General Astronomy - Spring 2011
Homework #10 - due April 18



1. (3 pt) What is the Copernican principle?

2. (4 pt) If the Hubble constant were found to be 120 km/s/Mpc, what would be the critical density of the Universe?

3. (3 pt) When the Universe was 0.1 seconds old, there were no protons.  Explain why.

4.
(3 pt) How were the photons in cosmic microwave background produced?

5.
(4 pt) There is a 500 pc long ruler located 1 Gpc from Earth.  You measure the angular size of the ruler to be 0.15 arcseconds.  What does that imply about the geometry of the Universe?

6.
(3 pt) How can dark energy be distinguished from normal matter and energy?