on a planet around one of the other two, where would Sol be? the other star? How much difference would there be in the apparent positions, given that the light times are quite different (~26 years vs ~184 or ~160)? How fast is the ~26 ly changing?
 
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joke

Mu lep?
I didn't know LEP is being upgraded so fast!How long is it now?Over 100 ly?
It must be operating on the hell of the EeV now!Why wasn't I informed earlier about this?!
 
TeV said:
Mu lep?
I didn't know LEP is being upgraded so fast!How long is it now?Over 100 ly?
It must be operating on the hell of the EeV now!Why wasn't I informed earlier about this?!
But the only "leptons" it accelerates are tau neutrinos, via an as-yet undiscovered DM-interaction, which is why we've not heard of it yet!
:surprise: :biggrin: :-p
 
D**n it,the detecting techniques must be improved :smile:
 
  • #10
Nereid said:
So, http://archive.ast.cam.ac.uk/hipp/ and the Hubble GSC2 perhaps? Then, just trigonometry.

But what about estimates of error? There's very little error in the RA and Dec of the two stars, but the distances?

Extension question: what we see today, from here on the Earth's surface, is the position of the two stars on the celestial sphere ... but they're not 'there' anymore! We can only see where they were, ~184 and ~160 years ago. Is there any relative motion among the three stars? If you were on a planet around one of the other two, where would Sol be? the other star? How much difference would there be in the apparent positions, given that the light times are quite different (~26 years vs ~184 or ~160)? How fast is the ~26 ly changing?
If you know that a star is on the main sequence, you can use its color temperature as an approximation to its effective temperature, and apply the mass-luminosity-radius relation inversely to get the star's luminosity.

T / 5770K = M^(a/4 - b/2)

L = M^a = (T/5770K)^{a / (a/4 - b/2) }

L = (T/5770K)^{ 4 / [1 - 2b/a] }

Typically, for stars having 0.8 to 2 solar masses...

a = ~4.0
b = ~0.72
L = ~ (T/5770K)^6.25

Let v=apparent visual magnitude
Let V=absolute visual magnitude

V = 4.75 - 2.5 log L

v - V = 5 log D

D = 32.61 {10^{ {v - 4.75 + 2.5 [ 4 / (1 - 2b/a) ] log (T/5770K) } / 5 } }

where the logarithms are base 10 and where D is the distance to the star in lightyears.

If you're a writer, though, your main concern should be how John Stirling (a.k.a. "Captain Good") is ever going to get out of the capsule at the bottom of the atmosphere of that gas giant planet, where the evil Galactic Overlord has imprisoned him. Getting a good story written is harder than the astrophysics.

Jerry Abbott
 
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