Cosmology Exam Questions
Course Introduction
Cosmology is the scientific study of the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the universe. This course explores fundamental concepts in modern cosmology, including the Big Bang theory, cosmic inflation, the expansion of the universe, the cosmic microwave background radiation, dark matter, and dark energy. Students will investigate the large-scale structure of the cosmos, formation and distribution of galaxies, and observational evidence supporting current cosmological models. The course also addresses the methods and technologies used to gather and interpret cosmological data, fostering a deeper understanding of the universe's past, present, and future.
Recommended Textbook
Astronomy The Universe at a Glance 1st Edition by Eric Chaisson
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15 Chapters
1442 Verified Questions
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Chapter 1: The Night Sky
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which is longer, the sidereal or solar day? By how much?
Answer: The solar day is approximately four minutes longer than the sidereal day.
Q2) Where did most of the chemical elements that make up our bodies come from?
A) The Sun
B) Vanished Stars
C) The Big Bang
D) Other planets
Answer: B
Q3) At apogee, the Moon is at its farthest from Earth and thus appears smaller than normal. Because of this it can produce only annular solar eclipses, but not total solar eclipses.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q4) It was Aristotle who used the scientific method to show the Earth was a sphere. A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 2: Light and Telescopes
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why do stars appear to twinkle?
Answer: In space, the light of the stars appears steady and images are sharp. But in passing through our atmosphere, the narrow shafts of star light are shifted constantly by turbulence, hence the images dance around in the eyepiece for us on the ground.
Q2) What are some advantages of radio telescopes over optical scopes?
Answer: Radio telescopes can be used day or night, they are much less affected by cloudy skies, and they open a new window to observe the Universe. They allow us to observe astronomical objects at a different wavelength than an optical telescope, thus giving an opportunity to compare and contrast the images.
Q3) As a star's temperature increases, the frequency of peak emission also increases. A)True B)False
Answer: True
Q4) The spectra of molecules are more complex because molecules can vibrate and ________ instead of just exhibiting electronic transitions like atoms. Answer: rotate
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Chapter 3: The Solar System
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Sample Questions
Q1) While both Ptolemy and Copernicus assumed all orbits were ________, Kepler's first law corrected this and made planetary motion predictable.
Answer: circles
Q2) How did Ptolemy explain the retrograde motion of Mars?
Answer: Mars will retrograde on the inner portion of its epicycle, when it is closest to us and its motion on the epicycle is more obvious than its motion along its deferent.
Q3) What is TRUE about solar system densities?
A) The denser planets lie closer to the Sun.
B) In differentiated bodies, the denser materials lie near their surfaces.
C) The asteroids all have about the same density.
D) Saturn has the same density as water.
E) Planetary density increases with increasing distance from the Sun.
Answer: A
Q4) Like the Sun and the Moon, the planets appear to move from west to east from one day to the next.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Earth and Its Moon
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which lunar feature most resembles the Moon's original crust?
A) Valleys
B) Craters
C) Maria
D) Bright rays
E) Highlands
Q2) Which statement about seismic waves is FALSE?
A) Both S and P waves can be detected by seismographs.
B) Close to the epicenter, both S and P waves can be recorded.
C) P waves travel faster, so the gap between their arrival times gives the source's distance.
D) Only P waves can be detected in the shadow zone.
E) S waves are blocked by the fluid outer core and cannot be observed on the other side of the planet from the epicenter.
Q3) Each day, there are ________ high tides on Earth.
Q4) A hot, molten body of different materials will become ________.
Q5) The average density of the Moon is less than that of the Earth.
A)True
B)False
Q6) What layers of the Earth's structure are not present in the Moon's structure?
Page 6
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Chapter 5: The Eight Planets
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Sample Questions
Q1) An important structural feature of Jupiter and Saturn, that is not found in Uranus and Neptune, is
A) a large core with a composition similar to a terrestrial planet.
B) a hydrosphere.
C) plate tectonics.
D) a thick layer of metallic hydrogen.
E) a thick layer of molecular hydrogen.
Q2) That the Tharsis region on Mars has so few craters
A) proves tectonic activity is taking place.
B) is due to the regions very low elevation.
C) suggests it is the youngest region on the planet.
D) suggests it is at the center of a particularly strong magnetic field.
E) is due to annual flooding and water erosion.
