Exploring the Cosmos - Degree Exam 2009 - Galaxies and Large Scale Structure
1. Which of the following comprise the oldest members of the Milky Way?
Type O stars.
The Sun and other solar mass stars.
Globular clusters.
Red giant stars in spiral arms.
2. What makes up the interstellar medium?
Gas and dust
O and B stars
K and M stars
Open clusters
3. How does the interstellar medium obscure our view of most of the galaxy?
It produces so much visible light that it is opaque and blocks our view of anything beyond it.
It absorbs visible, ultraviolet, and some infrared light.
It absorbs all wavelengths of light.
It reflects most light from far distances of the galaxy away from our line of sight.
4. How can we see through the interstellar medium?
By using telescopes above the Earth’s atmosphere.
By observing only the brightest visible sources.
By using only the biggest telescopes.
By observing at high-energy wavelengths such as X rays and long wavelengths of light such as radio waves.
5. Where are heavy elements made?
In the Big Bang, when the universe first began.
In stars and supernovae.
In the interstellar medium.
In none of the above.
6. What can cause a galactic fountain?
A supernova occurring in the halo.
Winds and jets from newly-formed protostars.
Multiple supernovae occurring together.
The combined effect of spiral density waves.
7. Compared with our Sun, most stars in the halo are
young, red, and dim and have fewer heavy elements.
young, blue, and bright and have much more heavy element material.
old, red, and dim and have much more heavy element material.
old, red, and dim and have fewer heavy elements.
8. The disk component of a spiral galaxy includes which of the following parts?
Spiral arms
Bulge
Globular clusters
Halo
9. What evidence suggests that the protogalactic cloud that formed the Milky Way resulted from several collisions among smaller clouds?
The bulge of the Milky Way is surrounded by many globular clusters, just as elliptical galaxies are.
Halo stars differ in age and heavy-element content, but these variations do not seem to depend on the stars’ distance from the galactic centre.
The stars in the halo of the Milky Way are organized into several dense clusters arranged throughout the halo.
The Milky Way resembles an elliptical galaxy more than other spirals do.
10. What two observable properties of a Cepheid variable are directly related to one another?
Its luminosity and its mass.
The period between its peaks of brightness and its distance.
The period between its peaks of brightness and its luminosity.
Its mass and its distance.
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