Download Final Exam Study Guide

Final Exam Study Guide
This guide is meant to assist with studying for the final exam on May 1, 2017. However this study
guide will not cover every single topic that might show up on the final. Remember that everything on
the final is in the slides in some form. You may NOT use this sheet when you are taking the exam.
Part I
If Alpha Centauri were two times farther, its brightness would be ______________.
If Alpha Centauri were 2.5 times farther, its absolute magnitude would ___________.
Also called a solar storm, this is a burst of plasma released into the solar wind: __________.
The sunspot cycle has a period of ______ .
The absolute magnitude of a star corresponds to its apparent magnitude at a distance of _______.
The temperature of the solar corona is approximately __________.
The layer of the Sun we can see with our eyes is called the __________.
Stars with the Sun’s mass will shine by nuclear reactions for ______ years.
The temperature at the center of the Sun is approximately ___________.
Energy moves outwards in the outer layers of the Sun through overturning motions of heated gas cells
called __________.
What is hydrostatic equilibrium?
How long would a star twice the Sun’s mass with 4 times the energy output last?
What are the layers of the Sun in order from coolest to hottest?
Why are sunspots darker than the surrounding region?
What is the source of the northern/southern lights?
Exercises
Draw the HR Diagram. Put the spectral sequence on the bottom and match it roughly with temperature.
Also point out the different luminosity classes (I, II, III, IV, V…). What is a type V star called?
Would you find a hydrogen burning core in a type II star? Where are the most luminous stars?
How does stellar life vary across the HR diagram?
Part II
The escape velocity of a neutron star (speed you need to escape it) is about ________.
A planetary nebula is typically formed at the same time as a(n) _______________.
The process in which many stars form from a single interstellar cloud is called _______.
Interstellar clouds cause stars behind them to appear __________.
Most stars in our Galaxy are __________.
In a neutron star, the pressure that fights gravity most efficiently is _________.
In a high-mass main sequence star, hydrogen fusion occurs primarily through the ________.
The Schwarzschild radius of a black hole depends on its __________.
Following the completion of core hydrogen burning, a star like the Sun will next become a _______.
The upper limit for the mass of a white dwarf is __________.
Stars are formed in ______ clouds containing _______ gas.
A white dwarf is made up of ____________.
Part III
What is the Tully Fisher relation?
What type of galaxy is the Andromeda galaxy?
What galaxy is the closest to us?
Which distance measurement is used for galaxies closest to us?
What type of galaxy has stars but almost no gas?
About how many stars are in the Milky Way?
What is a starburst galaxy?
How long does the Sun take to make one rotation around the Milky Way galaxy?
What is the effect of dark matter on the orbital speed of the Sun around the center of the galaxy?
Part IV
The first stars were probably born _________ years after the Big Bang.
What is the habitable zone?
The Critical evidence for the acceleration of the expansion of the Universe comes from _____.
Hubble’s Law states that a galaxy’s recessional velocity depends on its ______.
The leading theory suggests that most dark matter is _________.
Evidence for dark energy is found in _____________.
Astronomers now estimate that the Universe is roughly ____ dark energy, ____ WIMPS, ____
MACHOS, and _____ ordinary matter.
The satellite of Saturn that may harbor life as its nitrogen and methane atmosphere is thought to be
close to primordial Earth is ________.
Currently most of the mass of the universe is thought to consist of ________.
Big-bang nucleosynthesis predicts the composition of the primordial gas in helium (He) and hydrogen
(H) to be ______________.
What are the four fundamental forces? Which one split off first? Which split off next? Which two were
the last to split off?
Dark matter would have started clumping long before the atom era, even when the Universe was
radiation dominated because _______.