Astronomy Trivia Challenge: Can You Answer These Questions About the Night Sky?

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    Astronomy Game
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The Astronomy Trivia Challenge engages participants in a question-and-answer format about various astronomical topics. Participants take turns asking questions, with rules stipulating time limits for responses to keep the game moving. Discussions cover a range of topics, including the brightest stars, celestial bodies, and cosmic phenomena like supermassive black holes and cold dark matter. Players share knowledge and insights, often referencing their studies or experiences in astronomy. The thread fosters a collaborative learning environment while maintaining a fun and competitive spirit.
Nicool002
[SOLVED] Astronomy Q&A Game

Hi guys! Most of you know how this works but for the newcomers:

The rules are this: someone will ask a question and if the question is not answered correctly within 3 days then a new question will be posted. If an answer to a question is posted and the person that posted the question does not respond to the answer within 2 to 3 days, then the first person to have answered the question will then be able to post their own question. HAVE FUN AND LEARN!

I will start:

Question: What is the brightest star in the Northern Sky? (excluding the sun)
 
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I'm making an educated guess here:

Alpha Canis Majoris (Sirius)?


Techincally, I think Deneb is the "brightest" but only in absolute magnitude. It's so far away that it really doesn't make much of a difference since its apparent magnitude is not as bright as Sirius.

Hey it's only a guess.
 
oh, man. I better lock this now before you guys swamp our server resources again.
-jk
 
haha *hurt look* us? Phobos why ever would you say that? hehe


Yes sting you are correct, your go.
 
My go? My turn to ask a question (I never participated in the original thread so I have no idea how this works)?

Okay, my question: What is the name of the large multiringed basin located on Mercury at a longitude of 180 degrees?
 
I believe that it is the Caloris Basin. Am I correct?
 
$#%^! I sure pick easy questions don't I?

Yes, you got it right. I guess, it's "your go"
 
I knew that from when I studied Astronomy for Science Olympiad (By the way guys I got a gold medal in Astronomy for the Competition )


Ok. True Or False

Do we havea supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy?
 
Shoot, that was quick...

Uhhh truefalse...

Actually, I don't know if it was ever "proven" but I'm going with "true"
 
  • #10
Correct, it is true. On Discover, they lookd at something like 37 galaxies and in each one, they found a supermassive black hole. Then, they looked at our galaxy and guesss what they found... Oh wait, sting already said it.
 
  • #11
Yippee!

Okay, I guess it's my turn:

What is the name given to the energy generation in which a stellar object initiates helium burning by the triple-alpha process?
 
  • #12
OK I don't think I know this one but I'm going to go out on a limb and say the Nuclear Fusion that a star relies on to live... but I am not sure if that's right.
 
  • #13
for how many years does pluto enter into neptune's orbit, and how many years does it take pluto to make one revolution around the sun?

no cheating...
 
  • #14
Kerrie I'm going to answer your question but first The way I put it in the rules was that one question had to be answered before the next was asked that way you don't have a bunch of questions going on at once :smile:

Answer: Pluto takes 247 years that is the first answer. The second is... well I am not sure but I think it is around 100 years although that is basicaly just a guess.
 
  • #15
OK I don't think I know this one but I'm going to go out on a limb and say the Nuclear Fusion that a star relies on to live... but I am not sure if that's right.

Generally, yes, but I was thinking more of a specific name but I'll give you a clue (two words)
 
  • #16
helium fusion...?
 
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  • #17
What is the 'helium flash'?
 
  • #18
how many years does it take pluto to make one revolution around the sun

Well if I was being tricky I would say exactly 1. Plutonian year that is :wink:

Raavin
 
  • #19
Darn, I do believe damgo got it.
 
  • #20
Originally posted by Raavin
Well if I was being tricky I would say exactly 1. Plutonian year that is :wink:

Raavin

It takes pluto 250 Earth years to make one revolution around the sun.
 
  • #21
I think Damgo got it too. The 'initiation' would seem to be the helium flash which continues into helium fusion. I think that's right, as the helium fuses to carbon 12, then you then have carbon flash and I assume you could have oxygen and neon flash but, for reasons that elude me, it would seem that it is naturally unlikely do to the changes/reduction in pressure until it gets to iron.

Raavin
 
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  • #22
Yep, he's right.

Helium flash was the answer I was looking for.
 
  • #23
:) Hmm... okay, what does /\-CDM stand for, and what is it?
 
  • #24
Can we have a normal Astronomy category

This may sound a bit sour but... now we are starting a new leaf, how about you starting a separate topic called "Astronomy Questions Game" so we can use the word "Astronomy" for a general topic of Astronomy without turning it into a sort of "Who wants to be a Millionaire" (an Aussie TV program :)

By the way, what happened to all the old posts, have they been classified due to the impending war or something?

[ome]
 
  • #25
...cold dark matter...
...cold dark matter is composed of objects massive enough to move at sub-relativistic velocities...
 
  • #26
Originally posted by damgo
:) Hmm... okay, what does /\-CDM stand for, and what is it?

