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History 211
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1Why are the astronauts on the ISS experiencing "weightlessness"?
- AThey don't feel Earth's gravitational force because they are both free falling and accelerating at the same time.
- BIn space's ether, all objects are pushed upwards via gravitational force.
- CThe astronauts are free falling, and are pushed back by Earth's atmosphere.
- DThe astronauts are accelerating fast around the Earth, and the horizontal force holds them up.
2The absorption and emission lines from stars and galaxies moving towards or away from Earth gets shifted bluer or redder depending on the direction that it is moving. This is known as the [blank_start]Doppler[blank_end] effect.
- ADoppler
3As astronauts have learned more about the structure of the Sun, they have found that it
- Ais made entirely of hot gas
- Bhas a small solid core inside
- Cis made entirely of liquid, with a tiny bit of hot gas on the outside
- Dis solid throughout, but with a large, very hot atmosphere
- Eis made of billions of individual pieces of hot rock, all orbiting around each other in a whirling arrangement
4You are out on the beach, enjoying the warm sunshine with friends. As you glance up at the Sun, the part of the Sun that you can see directly is called its:
- Aphotosphere
- Bchromosphere
- Cheliopause
- Dcore
- Ecorona
5How do astronomers know what the outer layers of the Sun are made of?
- Awe take an absorption line spectrum of the Sun, and the absorption lines tell us what elements are present in the outer layers
- Bthe surface layers of Mercury have been laid down by the Sun and are thus made of the same material as the Sun
- Cseveral spacecraft with good shielding have approached the Sun and obtained samples
- Dthe Sun's wind gives us an accurate measure of all the different elements in the Sun
6Most common element in the Sun
- Ahydrogen
- Biron
- Cwater
- Dnitrogen
- Ehelium
7The hottest zone in the Sun is the
- Acore
- Bchromosphere
- Cphotosphere
- Dconvection zone
- Eradiative zone
8which of the following statements about the Sun's photosphere is false?
- Athe photosphere is significantly hotter than all the layers of the Sun beneath it (further inward)
- Bthe photosphere is the layer where the Sun becomes opaque
- Cthe photosphere is not a solid layer: if a spaceship fell through it, it wouldn't feel anything reaching the photosphere
- Dthe photosphere is much less dense than our Earth's atmosphere
- Ethrough a telescope, the photosphere looks mottled or granulated
9the ten million tons of particles that escape the Sun each year in the form of the solar wind get out mainly through regions called
- Acoronal holes
- Baurorae
- Ctransitional regions
- Dspiracles
- Esunspots
10The granulation pattern that astronomers have observed on the surface of the Sun tells us that:
- Ahot material must be rising from the Sun's hotter interior
- Bthe Sun is a lot cooler on the inside than on the outside
- Cthe solar wind must consist of very small (low-mass) particles
- Dthe Sun's surface is made of a thin solid that cracks easily
- Ethe Sun accumulates a lot of dirt and dust because of its large gravity
11Sunspots are darker than the regions of the Sun around them because
- Athey are shadows of the planets and asteroids seen on the bright surface of the Sun
- Bthey move much faster around the Sun than any other material and thus heat up
- Cthey are located in the corona and not on the photosphere
- Dthey consist of different materials than the rest of the Sun
- Ethey are cooler than the material around them (although still very hot compared to Earth temperatures)
12which statement about the Sun's rotation is true?
- Athe sun doesn't rotate only planets do
- Bonly the atmosphere of the Sun rotates, not the main body of the Sun
- CThe Sun rotates only at the equator, where the sunspots are found; the rest of the Sun does not rotate
- Dthe Sun rotates at different rates at different altitudes on the Sun
- Ethe Sun rotates once a day
13how do astronomers know how strong the magnetic field of the Sun is?
