Quiz 11 Learning Goals and Supplemental Resources
[Fix, Astronomy: Journey to the Cosmic Frontier, 4/e, Chapter 22]
[Reading guide (*.pdf)
[CPS inquiry questions (*.pdf)]
[CPS review questions (*.pdf)]
- Provide and explain the evidence for interstellar gas and dust, and understand the processes that produce its observed features.
- Stars and nebulae (*.mov, 2.3 MB)
Simulation of stars and nebulae (SpaceTelescope.org).
- NASA Astronomy Pictures of the Day:
Be able to identify the type and cause(s) of these nebulae, from color and opacity clues.
- Provide and explain the evidence for the spiral arm structure of the Milky Way, and "dark matter."
- In-class activity 26, The Milky Way--How Big/How Distant? (*.pdf)
Discuss what features in/outside of the Milky Way can be seen, whether in the disk itself, or lying above/below the plane of the disk.
- Fig. 22.28 from Fix, Astronomy, Journey to the Cosmic Frontier, 4/e (*.gif)
The overall structure of the Milky Way. Note that the size of the galaxy here is given as 40 kiloparsecs, or 130,400 light years; which is only approximately known (compare to the Lecture-Tutorials value of 100,000 light years!).
- Fig. 22.23, ibid (*.gif)
Evidence for the flattened disk shape of the Milky Way, from star distributions in different directions.
- Fig. 22.26, ibid (*.gif)
Evidence for the overall size of the Milky Way, from globular cluster positions.
- Fig. 22.33, ibid (*.gif)
Local spiral arm tracer evidence.
- Fig. 22.35, ibid (*.gif)
Evidence from radio waves emitted by CO molecules (using a technique similar to the detection of 21 cm radio waves emitted by hydrogen atoms).
- Fig. 22.29, ibid (*.gif)
Comparing rotation curves of two extreme cases.
- Fig. 22.30, ibid (*.gif)
Graph of the rotation curve of the Milky Way Galaxy.
- Dark matter as plot device, Futurama, "Love's Labours Lost in Space" (*.jpeg)
Tongue-in-cheek interpretation of dark matter as extremely dense alien feces.
- NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:
- Websites:
- Dark Matter Interactive (*.swf)
Use this simulation to produce various rotation curves given the presence or absence of dark matter (McGraw-Hill Publishers).
- PlanetQuest 3D Guide to the Galaxy (*.js)
Interactive model of the Milky Way. Note that their estimate of its diameter is 100,000 light years, and that the nucleus has a barred structure (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA).
- Multi-ending MAD Magazine flexidisc
Eight nested spirals in this record allows for different versions of the same song on the same record.
- Understand the processes that produce the spiral arms of the Milky Way.
- Fig. 22.37 from Fix, Astronomy, Journey to the Cosmic Frontier, 4/e (*.gif)
How a traffic jam of cars models the density wave theory.
- Websites:
- Provide and describe evidence for a massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.
- NASA Astronomy Pictures of the Day:
- Provide and explain the evidence for the processes that formed the Milky Way (halo clusters versus disk stars, metal-poor versus metal-rich, spherical versus flat/thin).
- In-class activity 27, Milky Way Populations/History (*.pdf)
Distinguish between characteristics of the stars in the halo and in the disk of the Milky Way, and how they support the evolution of the Milky Way over time.
- NASA Astronomy Pictures of the Day:
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