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Astronomy current events question: galaxy PGC 6240 shells

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!)
Richard Hook, "Soft Shells and Strange Star Clusters," October 10, 2013
http://spacetelescope.org/news/heic1318/
Hubble Space Telescope images of the uneven structure and __________ of elliptical galaxy PGC 6240 indicate that it may be the result of a merger.
(A) dark matter and dark energy imbalance.
(B) different globular cluster ages.
(C) lack of spiral arms.
(D) red and orange colors.
(E) type II supernova activity.

Correct answer: (B)

Student responses
Sections 70178, 70186, 70200
(A) : 3 students
(B) : 47 students
(C) : 2 students
(D) : 0 students
(E) : 4 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) : 11 students
(B) : 16 students
(C) : 14 students
(D) : 5 students
(E) : 10 students