Exploring the Cosmos - Degree Exam 2009 - Galaxies and Large Scale Structure
1. Which of the following comprise the oldest members of the Milky Way?
Red giant stars in spiral arms.
Type O stars.
Globular clusters.
The Sun and other solar mass stars.
2. What makes up the interstellar medium?
Gas and dust
O and B stars
Open clusters
K and M stars
3. How does the interstellar medium obscure our view of most of the galaxy?
It reflects most light from far distances of the galaxy away from our line of sight.
It produces so much visible light that it is opaque and blocks our view of anything beyond it.
It absorbs all wavelengths of light.
It absorbs visible, ultraviolet, and some infrared light.
4. How can we see through the interstellar medium?
By observing at high-energy wavelengths such as X rays and long wavelengths of light such as radio waves.
By observing only the brightest visible sources.
By using only the biggest telescopes.
By using telescopes above the Earth’s atmosphere.
5. Where are heavy elements made?
In stars and supernovae.
In none of the above.
In the interstellar medium.
In the Big Bang, when the universe first began.
6. What can cause a galactic fountain?
Winds and jets from newly-formed protostars.
Multiple supernovae occurring together.
The combined effect of spiral density waves.
A supernova occurring in the halo.
7. Compared with our Sun, most stars in the halo are
young, red, and dim and have fewer heavy elements.
old, red, and dim and have fewer heavy elements.
old, red, and dim and have much more heavy element material.
young, blue, and bright and have much more heavy element material.
8. The disk component of a spiral galaxy includes which of the following parts?
Halo
Spiral arms
Globular clusters
Bulge
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?
The period between its peaks of brightness and its distance.
Its luminosity and its mass.
The period between its peaks of brightness and its luminosity.
Its mass and its distance.
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