Cosmic Perspective Chapter 1 MCQs
1)What is
the meaning of the word cosmos? 1) _______
A)the light
from a distant astronomical object
B)the
origin of the earth and life upon it
C)the sum
total of all matter and energy, that is, everything within and between all
galaxies
D)the Milky
Way
E)the dark
sky
2)Which of
the following has your "address" in the correct order? 2) _______
A)you,
Earth, solar system, Milky Way, Local Group, Local Supercluster
B)you,
Earth, solar system, Local Group, Local Supercluster,
Milky Way
C)you,
Earth, solar system, Local Group, Milky Way, Local Supercluster
D)you,
Earth, solar system, Milky Way, Local Supercluster,
Local Group
E)you,
Earth, Local Group, Local Supercluster, solar system,
Milky Way
3)About where
is our solar system located within the Milky Way Galaxy? 3) _______
A)about 10
percent of the way from the center of the galaxy to the outskirts of the
galactic disk
B)about
two-thirds of the way from the center of the galaxy to the outskirts of the galactic
disk
C)near the
far outskirts of the galactic disk
D)in the
halo of the galaxy above the galactic disk
E)at the
center of the galaxy
4)Roughly
how many stars are in the Milky Way Galaxy? 4) _______
A)1 billion
B)100
trillion
C)100
billion
D)100
million
E)10
billion
5)Suppose
we imagine the Sun to be about the size of a grapefruit. How big an area would
the orbits of the nine planets of the Solar System cover? 5) _______
A)the size
of a typical campus
B)the size
of a small city
C)the size
of a western state (e.g.
D)the size
of a typical campus building
E)the size
of a typical dorm room
6)What do
we mean when we say that the universe is expanding? 6) _______
A)Everything
in the universe is gradually growing in size.
B)Individual
galaxies are gradually growing in size.
C)The
statement is not meant to be literal; rather, it means that our knowledge of
the universe is growing.
D)Average
distances are increasing between star systems within galaxies.
E)Average
distances are increasing between galaxies.
7)How are
galaxies important to our existence? 7) _______
A)Galaxies
recycle heavy elements produced in stars into future generations of stars.
B)Galaxies
prevent planets from leaving their orbits around stars; e.g., our galaxy
prevents the earth from leaving its orbit of the Sun.
C)Without
galaxies, the universe could not be expanding.
D)Without
galaxies, there could not have been a Big Bang.
E)Galaxies
provide the gravity that prevents us from falling off the earth.
8)The earth
is made mostly of metals and rocks. Where did this material come from? 8)
_______
A)It was
made by our Sun.
B)It was
produced in the Big Bang.
C)It was
created by chemical reactions in interstellar space.
D)It was
produced by nuclear fusion in stars.
E)It was
made by nuclear fission of uranium and other radioactive materials.
9)Why does
Carl Sagan say that we are star stuff? 9) _______
A)Nearly
every atom from which we are made once (before the solar system formed) was
inside of a star.
B)The
composition of most stars (mostly hydrogen and helium) is about the same as the
composition of our bodies.
C)Cosmic
rays reaching the earth from distant astronomical sources may be one source of
mutations that help evolution along.
D)Sagan thought that all of us have the potential to be movie
(or TV) stars like he was.
E)Nearly
every atom from which we are made was once inside our star, the Sun.
10)Which of
the following statements does not use the term light-year in an appropriate
way? 10) _______
A)It will
take me light-years to complete this homework assignment.
B)It's
about 4 light-years from here to Alpha Centauri.
C)It will
take the Voyager spacecraft about 20,000 years to travel just 1 light-year.
D)A
light-year is about 10 trillion kilometers.
E)The Milky
Way Galaxy is about 100,000 light-years in diameter.
11)One
light-hour is the distance that light travels in an hour. How far is this, in
kilometers? (Recall that the speed of light is 300,000 km/s.) 11) _______
A)18 million
km
B)1.08
billion km
C)300,000
km
D)9.46
trillion km
E)100
million km
12)Suppose
we look at a photograph of many galaxies. Assuming that all galaxies formed at
about the same time, which galaxy in the picture is the youngest? 12) _______
A)the one
that is bluest in color
B)the one
that is closest to us
C)the one
that is reddest in color
D)the one
that is farthest away
E)the one
that appears smallest in size
13)Suppose
we imagine the Sun to be about the size of a grapefruit. Which of the following
describes the size and distance of the earth on the same scale? 13) _______
A)The earth
is the size of a golf ball about 15 meters away from the Sun.
B)The earth
is the size of a point about 1 meter away from the Sun.
C)The earth
is the size of a marble about 25 miles away from the Sun.
D)The earth
is the size of a golf ball about 1 meter away from the Sun.
E)The earth
is the size of a point about 15 meters away from the Sun.