- Athey measure the magnetic field of the Earth, which is a direct result of the magnetic field of the Sun
- Bthey count the number of days in the year that we get an aurora in the upper atmosphere
- Cthey measure the Sun's rotation using the Doppler effect
- Dthe diameter of a star is directly related to the size of its magnetic field
- Ethe measure of the Zeeman effect (the splitting of spectral lines)
14which is not part of some active regions on the Sun
- Agranulation
- Bprominences
- Cplages
- Dsunspots
- Eflares
15which of these statements about sun flares is false?
- Aa flare can release energy equivalent to a million hydrogen bombs
- Bthe visible light we see from a flare is only a tiny fraction of the energy it releases
- Cflares happen more often during solar maximum, and sometime during those periods, there can be several in one day
- Dastronomers think that flares are connected with sudden changes in the magnetic field of the Sun
- Eflares originate in the upper part of the corona, in the regions called coronal holes
16coronal mass ejections do not do this:
- Adisrupting the electronics of satellites
- Bheating the ionosphere and thus expanding the extent of our planet's atmosphere
- Ccausing huge cyclones around the equator of the Earth
- Dcausing power surges and power outages in parts of the Earth near the poles
- Eexposing astronauts and airplane passengers to increased amounts of radiation
17how did astronomers find out that the level of the Sun's activity varies over the centuries?
- Ahistorical records of the number of sunspots seen on the Sun
- Bmeasuring the amount of radioactive carbon in tree rings
- Chistorical records of auroral activity
- Dall of the above
- Enone of the above
18How do we know that the Sun is older than the burning of coal could've sustained?
- Amost of the Sun is antimatter (which explodes when it touches matter)
- Bthe dating of radioactive rocks show that the Earth and the Sun are billions of years old
- Cwe have found many more neutrinos than we expected in our underground experiments
- Dnew protostars shine by gravitational collapse (the heat of clumping)
- Ethe CNO cycle can also produce helium
19Physicists Kelvin and Helmholtz proposed that the source of the Sun's energy could be
- Aradioactive rocks
- Bannihilation of antimatter
- Cslow contraction
- Dnuclear fusion
- Emeteorites falling in
20what is the source of energy for the sun
- Anuclear fusion
- Bradioactivity
- Cmechanical to thermal energy conversion
- Dcoal burning
- Ekelvin-helmholtz contraction
- Fionization
21what does E=mc2 mean
- Aenergy can travel much faster than light
- Bmass has to travel at the speed of light before it can produce energy
- Ca little bit of mass can be converted into a substantial amount of energy
- Dwhen two masses collide, we always get a lot of light
22not a fundamental particle found inside atoms;
- Aelectrons
- Bneutrons
- Cprotons
- Dpositrons
- Eall of them are found in most atoms
23what does the collision of a positron and an electron produce
- Aa deuteron
- Benergy in the form of a gamma ray
- Ca neutron
- Dhelium
- Ehydrogen
24the strongest force we know of it
- Athe nuclear force holding nuclei together
- Belectricity which pulls unlike charges together
- Cnone of the above
- Dgravity, which holds the Earth and Sun together
25If it takes an average of 14 billion years before any proton inside the Sun undergoes fusion, and the Sun is 5 billion years old, how do we know fusion is happening there now?
- Afusion begins with particles even lighter than protons, which fuse more easily
- Bmuch more fusion takes place in the hot atmosphere of the Sun (where it can happen faster), not deep inside (where fusion is slow)
- Cthere is no fusion going on inside the Sun
- Dthere is an enormous amount of protons inside the Sun and some of them will fuse much sooner than the average
- Efusion needs carbon and carbon fuses much quicker
26What are hydrogen nuclei converted into in the p-p chain of nuclear fusion in the Sun
- Aa helium nucleus
- Ba carbon nucleus
- Cheavy hydrogen nuclei
- Dantimatter
- Eneon nuclei
27why is the sun not collapsing
- Anuclear fusion in the core keeps temperature and the pressure inside the Sun at a high enough level so that gravity is balanced
- Bthe pressure of the corona keeps the Sun's main body of gases confined to a small volume
- Cthe Sun is shrinking, just slowly
- Dthe gravity of the planets pulls its material outwards so it doesn't collapse
- Eneutrinos exert pressure when they exit the sun
28when great currents of hot material rise inside the Sun (and cool material sinks downward) energy is being transferred by a process known as
- Aradiation
- Bconduction
- Cconvection
- Dequilibrium
29what takes the shortest amount of time to emerge from the Sun's photosphere, after it is produced in the core?
