Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe
Pre-Test Questions
Course Introduction
This course explores the fundamental components and large-scale structure of the universe, focusing on the life cycle of stars, the diverse types and dynamics of galaxies, and the cosmological principles that govern the cosmos. Students will examine stellar formation, evolution, and death, investigate the properties and classifications of galaxies, and analyze phenomena such as black holes, supernovae, and quasars. The course also introduces observational methods and technologies used in modern astronomy, while discussing current theories about the origin, expansion, and ultimate fate of the universe.
Recommended Textbook
Astronomy The Universe at a Glance 1st Edition by Eric Chaisson
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Chapter 1: The Night Sky
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Sample Questions
Q1) Where would you be if the Sun sets for six continuous months, beginning about September 23rd?
A) North Pole
B) Arctic Circle
C) Equator
D) Antarctic Circle
E) South Pole
Answer: A
Q2) Over the course of a night, Polaris moves less than any other visible star in the sky.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) How long is the precession cycle?
A) 1 day
B) 29.5 days
C) 365.24 days
D) 18 years, 11.3 days
E) 26,000 years
Answer: E
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Page 3
Chapter 2: Light and Telescopes
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Sample Questions
Q1) Stars that appear blue or white in color are ________ than our yellow Sun.
Answer: hotter
Q2) The design of modern X-ray telescopes depends on
A) lenses made of germanium.
B) the prime focus design, with mirrors made of iron.
C) grazing incidence optics.
D) achromatic lenses to keep the X-rays in focus.
E) the Cassegrain design, with mirrors made of lead.
Answer: C
Q3) Give and explain an example of the use of the Doppler Effect on the highway.
Answer: The radar gun of a highway patrolman sends out a pulsed beam to be reflected back, thus giving the speed of your car and perhaps netting you a ticket.
Q4) The number of waves passing the observer per second is
A) the wavelength in angstroms.
B) the amplitude in nm.
C) the frequency in Hertz.
D) the period in seconds.
E) the energy in milliwatts.
Answer: C
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Chapter 3: The Solar System
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of these observations of Galileo refuted Ptolemy's epicycles?
A) The complete cycle of Venus' phases
B) The rotation of sunspots across the Sun's surface
C) The revolution of Jupiter's moons around it
D) The craters on the Moon
E) The visibility of many more stars with the telescope
Answer: A
Q2) Kepler determined the shape of each planet's orbit by triangulation from different points on Earth's orbit, using observations made at many different times of the year.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) The heliocentric model was actually first proposed by A) Aristotle.
B) Archimedes.
C) Aristarchus.
D) Alexander the Great.
E) Hipparchus.
Answer: C
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Earth and Its Moon
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Sample Questions
Q1) Evidence that the Earth was nearly molten at one time comes from the differentiation of materials by ________ from core to crust.
Q2) The region around Earth where the magnetic field traps charged particles is the A) ozone layer.
B) exosphere.
C) Van Allen Radiation Belts.
D) corona.
E) aurora borealis and australis.
Q3) Which side of the Moon has the thicker crust? Why?
Q4) How do earthquakes allow us to model the structure of Earth's core?
Q5) Most of the information about the Moon's internal structure comes from ________ left on the lunar surface by Apollo astronauts.
Q6) Few of the Moon's craters are actually due to volcanism, as was widely thought prior to Apollo.
A)True
B)False
Q7) The three most abundant gases in our atmosphere are nitrogen, oxygen, and argon. A)True
B)False
Page 6
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Chapter 5: The Eight Planets
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Q1) Why does Saturn radiate even more excess energy than Jupiter?
A) Saturn is still radiating heat left over from its formation.
B) Saturn's thick cloud layer contributes to a larger greenhouse effect.
C) Helium rain gives off heat as it differentiates toward Saturn's center.
D) Saturn's atmosphere contains much methane, creating a large greenhouse effect.
E) Saturn can fuse hydrogen into helium in its core, like the Sun.
Q2) What is the evidence that suggests the past and present existence of surface water on Mars?
Q3) Compare and contrast the magnetospheres of Earth and Jupiter. Discuss strength and reaction to solar winds.
Q4) How does the magnetic tilt of Jupiter compare with our field?
A) Both are exactly perpendicular to our equator, aligned with our rotation axis.
B) Jupiter's lies perpendicular to the ecliptic, while ours is tilted 23.5 degrees.
