Interstellar Medium
  • 1. What is the interstellar medium (ISM) primarily composed of?
A) Rock formations
B) Liquid water
C) Gas and dust
D) Plasma
  • 2. Which type of electromagnetic radiation is most commonly used to observe the interstellar medium?
A) Radio waves
B) Gamma rays
C) X-rays
D) Visible light
  • 3. What is the process by which interstellar dust grains align themselves with magnetic fields?
A) Ionization imbalance
B) Heat conduction
C) Radiative torque alignment
D) Microwave heating
  • 4. What term is used to describe regions in the ISM that contain a higher density of gas and dust?
A) Reflection nebulae
B) H II regions
C) Molecular clouds
D) Supernova remnants
  • 5. What is the most abundant element in the interstellar medium?
A) Helium
B) Carbon
C) Oxygen
D) Hydrogen
  • 6. What is the main component of interstellar dust grains?
A) Platinum
B) Diamonds
C) Silicates
D) Gold
  • 7. What is believed to be a major reservoir of carbon in the interstellar medium?
A) Carbon dioxide (CO2)
B) Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
C) Methane (CH4)
D) Carbon monoxide (CO)
  • 8. What color do reflection nebulae appear to be?
A) Yellow
B) Green
C) Red
D) Blue
  • 9. What type of gas cloud emits its own light due to ionizing radiation from nearby hot stars?
A) Reflection nebula
B) Dark nebula
C) Supernova remnant
D) H II region
  • 10. What is the approximate number density of molecules per cubic meter in molecular clouds within the ISM?
A) 1 billion (109) molecules/m3
B) 10 quadrillion (1016) molecules/m3
C) 1 trillion (1012) molecules/m3
D) 100 ions/m3
  • 11. Which phase of the ISM is characterized by temperatures around 8000 K?
A) Photodissociation region
B) Cold dense phase
C) Warm ionized medium
D) Coronal gas
  • 12. What percentage of the ISM's mass is composed of dust?
A) 10%
B) 1%
C) 5%
D) 50%
  • 13. Which type of star contributes to ionizing hydrogen in the ISM?
A) White dwarfs
B) Neutron stars
C) Red giants
D) OB stars
  • 14. What is the temperature range for the warm neutral medium (WNM)?
A) O(105 K)
B) ~ 104 K
C) ~ 106 K
D) < 300 K
  • 15. What is the approximate number density of air at sea level?
A) ~ 100 ions/m3
B) ~ 1016 molecules/m3
C) ~ 1025 molecules/m3
D) ~ 1012 molecules/m3
  • 16. Which phase of the ISM is shock heated by supernovae?
A) Photodissociation region
B) Very hot gas (T ~ 106 K)
C) Cold dense phase
D) Warm intercloud phase
  • 17. What is the pressure balance condition in the ISM?
A) The phases are roughly in pressure balance over most of the Galactic disk.
B) Thermal pressure is more important than magnetic fields.
C) All phases have equal density.
D) Pressure varies significantly across different regions.
  • 18. Who coined the term 'interstellar'?
A) William Huggins
B) René Descartes
C) Edward Barnard
D) Francis Bacon
  • 19. Which spectral line is most common at millimetre and sub-mm wavelengths in molecular clouds?
A) Forbidden lines of O III
B) Ly-α photon from hydrogen
C) Spectral lines from CO
D) 21-cm line of H I
  • 20. What is the primary source of heavier elements in the ISM?
A) Stellar nucleosynthesis during stellar evolution.
B) Interstellar dust
C) Cosmic rays
D) Primordial nucleosynthesis
  • 21. What happens when dense molecular clouds form stars?
A) They reduce the number of hydrogen atoms.
B) They convert surrounding gas into the warm ionized phase, increasing temperature.
C) They create cold neutral medium.
D) They decrease the density of the ISM.
  • 22. What type of photon emission is associated with fine structure cooling?
A) Photon emission from de-excitation
B) Synchrotron radiation
C) Bremsstrahlung radiation
D) Inverse Compton scattering
  • 23. What type of emission is produced by small grains spinning at GHz frequencies?
