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Interstellar Medium
Contributed by: Singh
  • 1. What is the interstellar medium (ISM) primarily composed of?
A) Plasma
B) Rock formations
C) Gas and dust
D) Liquid water
  • 2. Which type of electromagnetic radiation is most commonly used to observe the interstellar medium?
A) Gamma rays
B) Visible light
C) X-rays
D) Radio waves
  • 3. What is the process by which interstellar dust grains align themselves with magnetic fields?
A) Heat conduction
B) Radiative torque alignment
C) Ionization imbalance
D) Microwave heating
  • 4. What term is used to describe regions in the ISM that contain a higher density of gas and dust?
A) H II regions
B) Molecular clouds
C) Supernova remnants
D) Reflection nebulae
  • 5. What is the most abundant element in the interstellar medium?
A) Helium
B) Hydrogen
C) Carbon
D) Oxygen
  • 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) Blue
B) Red
C) Yellow
D) Green
  • 9. What type of gas cloud emits its own light due to ionizing radiation from nearby hot stars?
A) Reflection nebula
B) Supernova remnant
C) H II region
D) Dark 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 trillion (1012) molecules/m3
C) 1 billion (109) molecules/m3
D) 10 quadrillion (1016) molecules/m3
  • 11. Which phase of the ISM is characterized by temperatures around 8000 K?
A) Photodissociation region
B) Warm ionized medium
C) Cold dense phase
D) Coronal gas
  • 12. What percentage of the ISM's mass is composed of dust?
A) 50%
B) 1%
C) 5%
D) 10%
  • 13. Which type of star contributes to ionizing hydrogen in the ISM?
A) Neutron stars
B) White dwarfs
C) Red giants
D) OB stars
  • 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) ~ 1025 molecules/m3
B) ~ 1016 molecules/m3
C) ~ 100 ions/m3
D) ~ 1012 molecules/m3
  • 16. Which phase of the ISM is shock heated by supernovae?
A) Very hot gas (T ~ 106 K)
B) Cold dense phase
C) Photodissociation region
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) Pressure varies significantly across different regions.
C) All phases have equal density.
D) Thermal pressure is more important than magnetic fields.
  • 18. Who coined the term 'interstellar'?
A) Francis Bacon
B) René Descartes
C) Edward Barnard
D) William Huggins
  • 19. Which spectral line is most common at millimetre and sub-mm wavelengths in molecular clouds?
A) Ly-α photon from hydrogen
B) 21-cm line of H I
C) Forbidden lines of O III
D) Spectral lines from CO
  • 20. What is the primary source of heavier elements in the ISM?
A) Primordial nucleosynthesis
B) Interstellar dust
C) Cosmic rays
D) Stellar nucleosynthesis during stellar evolution.
  • 21. What happens when dense molecular clouds form stars?
A) They decrease the density of the ISM.
B) They create cold neutral medium.
C) They convert surrounding gas into the warm ionized phase, increasing temperature.
D) They reduce the number of hydrogen atoms.
  • 22. What type of photon emission is associated with fine structure cooling?
A) Photon emission from de-excitation
B) Bremsstrahlung radiation
C) Synchrotron radiation
D) Inverse Compton scattering
  • 23. What type of emission is produced by small grains spinning at GHz frequencies?
A) Far infrared quasi-blackbody emission
B) Millimetre wavelength lines
C) Dipole radiation
D) 21-cm line emission
  • 24. Which molecule's rotational lines are important for cooling in molecular clouds?
A) H2 (molecular hydrogen)
B) CO (carbon monoxide)
C) N II
D) O III
  • 25. What process generates gamma-ray photons when cosmic rays collide with atomic nuclei in ISM clouds?
A) Synchrotron radiation
B) Bremsstrahlung cooling
C) Inverse Compton scattering
D) Collision with atomic nuclei
  • 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 only contains cold gas.
B) It remains unchanged from the rest of the galaxy.
C) It is profoundly modified by the central supermassive black hole.
D) It becomes entirely in the coronal phase.
  • 28. What type of emission is produced by interstellar dust grains re-emitting absorbed starlight?
A) Synchrotron radiation
B) 21-cm line emission
C) Far infrared quasi-blackbody emission
D) Millimetre wavelength lines
  • 29. What type of emission is produced by interstellar dust grains in the far infrared?
A) Synchrotron radiation
B) Quasi-blackbody emission
C) Inverse Compton scattering
D) Bremsstrahlung radiation
  • 30. What is the estimated mission end date for Voyager 1's study of interstellar plasma and dust?
A) 2020
B) 2030
C) 2040
D) 2025
  • 31. What is used to determine the total amount of dust in front of each star?
A) Emission lines
B) Reddening
C) Scattering
D) Absorption lines
  • 32. What large ionized molecules were detected by Hubble in 2019?
A) Only hydrogen and helium molecules.
B) Carbon monoxide.
C) Buckminsterfullerene (C60) or 'buckyballs'.
D) Simple hydrocarbons.
  • 33. Who confirmed the presence of interstellar dust in 1912?
A) Victor Hess
B) Slipher
C) Edward Barnard
D) Mary Lea Heger
  • 34. What did William Huggins use to determine that a nebula is made of gas?
A) Refraction
B) Telescope lens
C) Spectroscopy
D) Photography
  • 35. Which process bumps up photon energies to X-rays and gamma-rays via cosmic rays?
A) Inverse Compton scattering
B) Bremsstrahlung radiation
C) Synchrotron radiation
D) Fine structure cooling
  • 36. What is the role of photodissociation regions (PDR) in the ISM?
A) They contribute to the heating of the warm neutral medium.
B) They reduce the number of photons with energy below the Lyman limit.
C) They increase the density of molecular clouds.
D) They cool down the ionized gas.
  • 37. Which transition line is strongly absorbed by atomic hydrogen at about 121.5 nanometers?
A) Balmer-alpha transition
B) Lyman-alpha transition
C) Brackett-alpha transition
D) Paschen-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) Infrared emission
B) Gamma-ray photons
C) Bremsstrahlung radiation
D) Synchrotron radiation
  • 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) 1000 km/s
C) 200 km/s
D) 50 km/s
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