Plasmas/Plasma objects/Auroras/Quiz

File:Multicolor aurora.jpg

This is a multicolor aurora. Credit: tommy-eliassen and leonafaye.

Auroras is a lecture and an article from the radiation astronomy department.

This is a quiz based on the lecture that you are free to take at any time or knowledge level.

Once you’ve read and studied the lecture itself, the links contained within the article and lecture and listed under See also and External links, you should have adequate background to take the quiz and score highly. The template {{Radiation astronomy resources}} may also be helpful.

As a "learning by doing" resource, this quiz helps you to assess your knowledge and understanding of the information, and it is a quiz you may take over and over as a learning resource to improve your knowledge, understanding, test-taking skills, and your score.

This quiz may need up to an hour to take and is equivalent to an hourly.

Suggestion: Have the lecture available in a separate window.

Enjoy learning by doing!

Quiz

Point added for a correct answer:
Points for an incorrect answer:
Ignore the questions' coefficients:

1 True or False, Extraterrestrial radiation sources only irradiate the surface of the Earth at night.

	TRUE
	FALSE

2 Which of the following is not a characteristic of radiation?

	throwing a beam
	a stream of charged or neutral particles
	calculating the energy of a beam
	sending out a traveling ray
	a secondary-object hazard

3 True or False, A yellow aurora seen above the Earth's surface could be due to oxygen, nitrogen or a composition of colors.

	TRUE
	FALSE

4 Which of the following are radiation astronomy phenomena associated with the Sun?

	the color of the upper rim as seen from Earth
	an excess brightness at or near the edge of the Sun
	the iron XIV green line
	neutron emission
	polar coronal holes
	meteor emission
	changes in the line-blanketing

5 True or False, Atmospheric oxygen is a likely source of red auroras above the Earth.

	TRUE
	FALSE

6 A cosmic ray may originate from what astronomical source?

	Jupiter
	the solar wind
	the diffuse X-ray background
	Mount Redoubt in Alaska
	the asteroid belt
	an active galactic nucleus

7 True or False, Atmospheric nitrogen is a likely source of blue auroras above the Earth.

	TRUE
	FALSE

8 Which of the following are radiation astronomy phenomena associated with the rocky-object Io?

	surface regions reflecting or emitting violet or purple
	an excess brightness at or near the edge
	red regions that may be phosphorus
	neutron emission
	polar coronal holes
	meteor emission
	rotation
	auroras

9 True or False, A celestial display such as an aurora can be generated by a coronal mass ejection, or CME, from the Sun.

	TRUE
	FALSE

10 Azurite is a natural pigment composed of what likely source of blue?

11 True or False, An orange aurora seen above the Earth's surface could be due to oxygen, nitrogen or a composition of colors.

	TRUE
	FALSE

12 Complete the text:

Vega has a surface temperature of approximately , is spectral type , has stellar companions in a binary or multiple star system, and is a suspected star.

13 True or False, An aurora seen above the Earth's surface could be due to cosmic rays.

	TRUE
	FALSE

14 The Larmor radius limits proton astronomy because of what characteristic of a proton?

	the proton has a half-life of about one year
	at the Larmor radius from the Sun the quarks inside a proton become unstable
	at relativistic speeds the charge on a proton approaches zero
	for very high speeds (almost relativistic) local or large scale magnetic fields produce little deflection
	solar proton events may have a significant impact on the Earth's atmosphere
	the proton has the same charge as the positron

15 Which of the following are radiation astronomy phenomena associated with the apparent liquid-object Earth?

	rain
	snow
	hail
	neutron emission
	polar coronal holes
	meteor emission
	rotation

16 Complete the text:

and radiation are best absorbed by atoms with heavy nuclei.

