Cosmology Exam Bank
Course
Introduction
Cosmology is the scientific study of the origin, structure, evolution, and eventual fate of the Universe. This course covers key concepts such as the Big Bang theory, cosmic microwave background radiation, large-scale structure, dark matter, dark energy, and the expansion of the Universe. Students explore both theoretical and observational approaches to understanding the cosmos, utilizing principles from general relativity and modern astrophysics. Through this course, participants gain insight into the major discoveries and unresolved questions in contemporary cosmology, as well as the methods used to investigate the fundamental properties of space, time, and matter.
Recommended Textbook
Foundations of Astronomy 13th Edition by Michael A. Seeds
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15 Chapters
1488 Verified Questions
1488 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: The Scale of the Cosmos
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48 Verified Questions
48 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the ratio of the diameter of the Sun to the diameter of the Earth?
A)100 : 1
B)1000 : 1
C)10,000 : 1
D)100,000 : 1
Answer: A
Q2) It takes light 1.3 seconds to travel from the Moon to the Earth and 8 minutes to travel from the Sun to the Earth.How much farther from the Earth is the Sun,compared to the Moon?
A)2.1 times farther
B)6.2 times farther
C)10 times father
D)370 times farther
Answer: D
Q3) The nearest star is 1 light year from the solar system.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q4) A(n)____________________ is the distance that light would travel in one year.
Answer: light year
Page 3
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Chapter 2: User's Guide to the Sky
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160 Verified Questions
160 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) An observer in the northern hemisphere takes a time exposure photograph of the night sky.If the illustration depicts the photograph taken by the observer,which direction was the camera pointing?
A)due north
B)due south
C)due west
D)straight up, directly overhead
Answer: A
Q2) What is the term for the point in the Earth's orbit where the Earth is closest to the Sun?
A)aphelion
B)perihelion
C)precession
D)the vernal equinox
Answer: B
Q3) A second magnitude star in Ursa Major is brighter than a fourth magnitude star in Orion.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 3: The Origin of Modern Astronomy
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77 Verified Questions
77 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the term for a commonly accepted set of scientific ideas and assumptions?
A)theory
B)paradigm
C)hypothesis
D)natural law
Answer: B
Q2) Which of the following describes the semi-major axis of an ellipse?
A)the ratio of the longest diameter of the ellipse to the shortest diameter of the ellipse
B)half the length of the shortest diameter of the ellipse
C)half the length of the longest diameter of the ellipse
D)the distance between the two foci of the ellipse
Answer: C
Q3) What was Tycho Brahe's greatest contribution to astronomy?
A)his model of the universe
B)his telescopic observations
C)his discovery of three laws of motion
D)his 20 years of careful observations of the planets
Answer: D
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Chapter 4: Astronomical Telescopes and Instruments
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101 Verified Questions
101 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The largest optical telescope ever constructed was a refracting telescope.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following types of light has wavelengths that are shorter than the wavelengths of visible light?
A)gamma rays
B)radio waves
C)infrared radiation
D)microwaves
Q3) Which form of electromagnetic radiation travels fastest?
A)gamma rays
B)radio waves
C)all electromagnetic radiation travels at the same speed
D)the speed of radiation depends on the brightness of the source
Q4) Why might astronomers some day establish an observatory on the Moon? Why would radio astronomers prefer the far side of the Moon for their observatory?
Q5) A(n)____________________ is used to measure the brightness and colour of stars.
Q6) Why must telescopes that observe in the far infrared be cooled?
Q7) A(n)____________________ uses a mirror as its objective.
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Chapter 5: Sun Light and Sun Atoms
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132 Verified Questions
132 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is responsible for binding the electrons to the nucleus?
A)Kirchhoff's law
B)Wien's law
C)Coulomb force
D)Balmer series
Q2) A certain spectral line of hydrogen has a wavelength of 410.2 nm when observed in the laboratory.If the same line appears in a star's spectrum at 410.0 nm,what can you conclude about the motion of the star?
A)The star is moving away from the observer.
B)The star is moving toward the observer.
C)The star is moving but the direction is not known.
D)The star is not moving toward or away from the observer.
Q3) What causes an atom to become excited?