- Aa neutrino
- Ba photon of gamma rays
- Ca proton
- Da positron
- Ex rays
- Fdeuterons
30What is a way for astronomers to learn more about the interior of the Sun?
- Astudy the corona during eclipses
- Bstudy the oscillations of the Sun's surface
- Cstudy the orbits of the planets in relation to the Sun's gravity
- Dstudy the magnetic field of the sun and the frequency of sunspots
31Why do we only detect 1/3 of neutrinos?
- Aneutrinos turn into a different type of neutrino in a neutrino oscillation
- Bneutrinos change their course as they interact with other particles in the ether
- Cneutrinos collide with antineutrinos and produce gamma rays as a result
- Dthe Sun produces few neutrinos that dissolve before they reach us
32What is the luminosity of a star?
- Athe mass of a star
- Bhow much energy the star gives off each second
- Cwhich elements shine the brightest
- Dthe star's gravitational force
- Ewhat color the star is
- Fthe amount of energy that reaches the earth/how bright the star appears to us
33Two stars have the exact same luminosity, but Star 1 is 4 times dimmer looking than Star 2. What does this mean?
- Astar 1 is twice as far away as Star 2
- BStar 1 is half as far away as Star 2
- CStar 2 is 16 times farther away than Star 1
- Dwe can't figure out the relative distance of the two stars from the information given
- Estar 1 is four times as far away as Star 2
34Which of these stars looks brightest in the sky?
- Aa star with magnitude 15
- Ba star with magnitude 2
- Ca star with magnitude -5
- Da star with magnitude -10
- Etrick question, they all have the same brightness
35why do astronomers care more about the luminosity of a star than its apparent brightness?
- Abecause the luminosity tells us how bright a star really is, versus apparent brightness just in relation to our earth
- Bluminosity tells us the rate of fusion of a star
- Ctrick question, there's no difference between luminosity and apparent brightness
- Dluminosity tells us what elements the star is made of
- Eluminosity can be measured exactly
36which color star is likely to be the hottest?
- Ablue
- Bblue-violet
- Cred
- Dgreen
- Eyellow
37why do all spectra not look alike?
- Athe atmospheres of some distort the spectra
- Bthey are made of very different elements
- Cthey are located in many different places and thus look different to us because of it
- Dthey all have different temperatures
- Ethey change their spectra as they age, so young stars have very different spectra than older ones
38if hydrogen is the most common element in the universe, why do we not see lines of hydrogen in the spectra of the hottest stars?
- Ain hotter stars hydrogen nuclei are forced into nuclear fission
- Bin the hottest stars, hydrogen atoms are ionized, and so there are no electrons to produce lines in the spectrum in the hottest stars
- Cin the hottest stars the hydrogen atoms experience a huge Doppler shift, which moves the lines in the spectrum
- Din the hottest stars, all of the hydrogen is quickly fused into helium
39A star's spectrum doesn't display helium whatsoever. what does this mean about the star?
- Anothing, no star shows helium
- Bhelium only shows in hot stars so this star must be relatively cool
- Call helium is in the core of the star so it wouldn't show in the spectrum
- Dthere is no helium in the star
- Ehelium quickly bonded with something else
40a star is moving away from the Sun. how do we measure it's speed?
- Aby seeing how the luminosity decreases as it moves farther and farther away
- Bby looking at the Doppler shift in the line's of the star's spectrum
- Cby seeing the star change colors to become redder
- Dthere is no way to measure the speed with which a star moves away or towards us
- Eby measuring the diameter of the star and noticing it is becoming smaller and smaller
41a star moving toward the Sun will show:
- Aa shift in the spectral lines towards red
- Ban increase in its apparent brightness
- Cno change!
