Astronomy 305 Frontiers in Astronomy
Prof. Lynn Cominsky
FINAL EXAM IS TUESDAY DECEMBER 17, 2002 8-10 PM
POSSIBLE FINAL EXAM QUESTIONS – 3 WILL BE CHOSEN
In your own words, answer the following questions in approximately
one page. NOTE: if I detect any copying or plagiarizing, you will receive
0 points for this exam. So, if you worked on these answers with anyone
else in the class, make sure that what you turn in is in your own words.
1) Describe two strange effects that occur near the event horizons of black holes, and that
are predicted by Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity.
2) Why is it unlikely that ultra-high energy cosmic rays originate at cosmological
distances (i.e., far outside our own Galaxy)?
3) What objects in our solar system are the most likely to have life? What type of life do
we expect to find there?
4) Describe two methods that astronomers use to search for extra-solar planets. What
technological advances will be needed to detect earth-sized extra-solar planets?
5) What types of signals are astronomers looking for when they search for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence? How do they tell the difference between ordinary signals from
space and signals from intelligent life?
6) Describe the observations that originally led to the Hubble law. How have Type 1a
supernova observations changed our view of the expansion of the Universe?
7) What is meant by the solar neutrino problem? How do neutrino oscillations help solve
it?
8) What are the two leading theories for the origin of gamma-ray bursts? What evidence
supports each theory?
9) Why is the cosmic microwave background considered one of the main pieces of
evidence that supports big bang cosmology?
10) What is meant by big bang nucleosynthesis? How does it limit the amount of
deuterium observed in the Universe?
11) Describe how inflationary cosmology solves the horizon and flatness problems.
12) Describe two observations that support the existence of dark matter