Q3) Jupiter's magnetic field is much stronger than Earth's, and has a magnetic tail that extends beyond the orbit of Saturn.
A)True
B)False
Q4) We have found Titan's surface to be perfect living condition for earthlike life.
A)True
B)False
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Small Bodies in the Solar System
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Sample Questions
Q1) The surface of which jovian moon most resembles the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean?
A) Amalthea
B) Io
C) Europa
D) Ganymede
E) Callisto
Q2) What are comets made of?
A) Silicates and rocky dust
B) Metallic dust particles
C) Dark colored complex hydrocarbons
D) Methane, ammonia, and water ice
E) All of the above
Q3) The reason the rings of Saturn exist is because
A) the ring material lies within the Roche limit of Saturn.
B) the gravitational influence of Titan confines them to those orbits.
C) the eruptions of Mimas' volcanoes are keeping them supplied with ice.
D) there has not been sufficient time for the ring particles to form a moon.
E) Saturn's rapid rotation is spinning material away from its equator, out into space.
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Chapter 7: Formation of Planetary Systems
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the role of dust in the condensation theory?
Q2) Planets found in the habitable zone of other stars
A) are all rocky planets, like the terrestrial planets in our solar system.
B) are all jovian planets.
C) include some Earths and super-Earths.
D) include hot Jupiters.
E) have been demonstrated to be barren of all life.
Q3) Any model of solar system formation must explain why the planets revolve in the same direction as the Sun rotates.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What are the chemical and physical properties of the solar system that any theory of its origin must explain?
Q5) As the solar nebula contracts it
A) flattens out into the ecliptic plane around the Sun's poles.
B) spins faster due to conservation of angular momentum.
C) cools due to condensation.
D) loses angular momentum.
E) reverses it direction of rotation.
Q6) Comets that we can see originate in the ________ and ________.
Page 9
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Chapter 8: The Sun
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Sample Questions
Q1) The pattern of rising hot gas cells all over the photosphere is called A) filaments.
B) granulation.
C) sunspots.
D) convective projections.
E) prominences.
Q2) What are the main constituents of the solar wind?
Q3) Why is it hard to observe the chromosphere?
Q4) The chromosphere is red because it is hot enough to ________ hydrogen atoms.
Q5) In spite of its high temperature, we observe the solar corona best during ________.
Q6) The critical temperature to initiate the proton-proton cycle in the cores of stars is
A) 3,000 K.
B) 5,800 K.
C) 2,300,000 K.
D) 10 million K.
E) 100 million K.
Q7) Energy produced in the solar core is transferred by ________ until it reaches a point about 500,000 km from the center.
Page 10
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Chapter 9: Measuring the Stars
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Sample Questions
Q1) Knowledge of a star's temperature and ________ enables us to calculate its radius, surface area, and volume from the appropriate radiation law.
Q2) What is proper motion? How is it related to transverse velocity?
Q3) Which of the following is the most common type of star?
A) High mass main sequence
B) Low mass main sequence
C) White dwarfs
D) Red giants
E) Blue supergiants
Q4) Star A is a main sequence star of spectral type G5 and star B is a red giant of spectral type K2. Which statement below is correct?
A) Star A appears brighter than star B.
B) Star B appears brighter than star A.
C) Star A is hotter than star B.
D) Star B is hotter than star A.
E) None of the above can be said about these two stars.
Q5) Explain how the shifting spectral lines of spectroscopic binaries let us find their periods.
Q6) Why is the main sequence main? Why are these stars so common?
Page 11
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Chapter 10: Star Formation and Evolution
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Sample Questions
Q1) What temperature is needed to fuse helium into carbon?
A) 5,800 K
B) 100,000 K
C) 15 million K
D) 100 million K
E) One billion K
Q2) Why can radio waves get through the dust clouds, but light is blocked?
Q3) It takes about 10³² hydrogen atoms to make a star.
A)True
B)False
Q4) In the Milky Way galaxy, gas and dust are found
A) in molecular clouds.
B) everywhere.
C) in neutral hydrogen clouds.
D) in dark nebulae.
E) in emission nebulae.
Q5) In general, as stars go through the last stage of post-main sequence evolution they will lose mass in the process of settling down into their final state. Explain the mass-loss process and the final state of the star for a low mass star.
