Test: SPACE SCIENCE
1. What is the Milky Way?
- A) A planet
- B) A galaxy
- C) A star
- D) A constellation
2. How did Indigenous Australians use constellations?
- A) To create maps of the Earth
- B) To tell stories to children
- C) As a calendar for hunting and gathering
- D) To navigate to other countries
3. What does the appearance of the emu-shaped dark patch in the Milky Way indicate to
Indigenous Australians?
- A) Time to plant crops
- B) Start of the rainy season
- C) Time to hunt emus or collect their eggs
- D) Time for spiritual rituals
4. Which European constellation is known as Djulpan to the Yolngu people?
- A) Orion
- B) Scorpius
- C) The Big Dipper
- D) Sagittarius
5. What do the three stars in the constellation Djulpan represent according to the Yolngu
people?
- A) Three sisters gathering food
- B) A kingfisher clan fishing
- C) Warriors going to battle
- D) A spirit guiding the people
6. What do stars emit as a result of nuclear fusion?
- A) Water
- B) Light and other electromagnetic radiation
- C) Solid matter
- D) Magnetic fields
7. Which of the following is true about the brightness of stars?
- A) Stars that are closer always appear brighter.
- B) Larger stars always appear brighter.
- C) A star's brightness depends only on its temperature.
- D) Apparent magnitude measures how bright a star appears from Earth.
8. What does a star's colour indicate?
- A) Its distance from Earth
- B) Its age
- C) Its surface temperature
- D) Its size
9. What is the definition of a light-year?
- A) The time it takes for the Sun to revolve around the Earth
- B) The time it takes for light to travel from Earth to the Moon
- C) The distance light travels in one year
- D) The age of the nearest star
10. Which constellation signals the end of the wet season to the people of the Gulf of
Carpentaria?
- A) Orion
- B) Djulpan
- C) Scorpius
- D) The Big Dipper
11. What is the apparent magnitude of the Sun?
- A) 0
- B) -5
- C) -13
- D) -27
12. Which method is used to measure the distance to nearby stars?
- A) Measuring star temperature
- B) Observing stellar parallax
- C) Counting the number of stars in a constellation
- D) Using telescopes to measure star size
13. What does the term "stellar parallax" refer to?
- A) The change in a star's brightness over time
- B) The apparent shift in a star's position when observed from different points on Earth's
orbit
- C) The difference in temperature between two stars
- D) The distance between galaxies
14. Which of the following best describes galaxies?
- A) Clusters of planets held together by gravity
- B) Groups of stars held together by gravity
- C) Large collections of asteroids
- D) Regions of empty space
15. Which type of galaxy is the Milky Way?
- A) Elliptical
- B) Spiral
- C) Irregular
- D) Circular
16. What is measured on the x-axis of a Hertzsprung–Russell diagram?
- A) Star mass
- B) Star temperature
- C) Star distance
- D) Star brightness
17. Why do stars appear to move across the night sky?
- A) Because they are actually moving at high speeds
- B) Due to the rotation of the Earth
- C) Because of changes in their temperature
- D) Due to changes in their size
18. What is the absolute magnitude of a star?
- A) A measure of how bright a star appears from Earth
- B) A measure of a star's actual brightness if it were a fixed distance from Earth
- C) The distance of a star from Earth
- D) The temperature of a star's surface
19. How long does it take for light from the Sun to reach Earth?
- A) 8 seconds
- B) 1 light-year
- C) 500 seconds
- D) 8 minutes
20. Which Indigenous Australian group used the constellation Neilloan as a sign to gather
eggs?
- A) Yolngu people
- B) People of the Gulf of Carpentaria
- C) Boorong people
- D) People of Central Australia
1. What are large clouds of gas where stars are born called?
- A) Galaxies
- B) Nebulae
- C) Planets
- D) Asteroids
2. What type of equilibrium exists between the gravitational pull and the push release of
energy in a star?
