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Quiz about Not in a million years
Quiz about Not in a million years

Not in a million years! Trivia Quiz


A million years won't get you very far in the world of astronomy. Play this quiz to get an idea of the timescales that one is more likely to encounter. Good luck!

A multiple-choice quiz by pagea. Estimated time: 5 mins.
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Author
pagea
Time
5 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
347,595
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
6 / 10
Plays
1045
Awards
Top 35% Quiz
Last 3 plays: Guest 212 (9/10), Guest 75 (8/10), Guest 166 (7/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. As this is a quiz about cosmological timescales, let's first make sure we know the difference between units of time and those used to measure other things. Which of the following can be used as a measure of time? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. It all started with the Big Bang, which is predicted to have occurred approximately 13.7 billion years ago, leading to the expansion of the universe. After observing many galaxies, which astronomer proposed a law showing the relationship between the distance from the earth and the velocity at which each galaxy was moving away (recession velocity)? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. Almost as old as the universe itself is our galaxy, the Milky Way. One of the oldest objects in our galaxy is the star HE 1523-0901, which is estimated to be around 13.2 billion years old, only 0.5 billion less than the age of the universe. What kind of star is HE 1523-0901? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. The Milky Way galaxy is one of the two most massive galaxies in the so called 'local group', which comprises 54 nearby galaxies. We are approaching the second large galaxy at a rate of around 400,000 km/h but don't worry because it'll take around 3 billion years for the two galaxies to collide. What is the name of the second galaxy?

Answer: (One word)
Question 5 of 10
5. The Solar System in which we live was formed around 4.6 billion years ago when a large molecular cloud collapsed into a disc, eventually producing the planets and other features that we see today. Which of the the following can actually be found within our solar system? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Our solar system is found on the Local Spur and takes approximately 250 million years to orbit the centre of the Milky Way galaxy, a length of time known as the Galactic year. Can you tell me what can be found at centre of our galaxy? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. In astronomy we have the concept of the main sequence. This is the part of a star's lifetime where normal fusion (from Hydrogen to Helium) is occuring in the core and the star can be called stable. A star of a similar mass to the sun will stay on the main sequence for approximately 12 billion years, almost as long as the age of the universe. We can observe the main sequence on a H-R diagram, but can you tell me what this stands for? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. True or False: The mnemonic 'Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me' is used to remember the different types of galaxies.


Question 9 of 10
9. After a look at how the vast majority of astronomy takes millions (or billions) of years to develop, let's take a look at a few concepts on a much smaller timescale. We've all heard of Halley's comet, which has a period of around 76 years, but can you tell me why the comet bears this name? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. Light travels extremely fast, and so within the solar system it can get from one place to another very quickly. For instance it takes only 1 second from the Earth to the Moon and 8 minutes from the sun to the Earth. Can you tell me roughly how long it takes light to travel from the sun to Neptune, the outermost planet of our solar system? Hint



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Mar 19 2024 : Guest 212: 9/10
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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. As this is a quiz about cosmological timescales, let's first make sure we know the difference between units of time and those used to measure other things. Which of the following can be used as a measure of time?

Answer: Megaannum

The word 'megaannum' literally means a million years and so is the only true unit of time here. Both the light-year and the angstrom are units of distance, with the light-year being equal to the distance that a particle travelling at the speed of light (300,000,000 metres per second) would cover in a year, around 9 quadrillion metres, while the angstrom is a ten billionth of a metre. The angstrom is often used as the scale for measuring the size of atoms and molecules, as well as for wavelengths.

The erg is actually a unit of energy equal to 100 nanojoules in SI units.
2. It all started with the Big Bang, which is predicted to have occurred approximately 13.7 billion years ago, leading to the expansion of the universe. After observing many galaxies, which astronomer proposed a law showing the relationship between the distance from the earth and the velocity at which each galaxy was moving away (recession velocity)?

Answer: Edwin Hubble

The law itself is actually just called 'Hubble's law' and tells us that the further away a galaxy is, the faster it is moving away from us. This means that the universe is still expanding. The other astronomers are famous for various reasons:

Tycho Brahe was a pioneering astronomer from Denmark who is well known for his observations of planets, stars and (super)novae, a term he coined because he thought it was the birth of a new star.

Chandrasekhar is perhaps best known for the 'Chandrasekhar limit', which is the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf star and is around 1.38 solar masses. If a white dwarf exceeds this mass then it is likely to collapse and form a neutron star or a black hole.

Finally Giovanni Cassini is the namesake of the Cassini Division, a gap between the A Ring and the B ring of Saturn that he discovered in 1675.
3. Almost as old as the universe itself is our galaxy, the Milky Way. One of the oldest objects in our galaxy is the star HE 1523-0901, which is estimated to be around 13.2 billion years old, only 0.5 billion less than the age of the universe. What kind of star is HE 1523-0901?

Answer: Red Giant

A red giant is a relatively cool star in comparison to many others, emphasised by its red colour as opposed to yellow or white, with a surface temperature of around 5000 Kelvin. Although the average red giant has a diameter that is around 200 times larger than the sun, the mass of a red giant is typically a maximum of 10 solar masses, suggesting that red giants are significantly less dense than a main sequence star such as the sun.

