Exploring the Cosmos - Degree Exam 2008 - Particles, Forces & the Big Bang
1. Hubble expansion refers to the discovery in the 1920s and 1930s by Edwin Hubble that
stars are moving away from us wherever he looked.
the universe is expanding.
far away galaxies are older.
the speed at which galaxies are moving is a function of their distance from us.
2. The age of the universe
can be estimated from the age of the Milky Way.
is unknown and unknowable.
is the same as that of the Sun.
can be determined from observation of the stars in the heavens.
3. The horizon of the observable universe refers to the
newest bits of the universe only just become possible to be observed.
edge of the universe which one can observe at any one time.
horizon of the sky.
furthest part of the universe our telescope is able to resolve.
4. Which of the following Galileo did not observe through his telescope?
Venus has phases.
The moon is not made of perfect celestial material.
Other planets can have moons.
Sun spots.
5. In Ptolemy's model of the universe, the stars
are just like the sun.
have epicycles
orbit around the sun.
are features on the surface of a perfect sphere.
6. Kepler's laws show that
planets are held by the gravitational force of the star around which they orbit.
planetary orbits are elliptical.
forces acting on the planets must balance with the forces acting on the star.
the Earth is not the centre of the universe.
7. The fundamental particles are
fermions and bosons.
neutrinos and gluons.
quarks and electrons.
waves not particles.
8. Which of the following is ranked in descending order of temperature?
Planck era, Particle era, Era of atoms.
Particle era, Planck era, Era of atoms.
Particle era, Era of atoms, Planck era.
Planck era, Era of atoms, Particle era.
9. Dark matter
is dark and absorbs all light incident upon it.
can not be seen.
can potentially be detected on earth.
is made up of black holes.
10. The "flatness problem" in cosmology refers to the fact that
the universe is very close to the critical density.
if we squash the universe flat, it will be no denser than the density of paper.
because the universe is flat, we will never see parts of the universe.
three space dimensions are "flattened" to two in the space-time diagram.
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