C) Both are tilted about 10 degrees, but Jupiter is opposite in polarity.
D) Both are tilted about 27 degrees, much like Saturn's.
E) Like Uranus, Jupiter is flopped over on its side.
Q5) Contrast the compositions of Jupiter's belts and zones.
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Chapter 6: Small Bodies in the Solar System
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Q1) As with Saturn's F ring, shepherd moons play a major role in the structure of the thin narrow rings around Uranus.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Small icy bodies in the solar system which travel about the Sun in highly eccentric orbits and come from all directions are ________.
Q3) Pluto's density is most similar to
A) the terrestrial planets.
B) the jovian planets.
C) moons of the jovian planets.
D) Mercury, but nor Venus, Earth, or Mars.
E) Saturn, but not Jupiter, Uranus, or Neptune.
Q4) What makes Mimas a distinct moon?
A) It suffered a huge meteorite impact that must have nearly shattered it.
B) It helps maintain a wide apparent gap in Saturn's rings, known as Encke's Division.
C) It has a rich atmosphere that may resemble that of the early Earth.
D) It is the largest of Saturn's moons.
E) The leading hemisphere is very dark, while the back side is bright ice.
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Page 8
Chapter 7: Formation of Planetary Systems
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Sample Questions
Q1) Any model of solar system formation must explain why terrestrial planets and jovian planets formed differently.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The ________ around a star is the region where liquid water could exist on a planet.
Q3) Which molecule has not yet been detected in the atmospheres of exoplanets?
A) Methane
B) Carbon dioxide
C) Oxygen
D) Water
Q4) Different temperatures within the solar nebula ultimately determined the compositions of the planets and their moons.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Briefly outline the theory or hypothesis which best explains the origin of the solar system.
Q6) Name three properties of the solar nebula still seen in planet orbits.
Q7) Why are infrared observations useful when observing extrasolar planets?
Page 9
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Chapter 8: The Sun
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the proton-proton cycle, the positron is
A) massless.
B) a spin conservation particle.
C) an anti-electron.
D) the chief means energy reaches the photosphere.
E) intermediate between the proton and neutron in mass.
Q2) The speed of light is 3.00 × 10 m/s. If 2.00 kg of mass is converted to energy, how much energy will be produced?
A) 1.80 × 10¹ J
B) 6.00 × 10 J
C) 1.50 × 10 J
D) 6.00 × 10 J
E) 9.00 × 10¹ J
Q3) What do sunspots tell us about the Sun's rotation rate?
Q4) The luminosity of the Sun is a measure of
A) the energy received by the Sun on Earth's surface.
B) the energy received by the Sun at the location of Earth.
C) the energy received by the Sun at any location in the solar system.
D) the energy emitted by the Sun at the photosphere.
E) the total energy emitted by the Sun in all directions.
Page 10
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Chapter 9: Measuring the Stars
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Sample Questions
Q1) Star A and star B both have an absolute magnitude of 2.0, but star A has an apparent magnitude of 5.0 and star B has an apparent magnitude of 7.0. Which statement below is correct?
A) Star A appears brighter than star B, but star B and star A have the same intrinsic brightness.
B) Star B appears brighter than star A, but star B and star A have the same intrinsic brightness.
C) Star A and star B appear to have the same brightness, but star B is intrinsically brighter than star A.
D) Star A and star B appear to have the same brightness, but star A is intrinsically brighter than star B.
E) It is impossible to determine how bright these stars are or appear to be relative to one another, given the information above.
Q2) The ________ magnitude of a star depends directly upon its luminosity and distance.
Q3) If two stars are the same size and one is twice the temperature of the other, how much more luminous is the hotter one?
Q4) How can a white dwarf be hotter than our Sun, yet much less luminous?
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Page 11
Chapter 10: Star Formation and Evolution
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Sample Questions
Q1) The gas in the interstellar medium consists of mostly heavy elements.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Why are star clusters almost ideal "laboratories" for stellar studies?
A) All stars in the cluster are the same size and luminosity.
B) Their combined light makes them much easier to spot from a distance.
C) Stars in clusters have the same age, similar composition, and are at the same distance away.
D) Stars in clusters are all relatively young and therefore shine brightly.
E) Like our Sun, stars in clusters are always located in the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Q3) A typical protostar may be several thousand times more luminous than the Sun. What is the source of this energy?
