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1 | | What does the Milky Way look like on the night sky? |
| | A) | A spiral-shaped region of nebulosity. |
| | B) | A pale band of light scattered with stars that stretches across the sky. |
| | C) | A uniform scattering of stars throughout the sky. |
| | D) | The Milky Way is not visible from Earth without a telescope. |
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2 | | Roughly how far across is the Milky Way? |
| | A) | 25 light years. |
| | B) | 25,000 km |
| | C) | 100,000 light years. |
| | D) | 10 million light years |
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3 | | About how much mass does our galaxy contain? |
| | A) | 1 million solar masses |
| | B) | 1 billion solar masses. |
| | C) | 1011 solar masses. |
| | D) | 1020 solar masses. |
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4 | | What did Harlow Shapley study in order to deduce the Milky Way's size and the Sun's position in it? |
| | A) | Open star clusters. |
| | B) | Globular star clusters. |
| | C) | Interstellar gas clouds. |
| | D) | Spiral arms. |
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5 | | What is not true of Population I stars? |
| | A) | They are old. |
| | B) | They are generally blue |
| | C) | They are high heavy element content. |
| | D) | They are found in the disk. |
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6 | | We know interstellar matter exits because |
| | A) | we can see it in dark clouds and clouds that absorb light. |
| | B) | the matter creates narrow absorption lines in the spectra of some stars. |
| | C) | we can detect radio waves coming from atoms and molecules in the cold gas. |
| | D) | All of the above. |
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7 | | How do we know that some interstellar matter is dust? |
| | A) | We can observe the tiny particles with the Hubble Space Telescope. |
| | B) | Dust emits x-rays. |
| | C) | Dust obscures and reddens starlight. |
| | D) | Interstellar matter is composed only of hydrogen gas. |
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8 | | What is the difference between an emission and a reflection nebula? |
| | A) | Emission nebulas give off their own light; reflection nebulas reflect the light of nearby stars. |
| | B) | Generally, emission nebulas appear red, and reflection nebulas look blue. |
| | C) | In emission nebulas, gas atoms emit light; in reflection nebulas, dust particles reflect light. |
| | D) | All of the above. |
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9 | | What is the zone of avoidance? |
| | A) | A part of the region of the Solar System where it is too dangerous to send spacecraft. |
| | B) | A quadrant of the Galaxy where no galaxies exist. |
| | C) | Part of the sky in which astronomers cannot observe due to bright emission from interstellar dust. |
| | D) | The region of the sky where no galaxies are seen due to obscuring dust in the Milky Way. |
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10 | | Which of these objects can be found in the spiral arms of the Galaxy? |
| | A) | HII regions |
| | B) | globular clusters |
| | C) | Pop II stars |
| | D) | alien tattoos |
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11 | | Astronomers have measured the Milky Way's mass by |
| | A) | observing magnetic fields in the Solar System. |
| | B) | using radar. |
| | C) | sending unmanned space missions to the center of the galaxy. |
| | D) | observing its gravitational attraction on matter in and near it. |
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12 | | Although it hasn't been observed (yet), why do astronomers think that Milky Way may contain "dark" material? |
| | A) | Theory predicts that there should be more black holes than we've so far detected. |
| | B) | The galaxy's gravity seems too big for the mass astronomers can see. |
| | C) | Due to its large size, the light from stars on the other side of the Milky Way has not reached us yet. |
| | D) | Astronomers have detected neutrinos from unseen sources. |
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13 | | What might you find at the center of the Milky Way? |
| | A) | a region 10,000 light years across containing no stars |
| | B) | a 10,000 solar mass star whose luminosity is 100 million solar luminosities |
| | C) | a black hole the mass of one million Suns |
| | D) | a sphere of ice 1 million miles in diameter |
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14 | | What is the density-wave model? |
| | A) | It is a way of describing the formation of galactic spiral arms. |
| | B) | It is a model who puts on a show at astronomy meetings. |
| | C) | It is a description of how light propagates. |
| | D) | It is a theory of the origin of the Universe. |
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