Astronomy current events quiz: spiral dust patterns around newborn stars

Astronomy 210L, fall semester 2015
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!)

Ray Villard, "Spirals in Dust Around Young Stars May Betray Presence Of Massive Planets" (October 29, 2015)
nasa.gov/feature/goddard/spirals-dust-around-young-stars-may-betray-presence-of-massive-planets

Huge spiral patterns in the dust and gas disks surrounding newborn stars may signal the presence of giant planet formation, based on:
(A) computer simulations.
(B) Hubble Space Telescope observations.
(C) radar imaging.
(D) x-ray emissions.
(E) data from neutrino detectors.

Correct answer: (A)

Student responses
Sections 70178, 70186
(A) : 15 students
(B) : 7 students
(C) : 3 students
(D) : 6 students
(E) : 0 students