Sir William Herschel counted the number of stars in different directions, and getting similar numbers in each direction along the disk, concluded the Sun was near the center of a disk like collection of stars. Herschel came to the wrong conclusion about the Sun's location because (A) He was predisposed to believe the Sun is the center of the Milky Way, and ignored the data which disagreed with that conclusion. (B) He did not know that interstellar dust made it hard from him to see a large part of the Milky Way's disk. (C) He only counted globular cluster, and not regular stars. (D) The Sun's position in the Milky Way at that particular time was very unusual and skewed in his results.

Question

Physics

Tyrell Sparks

29 September, 15:19

Sir William Herschel counted the number of stars in different directions, and getting similar numbers in each direction along the disk, concluded the Sun was near the center of a disk like collection of stars. Herschel came to the wrong conclusion about the Sun's location because (A) He was predisposed to believe the Sun is the center of the Milky Way, and ignored the data which disagreed with that conclusion. (B) He did not know that interstellar dust made it hard from him to see a large part of the Milky Way's disk. (C) He only counted globular cluster, and not regular stars. (D) The Sun's position in the Milky Way at that particular time was very unusual and skewed in his results.

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Answers (1)

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Helen Johnston · Answer 1

Answer: the correct answer is (B) He did not know that interstellar dust made it hard from him to see a large part of the Milky Way's disk.

Explanation:

We live in a dusty Galaxy. Because interstellar dust absorbs the light from stars, Herschel could see only those stars within about 6000 light-years of the Sun.