Astronomy
Test Document
2024 University of Chicago Science Olympiad Invitational
Div C
**Please do not write on the test**
Written by Alice Wang, Arjun Singh
Section 1: Multiple Choice DSOs (20 pts)
1. Annually, stellar winds blow a mass from the Carina Nebula equivalent to what Solar System
celestial object?
a. Saturn
b. Mercury
c. Earth
d. Jupiter
e. The Sun
2. In reference to the Sun, how luminous is each member of the pair of brown dwarfs that make up
Luhman 16?
a. 2%
b. 0.2%
c. 0.02%
d. 0.002%
3. What is Beta Pictoris b’s rotational period?
a. 3 hours
b. 6 hours
c. 8 hours
d. 10 hours
e. 24 hours
4. Researchers using the Hubble Space Telescope discovered a planet orbiting AB Aurigae in the act
of ____, which is likened to a “flash fly.”
a. Carbon exhaust
b. Spherical accretion
c. Disk instability
d. Nucleosynthesis
e. Gravitational drag
5. What type of planet is TW Hydrae b?
a. Protoplanet
b. Ice giant
c. Hot Jupiter
d. Terrestrial
e. Super Earth
6. What is a defining feature of WASP 39b?
a. It is tidally locked
b. It has a debris ring
c. Its atmosphere is slowly evaporating off
d. It spins counterclockwise
e. It is a product of many collisions, tearing mass from the planet
7. What type of planet is TRAPPIST 1g?
a. Protoplanet
b. Ice giant
c. Hot Jupiter
d. Terrestrial
e. Super Earth
8. What is TW Hydrae’s spectral class?
a. O
b. B
c. A
d. F
e. G
f. K
g. M
9. This compound found released by HD 169142 surprised scientists because it meant that the planet
must be producing powerful shock waves in the surrounding gas.
a. SiS
b. NaHCO3
c. MgOH
d. KClO3
10. How many planets are in the V 1298 Tau system?
a. 2
b. 3
c. 4
d. 5
11. What defines a Herbig Haro Object?
a. Luminous regions surrounding newborn stars
b. Gravitational collapse of interstellar gas clouds
c. Shock waves colliding with the interstellar medium
d. Reflection nebulae containing low-luminosity hot stars deep inside
12. What wavelength is used to visualize NGC 1333 in this image?
a. Microwave
b. Infrared
c. Visible light
d. UV
e. XRay
13. What wavelength is used to visualize Carina Nebula in this
image?
a. Microwave
b. Infrared
c. Visible light
d. UV
e. XRay
14. What wavelength is used to visualize Luhman 16 in this image?
a. Microwave
b. Infrared
c. Visible light
d. UV
e. XRay
15. Which exoplanet has the shortest rotational period?
a. V830 Tauri b
b. WASP 18b
c. WASP 39b
d. WASP 43b
16. What is the eccentricity of V 1298 Tau b?
a. 0.57
b. 0.21
c. 0.29
d. 0.43
17. Beta Pictoris is known for the circumstellar gas disk that surrounds the planetary system. Which
of the following elements is not present in the disk?
a. Zinc
b. Iron
c. Silicon
d. Calcium
e. Magnesium
18. Researchers have concluded that WASP-18b is about 100 times less magnetically active than it
should be at its age. What is definitely not a cause for this?
a. Limited X-ray emissions from the star
b. Gravitational waves
c. Tides
d. Higher Lithium concentration
19. This DSO is the first extrasolar planetary-mass companion to be directly imaged?
a. HR 8799
b. 2M 1207
c. Luhman 16
d. HH 7-11
e. TRAPPIST-1
20. AB Aurigae appeared in the 2021 film for this Telescope?
a. NASA Infrared Telescope
b. Subaru Telescope
c. Hubble Space Telescope
d. James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
e. Canada France Hawaii Telescope
Section 2: Short Answer (20 questions)
1. Compute the black body luminosity of a neutron star with its surface temperature at 106 K and
radius 104 m.
2. When will the sun rise in Chicago (41.8781° N, 87.6298° W) on Casimir Pulaski Day (March 4,
2024)?
3. Consider a molecular cloud of density 104 cm-3 approximately completely composed of hydrogen.
a. At what mass will this molecular cloud start to collapse?
b. If it collapses, how long will it take?
4. Let’s talk about spectra!
a. What is the WC sequence?
b. What is the unique characteristic of this sequence, and why does it have it?
5. What is the Eddington limit, and why does it exist? Why did it need to be “corrected”?
6. What are the two major differences between the Henyey and Hayashi tracks?
7. The Very Large Array radio interferometer (λ=1 m) has a maximum baseline of D = 36.4 km.
How large will an optical telescope have to be to achieve a similar angular resolution in visible
light (λ=5500 A◦)?
8. Star C has an absolute magnitude of 0.0, and an apparent magnitude of +14.0.
a. What is the distance to star C?
b. What is extinction? How does extinction affect the color index?
c. Now, if the extinction A = 1.2, recalculate the distance to star C.
9. Based on the Rayleigh criterion, what is the angular resolution of the James Webb Space
Telescope (its primary mirror)?
10. What is the difference between emission and absorption lines (not just “one is absorbed and one
is emitted”)?
11. What is the solar neutrino problem? Why is it not actually a “problem”?
12. Let’s talk about Algol-type variables!
a. Why can we know the time between eclipses?
b. Why does the light curve have two minima?
13. Consider the radiation zone in a main-sequence star:
a. How does energy move in the radiation zone?
b. If the star’s mass increases, what happens to the radiation zone?