A)emitting a photon
B)colliding with another atom or electron
C)reflecting a photon
D)gaining an extra electron
Q4) What evidence do we have that the sunspots are magnetic?
Q5) The process of removing an electron from a stable nucleus is known as
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Chapter 6: The Family of Stars
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110 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) When compared to stars near the middle of the diagram,how are stars in the upper right part of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram different?
A)They are always cooler.
B)They are always larger.
C)They are always smaller.
D)They are always more massive.
Q2) Which star in the table has the largest diameter?
A)? Cen
B)HR 4758
C)HD 39801
D)9 CMa
Q3) To determine the orbital period of a visual binary,what must we measure?
A)brightness
B)position on the sky
C)luminosity
D)temperature
Q4) How can we be certain that white dwarfs are very small?
Q5) The most common kinds of stars are low luminosity stars.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 7: The Structure and Formation of Stars
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112 Verified Questions
112 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why do higher mass stars live shorter lives on the main sequence than lower mass stars?
A)Higher mass stars burn through their nuclear fuel faster.
B)Lower mass stars don't get their energy from nuclear fusion like higher mass stars do.
C)Higher mass stars have less hydrogen fuel to burn.
D)Lower mass stars spend a longer time evolving to the main sequence.
Q2) Stars of one solar mass produce their energy by the set of nuclear reactions called the CNO cycle.
A)True
B)False
Q3) T Tauri stars are believed to be young,high mass main-sequence stars.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Why is convection important in stars?
A)because it mixes the star's gases and increases the temperature of the star
B)because it mixes the star's gases and transports energy outwards
C)because it carries energy toward the core of the star
D)because it carries the neutrinos to the surface of the star where they can escape
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Chapter 8: The Deaths of Stars
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145 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the year 10 4 CE,Chinese astronomers observed the appearance of a new star.What occupies that location now?
A)a molecular cloud
B)a planetary nebula with a white dwarf in the centre
C)a supernova remnant with a pulsar in the centre
D)nothing
Q2) How are neutron stars and white dwarfs similar?
Q3) What does the explosion of a type II supernova typically leave behind?
A)a planetary nebula
B)a shell of hot, expanding gas with a white dwarf at the centre
C)a shell of hot, expanding gas with a pulsar at the centre
D)nothing is ever left behind
Q4) Which nuclear fuels does a one solar mass star use over the course of its entire lifespan?
A)hydrogen
B)hydrogen and helium
C)hydrogen, helium, and carbon
D)hydrogen, helium, carbon, and oxygen
Q5) Why do we NOT expect to find a 5 solar mass neutron star?
Q6) What evidence do we have that some stars lose mass?
Page 10
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Chapter 9: The Milky Way Galaxy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Discuss how Harlow Shapley determined the structure of the Milky Way galaxy from his study of globular clusters.
Q2) Compare and contrast the properties of disk and halo stars.
Q3) Why are Cepheid variable stars important in our study of the Milky Way galaxy?
Q4) How does the density wave theory explain the presence of young stars in the spiral arms?
Q5) What part of the Milky Way contains mostly old stars and globular clusters?
A)the spiral arms
B)the spherical halo component
C)the smooth disk component
D)the nucleus
Q6) Old stars are poor in heavy atoms because there were very few previous generations of stars before the old stars formed.
A)True
B)False
Q7) The disk of the galaxy is older than the halo.
A)True
B)False
Q8) Why are all spiral tracers young?
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Chapter 10: Galaxies
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127 Verified Questions
127 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Hubble Law describes a relationship between two characteristics of a galaxy.What are they?
A)mass and luminosity
B)distance and luminosity
C)mass and recession velocity
D)distance and recession velocity
Q2) Based on statistical studies,what is the most common type of galaxy in the universe expected to be?
A)barred spiral galaxies
B)dwarf elliptical galaxies
C)irregular galaxies
D)giant elliptical galaxies
Q3) ____________________ clusters of galaxies contain closely spaced galaxies,and often contain giant elliptical galaxies and a hot intergalactic medium.
Q4) Describe the kind of observations that have led astronomers to believe that supermassive black holes lie at the centres of many galaxies.
