Thursday, 11 June 2009

star - Rate of Mass Loss from the Solar Wind

This is problem 1-4 from Principles of Stellar Evolution and Nucleosynthesis by Clayton:



Assuming at the Earth a characteristic velocity of 400km/s and density of 10amu/cm3 for the solar wind, calculate the rate of mass loss for the sun.



There weren't any formulas about this in the section so I made a stab at it with dimensional analysis.



fracdMdt=fracrhoVDeltat=rhovA
fracdMdt=left(frac10amucm3right)left(frac400kmsright)left(frac4pi(6.96e10cm)21right)left(frac105cmkmright)left(frac1024g1amuright)left(fracModot2times1033gright)left(frac3600shrright)left(frac24hrdayright)left(frac365dayyrright)
fracdMdt=3.84times1019Modot/yr



However, the answer given in the book is 0.4times1013Modot/yr. So, I'm off by about five magnitudes. Can anyone point out where I went wrong and/or point me in the correct direction?

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