The potential of these objects may be conveniently modeled computationally through the Miyamoto–Nagai potential. For 10 points each:
[10m] Name these objects, which may be divided into “thick” and “thin” portions. These regions between galactic bulges and halos follow an exponential light distribution and name the group of galaxies that include spiral and lenticular galaxies.
ANSWER: galactic disks [accept disk galaxy or disk galaxies; prompt on spiral arms by asking “what structure includes the outer part of spiral arms?”]
[10e] The exponential light distribution of galactic disks separates them from galactic bulges, which have Sérsic profiles similar to galaxies named for this shape. Kepler found that the planets’ orbits were this shape with the Sun as a focus.
ANSWER: ellipse [or elliptical; accept ellipsoid or ellipsoidal; accept elliptical galaxy or elliptical galaxies]
[10h] Three answers required. The luminosity density of dark matter halos can be modeled similarly to elliptical galaxies according to a 1996 paper by these three scientists, whose triply eponymous “profile” also models mass distribution of dark matter.
ANSWER: Julio F. Navarro AND Carlos Silvestre Frenk AND Simon David Manton White [accept in any order; accept Navarro-Frenk-White profile; prompt on NFW or any permutation of the letters N, F, and W]
<EK, Other Science: Astronomy>