WorksheetsWhite Dwarfs & Planetary Nebulae
Total questions: 20
Worksheet time: 7mins
Name
Class
Date
1.
Currently, the Sun is fusing ___
a)
hydrogen into helium
b)
helium into hydrogen
c)
helium into carbon
d)
hydrogen into carbon
2.
Eventually, the Sun will fuse helium into carbon, along with a dash of ___
a)
neon and lithium
b)
silicon and neon
c)
oxygen and neon
d)
oxygen and silicon
3.
The Sun's power will be switched off once the core is nearly pure ___
a)
helium
b)
lithium
c)
carbon
d)
silicon
4.
How long from now until the Sun’s outer layers are gone and our star is just its core?
a)
about 8 million years
b)
about 80 million years
c)
about 8 billion years
d)
about 80 billion years
5.
Once helium fusion stops, the dominant force in supporting the core of a star is called ___
a)
neutron degradation pressure
b)
photon depravity pressure
c)
electron degeneracy pressure
d)
proton dissoluteness pressure
6.
The Sun, when its core has contracted to about the size of Earth, will be classified as ___
a)
a white dwarf
b)
a blue dwarf
c)
a white subgiant
d)
a blue subgiant
7.
A single cubic centimeter of a white dwarf, the size of a six-sided die, has a mass of ___
a)
a thousand grams — ten metric tons
b)
a million grams — ten metric tons
c)
a thousand grams — one metric ton
d)
a million grams — one metric ton
8.
If you have a mass of 75 kg, and you stood on the surface of a white dwarf, you’d weigh ___
a)
7.5 tons
b)
75 tons
c)
750 tons
d)
7,500 tons
9.
Because white dwarfs are so small, they’re actually ___
a)
quite cool
b)
quite faint
c)
quite hot
d)
quite bright
10.
An expanding, glowing shell of gas around an aging star is called ___
a)
a dwarf nebula
b)
a planetary nebula
c)
a dwarf nimbus
d)
a planetary nimbus
11.
The first planetary nebula was discovered in 1764 by the French astronomer ___
a)
William Herschel
b)
Charles Messier
c)
Edwin Hubble
d)
Harlow Shapley
12.
One of the biggest planetary nebulae in the sky is M 27 - the 27th object on ___
a)
the Mercator projection
b)
the Mesopotamia map
c)
Maxwell's star chart
d)
Messier’s list
13.
Some planetaries look like soap bubbles, which is what you'd expect when you look at ___
a)
an expanding shell of gas
b)
an contracting shell of gas
c)
an expanding shell of dust
d)
a contracting shell of dust
14.
What technology revealed faint structures, such as jets and tendrils, in planetary nebulae?
a)
ultraviolet telescopes
b)
infrared telescopes
c)
digital detectors
d)
analog detectors
15.
If a dying star has a companion, what force can shape the solar wind so that it's not spherical?
a)
electron degeneracy force
b)
gravitational force
c)
centripetal force
d)
centrifugal force
16.
Many weird and fantastic shapes in planetaries may be due to progenitor stars that have ___
a)
expelled other stars
b)
expelled their planets
c)
swallowed their planets
d)
swallowed other stars
17.
Which element, originally dubbed nebulium, causes planetary nebulae to glow green?
a)
hydrogen
b)
helium
c)
oxygen
d)
nitrogen
18.
Which elements can cause planetary nebulae to glow red?
a)
oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur
b)
hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulfur
c)
hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur
d)
hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen
19.
How long can the glowing gases of a planetary nebula be seen, before they fade?
a)
a few years
b)
a few thousand years
c)
a few million years
d)
a few billion years
20.
When the Sun becomes a white dwarf, it most likely will ___
a)
go quietly, without a lot of visible fanfare
b)
create a planetary nebulae
c)
make the surrounding gas glow
d)
explode in a supernova
100 %
