Quiz 05/07/13

1. How do we observe the life histories of galaxies? Images of the deep universe allow us to study galaxies at many different distances and therefore many different ages.
2. How did galaxies form? Our most successful models of galaxy formation suggest that protogalactic clouds formed in regions of slightly enhanced density in the early universe.
3. Why do galaxies differ? Elliptical galaxies may have formed from protogalactic clouds that were spinning more slowly or were denser than those that formed spiral galaxies. Starburst galaxies are forming stars so quickly that they will run out of star-forming clouds in just a few hundred million years.
4. What are quasars? Quasars are extremely luminous and are a very energetic and distant active galactic nucleus.
5. What is the power source for quasars and other active galactic nuclei? Quasars are probably powered by matter falling into supermassive black holes.
6. Do supermassive black holes really exist? Yes
7. What does QUASAR mean? A quasi-stellar radio source.
8. Who is Maarten Schmidt? Maarten Schmidt is a Dutch astronomer who measured the distances of quasars. He later began a study of the light spectra of radio sources. In 1963, using the famous 200-inch reflector telescope at the Palomar Observatory, Schmidt identified the visible object corresponding to one of these radio sources, known as 3C 273 and also studied its spectrum.
9. What is Cosmology?  The study of the origins and eventual fate of the universe.
10. What is the Cosmological Principle? The Cosmological Principle is the dynamical structure principle that falls from the working assumption that the distribution of matter in the universe is homogeneous and isotopic when viewed on a large enough scale, since the forces are expected to act uniformly throughout the universe, and should, therefore, produce no observable irregularities in the large scale structuring over the course of evolution of the matter field that was initially laid down by the big bang.