20131125

Astronomy current events question: gases flowing through quasar disks

Astronomy 210L, fall semester 2013
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!)
George Dvorsky, "This Quasar Should Not Exist--and Yet It Does," November 8, 2013
http://io9.com/this-quasar-should-not-exist-and-yet-it-does-1460860209
Canadian astronomers detected gas flowing directly into a black hole through its surrounding disk by looking at:
(A) Doppler-shifted light.
(B) time dilation.
(C) ejected jets.
(D) spacetime distortions.
(E) sudden increases in gravity.

Correct answer: (A)

Student responses
Sections 70178, 70186, 70200
(A) : 41 students
(B) : 2 students
(C) : 5 students
(D) : 0 students
(E) : 9 students

1 comment:

Patrick M. Len said...

Astronomy 210L, spring semester 2014
Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA

Results from students at the start of this semester who were not instructed to study this current events article are shown below.

Student responses
Sections 30678, 30679, 30680
(A) : 24 students
(B) : 2 students
(C) : 5 students
(D) : 15 students
(E) : 11 students