14. What is the difference between conmoving and proper distance? When are they equal?
15. Let’s talk about Seyfert galaxies!
a. Name two similarities between quasars and Seyfert galaxies.
b. Name two differences between quasars and Seyfert galaxies.
16. How long does it take for a non-rotating uncharged black hole of one solar mass to decay?
17. Let’s talk about the s-process!
a. In what types of stars is the s-process most important and why?
b. At what element does the s-process stop?
18. Name the four equations governing stellar structure (you don’t have to write out the math, you
can just explain what they are).
19. What powers T Tauri stars and why?
20. Why is IR imaging so important in astronomy? Give two reasons.
Section 3: Long Answer
Stellar Evolution (23 pts)
The diagram above is known as a (1. ___________) (1 point) which is a scatter plot of stars showing the
relationship between the stars' absolute magnitudes or luminosities versus their stellar classifications or
effective temperatures. This diagram is a great way to show stellar evolution.
Stars fall into specific categories on this graph. The sun is a star in the (2. ______________) (1 point).
3. There are multiple other groups shown in the diagram above. Name each of the groups: (9 points)
4. (5 points) Describe the five stages of development for a Sun-like star (your answers should comprise of
your answer for 2 and 4 of the groups in the above diagram):
Betelgeuse is a (5. ________ ) (1 point) in the constellation (6. _____ ) (1 point) and is 15 times larger
than the sun. It is very notable because scientists are expecting Betelgeuse to become a Type (7. ____ ) (1
point) Supernova within the next 100,000 years.
8. How does Betelgeuse’s stellar evolution differ from the Sun’s and what factors result in its difference?
(4 points)
DSOs Matching (10 pts)
Astrophysics (20 pts)
1. What is the apparent magnitude of a star that is 4000 light-years from Earth and has an
absolute magnitude of 6?
2. Star A orbits around black hole B. B has a mass of 100. solar masses. A has a period of
49 years and A’s mass is negligible. Find:
a. The average distance between B and A in AU using Kepler’s Third Law.
b. If this was on a much larger scale and Star A was rotating in an arm of the Milky
Way, why or why not would using Kepler’s Third Law be accurate for
determining its mean distance from the center?
c. Assume the star that formed black hole B had the same mass as B. Determine the
volume of Star B at the moment just before its collapse.
3. A type Ia supernova is observed to have an apparent magnitude of 2.7. What is its
distance in parsecs?
4. What is the distance of a galaxy that is moving with a positive recessional velocity of
6000km/s?
5. The mass of a given star is 5.0E2 solar masses. Knowing that it is 67pc away, find its
Schwarzschild radius in meters.
6. Alpha-Hydrogen emissions have a lab-tested wavelength of 656.28 nm. The graph below
shows a galaxy’s spectrograph. Label all parts of your answer.
a. Determine the velocity and direction of the galaxy in km/s.
b. Determine the distance to the galaxy from Earth in megaparsecs.
c. If the galaxy’s apparent magnitude is 18.7, estimate the apparent magnitude from
exactly 10 pc away using the distance modulus.
d. Is the answer for part b logistically valid? In other words, would it be a relatively
correct calculation? Explain why or why not.
7. The pressure of stardom: Consider a star of uniform mass density ρ and radius R,
vibrating with a frequency ν.
a. Consider a spherical shell in the star of mass m and radius r. What is the
relationship between r and P, the hydrostatic pressure on the shell? Why?
b. Using your results from part a), determine ν.
c. Why is this derivation of a star’s pulsation frequency inaccurate? Explain in terms
of stellar structure.
8. Amateur astronomers: Asher and Ryan are astronomers at UChicago working on
discovering new exoplanets. They have discovered a star which they suspect is part of a
planetary system. Its observed motion is shown below:
a. What technique did Asher and Ryan use to measure the star’s velocity? Explain how this
technique works.
b. Using his trusty homemade telescope, Asher determines that the star has apparent
magnitude 5.49. However, when observed through a blue-light filter it has apparent
magnitude 6.16. What temperature is the star?
c. Asher observes that the star’s diameter is 0.0007 arcseconds, and over the course of two
academic quarters (26 weeks including breaks), the star appears to move a distance 100
times its diameter (0.07 arcseconds). Determine the luminosity of the star.
d. Ryan believes the star is a red giant. Explain why he is wrong and estimate the star’s
actual mass.
e. Using your answer from part d), determine the minimum mass of the star’s exoplanet.
f. Determine the average distance of separation between the star and the exoplanet.
g. Ryan believes the exoplanet is habitable for humans. Could he be right? Explain why or
why not.
9. Really amateur astronomers: Noel is a UChicago student struggling with his Galaxies
(PHYS 12710) class and needs you, an absolute astronomy whiz, to help him study.
a. Noel says, “RR Lyrae are useful standard candles because they help you find galactic
distances or something.”
i. What physical mechanisms enable RR Lyrae to be used as standard candles and
why?
ii. Why are RR Lyrae particularly useful for determining galactic distances? Provide
four reasons.
iii. Noel breaks down when his homework asks him to calculate the distance of an
RR Lyrae star given only its metallicity -1.31. Since his homework is already
overdue, find the answer for him.
b. Noel says, “Standard candles like RR Lyrae and Cepheids can always be used to
determine galactic distance.”
i. Why is he wrong?
ii. How can we use spiral galaxies to determine very far distances?
iii. Name one other example of a secondary distance indicator.
Tiebreaker
a. What astronomical object is this “ridgeline plot” of radio pulses depicting?
b. What is the name of this astronomical object? When was it discovered?
c. Why is this object significant in astronomy?
d. Why is this image significant in pop culture?
