Analysis of a Star

Introduction
This project will have you analyze a star in our galaxy as a way to apply some of the learning that you have achieved over the semester. Successful completion of this project will ensure that you have met two of the student learning outcomes for our course:
Demonstrate familiarity with key terminology in the fields of astronomy, geology, oceanography, and meteorology
Use maps, images, charts, seismograms, cross-sections, atmospheric data, and other Earth data to quantitatively explain Earth processes
Preparation
To prepare for this project, you will need to select one of the stars listed below:
Tau Ceti
X Persei
Sirius B
Proxima Centauri
Rigel
Deneb
Cygnus X-1
Mizar
Mira
Wolf 359
Eta Carinae
Algol
TRAPPIST-1
Questions to answer
I would like you to do some independent research about the star that you have chosen and summarize important characteristics.
What is the name of your star? What does its name mean? Are there other names for the star?
What is the surface temperature of the star and what color would it look like if viewed from Earth?
What is the luminosity (relative to the Sun) of the star?
Where does this star sit on the H-R diagram? You can draw a sketch of the diagram and place your star appropriately, or you can place it on a blank diagram, such as this one. This graph should be included with in your report.
Compare the star to our Sun. Is it similar? Dissimilar? In what ways?
Describe where the star is in its life cycle and its approximate age. For example, our Sun is in the middle of its life cycle as a main sequence star and it is approximately 4.6 billion years old.
How far away is your chosen star from Earth?
What is/are the one or two most important detail(s) or characteristic(s) about this star? Why?
Extra credit
As an optional extra credit, tell me how long it would take for someone from Earth to travel to this star. Explain your assumptions (how would the travel happen, how fast could the transporter travel?) and show all of your calculations. Possible points: 5 points, max.
Format of your report
Your answers should be in complete sentences and paragraphs. There is no minimum or maximum word limit, but most students will need about 400 to 600 words, excluding references, to answer all of the questions above.
Be sure that your post is in your own words. Read this page about Academic Integrity where I discuss steps to avoid plagiarism. A student who submits a work that is found to be plagiarized in total or in part will receive a grade of zero for the assignment.
To complete this project, you will need to seek out reputable sources to support your answers. Cite all references that you use, including textbooks or websites, using both in-text citations and a reference list (for information on how to reference, check out the Purdue Online Writing Lab). To receive full credit for this assignment, your post should have no more than one (1) direct quotation, which means that you should paraphrase your answers and use proper citation standards.
When writing your assignment, pay attention to the attached rubric (see below), which will be used in grading your project.
Submitting your report
This project will be submitted via file upload through Canvas. Emailed files are not accepted. The only acceptable file formats are Microsoft Word, text files, or PDF. Apple Pages files are not accepted. Students at West have access to Microsoft 365, which includes Word, as part of your enrollment (see the link in the menu at left). If you need help submitting an assignment online, please see How do I submit an online assignment? on the Canvas Student Guides.
Immediately after submission, you will receive a Turnitin report, which will estimate how similar your report is to online articles and other student work. This score is not your grade for the assignment.
You may resubmit your assignment as many times as needed prior to the due date, and I will only grade the last submission. Assignments are not accepted after the closing date. There are no makeups for missing or plagiarized work.

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