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Astronomy > Final > Flashcards

Final Flashcards

1
Q

Why is the Big Bang Model taught as fact?

A

It is supported by calculations and observations up to this point

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2
Q

Who is credited with discovering the Expansion of the Universe?

A

Edwin Hubble

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3
Q

Harlow Shapley

A

discovered the size of the milky-way was 160,000 lyrs

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4
Q

Galileo

A

What the first person to use a telescope

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5
Q

Edwin Hubble

A

Determined the shapes of galaxies

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6
Q

Johannes Kepler

A

Elliptical orbits

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7
Q

Nicholas Copernicus

A

Heliocentric

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8
Q

Order of the Big Bang

A
  • Planck Time
  • Separation of Forces from others
  • Inflationary Epoch
  • Separation of Forces from others
  • Creation of Protons, Neutron, Electrons
  • Era of Recombination
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9
Q

According to the current Big Bang Model, what is the age of the Universe?

A

13.7 Billion Years

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10
Q

What are the only elements created by the big bang in appreciable amounts?

A

Hydrogen and Helium

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11
Q

The cosmic microwave background radiation is

A

the electromagnetic remnants (light) of the explosion in which the universe was born.

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12
Q

How many stars are in the Milky Way?

A

200 Billion

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13
Q

Where is the solar system located in our galaxy?

A

in the galactic disk

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14
Q

The dimensions of the disk of our Milky Way galaxy are approximately (not including dark matter)

A

diameter 160,000 light-years; thickness, 2000 light-years

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15
Q

What object is believed to be at the center of the Milky Way (and all other galaxies too)?

A

supermassive blackhole

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16
Q

What observations have led Astronomers to believe there is a dark matter halo surrounding the visible portion of the Milky Way?

A

the outer nebulae rotate too fast.

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17
Q

The Milky Way has spiral arms? True or False

A

True, Barred spiral

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18
Q

Where in the Milky Way do we see the star formation happening?

A

In the Disk or Spiral Arms

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19
Q

Elliptical galaxies are continuing to experience star formation. True or False.

A

False. Elliptical galaxies are made up of stars, but don’t seem to be making any new ones.

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20
Q

What is the Local Group?

A

A group of about 50 galaxies that does include the Milky Way.

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21
Q

Galaxies are distributed throughout the universe as

A

clusters, which are grouped into linked superclusters around huge voids

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22
Q

Galaxies are all found within the Milky Way

A

The Shapley-Curtis debate was just this question. Hubble found the distance to the Andromeda Galaxy to be lots bigger than our own Milky Way.

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23
Q

When we are seeing a quasar, what are we seeing?

A

the very bright nucleus of a galaxy

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24
Q

Seyferts are the AGN counterpart to

A

Spirals

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25
Q

AGN stands for Active Galactic Nuclei. True or False

A

True

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26
Q

What is believed to be the source of all the light from AGNs? (why are AGNs so much brighter than normal galaxies)

A

The accretion disk surrounding blackhole is believed to be the source of light.

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27
Q

What is meant by the phrase “the further away we look the further back in time we see”?

A

The furtherer away the source of light is the longer it will take to get to us. This means that the light we see could be thousands of light years away

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28
Q

The Hubble Space Telescope has looked far back in time. What types of galaxies seem to be the earliest kind of galaxies, or the ones from the furthest back in time?

A

small, irregular shaped

29
Q

Did today’s galaxies come from combining smaller galaxies or from the separation of larger galaxies?

A

from smaller

30
Q

Quasars are galaxy centers very far away. True or False.

A

True

31
Q

There are a lot of cosmologies out there. The Hot Big Bang is just the most favored right now. What must any model, scientific theory or description do?

A

There must be enough evidence to support your hypothesis

and predict observables

32
Q

Except for Hydrogen and Helium, where do the rest of the Elements come from?

A

Inside of Massive stars
(The discovery of where heavy elements come from is actually really impressive. But stars don’t account for the larger amount of helium in the Universe. It must have formed in the early universe. That led to the idea that the Big Bang was a hot event, with very high energy photons at the beginning.)

33
Q

What is the Cosmic Microwave Background?

A

Light from the early universe

34
Q

The Universes expansion has been the same rate the whole time? True or False.

A

False, It seems to be speeding up recently. Next time we’ll also learn that at the very early universe there was a huge rapid inflation of the universe that was so quick.

35
Q

Cosmology is the branch of Astrophysics and Astronomy that looks at

A

The origin, structure and evolution of the universe

36
Q

What is meant by the cosmological principle?

