Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-prelims-and-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2017/s2/1/3/solution

A luminosity does not determine a stellar mass without a mass-luminosity calibration. Using the usual approximate main-sequence law gives . With , the numerical results are
The angular radius follows directly from . Taking changes these estimates by only a few percent, but the calibration must be stated. Hubble's 2.4 m aperture has visible-light diffraction scale arcsec at 500 nm, hundreds of times larger. The separation is therefore unresolved even before the severe star/planet contrast is considered.

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