Chapter 14

The Stars:
How much longer can the Sun sustain life on Earth?
1. The energy source of stars is primarily associated with
a. the reactions of atoms in the star corona.
b. the reactions of nuclei in the star core.
c. the reactions of atoms in the outer regions of the star.
d. burning of elements until they become radioactive.
e. burning of elements heavier than lead.

Ans: b
Link To: The Anatomy of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

2. If scientists located a Dyson Sphere, they would find

a. something made from a dismantled planet.
b. a planet in orbit around our closest star.
c. an energy source built to surround a planet.
d. an object at the core of the Sun.
e. the corona during a total eclipse.

Ans: a
Link To: The Anatomy of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

3. The solar wind

a. extends into space as far as Mercury.
b. consists of hydrogen and carbon particles.
c. is a part of the Sun’s atmospheric circulation.
d. affects the magnetic fields of planets.
e. is another term for the Sun’s chromosphere.

Ans: d
Link To: The Anatomy of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy
4. Which of the following can be said about large stars?
a. Large stars have a longer lifetime than smaller stars.

226
 Chapter 14

b. Large stars have a shorter lifetime than smaller stars.

c. Large star lifetime is about the same as that of smaller stars.
d. The helium in the large star's core burns to produce hydrogen.
e. Large stars are the source of oxygen in photosynthesis.

Ans: b
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

5. At this moment, the Sun is producing energy by burning

a. plutonium.
b. anthracite.
c. hydrogen.
d. helium.
e.iron.

Ans: c
Link To: The Anatomy of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

6. The end products of fusion in the Sun's core are

a. helium isotopes, protons, and gamma rays.
b. hydrogen isotopes, photons, and infrared rays.
c. helium ions, photons, and hydrogen isotopes.
d. hydrogen ions, protons, and gamma rays.
e. deuterium, photons, and gamma rays.

Ans: a
Link To: The Anatomy of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

7. Approximately how long does it take the energy of the Sun to be transferred from the stellar
core to the photosphere?
a. one light-year
b. many thousands of years
c. 24 hours
d. one month
e. eight minutes

Ans: b

227
Chapter 14

Link To: The Anatomy of Stars

Difficulty Level: Easy

8. Which of the following affect the life of a star?

a. gravitational force
b. mass
c. temperature
d. fusion processes
e. all of the above

Ans: e
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

9. From what part of the electromagnetic spectrum is most of the Sun’s energy emitted?
a. radio waves
b .infrared waves
c. visible light waves
d. gamma rays
e. microwaves

Ans: c
Link To: The Nature of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

10. Which of the following satellite observatories could not detect the presence of a black hole?
a. Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO)
b. Chandra X-ray Observatory
c. Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
d. Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF)
e. only a and b

Ans: d
Link To: The Nature of Stars
Difficulty Level: Medium

11. Differences in how a star appears in the sky are a function of

a. the size of the star.
b. how far away the star is from Earth.

228
 Chapter 14

c. the total energy emitted by the star.

d. the star’s apparent brightness.
e. all of the above

Ans: e
Link To: The Variety of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

12. The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram is a graphical technique used in astronomy to compare

a. the surface temperature versus the energy output of a star.
b. the star’s luminosity versus its distance from Earth.
c. the absolute magnitude of the star versus the star’s relative temperature.
d. the distance the Sun is from the nearest red giant.
e. the location of possible solar systems in the Milky Way.

Ans: a
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

13. Where in the Milky Way galaxy would astronomers expect to find planetary systems other
than our own?
a. Dyson Sphere
b. nebulae
c. supernovas
d. black hole
e. Cepheid stars

Ans: b
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

14. Which of the following is not an endpoint of stellar evolution?

a. white dwarf
b. main sequence star
c. pulsar
d. black hole
e. neutron star

Ans: b
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars

229
Chapter 14

Difficulty Level: Easy

15. Where were the heaviest chemical elements on Earth created?

a. neutron stars
b. black holes
c. the Sun
d. supernovae
e. the asteroid belt

Ans: d
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

16. If you were to observe a pulsar, what would you see?

a. a blinking red glow
b. intermittent radio waves
c. a steady glow that oscillates among the stars
d. the sudden brightening of a star
e. the total eclipse of the Sun

Ans: b
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

17. What is Supernova 1987A likely to become?

a. black hole
b. pulsars
c. main sequence star
d. Cepheid variable
e. solar wind

Ans: b
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

18. If the Hubble telescope detects an intensely bright region in the sky that lasts only a few
days, it has probably found evidence of a
a. white dwarf.
b. supernova.

