04/30/2013 Quiz

1. What does our galaxy look like? Our galaxy consists of a flat disk with spiral arms surrounding a central bulge, with a roughly spherical halo surrounding everything.
2. How do stars orbit in our galaxy? Disk stars orbit the galaxy's center in orderly circles that all go in the same direction.  Halo stars swoop high above and below the disk on randomly oriented orbits.
3. How is gas recycled in our galaxy? Through the star gas star cycle.
4. Where do stars tend to form in our galaxy? Orion Nebula
5. Who is Andrea M. Ghez? She's discovered many stars in a highly elliptical orbit around the huge black hole at the center of our galaxy.
6. What is the name of our galaxy? Milky Way
7. What is the ratio between the diameter and the thickness of the galactic disc? 100000 : 1000
8. Is our galaxy rotating? Yes
9. Can our galaxy be seen at night far from cities? Yes
10. Why do we need satellites to detect gamma rays from our galaxy? Because our ozone layer protects us from the gamma rays, making them impossible to detect.