- Da shift in the spectral lines towards blue
- Emore helium lines
42the sky in the future, which of these statements is true?
- Anothing will change
- Ball the stars in the sky will have died in a million years
- Cmany familiar constellations will look different because of proper motion
- Dwe don't know enough to guess what the sky will look like in the future
- Eall the stars will look a different color
43what can we not learn from studying the spectrum of a star?
- Aits surface temperature
- Bits motion toward or away from us
- Cwhether it's rotating slow or fast
- Dwhether it is a star like our Sun or a giant star
- Etrick question, all of these things can be determined
44The stars we can see with the unaided eye from Earth are:
- Amore luminous (intrinsically brighter) than the Sun
- Bvery close to us
- Call binary systems because their light is combined
- Dfainter than the Sun intrinsically
- Edying currently in a supernova and that's why they're so bright
45why do the really bright stars in our sky look so bright, despite not being close to us?
- Athese stars are very luminous intrinsically so we can easily see them from afar
- Bthese stars vary in brightness(flashing) so we can pick them out easier
- Cthey are in crowded clusters that combine all of their luminosities
- Dthe brightest stars are red and we can see red easy in the black night sky
46Why are there no supergiants close to the Sun?
- Avery luminous stars are extremely rare, so any small neighbourhood in the Galaxy is unlikely to contain one of them
- Bconditions in our solar neighbourhood only permit stars about the size of the Sun
- Cthere are, we just likely haven't discovered them yet
- Dthey have all gone through their life cycle and died
47The most common kinds of stars in the Galaxy have this:
- Alow luminosity compared to the Sun
- Bhigh luminosity compared to the sun
- Cginormous masses compared to the sun
- Dspectra that show they contain mostly iron
- Ediameters much larger than the Sun
48what characteristic of a star is difficult to measure directly? a single star, one that moves independently
- Amass
- Bchemical composition
- Ctemperature
- Dapparent brightness
- Etrick question, we can measure all of these directly
49which of these statements about spectroscopic binary stars is not true?
- Aan analysis of the ways the lines in the spectrum change allows us to calculate the star's distance directly
- Bvisually we only see one star
- Cwe often use the changes in spectral line positions to measure the radial velocity of the stars in the system
- Dsome of the lines in the spectrum are double, with the spacing changing over time
- Ewe can use the spectrum to determine the sum of the masses of the two stars
50which are method(s) for measuring the diameter of a star?
- Awatching the body of the Moon go across the star
- Bgetting the light curve of an eclipsing binary star
- Ccomparing the color of a star seen high above our heads and then again when its near the horizon
- Dmeasuring the spectrum of a spectroscopic binary
- Emore than one of the above
51In an H-r diagram, where can you see the spectral type of a star?
- Aalong the bottom on the horizontal axis
- Balong the vertical axis
- Conly in the red giant region
- Donly on the main sequence
- EH-R diagrams don't tell us spectral types
52we identify the main sequence on H-R diagrams with stars doing what?
- Afusing hydrogen with helium in their cores
- Bperforming nuclear fission
- Cdying
- Dgrowing in mass
- Econtracting
- Ftrick question, the main sequence doesn't identify any activity of a star
53where do you find the stars with the lowest mass on any H-R diagram?
- Aamong the stars on the bottom right of the main sequence
- Bamong the supergiants in the top right corner
- Camong the white dwarfs in the bottom left
- Damong the stars at the top left of the main sequence
- Estars with low mass can be found anywhere in the H-R diagram
54for apparent brightness to be a good indicator of a star's distance, all star's would have to be:
- Athe same luminosity
- Bmuch farther away than they are
- Cthe same distance away from us
- Dthe same chemical composition
- Eby themselves, no binary systems
55Kepler's laws give us relative distances of objects in the solar system. In order to convert these relative distances into actual distances, we need to:
- Ameasure the distance directly to any object orbiting the Sun
- Bmeasure the size of the Earth
- Cmeasure the mass of the Sun
- Dmeasure the exact time it takes for Earth to spin once on its axis
- Emeasure the length of the year (orbital period) exactly
56what do astronomers use the term "interstellar matter" to describe?
