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LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE
Astronomy 202


Date of last modification:
16/12/2010
Review Questions for the first midterm:
(These review questions are meant to identify key topical areas
covered in the course. The questions on the midterm may be
different. Additional areas may be covered on the midterm.)
  1. Which stars are most likely to have planets?
  2. What generation star is our Sun?
  3. What is Planck's Law?
  4. How are heavy elements produced?
  5. What are the different types of electromagnetic radiation?
  6. How are they produced?
  7. How are they used everyday?
  8. What are the characteristics of life?
  9. What is the Drake equation?
  10. Who first observed the expansion of the galaxies?
  11. Why is carbon so plentiful and good for helping to make life?
  12. Why doesn't the Sun blow-up?
  13. What is the smallest piece of light, an element, a compound?
  14. What is temperature really?
  15. Who first measured the size of the Milky Way?
  16. How big is it?
  17. Where do we live in it?
  18. Who came up with the Cepheid Period-Luminosity relationship?
  19. How are atoms made? At what temperature?
  20. How are molecules made? At what temperature?
  21. What is the importance of dust in molecular clouds?
  22. What lessons have we learned from studying molecules in space?
  23. What is the heaviest element made in nuclear fusion? Why?
  24. How old is the Universe?
  25. Who worked on developing the spectral classification system of stars?
  26. Who invented the camera?
  27. Who put the first camera on a telescope?
  28. How hot was the Universe 100sec after the Big Bang?
  29. What observational evidence is there for the Big Bang?
  30. How long does the star formation process take?
  31. How long does a star like our Sun live, that is, have nuclear fusion going on in its center?
  32. What are the properties of molecular clouds?
  33. If a cloud is cold, what kind of star is it more likely to make?
  34. What are the steps to figuring out the star formation rate of a galaxy?
  35. How do we determine the mass of a galaxy?
  36. How do we know star formation is ongoing?
  37. About how many stars are in the Milky Way?
  38. What are the steps to making a star?
  39. What are the properties of a protostar?
  40. What is the temperature on the surface of the Sun?
  41. What is the temperature at the Sun's center?
  42. How do we know what atoms and molecules are out in deep space?
  43. Why are stars important for life?


Review Questions for the second midterm:
(These review questions are meant to identify key topical areas
covered in the course. The questions on the midterm may be
different. Additional areas may be covered on the midterm.)
  1. What is a planetesimal?
  2. Originally there were many of these in our solar system. What happened to them?
  3. What evidence is there that planetesimals existed?
  4. About how long does it take to go from a protoplanetary disk to a solar system with planets?
  5. What is the most important factor in determining where in a protoplanetary disk a Jupiter size planet might form?
  6. What are paleomagnetic stripes?
  7. What is the star formation rate of the Milky Way?
  8. What is the most widely accepted theory for the origin of the Moon?
  9. What is the diameter of the Earth?
  10. What does the internal structure of the Earth look like?
  11. Why is the center of the Earth so hot?
  12. How hot is it?
  13. How do we know what the internal structure looks like?
  14. What are the different layers of the Earth's interior made of?
  15. What is the temperature of the Earth's core?
  16. What parts of the Earth's interior are convective?
  17. What is the origin of the Earth's magnetic field?
  18. What are the ionosphere, Van Allen Belts, and magnetosphere?
  19. How can we tell if the core of a planet is at least partially molten?
  20. What is plate tectonics?
  21. What is a mid-oceanic ridge?
  22. What was Pangaea?
  23. What are the different techniques used for finding planets around other stars (i.e. extrasolar planets)?
  24. Which technique(s) are best for detecting a face-on planetary system?
  25. Which technique(s) are best for detecting an edge-on planetary system?
  26. Why are massive planets close to a star easier to detect?
  27. Why is direct imaging of planetary systems so hard?
  28. What can astronomers do to improve the image quality?
  29. About how many extrasolar planets have been detected so far?
  30. What is the habitable zone (or ecosphere) of a star?
  31. What factors affect the surface temperature of a planet?
  32. What is the ``Greenhouse Effect Thermostat"?
  33. Why is it important to life on Earth?
  34. What is comparative planetology?
  35. Be able to compare the early history of Earth, Venus, and Mars.
  36. What properties make a star a "Good" star for hosting an Earth-like planet?
  37. Where did the Earth's early atmosphere come from?
  38. What was the Earth's early atmosphere made of?


Review Questions for the third midterm:
(These review questions are meant to identify key topical areas
covered in the course. The questions on the midterm may be
different. Additional areas may be covered on the midterm.)
  1. What was the earliest life form on Earth?
  2. What is an amino acid?
  3. What is a monomer? A polymer?
  4. What are the building blocks of life?
  5. What are RNA and DNA? How do they work?
  6. What is the length of a human DNA molecule?
  7. What was the Urey-Miller experiment all about?
  8. Name the types of neurons. Be able to label parts of a neuron cell.
  9. What's a synapse?
  10. What processes data faster - a computer or a brain? Which one can hold more information?
  11. What is the size of the human brain?
  12. How much of your brain storage is used up in a typical lifetime?
  13. How is information stored in DNA and in your brain? Which can hold more information?
  14. How do we compare intelligence between species?
  15. What are the parts of the brain? What do they do?
  16. How long has Cro Magnon man been around?
  17. Where/how can polymers form?
  18. How might we be able to make DNA?
  19. What's panspermia?
  20. Why do mammals rule Earth today?
  21. What life form has dominated Earth the longest?
  22. How do we compare DNA?
  23. Based on DNA, which species is closest to us?
  24. What is a prokaryote and a eukaryote?
  25. When and how was oxygen first produced on Earth? What was its effect?
  26. What is punctuated equilibrium?
  27. What determines how much information can be stored in DNA?
  28. What is the Linnaeus Classification system?
  29. How old might the oldest civilization be in our galaxy?
  30. Where and why did modern civilization begin?
  31. Where did mitochondria come from?
  32. What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of sexual and asexual reproduction?