Q5) Poor clusters of galaxies often contain an excess of E and S0 galaxies.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 11: Cosmology in the 21st Century
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67 Verified Questions
67 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The cosmic background radiation comes from a particular time after the origin of the universe.What was that time?
A)when protons and neutrons were first formed
B)when the Big Bang first began to expand
C)when gamma rays had enough energy to destroy nuclei
D)when electrons began to recombine with nuclei to form atoms
Q2) What properties does the cosmological principle require the universe to have?
A)homogeneous and expanding
B)homogeneous and isotropic
C)isotropic and accelerating
D)isotropic and expanding
Q3) Upon what false assumption is Olbers' paradox based?
Q4) What is the fate of an open universe that has no dark energy?
A)expansion forever
B)eventual collapse
C)gradual halt to the expansion
D)can't be known without density information
Q5) The night sky is dark because the universe is not infinitely old.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 12: The Origin of the Solar System
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69 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The adding of material an atom at a time to create a solid grain or flake is the process of ____________________.
Q2) The description "large somewhat dirty snowball model" fits the physical structure of
Q3) Which one of the following is a characteristic of terrestrial planets?
A)high average density
B)orbits outside the asteroid belt
C)large diameters
D)many satellites
Q4) The diagram shows the radioactive decay of cesium (¹³ Cs).What is the half-life of ¹³ Cs?
Q5) According to the condensation sequence,what should condense as solids closest to the Sun?
A)hydrogen and helium
B)metals and metal oxides
C)silicates
D)ices of water, methane, and ammonia
Q6) The ____________________ of a radioactive substance is the amount of time it takes for the substance to be reduced by half.
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Comparative Planetology of the Terrestrial
Planets
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122 Verified Questions
122 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is one hypothesis that has been suggested to explain the uniform age of the surface of Venus?
A)The surface of Venus is made of rocks that are much harder than the Earth's and thus last longer.
B)Venus periodically goes through a catastrophic melting of the entire surface.
C)The clouds in the atmosphere of Venus protect it from meteorites so that very few impacts occur to change its surface.
D)Dust storms deposit large amount of dust on the surface of Venus, making it appear to be of uniform age.
Q2) Which of the following properties differs least between the Earth and Venus?
A)atmospheric density
B)surface temperature
C)atmospheric composition
D)fraction of basaltic lowlands
Q3) Explain how we can determine the relative ages of lunar features.
Q4) Flow channels on Venus suggest it was once rich in water.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Evaluate the evidence that Mars had liquid water in the past.
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Chapter 14: Comparative Planetology of the Jovian Planets
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89 Verified Questions
89 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Describe the theories that try to account for the belt-zone circulation on Jupiter.
Q2) In what way is the rotation of Uranus peculiar?
A)It is very slow, nearly zero.
B)It is much faster than is typical for Jovian planets.
C)The rotation is in the opposite direction to the planet's orbital direction
D)The axis is nearly parallel to the plane of the planet's orbit.
Q3) For an observer on Uranus,the plane of the ecliptic passes only a few degrees from the celestial poles.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What is the best explanation for the narrowness of the rings of Uranus and Neptune?
A)gravitational interactions between ring particles
B)a spiral density wave that confines them
C)the magnetic field that holds them in place
D)small shepherd moons that orbit near the rings
Q5) Satellites that lack craters are generally old,inactive bodies.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 15: Life on Other Worlds
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60 Verified Questions
60 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) How can we select stars with planets that are likely homes for life?
Q2) What did Butler mean when he said,"The chicken is the egg's way of making another egg"?
Q3) What is ALH84001,and why is it significant to discussions of the evolution of life?
Q4) The Miller experiment succeeded in creating ____________________.
Q5) DNA molecules cannot be altered by chance errors in reproduction.
A)True
B)False
Q6) The wavelengths that are most likely for communication with other civilizations are those in the water hole.
A)True
B)False
Q7) What do DNA molecules contain the patterns for?
A)amino acids
B)proteins
C)phosphates and sugars
D)four kinds of bases
Q8) What is the difference between chemical evolution and biological evolution?
Q9) Describe three things that limit travel between stars.
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