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Interstellar Medium
Contributed by: Singh
  • 1. What is the interstellar medium (ISM) primarily composed of?
A) Gas and dust
B) Plasma
C) Liquid water
D) Rock formations
  • 2. Which type of electromagnetic radiation is most commonly used to observe the interstellar medium?
A) Gamma rays
B) X-rays
C) Radio waves
D) Visible light
  • 3. What is the process by which interstellar dust grains align themselves with magnetic fields?
A) Heat conduction
B) Ionization imbalance
C) Microwave heating
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) Supernova remnants
C) Reflection nebulae
D) H II regions
  • 5. What is the most abundant element in the interstellar medium?
A) Hydrogen
B) Carbon
C) Helium
D) Oxygen
  • 6. What is the main component of interstellar dust grains?
A) Diamonds
B) Silicates
C) Gold
D) Platinum
  • 7. What is believed to be a major reservoir of carbon in the interstellar medium?
A) Carbon monoxide (CO)
B) Methane (CH4)
C) Carbon dioxide (CO2)
D) Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
  • 8. What color do reflection nebulae appear to be?
A) Yellow
B) Red
C) Blue
D) Green
  • 9. What type of gas cloud emits its own light due to ionizing radiation from nearby hot stars?
A) H II region
B) Supernova remnant
C) Dark nebula
D) Reflection nebula
  • 10. What is the approximate number density of molecules per cubic meter in molecular clouds within the ISM?
A) 100 ions/m3
B) 1 billion (109) molecules/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) Coronal gas
B) Cold dense phase
C) Warm ionized medium
D) Photodissociation region
  • 12. What percentage of the ISM's mass is composed of dust?
A) 10%
B) 50%
C) 1%
D) 5%
  • 13. Which type of star contributes to ionizing hydrogen in the ISM?
A) Red giants
B) OB stars
C) Neutron stars
D) White dwarfs
  • 14. What is the temperature range for the warm neutral medium (WNM)?
A) O(105 K)
B) < 300 K
C) ~ 106 K
D) ~ 104 K
  • 15. What is the approximate number density of air at sea level?
A) ~ 1012 molecules/m3
B) ~ 1016 molecules/m3
C) ~ 1025 molecules/m3
D) ~ 100 ions/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) The phases are roughly in pressure balance over most of the Galactic disk.
C) All phases have equal density.
D) Thermal pressure is more important than magnetic fields.
  • 18. Who coined the term 'interstellar'?
A) René Descartes
B) Edward Barnard
C) William Huggins
D) Francis Bacon
  • 19. Which spectral line is most common at millimetre and sub-mm wavelengths in molecular clouds?
A) Spectral lines from CO
B) Forbidden lines of O III
C) Ly-α photon from hydrogen
D) 21-cm line of H I
  • 20. What is the primary source of heavier elements in the ISM?
A) Primordial nucleosynthesis
B) Interstellar dust
C) Stellar nucleosynthesis during stellar evolution.
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 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) Synchrotron radiation
B) Photon emission from de-excitation
C) Inverse Compton scattering
D) Bremsstrahlung radiation
  • 23. What type of emission is produced by small grains spinning at GHz frequencies?
A) Millimetre wavelength lines
B) Dipole radiation
C) Far infrared quasi-blackbody emission
D) 21-cm line emission
  • 24. Which molecule's rotational lines are important for cooling in molecular clouds?
A) CO (carbon monoxide)
B) H2 (molecular hydrogen)
C) O III
D) N II
  • 25. What process generates gamma-ray photons when cosmic rays collide with atomic nuclei in ISM clouds?
A) Collision with atomic nuclei
B) Synchrotron radiation
C) Inverse Compton scattering
D) Bremsstrahlung cooling
  • 26. How does the Coriolis force affect large ISM features?
A) It prevents star formation in spiral arms.
B) It compresses all ISM into a thin disk.
C) It has no effect on the ISM.
D) It influences their dynamics and structure.
  • 27. How is the ISM near the center of most galaxies affected?
A) It is profoundly modified by the central supermassive black hole.
B) It only contains cold gas.
C) It remains unchanged from the rest of the galaxy.
D) It becomes entirely in the coronal phase.
  • 28. What type of emission is produced by interstellar dust grains re-emitting absorbed starlight?
A) Millimetre wavelength lines
B) Far infrared quasi-blackbody emission
C) Synchrotron radiation
D) 21-cm line emission
  • 29. What type of emission is produced by interstellar dust grains in the far infrared?
A) Synchrotron radiation
B) Quasi-blackbody emission
C) Bremsstrahlung radiation
D) Inverse Compton scattering
  • 30. What is the estimated mission end date for Voyager 1's study of interstellar plasma and dust?
A) 2040
B) 2030
C) 2025
D) 2020
  • 31. What is used to determine the total amount of dust in front of each star?
A) Scattering
B) Reddening
C) Emission lines
D) Absorption lines
  • 32. What large ionized molecules were detected by Hubble in 2019?
A) Buckminsterfullerene (C60) or 'buckyballs'.
B) Simple hydrocarbons.
C) Carbon monoxide.
D) Only hydrogen and helium molecules.
  • 33. Who confirmed the presence of interstellar dust in 1912?
A) Slipher
B) Mary Lea Heger
C) Edward Barnard
D) Victor Hess
  • 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) Fine structure cooling
B) Inverse Compton scattering
C) Synchrotron radiation
D) Bremsstrahlung radiation
  • 36. What is the role of photodissociation regions (PDR) in the ISM?
A) They reduce the number of photons with energy below the Lyman limit.
B) They increase the density of molecular clouds.
C) They cool down the ionized gas.
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) Balmer-alpha transition
B) Brackett-alpha transition
C) Lyman-alpha transition
D) Paschen-alpha transition
  • 38. What type of radiation is believed to be the source of anomalous microwave emission?
A) Far infrared quasi-blackbody emission
B) Synchrotron radiation
C) Bremsstrahlung radiation
D) Dipole radiation from spinning nanometre-sized grains
  • 39. What type of radiation is generated by cosmic-ray electrons spiraling in the galactic magnetic field?
A) Gamma-ray photons
B) Synchrotron radiation
C) Bremsstrahlung 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) 30,000 parsecs
C) 10,000 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) 200 km/s
C) 50 km/s
D) 1000 km/s
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