Answer Options:
millions
thousands
tens
fives
Answer: millions
Question: Why was gravitational contraction ruled out as the source of the Sun’s energy?
Answer Options:
When Einstein developed general relativity, it ruled out gravitational contraction as the source of the Sun’s energy.
Gravitational contraction explains only part of the Sun’s energy. The rest had to come from something else.
Gravitational contraction would have produced energy for about 100 million years. The Earth is much older than that.
Answer: Gravitational contraction would have produced energy for about 100 million years. The Earth is much older than that.
Question: Which of the following [more than one] enriches the ISM with elements beyond iron?
Answer Options:
Type II supernova
Iron stars
Type Ia supernova
Type Ib supernova
Answer: Type II supernova
Type Ia supernova
Question: Hydrogen fusion in the Sun requires a temperature (in Kelvin) of
Answer Options:
thousands of degrees
millions of degrees
any temperature, as long as gravity is strong enough
Answer: 2. millions of degrees
Question: From the center outward, which of the following lists the “layers” of the Sun in the correct order?
Answer Options:
core, radiation zone, convection zone, corona, chromosphere, photosphere
core, convection zone, radiation zone, photosphere, chromosphere, corona
core, radiation zone, convection zone, photosphere, chromosphere, corona
core, convection zone, radiation zone, corona, chromosphere, photosphere
Answer: 3. core, radiation zone, convection zone, photosphere, chromosphere, corona
Question: Trick question: is there milk in the Milky Way Galaxy?
Answer Options:
No.
Yes.
Answer: No.
Question: What causes the radio pulses of a pulsar?
Answer Options:
The star’s orbiting companion periodically eclipses the radio waves emitted by the main pulsar.
A black hole near the star absorbs energy and re-emits it as radio waves.
As the star spins, beams of radio radiation sweep through space. If one of the beams crosses Earth, we observe a pulse.
The star undergoes periodic explosions of nuclear fusion that generate radio emission.
Answer: As the star spins, beams of radio radiation sweep through space. If one of the beams crosses Earth, we observe a pulse.
Question: How do elements such as oxygen and sulfur form?
Answer Options:
In the interior of Sun-sized stars.
In the interior of high-mass stars.
In the interior of planetary/nebulae.
By nuclear fusion reactions of H2 main sequence stars after the red giant stage.
Through the process of stellar nucleosynthesis.
Answer: In the interior of high-mass stars.
Through the process of stellar nucleosynthesis.
Question: What explains the metallicity difference between population I and population II stars?
Answer Options:
Population I stars are of spectral type like our Sun or possibly cooler. Population II stars are of spectral type that is typically less solar-like. Nuclear reactions in the hotter, more massive stars, causing the metallicity difference between the two populations.
Population II stars formed in regions of the MWG where heavy elements were plentiful. Population I stars formed in regions of the MWG where heavier elements were scarce. As a result, Population I stars are older than population II stars and have therefore had a much longer time to be enriched by heavy elements.
Population I stars formed when the abundance of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium was low. Population I stars formed later. All stars but the dying members of the first generations of stars had enriched the interstellar medium with elements heavier than hydrogen and helium.
Answer: Population I stars formed when the abundance of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium was low. Population I stars formed later. All stars but the dying members of the first generations of stars had enriched the interstellar medium with elements heavier than hydrogen and helium.
Question: What happens after the electron degenerate iron core of a high mass star collapses into a neutron degenerate core?
Answer Options:
Type Ia supernova
Type Ib supernova
Neutrons are released and not much else
Type II supernova
Answer: Type II supernova
Question: How would you expect a star that formed recently in the disk of the galaxy to differ from one that formed early in the history of the disk?
Answer Options:
It should orbit the galactic center at a much higher rate of speed.
It should have a higher fraction of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium.
It should be much brighter.
It should be higher in mass.
Answer: It should have a higher fraction of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium.
Question: True/False: You can determine the space velocity of a star from its radial velocity only?
Answer Options:
True
False
Answer: False
Question: Which of the following would you expect to find in the halo?
Answer Options:
molecular clouds
spiral arms
globular clusters
pop I stars
Answer: globular clusters
Question: What is a pulsar?
Answer Options:
a star that expands and contracts like a Cepheid.
a binary star system with a white dwarf star.
a rapidly rotating neutron star.
a star burning iron in its core.
Answer: a rapidly rotating neutron star.
Question: SN 1987A is an example of a…
Answer Options:
Type Ia supernova.
planetary nebula.
white dwarf.
Type II supernova.
Answer: Type II supernova.
Question: What would be the source of energy producing hot interstellar regions with temperatures of millions of degrees?
Answer Options:
Nebular explosions.
Prime-stage nuclear fusion reactions in molecular clouds.
Supernova explosions.
The production of cosmic rays through the implosion of massive stars.
Answer: Supernova explosions.