230
 Chapter 14

c. main sequence star.

d. new galaxy.
e. black hole.

Ans: b
Link To: The Nature of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

19. Which of the following star variables would not be in an astronomer’s data?
a. wave length
b. intensity
c. sound
d. position
e. brightness

Ans: c
Link To: The Nature of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

20. Which of the following telescopes would have a collecting mirror?

a. Chandra X-ray orbiting observatory telescope
b. Hubble telescope
c. Very Large Array telescope in New Mexico
d. Hertzsprung-Russell telescope at Harvard
e. all of the above

Ans: b
Link To: The Nature of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

21. Which of the following is among the things scientists predict for Sun's demise?
a. The burning of helium will produce a carbon ash core.
b. The Sun will expand until it extends past the present orbit of Venus.
c. The sun will emit more energy but appear to be cool.
d. At different points in its final years, the Sun will become a red giant and a white dwarf.
e. All of the above are true.

Ans: e
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

231
Chapter 14

22. Red giants can be described as

a. huge planets that are surrounded by gases.
b. large stars that emit a lot of energy but have cool surfaces.
c. large stars that emit a lot of energy but have glowing, hot surfaces.
d. stars that are in the hydrogen-burning stage of their lives.
e. large planets with glowing iron oxide surfaces.

Ans: b
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

23. The starry night sky seen from Earth is a temporary phenomenon that has lasted about 15
billion years.

Ans: True
Link To: The Nature of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

24. Some stars will burn forever.

Ans: False
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

25. The Sun's peak output of energy is within the visible spectrum.

Ans: True
Link To: The Anatomy of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

26. Record numbers of neutrinos from the Sun have been isolated at the solar neutrino laboratory
in South Dakota.

Ans: False
Link To: The Anatomy of Stars

232
 Chapter 14

Difficulty Level: Easy

27. All objects with temperatures above absolute zero will radiate some form of electromagnetic
waves.

Ans: True
Link To: The Nature of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

28. Except for visible light and radio waves, the atmosphere of the Earth is opaque to most of the
electromagnetic spectrum.

Ans: True
Link To: The Nature of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

29. The absolute magnitude of a star is the brightness as seen from Earth, depending on the star’s
distance from Earth.

Ans: False
Link To: The Variety of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

30. The distance to stars greater than 500 light-years away is measured using Cepheid variable
stars.

Ans: True
Link To: The Variety of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

31. A main sequence star in the H-R diagram is in the hydrogen burning stage of its existence.

Ans: True
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

233
Chapter 14

32. A star balances the forces of gravity against the high temperature and pressure of nuclear
fires in the stellar core.

Ans: True
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

33. The degeneracy pressure of electrons is usually measured at the earliest stage of a star’s
existence.

Ans: False
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

34. A star will start its existence as a white dwarf and end as a red giant.

Ans: False
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

35. A neutron star is dense and small, compared to the Sun.

Ans: True
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

36. The supernova 1987A contradicted all the theories of stellar evolution proposed up to that
time.

Ans: False
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

37. What are the two factors that affect the behavior of every star?

234
 Chapter 14

Ans: Mass and age.

Link To: The Variety of Stars
Difficulty Level: Easy

38. The iron in your blood was made during

a. a chemical process that occurred during Earth's formation.
b. the final moments in the life of a small star.
c. fusion during our Sun's creation.
d. fission reactions during the Big Bang.
e. the nuclear burning of a very large star.

Ans: e
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Medium

39. If you were describing the structure of the Sun correctly, you would say that
a. ten percent of the total volume of the Sun is the core.
b. the Sun’s outer region is a convection zone.
c. the photosphere thins away from the Sun's surface.
d. a gaseous chromosphere and corona are visible only during a solar eclipse.
e. All of the above are true.

Ans: e
Link To: The Anatomy of Stars
Difficulty Level: Medium

40. Why do astronomers prefer orbiting telescopes over Earth-based telescopes?

a. lower user costs and more research time options
b. exciting space travel possible for observations
c. wider range of electromagnetic wavelengths detected
d. greater international cooperation
e. more aesthetically pleasing

Ans: c
Link To: The Nature of Stars
Difficulty Level: Medium

235
Chapter 14

41. It is impossible to extract energy from iron by fusion or fission.

Ans: True
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Medium

42. Why are new stars made of hydrogen gas?

Ans: Hydrogen gas is the simplest and the most common material in space.
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Medium

43. What is the difference between apparent brightness and absolute brightness in star
classification?

Ans: Apparent brightness is relative brightness when viewed from Earth with distant stars
appearing dimmer. Absolute brightness is a measure of stellar brightness from a standard
distance.
Link To: The Variety of Stars
Difficulty Level: Medium

44. Compare the process of hydrogen burning with helium burning in a star.

Ans: After the hydrogen fuel in the core of a star is depleted, the star will contract under the
force of gravity. At the same time the temperature will rise in the core until helium is fused to
form carbon. Helium burning is the final stage in a star's life that produces energy.
Link To: The Anatomy of Stars
Difficulty Level: Medium

45. Why do scientists believe that black holes exist, since black holes cannot be seen and none
have ever been confirmed in space?

