Astronomy current events question: VISTA camera/spectrograph

Astronomy 210L, Spring Semester 2010
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!)

Astronomy.com editors, "VISTA Captures Celestial Cat's Hidden Secrets," April 21, 2010
http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=9781

The new VISTA camera/spectrograph for the European Southern Observatory uses near-infrared light instead of visible light to observe star and planet formation, because near-infrared light is:
(A) more flexible than visible light.
(B) slower than visible light.
(C) not affected by lookback time.
(D) a particle, not a wave.
(E) not blocked by interstellar dust clouds.

Correct answer: (E)

Student responses
Sections 30678, 30679, 30680
(A) : 6 students
(B) : 0 students
(C) : 2 students
(D) : 0 students
(E) : 19 students