Unfortunately the sun will one day become a red giant and engulf the area of space that the Earth currently occupies but don't fret because that is several billion years away!
4. The Milky Way galaxy is one of the two most massive galaxies in the so called 'local group', which comprises 54 nearby galaxies. We are approaching the second large galaxy at a rate of around 400,000 km/h but don't worry because it'll take around 3 billion years for the two galaxies to collide. What is the name of the second galaxy?

Answer: Andromeda

Although the term 'local group' is used to describe the group of galaxies in which we find ourselves, it is actually around 10 million light-years across, or for those who like more technical units, a little over 3 million parsecs.

Despite the enormity of these distances, astronomers have been able to observe that the local group is in a dumbbell shape with the centre of mass being somewhere between the two largest galaxies (the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies) and also that the total mass of the local group is around 1 trillion times the mass of the sun.

Arguably the most famous galaxy outside of the Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy (M31 in the Messier catalogue) is also spiral galaxy and contains around 1 trillion stars, more than twice the number contained in the Milky Way (200-400 billion).
5. The Solar System in which we live was formed around 4.6 billion years ago when a large molecular cloud collapsed into a disc, eventually producing the planets and other features that we see today. Which of the the following can actually be found within our solar system?

Answer: Haumea

Haumea is actually one of five dwarf planets found in our solar system, along with Eris, Makemake, Ceres and most famously Pluto. A dwarf planet is defined as an object of planetary mass that has achieved hydrostatic equilibrium, but which has not cleared it's own path around the sun (and in addition is not a satellite). Haumea was originally called Santa, as it was discovered just after Christmas in 2004. However, the name Haumea comes from the Hawaiian goddess of childbirth.

Alpha Centauri is the brightest star in the constellation of Centaurus, and is actually a binary star system, found at a distance of around 1.34 parsecs. The Horsehead nebula is found in the constellation of Orion, at a distance of around 460 parsecs. Vega is the fifth brightest star in the night sky, found in the constellation of Lyra at a distance of around 7.7 parsecs.
6. Our solar system is found on the Local Spur and takes approximately 250 million years to orbit the centre of the Milky Way galaxy, a length of time known as the Galactic year. Can you tell me what can be found at centre of our galaxy?

Answer: A black hole

The Earth, the sun and the rest of the solar system are found at a distance of 8-8.7kpc from the centre of the galaxy, where kpc stands for kiloparsec (1000 parsecs), which is equal to around 3264 lightyears. We are orbiting the black hole at 800,000km/h and it has a mass of about 4 million solar masses.

The object known as Sagittarius A* is thought to be the black hole and is found in the sky near the borders of both the Sagittarius and Scorpius constellations.
7. In astronomy we have the concept of the main sequence. This is the part of a star's lifetime where normal fusion (from Hydrogen to Helium) is occuring in the core and the star can be called stable. A star of a similar mass to the sun will stay on the main sequence for approximately 12 billion years, almost as long as the age of the universe. We can observe the main sequence on a H-R diagram, but can you tell me what this stands for?

Answer: Hertzsprung-Russell

The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram was created by Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Norris Russell in the early 20th century and is a scatter chart of stars which plots luminosity against surface temperatures.

One can observe different types of star in different areas of the chart, with the main sequence roughly running from the top left (hottest, most luminous stars) to the bottom right (cooler, low luminosity stars), with giant stars above the main sequence and dwarfs below.
8. True or False: The mnemonic 'Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me' is used to remember the different types of galaxies.

Answer: False

The mnemonic is actually to remember O, B, A, F, G, K, M, which is the Harvard Classification system for stars, determined by the colour (or temperature) of the star, with 'O' stars being the hottest (bluest) at over 33,000 Kelvin, and 'M' stars the coolest (reddest) at below 3,700 Kelvin.

Those stars at the left hand side of the scale are also the biggest and heaviest and have the highest luminosity, sometimes thousands of times brighter than the sun. Brighter stars also have a much shorter life than sun-like stars, often only a few millions of years as opposed to billions.
9. After a look at how the vast majority of astronomy takes millions (or billions) of years to develop, let's take a look at a few concepts on a much smaller timescale. We've all heard of Halley's comet, which has a period of around 76 years, but can you tell me why the comet bears this name?

Answer: Edmond Halley computed the orbit and predicted the periodicity of the comet

Edmond Halley was born in London, England in 1656 and was active in many scientific fields including geophysics, mathematics and meteorology as well as atronomy. Halley was able to map the orbit of his namesake comet and predict it's return in 1758, by which time he was unfortunately dead. However it was given his name as he successfully predicted it's return.

Halley's comet was not discovered by Halley (or a pupil of his), it had in fact been observed for many thousands of years.
10. Light travels extremely fast, and so within the solar system it can get from one place to another very quickly. For instance it takes only 1 second from the Earth to the Moon and 8 minutes from the sun to the Earth. Can you tell me roughly how long it takes light to travel from the sun to Neptune, the outermost planet of our solar system?

Answer: 4 hours

The orbit of Neptune around the sun is almost circular, but we still have to take an average distance of 4.5 billion kilometres between the two. Given that the speed of light is around 300 million metres per second, or 300,000 kilometres per second, we can see that the time it takes for sunlight to reach Neptune is around 4 hours, quite a wait in comparison to our 8 minutes!
Source: Author pagea

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor WesleyCrusher before going online.
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