A

We do not occupy a special place in the galaxy, because everything is pretty much the same

37
Q

What do astronomers mean when they talk about dark energy?

A

Dark energy is what astronomers use to describe the force that is expanding the universe.

38
Q

The Planck time refers to

A

the first 10-43 second of time, when the universe had such high density that all known science fails to explain its behavior.

39
Q

There is about 1 He atom for every 10 H atoms (or 75% H and 25% He in the universe.) Where and how was most of the helium in the universe created?

A

by nuclear fusion during the early stages the Big Bang

40
Q

What is meant by the Expansion of the Universe?

A

Space is getting larger taking galaxies with it

41
Q

In cosmology, what is the “inflationary epoch”?

A

a short period of extremely rapid expansion when the universe was very young

42
Q

What is meant by Pair Production?

A

Pair production is when high energy photons transform into matter. This produces a matter-antimatter pair.

43
Q

When did the first stars appear in the Universe?

A

first few hundred million years after time zero

44
Q

When did the last galaxies form (not talking about galaxies changing from collisions, but actually formed from stars and clouds?

A

6 billion years after the Big Bang

45
Q

The CMB shows small fluctuations that we assume are where large scale structure forms. When we run computer simulations on the stuff of the early universe to see if we can match the same size of the fluctuations seen, dark matter doesn’t really play a role and is only a small amount of the Matter of the universe. True or False.

A

False
Dark matter is really critical in these calculations and is 80-90% of the matter in the universe. We don’t know what it is, but it must have a gravitational effect and it does not heat up like regular matter does (remember when we were talking about stars and when a gas collapses, it heats up. Dark matter doesn’t.)

46
Q

Some galaxies formed really big and some galaxies formed really small at time 1 billion years after the big bang. True or False.

A

False

It seems that only small galaxies formed. Mergers create larger galaxies later.

47
Q

Which of the planet would be the most likely to harbor life in the solar system?

A

Europa

48
Q

What is meant by the “habitable zone”? (Obviously we can’t see if life is there, but what observations and calculations can we make that would give us hope there is life.)

A

It means that the planet has qualities that can make it possible to sustain life. It would need liquid water, or something to sustain life/energy. It would need would need to have an atmosphere and oxygen. We believe that it’s more likely a terrestrial world (planet or moon).

49
Q

True or False: No Planets have been found in the habitable zone.

A

False

Planets have been found in the habitable zone, but they are larger than Earth.

50
Q 
Rank size smallest to largest:
Planetary Nebula
Globular Cluster
Virgo Galaxy Cluster
Star
Local Group
Milky Way
A
  1. Star
  2. Planetary Nebula
  3. Globular Cluster
  4. Milky Way
  5. Local Group
  6. Virgo Galaxy Cluster
51
Q

What process provides power for the Sun?

A

fusion of hydrogen into helium

52
Q

The life and evolution of a star is controlled mostly by its

A

initial mass

53
Q

What will be the end result of a star that has 20 solar masses?

A

Neutron star

54
Q

What physical property of the sun seems to be responsible for the solar features we see (ie. Sun spots and flares)?

A

the sun’s magnetic field

55
Q

What will likely be the final state of a main sequence star that has an initial mass of 25 solar masses?

A

Black hole

56
Q

True or False: All Protostars are the same mass.

A

False

57
Q

Which which of the following will be the most likely end of our sun?
White Dwarf, Brown Dwarf, Neutron Star,
Black Hole

A

White dwarf

58
Q

For all of the main sequence stars what is occurring in the core of the star?

A

Hydrogen Fusion

59
Q

Why do we see stars of different colors?

A

They have different temperatures at their surface

60
Q

A planetary nebula is

A

A shell of ejected gases from the outer layers of an AGB star

61
Q

Which of the following does NOT represent the endpoint of th star’s evolutionary life?

A

Red Giant

62
Q

What are the formation steps leading to a star?

A

Giant molecular cloud, prostar, main sequence

63
Q

What is the name assigned to the dense ball of hydrogen gas that did not have enough mass to have fusion begin the core and become a star?

A

Brown Dwarf

64
Q

What is the spectral type classification of the sun?

A

G2V

65
Q

Castor and Pollux are the two heads of Gemini. Castor’s apparent magnitude is 1.93 and Pollux is 1.15. Which one looks brighter?

A

Pollux

66
Q

What is the next phase of Stellar Life following the Main Sequence?

A

Red Giant

67
Q

What is the brightest star in the sky?

A

Sirius

68
Q

What will be the likely remnant left over for a star that started with 3 solar masses?

A

White Dwarf

Astronomy (4 decks)

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