P 7 20 Questions
Traffic Light Quiz
Rules
• Everyone should reveal their answer at
the same time
• Count down: 3, 2, 1, show!
1. The parallax angle of a star is..
twice the angle moved against the background
of distant stars in 6 months
half the angle moved against the background of
distant stars in 6 months
the angle moved against the background of
distant stars in 6 months
2. A smaller parallax angle means..
The star is further away
The star is closer
The star is not as bright
3. What is a parsec?
The distance to a star with a parallax angle of one degree of arc
The distance to a star with a parallax angle of one minute of arc
The distance to a star with a parallax angle of one second of arc
4. What is a light year?
The distance travelled by light in a year
The time it takes light to travel one parsec
The time it takes light to travel around the
Sun
5. What is the typical distance
between adjacent stars?
A few million km
A few parsecs
A few thousand parsecs
6. The intrinsic brightness
(luminosity) of a star depends on…
its distance from us and its colour
its size and its mass
its temperature and its size
7. What is a Cepheid variable?
A star with brightness that changes
periodically
A galaxy that contains a wide variety of stars
A star that is changing from a red giant to a
white dwarf
8. What does the period of a
Cepheid variable depend on?
How far the star is away
How old the star is
How bright the star is
9. What is a galaxy?
A cluster of hundreds of stars
A cluster of billions of stars
A group of millions of planets
10. What did most astronomers believe at
the start of the 20th century?
Our galaxy is the only one in the Universe
Our Sun is the only star in our galaxy
Our planet is the only one in the solar
system
11. What was the “Curtis-Shapley
debate” all about
Whether nebulae were in our galaxy or
separate galaxies themselves
Whether Cepheid variables were any use for
determining stellar distances
Whether our Universe was expanding or not
12. What is a “megaparsec”
A hundred parsecs
A thousand parsecs
A million parsecs
13. What is the typical distance
between galaxies?
A few parsecs
A few thousand parsecs
A few megaparsecs
14. The further a galaxy is away..
the faster it moves away from us
the slower it moves away from us
the slower it moves towards us
15. What was the explanation for
Hubble’s observations
The Universe is much bigger than we
thought
The Universe started from a big bang
The Universe is expanding
16. All the stars you can see with
the naked eye are..
in our solar system
in our galaxy
in our cluster of galaxies
17. Which of these is furthest away
from us?
Pluto
Alpha Centauri (a star)
Andromeda (a galaxy)
18. A galaxy is 3 x 1021 km away. If the Hubble
constant is 2 x 10-18 s-1 , what is the speed of recession?
1500km/s
Speed = Hubble constant x distance
6000km/s
0.66km/s
19. What is the correct relationship
between galaxy distance and
recession speed?
recession speed = Hubble constant x distance
Hubble constant = recession speed x distance
distance = Hubble constant x recession speed
20. Why are Cepheid variables
useful?
They allow us to estimate the mass of distant
stars
They allow us to estimate the distance to stars
and galaxies
They allow us to estimate the temperature of
distant stars
