Image: standret/iStock/Thinkstock
About This Quiz
The field of astrophysics covers some of the biggest questions about the universe. How did it form? What will happen to it? How do solar systems form? What are stars made of? Is time travel possible? Test your smarts on astrophysics with this quiz.
Most stars, when plotted into a graph of color and brightness, fall into a band known as the ...
main sequence
zenith pattern
Lagrangian point
Advertisement
The final stage for the most massive stars is either a massive explosion known as a supernova or gravitational collapse into a ...
black hole
nebula
red giant
The Kepler space telescope has found more what than any other telescope?
exoplanets
quasars
asteroids
Variances in the sun's magnetic field can cause some areas on the sun's surface to be slightly cooler than the surrounding area. These areas are known as what?
convergent voids
sunspots
dipolar radiance
Advertisement
What is the radial-velocity method of detecting exoplanets?
measuring the gas composition of a star to determine if an exoplanet is causing the gases to mix
measuring the patterns of gamma rays thrown off of an exoplanet as it rotates
measuring the Doppler shift of light emitted by the parent star as the planet's gravity makes the star "wobble"
A planet that does not orbit any star, instead wandering through the galaxy alone, is called what?
a rogue planet
a templar
a planetar
Advertisement
Molecular clouds are regions where interstellar gases are slightly more dense, permitting molecules to form. These massive clouds can also give birth to what?
stars
dark matter
ionized gas
What was the first (and so far only) spacecraft to enter the interstellar medium?
Hubble
Cassini
Voyager I
What is the most widely accepted theory about the origin of the universe?
the steady state theory
the big bang theory
the proton cascade theory
Advertisement
The faint glow of radiation permeating the universe, considered a key element of the big bang theory, is also known as the ...
thermal identifier
cosmic microwave background
photon decoupling
What is the term for the apparent increase in wavelengths of light as the object emitting them and an observer move farther apart?
parsec
blueshift
redshift
A theoretical "tube" connecting two different points in space-time is called what?
a wormhole
a warp sphere
hyperspace
Advertisement
The theory that the universe will continue expanding until all energy is evenly distributed throughout the universe is called what?
the Kelvin extremity
the big nothing theory
the heat death of the universe
Observations of the universe suggest there is a great deal more matter present than what is visible. How do physicists account for the discrepancy?
with nonmatter
with dark matter
with degenerate matter
The matter in the universe that we can see and interact with (as opposed to dark matter and dark energy) is known as ...
baryonic matter
antimatter
ionic matter
Advertisement
When a star first forms, it is surrounded by a disk of gas and dust that may eventually form planets. What is the disk called?
an event horizon
a stellar cluster
a protoplanetary disk
The flow of high-energy particles from a star, pushed by the heat of the star's corona, is known as what?
the ionic breeze
the stellar wind
the Oort cloud
What kind of star will the sun become in the final stages of its life?
a brown dwarf
a red giant
a blue hole
Advertisement
What is at the center of most (possibly all) galaxies?
a megagiant star
a supermassive black hole
a superluminal ejection point
What is the event horizon of a black hole?
the point beyond which nothing, not even light, can escape the black hole's gravity
the point at which time becomes disconnected from space due to proximity to a black hole
the hypothesized "other side" of a black hole
What is the name of the invisible, radio wave-emitting object at the center of our galaxy that astronomers suspect is a supermassive black hole?
Cygnus V
Sagittarius A
KPL102101
Advertisement
Analyzing the spectra of the light being emitted by a star allows astronomers to determine what?
how far away it is
the chemical elements that make up the star, and therefore its temperature and density
the age of the star
In the Morgan-Keenan classification system for stars, the sun is classified G2V. What do the G and the 2 indicate?
the type of star it will eventually become
the sun's distance from its first planet
the temperature of the sun
Advertisement
What accounts for most galaxies with odd or unusual shapes?
extradimensional gravity leakage
interactions with other galaxies
dark energy
What is the term for a system of two stars revolving around each other?
Tatooine
a twin system
a binary star
Advertisement