- Agas and dust that lies between stars
- Bcomets, asteroids and meteors
- Cplanets around stars other than the Sun
- Delectromagnetic radiation coming from a group of stars
57what is a nebula?
- Aa giant cloud of east and dust between or among the stars
- Bthe cloud of comets that lies on the outskirts of the solar system
- Cthe Frisbee-shaped collection of gas that covers the entire Milky Way
- Da star surrounded by at least 8 planets and many moons
58what is an astronomical unit?
- Athe average distance between the Earth and the Sun
- Bthe distance covered by light in one year
- Cthe distance between Earth and Venus
- Dthe distance to the nearest star that's not the Sun
- Ethe distance between the Sun and Neptune
59what is the parallax of a star?
- Aone half of the angle that a star shifts when seen from opposite sides of the Earth's orbit around the Sun
- B1 astronomical unit
- Cthe time it takes for a star to move one second of arc of proper motion
- Dthe time it takes a Cepheid variable star to go through one cycle of its brightness changes
- Eone half of the Doppler shift due to its radial velocity
60how do astronomers know that pulsating variable stars are actually expanding and contracting in diameter?
- Athey can measure a regularly varying Doppler shift in the spectral lines
- Bthey can measure the star's changing pull on it's companion star orbiting around it
- Cthey look at the H-R diagram
- Dthey look at the light curve
61the higher the luminosity of a Cepheid variable:
- Athe longer the period of its variations
- Bthe larger the telescope we need to observe it
- Cthe lower it is on the main sequence of the H-R diagram
- Dthe closer it is to us
- Ethe smaller its mass
62to get the distance to a Cepheid variable star, astronomers must take several steps. Which of these is not one of these steps?
- Ameasure the star's Doppler shift from its spectrum
- Bdetermine the apparent brightness of the star
- Capply the period-luminosity relationship
- Dmeasure the period of variations by timing when the star is brightest and dimmest
- Eobserve the star getting brighter and dimmer to establish that it varies
63If an astronomer wants to find the distance to a star that is not variable and is located too far away for parallax measurements, they can:
- Afind the star's spectral type and luminosity class from its spectrum and determine its luminosity from an H-R diagram
- Buse the light curve
- Cuse Kepler's laws as modified by Newton
- Dsearch for planets around the star since it is much easier to get the distance to planets
64which of these are the small regions that are the embryos of stars (where individual stars are most likely to be born)?
- Athe cores within the clumps of molecular clouds
- Bspiral galaxies
- Clocal bubbles
- DHII regions
65If an astronomer wants to find and identify as many stars as possible in a star cluster that has recently formed near the surface of a giant molecular cloud, what instrument would be best for them to use?
- Aan infrared telescope and a camera
- Ban X-ray telescope
- Ca UV spectrograph
- Da good camera attached to a large reflector telescope on the ground
66a star whose temperature is increasing but whose luminosity is roughly constant moves in what direction on the H-R diagram?
- Ato the left
- Bto the right
- Cupwards
- Ddownwards
- Estars don't move on the H-R diagram
67when a star settles down to a stable existence as a main sequence star, what characteristics determines where on the main sequence in the H-R diagram the star will fall?
- Aits mass
- Bthe speed and direction of its rotation
- Cthe size of the disk around it
- Dwhether it is located on the outer regions or the central regions of the molecular cloud that gave it birth
- Ethe amount of hydrogen it has
68which star will take the shortest time to go from the earliest protostar stage to the main sequence?