Page 12
Q6) When a low-mass star runs out of hydrogen in its core, it gets brighter. Why?
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Chapter 11: Stellar Explosions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Type II supernovae have little hydrogen in their spectra; it had been used up already.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Type II supernovae and star forming regions are related to one another because A) they both contain ionized hydrogen.
B) they both involve high mass ionizing stars.
C) the shock waves of a supernova can trigger star formation.
D) as a result of both processes, lighter elements are transformed into heavier elements.
E) all of the above.
Q3) Gamma-ray bursts seem to come primarily from neutron star binaries in the plane of our own Milky Way Galaxy.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What would be most likely to disrupt the normal evolution of a star? Give examples of this.
Q5) How are elements heavier than iron made? Why are they rare?
Q6) What are two differences observed between Type I and Type II supernovae?
Q7) Contrast the progenitors of a Type I and a Type II supernova.
Page 13
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Chapter 12: Black Holes
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Sample Questions
Q1) How are the event horizon and Schwarzschild radius related?
A) The Schwarzschild radius is smaller than the distance from the singularity of a black hole to the event horizon.
B) The Schwarzschild radius is equal to the distance from the singularity of a black hole to the event horizon.
C) The Schwarzschild radius is greater than the distance from the singularity of a black hole to the event horizon.
D) The size of the Schwarzschild radius is unrelated to the distance from the singularity of a black hole to the event horizon.
E) The size of the Schwarzschild radius is proportional to the distance from the singularity of a black hole to the event horizon.
Q2) A ________ is a place where the current rules fall apart in science.
Q3) If a spaceship travels near the speed of light away from the Earth, an observer on Earth would see the length of the spaceship ________.
Q4) The current theories of gravity are ________ because they do not incorporate a proper description of matter on the smallest scale.
Q5) Relate escape velocity to the event horizon.
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Page 14
Chapter 13: The Milky Way Galaxy
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Sample Questions
Q1) What observations suggest the mass of the Galaxy goes much farther out than its visible disc?
A) 21 cm maps of the spiral arms
B) The rotation curve of the outermost portions of the disc
C) The orbits of the open clusters in the disc
D) Infrared observations of distant brown dwarfs
E) X-ray images of other galaxies' discs from Chandra
Q2) Our Milky Way Galaxy is now known to be quite similar to the nearby Andromeda Galaxy, M-31.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The Earth lies close to the center of the Galaxy.
A)True B)False
Q4) The Milky Way we see in the sky is simply our edge-on view of our home Galaxy. A)True B)False
Q5) The spiral structure of the Milky Way is best revealed by ________ cm radio observations of hydrogen atoms.
Page 15
Q6) How can Kepler's Third Law be used to estimate the mass of the galaxy?
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Chapter 14: Galaxies
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Sample Questions
Q1) Distinguish an E0 from an E7 galaxy.
Q2) The Milky Way's companion galaxies, the Magellanic Clouds, are irregular galaxies. A)True
B)False
Q3) What is TRUE of spiral galaxies?
A) They are much less common at larger redshifts.
B) They are relatively rare in regions of high galaxy density.
C) They are only found in the center of rich galaxy clusters.
D) They have never been seen to have large redshifts.
E) They evolve from giant ellipticals.
Q4) A spherical galaxy, like M87, which looks like a monster globular cluster, is type A) S0.
B) ES.
C) E0.
D) ES1.
E) 0V.
Q5) Why is light variability a critical issue with the sizes of active nuclei?
Q6) Discuss the population, size, and types of galaxies we find in our Local Group.
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Chapter 15: Cosmology and the Universe
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Sample Questions
Q1) Ripples in the Cosmic Microwave Background correspond to A) matter density fluctuations.
B) temperature fluctuations.
C) energy fluctuations.
D) fluctuations in both matter and radiation.
E) imperfections in measurement techniques or equipment.
Q2) How does dark energy affect the expansion of the Universe?
Q3) Observed temperature fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation are
A) millions of kelvins.
B) hundreds of kelvins.
C) a few kelvins.
D) tens of millionths of a kelvin.
E) immeasurably small.
Q4) What is the Big Bang?
A) An enormous explosion that organized all matter in the universe
B) The creation of matter and the universe
C) The creation of the primeval fireball
D) An explosion that spewed matter all over the universe
E) The event that started the expansion of the universe
17
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