14)What is
the Sun mainly made of? 14) _______
A)hydrogen
and helium
B)oxygen
and carbon
C)carbon
and nitrogen
D)hydrogen
and oxygen
E)nearly
equal portions of all the elements
15)Which of
the following is smallest? 15) _______
A)1
light-second B) 1 AU
C)size of a
typical planet D) size of a typical star
16)Which of
the following is largest? 16) _______
A)1
light-year
B)size of a
typical galaxy
C)size of
Pluto's orbit
D)distance
to the nearest star (other than our Sun)
17)Suppose
we imagine the Sun to be about the size of a grapefruit. How far away are the
nearest stars (the three stars of Alpha Centauri)? 17) _______
A)the
length of a football field
B)250 miles
C)2,500
miles
D)25,000
miles
E)2.5 miles
18)Which of
the following best describes the Milky Way Galaxy? 18) _______
A)a spiral
galaxy with a disk about 100,000 light-years in diameter and containing between
100 billion and 1 trillion stars
B)a spiral
galaxy with a disk about 100,000 light-years in diameter and containing about
100,000 stars
C)a
spherically shaped collection of about 1 million stars that is about 100
light-years in diameter
D)a spiral
galaxy with a disk about a billion kilometers in diameter and containing
between 100 million and 1 billion stars
E)a
spherically shaped collection of stars including our solar system and about a
dozen other solar systems, stretching about 4 light-years in diameter
19)How long
would it take to count all the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy at a rate of one
star per second? 19) _______
A)several
days
B)several
weeks
C)several
years
D)several
thousand years
E)hundreds
of thousands of years
20)How many
galaxies are there in the observable universe? 20) _______
A)about as
many as the number of grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth
B)roughly
(within a factor of 10) the same as the number of stars in our galaxy
C)roughly a
thousand times more than the number of stars in our galaxy
D)about as
many as the number of stars we see in the sky with our naked eyes
E)infinity
21)On the
scale of the cosmic calendar, in which the history of the universe is
compressed to 1 year, how long has human civilization (i.e., since ancient
A)about
half the year
B)a few
seconds
C)a few
hours
D)less than
a millionth of a second
E)about a
month
22)Approximately
how fast are you moving with the rotation of the earth? 22) _______
A)1,300
km/hr
B)130 km/hr
C)13 km/hr
D)13,000
km/hr
E)not
moving at all
23)On a
cosmic calendar, in which the history of the universe is compressed into one
year, how long is the average human life span? 23) _______
A)2 seconds
B)2 minutes
C)0.2
second
D)0.2
millisecond
E)2 hours
24)What is
an astronomical unit? 24) _______
A)the
length of time it takes the earth to revolve around the Sun
B)any basic
unit used in astronomy
C)the
average speed of the earth around the Sun
D)the
average distance from the earth to the Sun
E)the
diameter of the earth's orbit around the Sun
25)Which of
the following statements about the ecliptic plane is not true? 25) _______
A)It is the
plane of the Moon's orbit around the earth.
B)During a
solar eclipse, the Moon lies in the ecliptic plane.
C)The nodes
of the Moon's orbit lie in the ecliptic plane.
D)During a
lunar eclipse, the Moon lies in the ecliptic plane.
E)It is the
plane of the earth's orbit around the Sun.
26)How long
does it take our solar system to complete one orbit around the Milky Way
Galaxy? 26) _______
A)10
thousand years
B)100
million years
C)1 million
years
D)230
thousand years
E)230
million years
27)Which of
the following statements about the Milky Way Galaxy is not true? 27) _______
A)Our solar
system is located very close to the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.
B)One
rotation of the galaxy takes about 200 million years.
C)The
galaxy is about 100,000 light-years in diameter.
D)Our view
of distant objects is obscured by gas and dust when we look into the galactic
plane.
E)It
contains between 100 billion and 1 trillion stars.
28)From the
fact that virtually every galaxy is moving away from us and more distant
galaxies are moving away from us at a faster rate than closer ones, we conclude
that 28) _______
A)the Milky
Way Galaxy is expanding.
B)the
farthest galaxies will eventually be moving faster than the speed of light.
C)the
universe is shrinking.
D)we are
located at the center of the universe.
E)the
universe is expanding.
29)By
studying distant galaxies in the 1920s, Hubble made the following important
discovery that led us to conclude that the universe is expanding: 29) _______
A)all
galaxies outside the Local Group are orbiting the Local Group.
B)all
galaxies contain billions of stars, and all galaxies have spiral shapes.
C)all
galaxies outside the Local Group are moving away from us, and all are moving
away at nearly the same speed.
D)all galaxies
were born at the same time, and all will die at the same time.
E)all
galaxies outside the Local Group are moving away from us, and the farther away
they are, the faster they're going.
30)Imagine
that we put a raisin cake into the oven, with each raisin separated from the
others by 1 cm. An hour later, we take it out and the distances between raisins
are 3 cm. If you lived in one of the raisins and watched the other raisins as
the cake expanded, which of the following would you conclude? 30) _______
A)It
depends: If you lived in a raisin near the left side of the cake, you'd see
other raisins moving away from you, but they'd be coming toward you if you
lived in a raisin near the right side of the cake.
B)More
distant raisins would be moving away from you faster.
C)All
raisins would be moving away from you at the same speed.
D)More
distant raisins would be moving away from you more slowly.
ANSWERS
1)C
2)A
3)B
4)C
5)A
6)E
7)A
8)D
9)A
10)A
11)B
12)D
13)E
14)A
15)C
16)B
17)C
18)A
19)D
20)B
21)B
22)A
23)C
24)D
25)A
26)E
27)A
28)E
29)E
30)B