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