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