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Say that we want to measure whether a star is coming towards or away from us usi

ID: 2283769 • Letter: S

Question

Say that we want to measure whether a star is coming towards or away from us using the Doppler shift of the lines in its spectra, with an accuracy of 1 km/s or better. Assume for simplicity that the star is in the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun.

A) Is it important to take into account the Earth's orbital motion around the Sun? How about the Earth's rotational motion on its axis (ignore the tilt of the Earth's rotational axis for this problem)? In other words, if we didn't take these motions into account, could we make an error larger than 1 km/s? Use figures to show these effects. What are the largest velocity shifts these two effects could produce, in km/s? Calculate these from Earth's sidereal year, orbit size, sidereal day, and radius.

Note: I get the concept of what is being asked, I am just unsure of how to execute it.

Explanation / Answer

http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/Cyberia/Bima/doppler.html