17 True or False, When an electron is accelerated to near relativistic speeds it is called a delta ray.

	TRUE
	FALSE

18 Which of the following is not characteristic of a neutrino?

	neutrinos are affected by the weak nuclear force
	produced by a positron annihilating an electron
	a decay product of a neutron
	produced by the near surface fusion on the Sun
	may have a mass
	comes in mutable varieties

19 Which of the following are radiation astronomy phenomena associated with the plasma-object the Sun?

	coronal clouds
	H1- ions
	X-rays
	neutron emission
	polar coronal holes
	meteor emission
	rotation
	ion wind

20 Any natural object radiating through a portion or all of a natural object's atmosphere may be called a what?

21 Which of the following is not a phenomenon associated with optical astronomy?

	actuators may be a part of active optics
	the Vela satellites were the first devices in space ever to detect optical bursts
	the Moon
	an emission with a wavelength of 320 nm
	adaptive optics
	the color index

22 Which of the following are radiation astronomy phenomena associated with the gaseous-object Neptune?

	Voyager 2
	blue rays
	clouds
	neutron emission
	polar coronal holes
	meteor emission
	rotation

23 True or False, A violet aurora seen above the Earth's surface could be due to oxygen, nitrogen, argon, hydrogen or a composition of colors such as red and blue producing purple.

	TRUE
	FALSE

24 Beta particles may be the key to?

25 Which of the following is not a phenomenon associated with violet astronomy?

	photographs of the planet Venus taken in 1927
	the purple haze within a few arcseconds of the central star of the Homunculus
	the faintness of carbon stars
	the stellar abundance of aluminum
	adaptive optics
	the helium beta line

26 True or False, A cyan aurora seen above the Earth's surface could be due to oxygen, nitrogen, argon, hydrogen or a composition of colors such as green and blue.

	TRUE
	FALSE

27 What negatively charged particles may be used as tracers of cosmic magnetic fields?

28 Complete the text:

Although is usually not recognized as a formal branch of , the measurement of fluxes help to understand a variety of natural phenomena.

29 Which of the following is a phenomenon associated with yellow astronomy?

	Saturn
	sodium line emission
	sunspots on the Sun
	an emission with a wavelength of 420 nm
	phosphorus
	TiO
	yellow auroras

30 Why are antiprotons unlikely to be directly used as their own radiation astronomy?

	the observable universe is apparently composed almost entirely of matter
	there exist other places that are almost entirely composed of antimatter
	apparent asymmetry of matter and antimatter in the visible universe
	baryogenesis
	positron astronomy
	a complete periodic table of antimatter
	antiparticles are created everywhere in the universe where high-energy particle collisions take place

31 Complete the text:

Methane possesses prominant in the visible and near-infrared (IR) making aquamarine or in color.

32 Which of the following is not a phenomenon associated with red astronomy?

	a stellar class M dwarf
	the hydrogen Balmer alpha line
	the photosphere of the Sun
	an emission with a wavelength of 618 nm
	lithium
	"cometary knots"
	red auroras

33 Complete the text:

Io is the innermost of the four moons of the planet .

34 True or False, The Earth's atmosphere does not transmit infrared radiation between 6 and 7 microns in wavelength because of water vapor.

	TRUE
	FALSE

35 Various radiation observatories occur at different altitudes and geographic locations due to what effect?

	the presence of oceans on the Earth
	locally available carving tools
	light pollution
	most astronomical objects are observed at night
	currently dormant volcanoes seldom erupt
	human habitation increases near an astronomical observatory

36 True or False, A metallic or stony object that is the remains of a meteor is called a meteoroid.

	TRUE
	FALSE

37 Which of the following is not a radiation phenomenon associated with a planet?

	airglow
	elongated dust particles
	high albedo
	olivine
	Rayleighs
	coronal mass ejection

38 Complete the text:

Astronomers place the submillimetre waveband between the and wavebands, typically taken to be between a few hundred micrometres and a millimetre.

39 True or False, The V 2 rocket was first used as a sounding rocket for auroral astronomy before being converted to a weapon.

	TRUE
	FALSE

40 True or False, Jupiter shows intense X-ray emission associated with auroras in its polar regions.

	TRUE
	FALSE

41 True or False, Hydrogen has an emission line in the yellow.

	TRUE
	FALSE

42 True or False, The planet Saturn exhibits a pale yellow hue due to ammonia crystals in its upper atmosphere.

	TRUE
	FALSE

Hypotheses

Main resource: Hypotheses

1. Quiz questions about auroras may be made too difficult.

See also

• Cosmic-ray astronomy/Quiz
• Meteor astronomy/Quiz
• Planetary science/Quiz
• Radiation astronomy/Quiz
• Radiation astrochemistry quiz
• Radiation astrogeography quiz
• Radiation astrohistory quiz

External links

• NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database - NED
• The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System
• SIMBAD Astronomical Database