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- # this is a comment is a Q&A file
-
- .Cosmology and the Infinitesimal
-
- #This first number is the number of questions:
-
- 37
-
- #now are the questions
-
- #39
- Y:Y
- <
- Even though it is impossible to travel
- the speed of light, can you go FASTER
- than the speed of light?
- (theoretically speaking)
- >
-
- #40
- Y:Y
- <
- Time slows down at very fast speeds.
- Is time travel to the future, then
- possible?
- >
-
- #41
- M:2 3
- <
- Traveling near the speed of light is
- the same as being in a time machine to
- the future because time slows down.
- What is the big drawback?
- >
- 1. you are very far away when you stop.
- 2. you can't go back to the past!
- 3. you age very fast when you stop.
-
- #42
- M:3 4
- <
- Some 'stars' are actually more than one
- sun very close together appearing to
- us here on Earth as just one star.
- Alpha Centari is the closest 'star' to
- the Earth. How many suns actually make
- up the Alpha Centari star system?
- >
- 1. 1.
- 2. 2.
- 3. 3.
- 4. 4.
-
-
- #43
- M:1 4
- <
- Are there planets around distant stars?
- >
- 1. yes, for sure.
- 2. no one seems to know.
- 3. experiments say yes, but who knows?
- 4. no.
-
-
- #44
- M:2 3
- <
- Several technologies listed below,
- theoretically, can detect a planet in
- another star system. What is the secret
- that makes it possible for us to detect
- planets using technology available
- today?
- >
- 1. infrared technology can 'see' planets.
- 2. a star wobbles in a planets gravity.
- 3. stars light can light up a planet.
-
-
- #45
- M:1 3
- <
- What type of star system is Sirus
- (Bernard's Star) the second closest star
- system?
- >
- 1. Single star system.
- 2. a binary star system (2 stars).
- 3. a ternary star system (3 stars in orbit).
-
- #46
- Y:Y
- <
- Is it possible for the moon to be so
- close to earth that it covers half
- of the sky?
- >
-
-
- #47
- M:2 5
- <
- If you took a piece of paper and sliced
- it in half, then sliced one of the
- halves in half, etc., how many times
- would you need to slice it before you
- were trying to cut up just one atom?
- >
- 1. about 50 times.
- 2. about 100 times.
- 3. about 1000 times.
- 4. about 1,000,000 times.
-
-
- #48
- Y:Y
- <
- Atoms are made up of protons, neutrons
- and electrons, but is it true that
- atoms are mostly just empty space?
- >
-
-
- #49
- M:3 3
- <
- Sun spots are:
- >
- 1. an illusion.
- 2. found only at the suns poles.
- 3. huge cool spots on the sun.
-
-
- #50
- M:1 3
- <
- Sun spot activity on the surface of the
- sun is at a maximum every 11.2 Earth
- years. A sun spot is really just a
- darker region of the sun created by:
- >
- 1. a region about 2000 degrees cooler.
- 2. solar gasses obscuring the surface.
- 3. Earth clouds refracting sunlight.
-
-
- #51
- M:4 4
- <
- The surface of the sun is only about
- 6000 degrees, cool compared to the
- interior of the star. How hot is the
- interior?
- >
- 1. 20,000 degrees.
- 2. 100,000 degrees.
- 3. 10 million degrees.
- 4. 40 million degrees.
-
-
- #52
- M:3 4
- <
- What is a Nebula?
- >
- 1. a group or recently formed stars.
- 2. a small accumulation of gas in space.
- 3. a huge cloud of gas, dust and stars.
- 4. the remnants of a dead star.
-
-
- #53
- M:4 6
- <
- What is the largest known nebula in
- the Milky Way?
- >
- 1. Triffid in constellation Sagittarius.
- 2. Pleiades in the constellation Taurus.
- 3. the Rosette Nebula.
- 4. The Orion Nebula.
- 5. The Crab Nebula.
- 6. The Veil Nebula.
-
-
- #54
- M:1 3
- <
- The Crab Nebula was formed when a star
- went supernova many years ago. This
- star was 6000 light years away from
- Earth and only went supernova recently.
- What year was the supernova and the
- subsequent creation of the Crab Nebula
- first observed on Earth?
- >
- 1. 1054 a.d.
- 2. 1519 the year Leonardo da Vinci died.
- 3. 1955 the year Albert Einstein died.
-
-
- #55
- M:3 3
- <
- A nova is:
- >
- 1. a single exploding star.
- 2. another word for a binary system.
- 3. two stars, brightened as they touch.
-
-
- #56
- M:2 3
- <
- The only natural element in the
- universe is hydrogen. Everything else
- is either produced in a star or from
- materials left in the aftermath of a
- star. How then do we know the sun is
- at least a second generation of a star?
- >
- 1. we see gas from the first supernova.
- 2. Earth elements other than hydrogen.
- 3. we can see the first supernova nearby.
-
-
-
- #57
- M:2 3
- <
- A supernova is an exploding solitary
- star so bright that it shines more than
- the galaxy of billions of stars it
- resides in. Supernovas are rare because
- single star systems (like our solar
- system) are relatively rare. How often
- does a supernova happen in a galaxy of
- 100 billion stars?
- >
- 1. about 5 per Earth day.
- 2. about 1 every 100 years or so.
- 3. about 1 every million years or so.
