Taken from the NSW Board of Studies past School Certificate Examination Papers
Year 10
How the universe came to be
School Certificate Questions
Use the diagram to answer Questions 1 and 2.
The diagram represents a neutral atom with a subatomic particle being released.
1. What type of particle has been released?
(A) Electron
(B) Neutron
(C) Nucleus
(D) Proton
2. As the subatomic particle is released, it has kinetic energy.
What was the original form of this energy?
(A) Gravitational
(B) Light
(C) Nuclear
(D) Sound
3. Which of the following is associated with the ‘death’ explosion of a massive star?
(A) Asteroid
(B) Comet
(C) Galaxy
(D) Supernova
4. This statement describes part of a scientific theory:
‘An instant after creation, the universe rapidly expanded.’
To which theory does the statement refer?
(A) The atomic theory
(B) The big-bang theory
(C) The particle theory of matter
(D) The theory of evolution
Taken from the NSW Board of Studies past School Certificate Examination Papers
Use the diagram to answer Questions 5-7.
The diagram illustrates the formation of a black hole. Objects in the diagram are not
drawn to scale.
5. Which element must be present in the cloud of gas and dust for a star to form?
(A) Carbon
(B) Helium
(C) Hydrogen
(D) Oxygen
6. How many times bigger is the radius of the star when it ‘burns’ helium than when
it ‘burns’ hydrogen?
(A) 2
(B) 10
(C) 14
(D) 140
7. Which of the following correctly compares the ‘burning’ in stars with the burning
of fossil fuels?
Taken from the NSW Board of Studies past School Certificate Examination Papers
The diagram represents a distant galaxy.
8. What instrument would be most useful to collect information about a distant
galaxy?
(A) Light microscope
(B) Light telescope
(C) Radio telescope
(D) Satellite
Use this information to answer Questions 9 and 10.
When carbon-14 undergoes radioactive decay, it forms nitrogen-14. The graph shows
the amount of carbon-14 remaining over time. At time 0, there was no nitrogen-14
present.
9. What is the approximate amount of nitrogen-14 produced after 8 X 103 years?
(A) 23 g
(B) 37 g
(C) 63 g
(D) 77 g
Taken from the NSW Board of Studies past School Certificate Examination Papers
10. Which graph shows the amount of nitrogen-14 produced over the same period?
Use this information to answer Questions 11-13.
The graph shows:
• The present-day temperature and brightness of most stars in the Universe (dotted
line X);
• The predicted evolutionary path of our Sun (solid line Y) including its present-day
conditions.
Taken from the NSW Board of Studies past School Certificate Examination Papers
11. According to this information, what will be the final evolutionary stage of our
Sun?
(A) Blue giant
(B) Interstellar cloud
(C) Red dwarf
(D) White dwarf
12. How did our Sun change during its initial formation from interstellar cloud?
(A) It became larger.
(B) It became smaller.
(C) It became hotter.
(D) It became colder.
13. How much brighter than our Sun is a blue giant of temperature 30 000 K?
(A) 5 times
(B) 10 times
(C) 1 000 times
(D) 10 000 times
Use this diagram to answer Questions 14 and 15.
The diagram summarises the life cycles of some stars.
14. What is the final stage for a star of one solar mass?
(A) Black dwarf
(B) Black hole
(C) Enriched cloud
(D) Gas cloud
Taken from the NSW Board of Studies past School Certificate Examination Papers
15. Why have these models describing the life cycle of stars only recently been
developed?
(A) The evolution of stars is a very slow process.
(B) There have been disputes about theories of the origin of the universe.
(C) Technologies to gather data about stars were not previously available.
(D) It takes a long time for electromagnetic radiation from stars to reach Earth.
16. Table 1 shows the average distance from the Sun and the average orbital speed of
some of the planets in our solar system. Table 2 shows the five largest asteroids and
their average distances from the Sun.
Taken from the NSW Board of Studies past School Certificate Examination Papers
(a) On the grid provided, draw a line graph of the average distance from the
Sun and the average orbital speed for the planets listed.
(b) Use the graph to predict the range of orbital speeds for the asteroids listed in Table
2.