Ans: Black holes give off a particular radiation signature; objects around the black hole behave
in a particular manner.
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Medium

236
 Chapter 14

46. From an observer’s point of view, how would the birth of a star appear different from the
death of a large star (supernovae)?

Ans: These events are similar in that they both expel a shell of material although the supernova is
more dramatic. These events are different in that the new star emits continuous light whereas the
dying star fades to black.
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Medium

47. From the perspective of Earth, how are neutron stars and pulsars the same and how are they
different?

Ans: They are actually the same object; pulsars are only neutron stars whose poles are pointing
toward the Earth.
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Medium

48. Why are imaginary space creatures often depicted as havingeyes larger than those of Earth
dwellers? Compare the “eyes” of a Venusian with the “eyes” of a Plutonian.
Science fiction writers and illustrators may be enlarging

Ans: the eyes of extraterrestrials to indicate their need to collect more photons, similar in the
theory explaining the large eyes of nocturnal animals. Following that logic, Venusian “eyes”
would be smaller than those of the Plutonians.
Link To: The Anatomy of Stars
Difficulty Level: Hard

49. What is the answer to the solar neutrino problem?

Ans: Experiments before 2001, designed to measure the number of neutrinos given off by the
Sun, had detected fewer neutrinos than expected. Scientists hypothesized that the ordinary
electron neutrinos were converted to other types of neutrinos during their
transit to Earth. The "lost" neutrinos were recently detected in an experiment comparing neutrino
capture in pure water versus heavy water. Heavy water will only react with the electron neutrino.

237
Chapter 14

Pure water will react with all kinds of neutrinos. One-third of the neutrinos are ordinary electron
neutrinos; two-thirds have been converted.
Link To: The Anatomy of Stars
Difficulty Level: Hard

50. List the events in the life of a Sun-like star in chronological order. Will the star becomes a
supernova? Why or why not?

Ans: It is a part of a concentration of mass in a cloud of gas and debris. It becomes a plasma
made mostly of protons and electrons. Hydrogen is burned in the star’s core.
The star collapses temporarily. The star expands and becomes a red giant. The star shrinks to
become a white dwarf.
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Hard

51. What four aspects of photons are measured by astronomers and what instruments do the
scientists use?

Ans: Astronomers measure photon wavelength with spectroscopy; photon intensity with light
meters; photon direction by recording two angles; and the variation of wavelength, intensity, and
position over time.
Link To: The Nature of Stars
Difficulty Level: Hard

52. Explain how the Northern Lights are formed.

Ans: The Northern Lights, also called the Aurora Borealis, are flashing colored lights seen in the
Earth’s night sky at high northern latitudes when the ions forming the solar wind interact with
the Earth's magnetic field in the outer reaches of the Earth’s atmosphere.
Link To: The Nature of Stars
Difficulty Level: Hard

53. How can the ashes of one stellar nuclear fire become the fuel for the next stellar nuclear fire?

Ans: In medium size stars, hydrogen is burned in nuclear fusion reactions to form helium and, in
the later stages, the helium ash is burned to produce carbon. The carbon itself cannot ignite in
stars the size of our Sun. In very large stars, the pressure in the cores is so
intense that the carbon can be changed by fusion into even larger nuclei like oxygen and silicon.
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Hard

238
 Chapter 14

54. Why do larger stars have shorter life spans?

Ans: Larger stars may have more hydrogen fuel to burn but have shorter life spans, when
compared with small or average size stars. The reason is that large stars must burn
hydrogen at rates many times greater than that of smaller stars to overcome the intense force of
gravity caused by the star’s massiveness.
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Hard

55. How are naturally occurring elements heavier than iron formed in stellar processes?

Ans: Elements heavier than iron are created when a very large star explodes in a supernova,
sending out shockwaves. This raises the temperature and causes collisions of nuclei, which forms
new elements.
Link To: The Anatomy of Stars
Difficulty Level: Hard

56. How are Cepheid variables used to classify stars?

Ans: The distance a star is from the Earth can be determined with triangulation (for nearby stars)
or with Cepheid variables. The Cepheid variable stars are standards of comparison for stars
greater than a few hundred light-years away using known values of energy output from the star
and energy received by Earth. Distance is calculated from comparable brightness (magnitude).
Link To: The Variety of Stars
Difficulty Level: Hard

57. What advantages might there be to living inside a Dyson Sphere? What would be the
limitations future scientists must face before constructing a Dyson Sphere?