- A) Thermal equilibrium
- B) Hydrostatic equilibrium
- C) Mechanical equilibrium
- D) Dynamic equilibrium
3. What happens to a small star when it runs out of nuclear fuel?
- A) Becomes a black hole
- B) Becomes a neutron star
- C) Forms a white dwarf
- D) Explodes in a supernova
4. What is the final stage of a small star’s life cycle?
- A) White dwarf
- B) Neutron star
- C) Red giant
- D) Black hole
5. Which of the following is the largest explosion in the universe?
- A) Nova
- B) Supernova
- C) Red giant explosion
- D) Planetary nebula
6. What is the term used for the dense core left after a supernova explosion?
- A) White dwarf
- B) Neutron star
- C) Black hole
- D) Red giant
7. What happens to the gravitational pull and density when a neutron star collapses further?
- A) It decreases
- B) It becomes unstable
- C) It becomes a red giant
- D) It increases, forming a black hole
8. How is a black hole detected?
- A) By observing X-rays emitted as matter falls into it
- B) By visible light
- C) By gamma rays
- D) By infrared radiation
9. What is the absorption spectrum of a star?
- A) A continuous spectrum of light
- B) Dark lines in the light spectrum due to absorbed wavelengths
- C) Bright lines emitted by a star
- D) A spectrum of radio waves
10. How does the emission spectrum differ from the absorption spectrum?
- A) It only contains dark lines
- B) It contains continuous spectra without lines
- C) It shows the light energy released when elements return to a stable state
- D) It shows light absorption by elements
11. What did Edwin Hubble observe about galaxies in the 1920s?
- A) They are all moving towards Earth
- B) They are stationary
- C) They are moving away from Earth
- D) They are expanding into each other
12. Which of the following terms describes the change in the frequency of a wave as an
object moves towards or away from an observer?
- A) Red shift
- B) Blue shift
- C) Doppler effect
- D) Absorption spectrum
13. What indicates that a galaxy is moving away from Earth?
- A) Blue shift
- B) Increase in brightness
- C) Red shift
- D) Decrease in temperature
14. What did Hubble's discovery about red-shifted spectra suggest about the universe?
- A) The universe is static
- B) The universe is shrinking
- C) The universe is expanding
- D) The universe is cooling
15. What is the fate of heavier red giants?
- A) They turn into black dwarfs
- B) They continue fusion until iron is formed
- C) They explode into planetary nebulae
- D) They shrink to form white dwarfs
16. What is the dense object left after a star collapses in a supernova?
- A) A black dwarf
- B) A neutron star
- C) A red giant
- D) A planetary nebula
17. What phenomenon can be observed when a fast object moves towards you?
- A) Lower frequency sound
- B) Sound waves lengthening
- C) Higher pitch due to compressed sound waves
- D) Red shift
18. What type of telescope did Edwin Hubble use for his observations?
- A) Hubble Space Telescope
- B) Hooker Telescope
- C) COBE Satellite
- D) Horn-shaped radio antenna
19. What evidence supports the Big Bang theory?
- A) The presence of X-rays from stars
- B) Absorption spectra of stars
- C) Cosmic microwave background radiation
- D) The visible light from supernovas
20. Who discovered cosmic microwave background radiation?
- A) Edwin Hubble
- B) Brian Schmidt
- C) Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson
- D) Christian Doppler
21. What is cosmic microwave background radiation?
- A) Radio signals from galaxies
- B) Leftover radiation from the Big Bang
- C) Emission from black holes
- D) Heat from red giants
22. How old is the universe estimated to be?
- A) 5 billion years
- B) 10 billion years
- C) 13.7 billion years
- D) 20 billion years
23. What happens when a star becomes a red giant?
- A) It shrinks and cools down
- B) It collapses into a neutron star
- C) It expands and cools as helium fusion occurs
- D) It explodes in a nova
24. What is a planetary nebula?
- A) A region where planets are formed
- B) A dying red giant star’s outer shell
- C) A new star-forming region
- D) The core of a collapsed star
25. What is the role of gravity in the formation of a star?
- A) It repels hydrogen atoms
- B) It causes nuclear fusion of carbon atoms
- C) It attracts hydrogen atoms together
- D) It decreases the temperature of gas clouds
26. What will the Sun become in about 5 billion years?
- A) A neutron star
- B) A white dwarf
- C) A black hole
- D) A red giant
27. What type of shift indicates that a star is moving towards Earth?
- A) Red shift
- B) Blue shift
- C) Ultraviolet shift
- D) Infrared shift
28. Why do emission spectra contain bright lines?
- A) They show all wavelengths of light
- B) They indicate wavelengths absorbed by elements
- C) They represent wavelengths released by excited elements
- D) They are formed when a star moves away
29. Which element is most abundant in nebulae?
- A) Carbon
- B) Helium
- C) Hydrogen
- D) Iron
30. What did Edwin Hubble's observations suggest about the nature of the universe?
- A) It is contracting
- B) It is static and unchanging
- C) It is expanding
- D) It is shrinking rapidly