- Aa star ten times the mass of our Sun
- Ba star equal to the mass of our Sun
- Ca star 1/2 the mass of our Sun
- Da star 1/10th the mass of our Sun
69How long a main sequence star remains on the main sequence depends the most on its
- Amass
- Binitial composition
- Cability to fuse carbon into heavier elements
- Dits radial velocity
- Eits rotation speed
70If we want to search for planets with intelligent life-forms that evolved over the same period of time that we did, what sorts of stars should we not bother searching around?
- AO and B type stars
- BG type stars
- Cmain sequence stars
- Dall stars live such a long time that life could very possibly evolve around them even if it takes billions of years
71which type of star cluster contains the oldest stars?
- Aan open cluster
- Ba globular star cluster
- Ca stellar association
- Da galaxy
72How are globular clusters distributed in our Milky Way Galaxy?
- Amostly in a large spherical halo surrounding the flat disk of the Galaxy
- Bwhere the giant molecular clouds are found
- Conly in the main spiral disk of the galaxy
- Donly in the centre of the Galaxy
- Erandomly
73as clusters of stars age, which type of star in the cluster will move off the main sequence first?
- Athe O and B type stars
- Bthe lowest mass stars
- CM type stars
- Dall of the stars in a cluster will move off of it together
74On the H-R diagram of a cluster of stars, what is a good indicator of the cluster's age?
- Athe point on the main sequence where stars begin to turn off and move toward the red giant region
- Bthe lowest mass star in the cluster
- Cthe coldest stars in the cluster
- Dthe point on the main sequence where the youngest stars enter
- Ethe number of M stars on the main sequence
75If you traced back the history of a carbon atom in your little finger nail through all of cosmic history, where did this atom most likely originate?
- Ait was fused from 3 helium nuclei in the core of a red giant star long before the Sun existed
- Bit was fused from hydrogen atoms during the main-sequence stage of a star's life long before the Sun existed
- Cit was made in the Big Bang
- Dit was made from smaller nuclei in the hot core of the Earth when our planet first formed
- Ewe aren't sure where carbon comes from
76Really massive stars differ from stars with masses like the Sun because they
- Acan fuse elements beyond carbon and oxygen in their hot central regions
- Bare no longer being formed in the Galaxy
- Cskip the main sequence stage
- Dgo through the stages of their lives much slower
- Esignificantly less luminous after the main sequence stage is over
77In a planetary nebula, the shell of expelled material is glowing intensely. What is the main source of energy for this glow?
- Aultraviolet radiation from the collapsing hot star at the centre
- Bthe explosion of the dying star
- Cthe fusion of hydrogen into helium in the nebula
- Dthe change of electrons and protons into neutrons
- Efriction
78if most stars are low-mass stars, and low-mass stars typically eject a planetary nebula, why then do astronomers see relatively few planetary nebulae in the sky?
- Aplanetary nebulae expand rapidly and soon become too faint to be visible
- Bthey quickly fall back onto the star that produced them
- Cthey can only be detached through their faint radio emissions
- Dthey are only visible when a planet surrounding the star plows through the ejected material
79what will our Sun go through in the future?
- Aspending a long time on the main sequence
- Bexpanding to become a red giant
- Cfusing helium into carbon, eventually
- Dgiving off a planetary nebula
- Eall of the above
80if stars with masses like our Sun's cannot make elements heavier than oxygen, where are heavier elements like silicon produced in the universe?
- Aheavier elements are made in the cores of significantly more massive stars than the Sun
- Bwe actually don't know where they are made
- Cthey were made in the Big Bang at the time the universe began
- Dheavier elements are made in the photo-planetary disks that accompany many newly formed stars
- Ethey are made in the cores of planets when they form
81Looking back at the first generation of stars made when the Galaxy was first forming, how do they differ from stars being formed today?
- Athe first generation stars contain little or no elements heavier than helium
- Bthe first generation stars cannot form planets of any kind
- Cthe first generation stars live slower
- Dthe first generation stars never become red giants
- Ethe first generation stars are more luminous
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- Quiz on History 211, created by Jennifer C on 19/02/2024.
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