A) Dipole radiation
B) Far infrared quasi-blackbody emission
C) Millimetre wavelength lines
D) 21-cm line emission
  • 24. Which molecule's rotational lines are important for cooling in molecular clouds?
A) H2 (molecular hydrogen)
B) N II
C) O III
D) CO (carbon monoxide)
  • 25. What process generates gamma-ray photons when cosmic rays collide with atomic nuclei in ISM clouds?
A) Collision with atomic nuclei
B) Bremsstrahlung cooling
C) Inverse Compton scattering
D) Synchrotron radiation
  • 26. How does the Coriolis force affect large ISM features?
A) It has no effect on the ISM.
B) It compresses all ISM into a thin disk.
C) It influences their dynamics and structure.
D) It prevents star formation in spiral arms.
  • 27. How is the ISM near the center of most galaxies affected?
A) It remains unchanged from the rest of the galaxy.
B) It becomes entirely in the coronal phase.
C) It is profoundly modified by the central supermassive black hole.
D) It only contains cold gas.
  • 28. What type of emission is produced by interstellar dust grains re-emitting absorbed starlight?
A) Millimetre wavelength lines
B) Synchrotron radiation
C) Far infrared quasi-blackbody emission
D) 21-cm line emission
  • 29. What type of emission is produced by interstellar dust grains in the far infrared?
A) Inverse Compton scattering
B) Synchrotron radiation
C) Bremsstrahlung radiation
D) Quasi-blackbody emission
  • 30. What is the estimated mission end date for Voyager 1's study of interstellar plasma and dust?
A) 2040
B) 2020
C) 2030
D) 2025
  • 31. What is used to determine the total amount of dust in front of each star?
A) Emission lines
B) Scattering
C) Reddening
D) Absorption lines
  • 32. What large ionized molecules were detected by Hubble in 2019?
A) Carbon monoxide.
B) Only hydrogen and helium molecules.
C) Buckminsterfullerene (C60) or 'buckyballs'.
D) Simple hydrocarbons.
  • 33. Who confirmed the presence of interstellar dust in 1912?
A) Victor Hess
B) Mary Lea Heger
C) Slipher
D) Edward Barnard
  • 34. What did William Huggins use to determine that a nebula is made of gas?
A) Spectroscopy
B) Refraction
C) Photography
D) Telescope lens
  • 35. Which process bumps up photon energies to X-rays and gamma-rays via cosmic rays?
A) Bremsstrahlung radiation
B) Inverse Compton scattering
C) Synchrotron radiation
D) Fine structure cooling
  • 36. What is the role of photodissociation regions (PDR) in the ISM?
A) They increase the density of molecular clouds.
B) They cool down the ionized gas.
C) They contribute to the heating of the warm neutral medium.
D) They reduce the number of photons with energy below the Lyman limit.
  • 37. Which transition line is strongly absorbed by atomic hydrogen at about 121.5 nanometers?
A) Paschen-alpha transition
B) Balmer-alpha transition
C) Brackett-alpha transition
D) Lyman-alpha transition
  • 38. What type of radiation is believed to be the source of anomalous microwave emission?
A) Dipole radiation from spinning nanometre-sized grains
B) Far infrared quasi-blackbody emission
C) Synchrotron radiation
D) Bremsstrahlung radiation
  • 39. What type of radiation is generated by cosmic-ray electrons spiraling in the galactic magnetic field?
A) Gamma-ray photons
B) Bremsstrahlung radiation
C) Infrared emission
D) Synchrotron radiation
  • 40. In spiral galaxies like the Milky Way, what is the typical scale height of the interstellar medium (ISM)?
A) 10,000 parsecs
B) 100 parsecs (300 light years)
C) 500 parsecs
D) 30,000 parsecs
  • 41. What is the typical orbital speed of gas and stars in the disk of a spiral galaxy?
A) 200 km/s
B) 500 km/s
C) 50 km/s
D) 1000 km/s
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