-
-
- #58
- M:3 3
- <
- Supernovas might last 3 months. How
- bright did it seem to people on Earth
- when the star that went supernova
- was observed in the year 1054?
- >
- 1. about as bright as any other star.
- 2. about as bright as another sun.
- 3. bright enough to see in the day time.
-
-
- #59
- Y:Y
- <
- A lunar eclipse occurs when the sun aligns behind the moon?
- >
-
-
- #60
- M:2 3
- <
- What is the likelihood of a supernova
- happening nearby during your lifetime?
- >
- 1. not a possibility as all.
- 2. likely within 100 years.
- 3. expected in the next decade sometime.
-
-
- #61
- M:1 3
- <
- Depending on the size of the star, the
- end of its life cycle varies. The
- very largest stars eventually become:
- >
- 1. black holes.
- 2. neutron stars.
- 3. black dwarfs.
-
-
- #62
- M:2 3
- <
- Many scientists believe that space and
- time began in a huge explosion called
- the Big Bang. How long ago is this
- even supposed to have happened?
- >
- 1. 5 billion years ago.
- 2. 15 billion years ago.
- 3. 100 billion years ago.
-
-
- #63
- M:3 4
- <
- Many galaxies (each containing a
- billion or more stars) are grouped
- together in large clusters around the
- universe. How many large galaxies like
- the Milky Way are there in our local
- group of galaxies?
- >
- 1. 15 large galaxies.
- 2. 5 large galaxies.
- 3. only 2: the Milky Way and M31.
- 4. just the Milky Way.
-
-
- #64
- M:2 3
- <
- Many galaxies belong to clusters of
- galaxies all in the same general region
- of space. How big are the largest
- clusters of galaxies?
- >
- 1. 10 galaxies in the largest clusters.
- 2. thousands of galaxies in one cluster.
- 3. millions of galaxies in one cluster.
-
-
- #65
- M:4 4
- <
- Which galaxy is part of the
- constellation Andromeda?
- >
- 1. The Sombrero Galaxy, or 'M104'.
- 2. The Whirlpool Galaxy, or 'M51'.
- 3. The Milky Way Galaxy where we live.
- 4. galaxy M31, 2.3 million years away.
- 5. galaxy M81, 7 million years.
-
-
- #66
- M:1 4
- <
- What is the largest known galaxy
- containing up to 100 trillion stars?
- >
- 1. M87 some 40 million light years away.
- 2. The Milky way.
- 3. M31 in our local galaxy cluster.
- 4. Galaxy Centaurus A.
-
-
- #67
- M:4 4
- <
- How long does it take for the Milky Way
- Galaxy in which we live to complete
- just one rotation?
- >
- 1. one Earth year.
- 2. 100,000 Earth years.
- 3. 100,000,000 Earth years.
- 4. 250,000,000 Earth years.
-
-
- #68
- M:2 2
- <
- Because galaxies are so large, we often
- see one side as it looked thousands of
- years before the way we see the other
- side. Does this affect our attempts to
- study galaxies?
- >
- 1. yes, it makes measurements look wrong.
- 2. no, the difference is a minor one.
-
-
- #69
- M:2 3
- <
- Quasars are perhaps the biggest mystery,
- even more than black holes. While one
- supernova can be as bright as a galaxy,
- one quasar can be as bright as a
- billion supernovas, a whole galaxy full,
- and all this is in the size of one solar
- system like our nine planet model. Do
- scientists think they understand how
- quasars work?
- >
- 1. they don't have a clue.
- 2. no, but they have some theories.
- 3. yes, they understand them well.
-
-
- #70
- M:1 3
- <
- How many times has the sun orbited the
- center of the Milky Way?
- >
- 1. 200 or so times.
- 2. 1000 times.
- 3. it has not made a full orbit (yet..).
-
-
- #71
- M:2 3
- <
- We are all moving through space right
- now as you read this question because
- the Earth orbits the sun and the sun
- orbits the center of the galaxy and the
- galaxy is ever expanding from the
- beginning point of the universe. How
- fast are we moving?
- >
- 1. about 1000 miles per hour.
- 2. about 500,000 miles per hour.
- 3. about 100,000 miles per second.
-
-
- #72
- M:3 3
- <
- The sun and all the other stars pass in
- and out of the spiral arms of the
- galaxy during their long 250 million
- year orbits. Are the sun and planets in
- our solar system still in one of the
- arms?
- >
- 1. yes, we are in the Orion arm.
- 2. yes, we are in a the Persius arm.
- 3. no, we are in plain empty space.
-
-
- #73
- M:1 3
- <
- The Earth's solar system is not
- in an arm of the galaxy, but lies
- between arms. Eventually it will re-enter
- an arm because the speed of the arm's
- rotation is faster than that of the sun's.
- Which arm did we exit about 1000 light
- years ago?
- >
- 1. the Orion arm.
- 2. the Persius arm.
- 3. the Sagitarius arm.
-
-
- #74
- M:3 3
- <
- Are all the other galaxies in the
- universe aligned in any particular
- way?
- >
- 1. yes, they are all in the same plane.
- 2. yes, but no one can explain how.
- 3. no, they are arranged at random.
-
-
- #75
- M:3 3
- <
- Even though we have telescopes that can
- see galaxies very far away, the
- universe is still much larger. How
- large is the observable universe?
- >
- 1. about 1/2 billion light years.
- 2. about 10 billion light years.
- 3. tens of billions of light years.
-
-