June 12, 2017 7:30-9:30PM

Der Wolfskopf

Talk 1

Talk 2

Quiz Questions / Answers

1. What star in Cygnus has shown unusual dimming and brightening over the last two years sometimes by as much as 20%, boggling astronomers? Tabby's Star
2. One farfetched explanation for the star's behavior is an alien megastructure, built to encircle and capture all of the star's radiation, known as what? Dyson Sphere
3. Last week the new class of astronaut candidates was announced by NASA--how many were selected from the initial 18,000 applicants? 12
4. What is the name of the dark spectral absorption lines observed in light from the Sun? Fraunhofer Lines
5. What is the heaviest element that can form in the core of a star before it goes supernova? Iron
6. LIGO made a new detection last week--it measured the merger of what two objects? Black Holes
7. What are the Moons of Saturn named after? Titans, mythological giants
8. In Star Wars, Queen Amidala, Emperor Palpatine, and Jar Jar Binks hail from what planet? Naboo
9. A crescent moon is when less than half of the Moon is illuminated--what is it called when more than half of the Moon is illuminated? Gibbous
10. How far is the most distant man-made object from the Earth? Voyager 1, 138 AU (12 billiion miles)