WQ #28

If you wanted to write a complete "cosmic address" for yourself, including every location or structure you live in, which of the following would NOT be part of that address? a. the Coma Cluster b. the Milky Way Galaxy c. the Local Group d. the Solar System e. planet Earth

a. the Coma Cluster

Which of the following statements about our modern ideas of how spiral galaxies form and develop is TRUE? a. the central bulges of spiral galaxies formed first and their disks formed later b. star formation in the spiral galaxies is much higher today than it was 8 billion years ago c. spiral galaxies formed pretty quickly after the Big Bang and already looked then the way they look today d. spiral galaxies have evolved until today they are all "red and dead", containing just old stars and showing almost no current star formation e. spiral galaxies cannot have a central super-massive black hole, so astronomers don't understand just how they formed

a. the central bulges of spiral galaxies formed first and their disks formed later

Roughly how many galaxies make up our Local Group? a. only three b. about 60 or so c. many hundreds d. thousands e. millions

b. about 60 or so

When astronomers have examined rich clusters of galaxies with their instruments, they have found that these clusters a. contain far more spiral galaxies in their central regions than elliptical galaxies b. are more likely to contain giant elliptical galaxies than poor clusters c. are the only places in the universe where galaxies find a way NOT to collide d. contain mostly galaxies dominated by the light of young stars (stars formed recently) e. are so big that there is a lot more space between the galaxies than in poor clusters like our Local Group

b. are more likely to contain giant elliptical galaxies than poor clusters

Astronomers believe that the large elliptical galaxies formed a. right after the Big Bang, looking just like they look today b. from the collision and merger of many smaller fragments c. only recently, less than a billion years ago (before that galaxies were spirals) d. without the presence of any super-massive black holes e. without any involvement of dark matter (just from matter we can detect)

b. from the collision and merger of many smaller fragments

According to our modern "bottom-up" model of the formation of large structures in the universe, the structures that formed first were about the mass of a a. star b. large globular cluster or a small galaxy c. giant elliptical galaxy d. supercluster of galaxies e. an ice-cold mug of root beer

b. large globular cluster or a small galaxy

If a very distant galaxy looks blue overall to astronomers, from this they can conclude that: a. the galaxy is moving toward us at great speed b. the galaxy must have a lot of young stars and thus active star formation must still be going in it c. the galaxy must be composed mostly of very old stars d. the galaxy must not be especially massive when compared to most galaxies e. the galaxy must have had a personal tragedy of some sort and needs a lot of love

b. the galaxy must have a lot of young stars and thus active star formation must still be going in it

When astronomers say that the groups of galaxies are distributed isotropically, they mean that a. all the galaxies are about the same size b. the way galaxies are arranged in space looks the same in all directions c. galaxies all have interstellar matter at the same temperature d. galaxies all have the same age e. galaxies all contain the same isotopes of elements

b. the way galaxies are arranged in space looks the same in all directions

The rich galaxy cluster that is closest to our Local Group of galaxies is the a. Coma Cluster b. Hercules Cluster c. Virgo Cluster d. Ursa Major Cluster e. Peanut Cluster

c. Virgo Cluster

Some astronomers searching for what the mysterious "dark matter" might be made of have pinned their hopes on MACHO's (MAssive Compact Halo Objects). What do they think these MACHO's are? a. huge concentrations of antimatter, outside of galaxies b. vast clouds of neutrinos, emitted by ancient supernovae c. black holes, brown dwarfs, and white dwarfs in the regions outside the main disk of our Galaxy d. "cannibal galaxies" that have swallowed smaller galaxy neighbors until they have grown very large e. large groups of college football players who have flunked astronomy, and now hang around the outskirts of town, just showing off their muscles

c. black holes, brown dwarfs, and white dwarfs in the regions outside the main disk of our Galaxy