As the previous poster pointed out CDM stands for cold dark matter, but the /\ stands for the dark energy or cosmological constant. I couldn't begin to tell you what cold dark matter is or what dark energy is, because no one knows! :smile:
 
  • #27
I have turned to the darkside...
For I have tasted the truth...
(CEO Morgan's Recycling Tanks of Humour)
 
  • #28
Yep, cragwolf got it... it's the cosmological model with large lamda, omega_matter mostly dark.
 
  • #29
Well first off JJalexand were you on the old PF? and second off it's because this was the name on the old PF and I didn't want to change it and this thread IS about astronomy. I made it a game so it would be more fun.


(as you can see I had to change my name having login troubles seeing what we can do about it)
 
  • #30
Originally posted by damgo
Yep, cragwolf got it... it's the cosmological model with large lamda, omega_matter mostly dark.

Hi damgo, can you award the prize to Bogdan, since he got most of the question right, and I'm feeling generous? :smile:
 
  • #31
Well right now I don't know the answer to your question. I will try to find the answer but I can't really guarantee anything. Does anyone know the answer?
 
  • #32
What question ?[?]
 
  • #33
sure...
 
  • #34
I believe it is CragWolf's question now am I right? SO go ahead and ask away crag.
 
  • #35
No, it's bogdan's question. Go ahead, bogdan, ask any astronomy question you like.
 
  • #36
Thx...in what constellation is the star named Alkalurops ?
 
  • #37
Originally posted by bogdan
Thx...in what constellation is the star named Alkalurops ?

The Plowman, I think his name is Buotus, although that's probably not the spelling!
 
  • #38
Boötes, I'm just correcting LURCH's spelling.
 
  • #39
That's correct but I'm sure you'd rather wait for bogdans confirmation... right?


By the way welcome to everyone from the old forums and new!
 
  • #40
Alkalurops or Inkalunis or Icalurus or Clava or Venabulum... I guess you mean this star, well, it is in Bootes, in fact, it's Mu 1 Bootis. Alkalurops means the "shepherd's crook".
 
  • #41
Bootes is the correct answer...
So...Lurch...it's your turn...thx to cragwolf...
I'm sorry Philosopher...maybe next time...
 
  • #42
awwww...shoot! I'll try next time too then.

M.
 
  • #43
Good we always like more people coming to join this therad welcome to PF


Ok Lurch ask away
 
  • #44
Okey-Dokey,

Fortunately for astronomers,our solar system is currently moving into a rather large, empty portion of the galaxy. Sort-of like a "clearing" in the Milky Way Forest.

To what cause do astronomers attribute this clearing?
 
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  • #45
Cosmic Acceleration
 
  • #46
http://www.anzwers.org/free/universe/2000lys.html

Lurch, you say solar system is currently entering a clearing.

I found this map of the Orion Arm (which is the small arm we are in)

It is a projection on the galactic plane with the the sun in the center and all the Hipparchos cataloged stars out to 2000 ly.

the sun's motion is to the right of the map towards the stars marked cygnus, I believe.

there is also a link there to a largerscale map of the Orion Arm, everything out to 5000 ly.

maybe these maps will help someone answer the question.

What you say is interesting and makes me wonder what the size and distance of this clearing is and what is the timescale of our entering it.
 
  • #47
Fortunately for astronomers,our solar system is currently moving into a rather large, empty portion of the galaxy. Sort-of like a "clearing" in the Milky Way Forest.
I will take a stab from memory without any internet site to point to.

The distances mentioned at the site above about the Orion Arm are very small distances compared to the size of our galaxy. The Sun, with us, happens to be located at the "inside edge" of the Orion arm with relatively little between us and the Sagittarius arm, the next one in toward the galactic center. We are ~33,000 light years from the galactic core with this "clear space" allowing us to see across to the Sagittarius arm and the galactic core behind, with radio and infrared.

However, contrary to popular belief, a spiral arm does not make a full rotation of a galaxy intact as an arm with its general size and shape. Our Sun, will rotate a bit faster than the "rest" of the Orion arm as the stars farther from the core of the galaxy start to lag behind. The sun will make one full revolution in about 250 million years, and in that time the Orion arm, and all others, will dissapate as new spiral arms form from newly-formed stars and re-distribution of gas and dust. In other words, we will be moving more and more into an "empty space" between spiral arms as a few (million) years pass.
 
  • #48
Isn't it odd how in science a long time is a short time? Like on the radio (it was on a regular music station actually. I was quite surprised) They were saying that in only a few million years the Earth will begin to get colder because the sun will be changing into a Red Giant. ONLY A FEW MILLION YEARS FOLKS! PUT IT ON YOUR CALENDER!

(psst lurch did I get it right?)
 
  • #49
Nope, yer thinkin' too big; occupational hazard in astronomy. I'm talking about the small (on the cosmic scale) clearing in our neighborhood of this galaxy.
 
  • #50
Oh I see. Or I will. I will think this over again. Cosmic acceleration would be the whole galaxy so I need something smaller...hmm
 

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