A) Chemical combustion of hydrocarbons
B) Nuclear fusion in its core
C) From the release of gravitational energy as the protostar continues to shrink
D) The ionization of the gas as it heats up
E) From nearby hot stars or supernovae that have initiated the star formation process
Q4) The Trifid Nebula is an example of a(n) ________ nebula.
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Page 12
Chapter 11: Stellar Explosions
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Sample Questions
Q1) What would happen if mass is added to a 1.4 solar mass white dwarf?
A) The star would explode as a nova.
B) The star's radius would increase.
C) The star would immediately collapse into a black hole.
D) The star would erupt as a carbon detonation (type I) supernova.
E) The core would collapse as a type II supernova.
Q2) The supernova that formed M-1, the Crab Nebula, was observed in
A) 1572 AD by Tycho Brahe.
B) 1604 AD by Johannes Kepler.
C) 1054 AD by Chinese and Middle Eastern astronomers.
D) 1006 by observers in the southern hemisphere.
E) about 9,000 BC by all our ancestors.
Q3) Because they all involve formation of iron in cores of massive stars, all type II supernovae are equally luminous.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Astronomers believe that gamma-ray bursters emit radiation equally in all directions.
A)True
B)False
Page 13
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Chapter 12: Black Holes
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Sample Questions
Q1) A ________ is a place where the current rules fall apart in science.
Q2) How can a black hole of a few solar masses be detected?
Q3) Describe the properties of space in the vicinity of a black hole.
Q4) As a spaceship nears an event horizon, a clock on the spaceship will be observed
A) to run faster.
B) to stop.
C) to run slowly.
D) to run backwards.
E) to run the same as one on Earth.
Q5) What explanation does general relativity provide for gravity?
A) Gravity is the result of curved spacetime.
B) Gravity is directly proportional to the mass of the attracting body.
C) Gravity is inversely proportion to the radius of the body.
D) Gravity is the opposite of the electromagnetic force.
E) Gravity can affect only massive particles, not massless photons.
Q6) Black holes with masses greater than a million solar masses explain the extremely rapidly moving stars and gas in the cores of galaxies.
A)True
B)False
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Q7) On a sphere, the interior angles of a triangle add up to ________ 180 degrees.
Chapter 13: The Milky Way Galaxy
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the halo, we do NOT find
A) tidal streams.
B) globular clusters.
C) small satellite galaxies.
D) spiral arms.
E) old white dwarfs.
Q2) Who discovered the period-luminosity relationship, and why was it so critical?
Q3) Motions of objects near our Galaxy's core suggest the central black hole is about 3.7 billion solar masses.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Our Milky Way Galaxy is now known to be quite similar to the nearby Andromeda Galaxy, M-31.
A)True
B)False
Q5) How old is the Galaxy? How do we know this?
Q6) Henrietta Leavitt's period-luminosity relation for ________ indicates that longer periods mean more luminosity.
Q7) Why do we believe there is dark matter?
Page 15
Q8) Why were globular clusters so vital to Harlow Shapley's success?
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Chapter 14: Galaxies
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Sample Questions
Q1) The energy source for active galactic nuclei is probably a(n) ________ around a supermassive black hole.
Q2) Not only does the central engine of active galaxies and quasars require a black hole, but also ________ to provide the radiate energy.
A) globular clusters for food
B) a very strong magnetic field from neutron stars
C) a source of high-energy electrons for synchrotron radiation
D) an accretion disk of infalling matter
E) a high rate of rotation for the black hole
Q3) Why is Hubble's Law called the top of the distance ladder?
Q4) Quasars usually have their distances measured by what technique?
A) Type II supernovae
B) Cepheids
C) Parallax
D) Hubble's Law
E) Tully-Fisher relation
Q5) Most galaxies are in ________, which contain hundreds or thousands of galaxies.
Q6) Almost all active galactic nuclei seem to be involved in ________ with neighbors.
Q7) Distinguish an E0 from an E7 galaxy.
Page 16
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Chapter 15: Cosmology and the Universe
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Sample Questions
Q1) The fate or future of the universe depends only on the total number of galaxies and quasars.
A)True
B)False
Q2) 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
Q3) The universe expanded by a factor of 10 during inflation, when the strong force separated from the electromagnetic and weak nuclear forces.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Describe what occurred during the period of decoupling.
Q5) The Hubble constant divided into the number one gives a rough estimate for the age of the universe, or the "Hubble Time."
A)True
B)False
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