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25 questions
What is the name of our home galaxy?
Messier 81
the Whirlpool Galaxy
the Milky Way
the Andromeda Galaxy
In the early 20th Century, "faint fuzzies" displaying a variety of shapes in the sky were simply called ___
faint fuzzies
nebulae
smoky dots
bulging halos
Which astronomer argued, in 1920, that "the Milky Way was all there is"?
Harlow Shapley
Edwin Hubble
Heber Curtis
Milton Humason
Which astronomer argued, in 1920, that the Milky Way was just one of many galaxies?
Harlow Shapley
Edwin Hubble
Heber Curtis
Milton Humason
Shapley erroneously noted that one of the spiral nebulae had been seen to rotate, so it must be ___
small
big
old
young
Which astronomers "unlocked the mystery" of spiral nebulae in the 1920's?
Harlow Shapley and Milton Humason
Heber Curtis and Milton Humason
Edwin Hubble and Harlow Shapley
Edwin Hubble and Milton Humason
In the 1920's, what type of pulsating stars were observed in the spiral nebula M31 in Andromeda?
RR Lyrae stars
G2V type stars
pulsars
Cepheid variables
It was known, for Cepheid variables, that the time it took them to pulse was directly related to their ___
luminosity
size
mass
distance from Earth
If you can measure the period of Cepheid variables, you can determine how far away they are simply by ___
calculating their absolute magnitude
measuring the red shift
measuring their apparent brightness
using spectroscopy
In the 1920's it was determined that the "Great Andromeda Nebula" was actually ___
a spiral nebulae
a Cepheid variable
within the Milky Way
an entirely separate galaxy
We still classify galaxies according to Hubble's original system, based on ___
the number of contained stars
the distance across
their overall shapes
the type of gas and dust
What type of galaxy is the Milky Way?
elliptical
spiral
peculiar
irregular
What type of galaxy is characterized by a broad, flat, rotating disk of stars, gas and dust, and a central bulge?
elliptical
spiral
peculiar
irregular
What type of galaxy often has a bar of stars extending across the central part of the galaxy?
elliptical
spiral
peculiar
irregular
The choppy or patchy arms, that resemble tufts of cotton, in some spiral galaxies are called ___
hairy arms
fluffy helicoids
flocculent spirals
willow the wisps
Star forming nebulae in spiral arms are colored pink by the characteristic glow of ___
cooling helium
hot metallic elements
excited oxygen
warm hydrogen
When seen edge-on, what feature can bisect a spiral galaxy "like a racing stripe right down the middle"?
black holes
dust clouds
luminous blue stars
older red stars
What type of galaxy is puffy, with no overall structure and populated with older stars?
elliptical
spiral
peculiar
irregular
Current thinking is that elliptical galaxies are the products of ___
condensed nebula
collapsed spiral galaxies
supernova explosions
galactic collisions
Colliding galaxies can glow blue and pink as stars are born and ___
quickly explode as supernova
light up the hydrogen clouds around them
fuse heavy metals
reflect light off of dust clouds
We think most large galaxies, including our own Milky Way, grew to their current bulk by ___
consuming smaller galaxies
colliding with other large galaxies
merging with nebula
gaining dark matter
What type of galaxy has a shape that's weird and distorted, essentially all due to collisions?
elliptical
peculiar
odd
irregular
What type of galaxy tends to be small and are truly shapeless?
elliptical
peculiar
odd
irregular
The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, visible ___
from the Southern Hemisphere
from the Northern Hemisphere
in the winter
in the summer
What is the biggest and most active star forming gas cloud in any nearby galaxy?
the Orion Nebula
the Eagle Nebula
the Crab Nebula
the Tarantula Nebula
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