[简答题]Astronomers believe that the expanding universe is the result of an enormous and powerful explosion called the Big Bang. The Big Bang theory may explain how the universe formed. The Big Bang theory states that the universe began to expand with the explosion of concentrated matter and energy and has been expanding ever since. According to the theory, all the matter and energy in the universe was once concentrated into a single place. This place, of course, was extremely hot and dense. Then some 15 to 20 billion years ago, an explosion -- the Big Bang -- shot the concentrated matter and energy in all directions. The fastest moving matter traveled farthest away. Energy, too, began moving away from the area of the Big Bang.

[填空题]What is the color of the universe Astronomers had not answered this question until two months ago. That is when two American astronomers reported on their study of all the light in the universe. They said that the universe would appear to the human eye to be a light greenish color, called turquoise.
Karl Glazebrook and Ivan Baldry of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, reported their finding in January. They presented research at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. They said that finding the color of the universe was not part of their more serious scientific research. They did it for fun.
However, earlier this month, the scientists admitted to making a mistake. They said their finding was much more colorful than it should have been. They now say the light from our universe is closer to white. It is more like a milky or creamy white color.
Their study attempted to show what people might see if they could observe the universe from far away.

[单项选择]Virtually everything astronomers know about objects outside the solar system is based on the detection of photons-quanta of electromagnetic radiation. Yet there is another form of radiation that permeates the universe: neutrinos. With (as its name implies) no electric charge, and negligible mass, the neutrino interacts with other particles so rarely that a neutrino can cross the entire universe, even traversing substantial aggregations of matter, without being absorbed or even deflected. Neutrinos can thus escape from regions of space where light and other kinds of electromagnetic radiation are blocked by matter. Not a single, validated observation of an extraterrestrial neutrino has so far been produced despite the construction of a string of elaborate observatories, mounted on the earth from Southern India to Utah to South Africa. However, the detection of extraterrestrial neutrinos are of great significance in the study of astronomy. Neutrinos carry with Their information about the
A. get through,
B. pass by.
C. interact with.
D. derive from.

[单项选择]Astronomers use photography and sighting telescopes to study the motions of all of the bright stars and many of the faint one.

[填空题]The astronomers actually control the telescope in the operating room instead of being near the telescopes.

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Astronomers have detected the most distant explosion ever witnessed in the heavens. It was a flash so powerful that they could observe the faint light as it came in from almost the edge of the known universe. The U. S. space agency’s Swift satellite was routinely scouring the cosmos for exploding stars on September 4 when it spotted what scientists have since realized is the most distant such burst on record.
In astronomy, distance means time. The further something is away, the longer its light has been traveling to get to us. So the star blast is also the most ancient ever observed.
The exploding star the Swift satellite observed was typical of the death of a massive star. These blasts am the most powerful in the universe, sending out 100 million times the energy the Sun does in one year. They are not rare, but occur daily, emitting their light in high energy gamma rays. If you could see gamma rays, the sky would twinkle with such bursts.

According to
A. The explosion detected is the most distant one ever witnessed.
B. The explosion detected is the most ancient one ever witnessed.
C. The explosion detected is typical of the birth of a massive star.
D. The explosion is the most powerful in the universe.

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For years, astronomers straggled to calculate the age of the universe. Estimates ranged from 10 to 20 billion years old, a frustratingly large spread. But that was before the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, named after the astronomer whose discovery 70 years ago began the quest to learn the universe’s age.
Edwin Hubble found that the galaxies (星系) within the universe are speeding away from each other at a rate proportional to their distance. That expansion rate----the Hubble constant (常数)----is the key to calculating the age and size of the universe. But pinning down the constant requires precise measurements of the distances to far-flung galaxies.
In May, a team led by Wendy Freeman of the Carnegie Institution, of Washington, D. C., announced the result of eight years of Hubble measurements: The universe is expanding at a rate of 21 kilometers per million light-years. That translates to an age of approximately 12 billion years for the universe. simila
A. Approximately 10 billion years old.
B. 20 billion years old.
C. Approximately 12 billion years old.
D. Not quite accurate now.

[填空题]How long have astronomers studied the planets and other objects in space

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According to Babylonian astronomers, how many days were there in a year