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.
far away galaxies are older.
the speed at which galaxies are moving is a function of their distance from us.
the universe is expanding.
2. The age of the universe
is the same as that of the Sun.
is unknown and unknowable.
can be estimated from the age of the Milky Way.
can be determined from observation of the stars in the heavens.
3. The horizon of the observable universe refers to the
furthest part of the universe our telescope is able to resolve.
newest bits of the universe only just become possible to be observed.
horizon of the sky.
edge of the universe which one can observe at any one time.
4. Which of the following Galileo did not observe through his telescope?
Other planets can have moons.
Sun spots.
Venus has phases.
The moon is not made of perfect celestial material.
5. In Ptolemy's model of the universe, the stars
have epicycles
are features on the surface of a perfect sphere.
orbit around the sun.
are just like the sun.
6. Kepler's laws show that
the Earth is not the centre of the universe.
forces acting on the planets must balance with the forces acting on the star.
planetary orbits are elliptical.
planets are held by the gravitational force of the star around which they orbit.
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, Era of atoms, Particle era.
Planck era, Particle era, Era of atoms.
Particle era, Planck era, Era of atoms.
Particle era, Era of atoms, Planck era.
9. Dark matter
can not be seen.
is made up of black holes.
can potentially be detected on earth.
is dark and absorbs all light incident upon it.
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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