Origins : Part 4 - Back to the Beginning (A NOVA Miniseries)                               Name ___________________________

Study Guide  (Answer the following questions as you watch the video tape or DVD)

1. The Steady State Theory exerts:
a. the cosmos always existed
b. the cosmos is unchanging
c. it was proved wrong
d. all of the above

2. The first clue about the nature of the universe's birth came from:
a.  problems with telegraph cable on the ocean floor
b.  static problems when using communications satellites
c.  experiments with radioactive particles in accelerators
d.  Einstein's' theory of the photoelectric effect

3. The difference between one color and another is its:
a.  speed
b.  momentum
c.  size
d. wavelength

4. Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias only found microwaves coming from:
a. bird droppings
b. the center of the galaxy
c. nearby stars
d. everywhere they looked

5. About 40 miles away, Bob Dicke predicted microwaves would support a model known as:
a. the Big Bang
b. inflation
c. continuous creation
d. dark energy

6. Who won the Nobel prize for this work?
a. Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias
b. Bob Dicke
c. David Wilkinson
d. Jim Mihal

7. You can detect the cosmic background radiation by:
a. listening to satellite radio in a car (tuned to the "cosmic station")
b. watching any DVD with the sound turned to mute
c. tuning an old TV receiver between stations
d. listening to popping sounds coming from your microwave oven

8. One big problem with the cosmic background data was:
a. it was too weak to be detected by any means
b. the magnetic field of the Earth interfered with the radiation, causing it to be distorted
c. the radiation was very smooth but the modern universe is very lumpy
d. the radiation could only be measured during the night but that is the same time cosmic rays are the most intense

9. The structure found in the COBE data told astronomers:
a. how old the universe is
b. how fast the universe is expanding
c. how many atoms are in the universe
d. not enough to give any details

10. NASA's successor to COBE was ____ but the ___ was in direct competition with this mission.
a.  WMAP / Sky Surveyor
b.  WMAP / Cosmic Background Imager
c.  COBE II / Cosmic Background Imager
d.  COBE II / Sky Surveyor

11. COBE's successor was ___ and the other instrument was ____.
a.  placed in space at Earth's second Langrangian point (L2) / at very high altitudes in the Andes
b. placed in orbit around Earth / sent in lunar orbit
c. based on a mountain top in California / based on a mountain top in Oregon
d. attached to a high altitude balloon / riding piggy-back on a jet

12. The first to complete the mission was:
a.  the team whose leader had a stroke just before the completion of the mission
b.  the team that ran out of fuel several times
 c. the team that had to fix a broken drive motor
d.  the team which kept running out of funds until Bill Gates paid for the entire mission

13. The map first seen by David Spargel showed:
a.  the radiation really didn't come from space itself but rather it came directly from Jupiter
b.  that the universe really didn't have a beginning
c.  hot spots in the radiation is where clusters would eventually form and cold spots produced cosmic voids
d.  it was too smooth and that we really should not be here in the first place (unless we discover a new form of unknown matter)

14. Based on this data, astronomers claim the universe is:
a.  4.6 billion years old
b. 8.5 billion years old
c. 10.2 billion years old
d. 13.7 billion years old

15. Inflation is:
a. a term referring to the escalating cost of space research
b. a sudden spike in the background radiation coming from the center of our galaxy
c. a brief period of ultra expansion when the universe was very young
d. the slow effect of cosmic expansion which (over long periods of time) converts gamma rays to microwaves

16. The cosmic background radiation represents a snapshot of the universe:
a. when it was 4 minutes old and sub-atomic particles produced a blast of radiation
b. when it was less than a billionth of a second old and everything was in the form of energy
c. when it started at the Big Bang
d. when it was 380,000 years old and stable atoms formed

17. The early universe contained:
a. mostly hydrogen and a little bit of helium
b. mostly helium and a little bit of iron
c. mostly iron and a little bit of uranium
d. mostly plutonium and a little bit of all the other elements in the periodic table

18. The most massive stars:
a.  only formed in the universe recently
b.  live very short lives
c.  explode in hypernovae
d.  both a & b
e.  both b & c
f.  both a & c

19. Our sun started out:
a.  60% helium and 35 % iron
b.  70% hydrogen and 28% helium
c.  80% iron and 15 % uranium
d.  it was about equal amounts of all elements on the periodic table

20. For 90% of the life of a star, it emits energy by:
a.  hydrogen to helium fusion
b.  gravitational collapse
c.  nuclear fission of uranium
d.  chemical combustion similar to what you find in a blast furnace

21. What do massive stars do after they run out of fuel?
a.  they convert all the atoms into quarks
b.  fuse lighter atoms into heavier atoms until they reach iron
c.  they turn completely black but only if they remain the same size
d.  they fall through a worm hole and emit cosmic rays

22. Eventually the dying, massive star:
a.  collapses
b.  explodes
c.  creates all the elements found on the periodic table
d.  all of the above

23. Hubble images of the Eagle nebulae show:
a.  regions of active star formation
b. stars turning into brown dwarfs
c. the universe collapsing into a black hole
d. life on other planets

24. Sandy Faber is using the Keck telescope to discover if:
a.  any other intelligent civilizations are sending radio signals to us
b. the universe is expanding or collapsing
c. other galaxies contain the elements necessary for life
d. the age of the universe is infinite

25.  The conclusion of the narrator seems to be:
a.  we are lost (and so is anyone who doesn't pick the answer at the bottom)
b.  we are clueless (and so is anyone who doesn't pick the last answer)
c.  we are confused (and so is anyone who doesn't pick the next answer)
d. The cosmos evolves in a logical progression to produce the conditions necessary for life (and I hope you enjoyed this great series)