Astro 150 Trivia - 10/27/2023

What is this an image of?

• The remnant of a supernova explosion.

• Milky Way's core supermassive black hole.

• An HII region in space.

• A planetary nebula.

Re-order the following based on whether or not the black hole type has been detected by observation

• No

• Supermassive black hole

• Yes

• Primordial black hole

• Maybe

• Intermediate mass black hole

How do astronomers detect merging black holes?

• Through their gravitational wave emissions.

• Through their x-ray emissions.

• It is impossible to observe merging black holes.

• Technology hasn't advanced enough to detect them.

Label the following as True or False.

Groups:

(a) True

,

(b) False

• Tidal forces rip apart objects as they fall into a black hole.

• Clocks tick slower near the surface of a black hole.

• It is impossible to actually see an object fall completely into a black hole.

• Black holes have no effect on light.

• Black holes remain undiscovered objects.

• Objects appear brighter as they fall into a black hole.

Would it be more painful to fall into a small black hole or a large one?

• Small one--spaghettification is worse with a small black hole

• Large one -- spaghettification is worse with a large black hole

• Small one--a large one will be more radioactive

• Large one--a small one will be more radioactive

• 11.8 km/s

• 11,800 km/s

• 5.9 km/s

• 5,900 km/s

Why are objects close to a black hole redder?

• The blue light falls into a black hole faster than the red light

• Light waves are stretched when they are near a black hole

• They're not

• Blue light stops farther away from the event horizon

How does General Relativity explain gravity?

• Gravity is the warping of space-time

• Objects are assigned a gravitational charge

• It is actually a manifestation of the electromagnetic force

• It has yet to provide an explanation for gravity

What causes the orbit of Mercury to wobble?

• An undiscovered planet

• It doesn't -- the glare from the sun just introduces a lot of uncertainty

• Mercury is lopsided

• General relativistic effects

What does general relativity have to do with GPS?

• Relativistic effects compound over distance, so the satellites need to account for those effects

• GPS units need to account for the relativistic speeds of the orbits of GPS satellites

• GPS satellites need boosters to keep them in orbit, otherwise relativistic gravitational effects will cause their orbits to decay

• GPS satellites need their clocks to run at different rates than Earth clocks due to relativistic effects