Ans: A Dyson sphere would not only intercept and utilize all of a star’s energy, it also could
support a tremendous population. Such an immense structure would have an internal surface area
comparable to more than 500 million Earth-like planets, and it would be uniformly heated in
eternal daylight.
Link To: The Anatomy of Stars
Difficulty Level: Hard

239
Chapter 14

58. How are the original telescopes different from modern telescopes? How do the former
improve upon the latter?

Ans: Answers will vary but could include facts about early telescopes using only light whereas
modern, non-optical telescopes use other sources of energy to ‘see’ distant objects. Modern non-
optical telescopes can be used 24 hours a day, in good weather or bad. Modern optical telescopes
have technological advances such as better glass grinding, computer operations, etc.
Link To: The Nature of Stars
Difficulty Level: Hard

59. When pulsars were first detected, they were called LGM, which stood for Little Green Men.
What characteristic of pulsars might have caused astronomers to give them this name?

Ans: Answers will vary but should include reference to the regular pulse rate that appeared as if
someone controlled the projection of energy.
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Hard

60. If the Sun had not burned fairly evenly since the creation of the Earth, how would life on
Earth be different?

Ans: Answers will vary but could include plant and animal adaptations, different abundances of
elements, and so forth.
Link To: The Nature of Stars
Difficulty Level: Hard

61. If a new star were discovered, what characteristics would it have to have in order to be
identified as a main sequence star?

Ans: Medium size, temperature, color.

Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Hard

62. During ocean voyages, early sailors used a method called triangulation to determine the
location of their ships. How is this same method used today by astronomers to determine the
distance to certain neighboring stars?

240
 Chapter 14

Ans: By measuring the angle of sight to a given star from two points of known separation, we
can determine the star’s distance from us.
Link To: The Anatomy of Stars
Difficulty Level: Hard

63. Evaluate the positive and negative aspects of using a star as an energy source as proposed by
the construction of a Dyson Sphere.

Ans: Positive: a source of energy lasting billions of years

Negative: what to do with the solar wind particles and what happens if the star changes energy
output—even by 1-2%?
Link To: The Anatomy of Stars
Difficulty Level: Hard

64. We don’t often see stars in the daytime, but if you dug a hole deep enough could you see the
stars from the bottom?

Ans: Yes, but it would be a hole tens of miles deep.

Link To: The Anatomy of Stars
Difficulty Level: Hard

65. If some one says to you, “all stars are the same—just tiny points of light”, how might you
convince them they have different temperatures (color) and different magnitudes (brightness).

Ans: Answers will vary, however, the human eye is not good at discriminating color at low light
levels, but a color photograph can illustrate different colors. As for brightness, light bulbs of the
same wattage placed at different distances (or varying wattages placed at the same distances) can
illustrate magnitude.
Link To: The Variety of Stars
Difficulty Level: Hard

66. In the 1800s scientists knew that if the Sun was composed of conventional fuels (coal, oil,
wood) it would have a burning life of only a few thousand years at best. How might this
information impact the debate of “how old is the Earth” in that era?

Ans: Either the Earth is only a few thousand years old or the Sun is using a different source of
fuel—one with a greater lifetime.
Link To: The Nature of Stars

241
Chapter 14

Difficulty Level: Hard

67. If the Earth had evolved around a different star—a redder star that produced more
frequencies in the infrared and microwave bands—how might plant and animal development
been altered to respond to these frequencies?

Ans: Answers will vary but for sure if eyes developed they would have to be much larger to
receive these longer frequencies. Plants would have evolved chlorophyll that responded to
different wavelengths than that of green light.
Link To: The Anatomy of Stars
Difficulty Level: Hard

68. What elements on the periodic table are the products of supernovae? Why would this be true?

Ans: All elements heavier than iron are formed as a result of higher temperatures and pressures
generated by larger stars when they undergo a catastrophic gravitational collapse.
Link To: The Life Cycles of Stars
Difficulty Level: Hard

69. How is it that optical telescopes are placed in orbit but radio telescopes are not?

Ans: The visible spectrum frequencies are distorted and absorbed by the atmosphere but radio
waves pass through relatively undisturbed.
Link To: The Nature of Stars
Difficulty Level: Hard

242