20161202

Astronomy current events question: "nearly naked" supermassive black hole

Astronomy 210L, fall semester 2016
Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA

Students are assigned to read online articles on current astronomy events, and take a short current events quiz during the first 10 minutes of lab. (This motivates students to show up promptly to lab, as the time cut-off for the quiz is strictly enforced!)
Dave Finley, "Close Galactic Encounter Leaves 'Nearly Naked' Supermassive Black Hole" (November 2, 2016)
public.nrao.edu/news/pressreleases/nearly-naked-supermassive-black-hole
The Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) discovered that B3 1715+425 is a "nearly naked" supermassive black hole, which may be the remnant of a galaxy that:
(A) fit inside of its own event horizon.
(B) passed through a larger galaxy.
(C) was composed of antimatter.
(D) devoured all of its own stars.
(E) had dead spiral arms.

Correct answer: (B)

Student responses
Sections 70178, 70186
(A) : 2 students
(B) : 8 students
(C) : 2 students
(D) : 8 students
(E) : 1 student

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