According to our current understanding, giant elliptical galaxies form: a. by being located near the center of the Big Bang explosion and thus getting a major early push b. only in the giant voids that astronomers are discovering among the filaments and chains of galaxies c. by the merger (or swallowing) of a number of smaller galaxies in a cluster of galaxies d. when a black hole swallows enough material so that most of the stars in the galaxy are inside the black hole, leaving only a thin halo e. by watching too much football and drinking too much beer

c. by the merger (or swallowing) of a number of smaller galaxies in a cluster of galaxies

To map out how clusters of galaxies are distributed in the universe, astronomers needed to know where each cluster was in the sky AND a. how many galaxies were in each cluster b. how blue or red the galaxies in each cluster were c. how far away from us each cluster was d. whether any of the galaxies in each cluster acted like quasars e. whether any gravitational lensing could be seen in each cluster

c. how far away from us each cluster was

With enormous effort, a team of astronomers manages to collect enough light from a galaxy far, far away to produce a spectrum. That spectrum has lines from the elements carbon, silicon, and sulfur. This tells the team that a. the galaxy must be closer to us than 1 billion light years b. the galaxy must contain a quasar c. the galaxy must have had an entire generation of stars that was born, lived, and died d. the galaxy must be a massive elliptical galaxy e. what they are seeing is not a galaxy at all, but the remnant of one supernova

c. the galaxy must have had an entire generation of stars that was born, lived, and died

In which of the following domains of the universe have astronomers NOT found evidence for the presence of dark matter today? a. the Milky Way Galaxy b. other spiral galaxies c. the solar system d. clusters of galaxies e. superclusters of galaxies

c. the solar system

What do the surveys of the three-dimensional distribution of groups of galaxies reveal about how groups and clusters of galaxies are organized? a. galaxy groups are distributed completely evenly -- there is typically the same amount of space between them -- and so there is no structure evident b. galaxy groups make a huge spiral structure that resembles the Milky Way (but is much bigger) c. galaxy groups are organized into huge spherical "lumps" with concentric rings of groups of galaxies around each lump d. galaxy groups are organized into huge filaments with great voids between them -- something like the structure one would see taking a cross-section of some soap bubbles e. you can't fool me; astronomers cannot get any sense with our present-day instruments of how groups of galaxies are distributed on the large scale

d. galaxy groups are organized into huge filaments with great voids between them -- something like the structure one would see taking a cross-section of some soap bubbles

Which of the following does NOT happen when two galaxies collide? a. large interstellar gas clouds collide b. the rate of star formation increases c. the shape of the galaxy is often changed d. many of the stars in one galaxy collide with the stars in the other e. a smaller galaxy may wind up inside a larger one

d. many of the stars in one galaxy collide with the stars in the other

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey a. searches for planets around neighbor stars by looking for changing Doppler shifts in their spectra b. searches for Trans-Neptunian objects, small icy bodies in the outer solar system, whose orbits sometimes resemble Pluto's c. searches for supernova remnants that could have pulsars inside and then try to find the pulsars d. takes images and spectra of millions of objects, to find the positions and redshifts of as many galaxies and quasars as possible e. searches to see whether extra-terrestrial civilizations are sending any digitally recorded music our way

d. takes images and spectra of millions of objects, to find the positions and redshifts of as many galaxies and quasars as possible

The "great voids" that astronomers studying galaxies are finding are: a. regions where a number of black holes have cleared out space in the center of a galaxy b. empty regions between the spiral arms of the Milky Way Galaxy c. huge regions inside spiral galaxies, where the powerful radiation from a very hot star has cleared out the local interstellar material d. very large regions of intergalactic space, where relatively few galaxies or galaxy clusters can be found e. regions inside the brains of astronomy students where information about astronomy topics should have been located, but has been lost

d. very large regions of intergalactic space, where relatively few galaxies or galaxy clusters can be found

Which of the following is not true about the Local Group of galaxies (of which the Milky Way is a member)? a. it is a member of the same supercluster as the Virgo Cluster b. it has few galaxies when compared to a rich cluster c. the Milky Way is one of its more massive members d. it has more elliptical galaxy members than spiral galaxies e. it has about a thousand member galaxies

e. it has about a thousand member galaxies