20140404

Astronomy current events question: hypergiant HR 5171 A and companion star

Astronomy 210L, spring semester 2014
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!)
Olivier Chesneau and Richard Hook, "VLT Spots Largest Yellow Hypergiant Star," March 12, 2014
http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1409/
The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope __________ to determine that HR 5171 A is the largest known yellow star, and has a close binary companion.
(A) combined light from separate telescopes.
(B) used image editing software.
(C) observed a supernova-nova pair.
(D) statistically analyzed old data.
(E) used new high-magnification eyepieces.

Correct answer: (A)

Student responses
Sections 30678, 30679, 30680
(A) : 25 students
(B) : 1 student
(C) : 8 students
(D) : 4 students
(E) : 4 students

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