Deck 26: Astrobiology

Question 1

What organism today is most similar to the first cells on Earth?

A) diatoms
B) protists
C) insects
D) bacteria
E) yeast

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Aside from Earth, Venus is the most likely place for life to exist in the Solar System.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

One theory for the origin of life proposed that reproducing molecules may have arrived here from space.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

What is the function of proteins?

A) contains the coded information in the nucleus
B) carries coded information from the cell to the rest of the organism
C) provides structure and function of organisms
D) provides the basic building blocks of a cell
E) carries the genetic information of a cell

Question 5

Half the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy are members of a binary system, many of which are likely to support life on planets.

Question 6

When a cell divides, only one cell gets the original DNA molecules.

Question 7

The elements that we are all made of are common everywhere in the observable Universe.

Question 8

The physical bases of life on Earth are oxygen and water.

Question 9

The function of an enzyme is to ____.

A) carry coded information to the rest of the cell
B) regulate chemical reactions within a cell
C) provide the basic building blocks of a cell
D) carry the genetic information of a cell
E) provide the structure and function of a cell

Question 10

The most likely first form of life on Earth was probably an archaea-like extremophile tolerant of high temperatures.

Question 11

In 1974, astronomers broadcasted a radio message of greeting towards the globular cluster M13, 25,000 light-years away.

Question 12

A unique property of water is that it ____.

A) has a high heat capacity
B) can easily expand
C) has a high oxygen capacity
D) easily absorbs carbon monoxide
E) can mix with organic lipids

Question 13

Natural selection is random.

Question 14

What are the two basic requirements for life to exist?

A) heat and light
B) carbon and water
C) oxygen and carbon
D) light and carbon
E) light and water

Question 15

Earth required only 1 million years to produce the first cells and another million years for intelligence to emerge.

Question 16

Which is the process that explains how life adapts itself to a changing environment?

A) biological evolution
B) environmental duplication
C) biological transformation
D) natural selection
E) genetic reproduction

Question 17

Earth sends out more signals into space by accident than with intent.

Question 18

What element is found in all life on Earth?

A) hydrogen
B) iron
C) carbon
D) oxygen
E) nitrogen

Question 19

In Miller and Urey's experiment, what did they use to simulate the atmosphere in a sealed, glass container to produce amino acids and organic molecules?

A) volcanic ash
B) electric arc
C) water vapor
D) liquid helium
E) nitrogen gas

Question 20

Life began in the sea.

Question 21

What prevents Titan from being a candidate for supporting an evolution of life?

A) It is too far from the Sun.
B) Its atmosphere doesn't contain the right mixture of elements.
C) Its surface is covered in methane lakes.
D) Its surface temperature is too cold.
E) It is tidally locked to Saturn rather than the Sun.

Question 22

Which moon is rich in organic molecules but too cold to support chemical evolution?

A) Europa
B) Titan
C) Enceladus
D) Io
E) Ganymede

Question 23

What part of a cell stores the coded information?

A) cell membrane
B) cell wall
C) cytoplasm
D) ribosome
E) nucleus

Question 24

What was Miller and Urey trying to replicate in their experiment?

A) the formation of cell
B) the formation of ozone
C) the formation of photosynthesis
D) the formation of organic molecules
E) the formation of liquid water

Question 25

A low-luminosity star has a small and narrow ____, whereas a high-luminosity star has a large and wide one.

A) UV range
B) life capability
C) habitable zone
D) adaptable zone
E) water hole

Question 26

What would a civilization within 60 light-years away be able to detect from Earth?

A) our first TV transmissions
B) our cellular phone transmissions
C) our production of machines that create noise
D) our excessive carbon emissions
E) our wireless Internet transmissions

Question 27

What did astronomers use in the anticoded message sent to globular cluster M13?

A) dashes and dots
B) numbers and letters
C) pulses and gaps
D) hieroglyphics
E) holograms

Question 28

Why do astronomers narrow their search to the "habitable zone" of other star systems?

A) the most likely place to support planets with thick atmospheres
B) the least likely place to have zero ultraviolet radiation
C) the most likely place with liquid water, and extraterrestrial life
D) the most likely place to have oxygen in the atmosphere
E) the least likely place to have wide temperature ranges on the surfaces of planets

Question 29

Which type of main-sequence star(s) is a good candidate for searching Earth-like planets with life?

A) O and B
B) G and K
C) A and F
D) white dwarfs
E) binary stars

Question 30

What are the "rungs" of a DNA spiral made up of?

A) RNA
B) four chemical bases arranged in pairs
C) enzymes
D) ribosomes
E) proteins

Question 31

What was needed to develop in Earth's atmosphere to protect organisms from the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation?

A) weather patterns
B) a nitrogenous layer
C) a greenhouse effect
D) an ozone layer
E) reflective clouds

Question 32

Stromatolites are rock-like columns composed of layers of fossilized ____.

A) bones and tissue
B) fungi and planets
C) extremophile protists
D) photosynthetic algae
E) single-celled organisms

Question 33

What technology do astronomers use to search for extraterrestrial life?

A) space observatories
B) radio telescopes
C) refracting telescopes
D) reflecting telescopes
E) FM radio and televisions

Question 34

Why couldn't life originate on the Moon?

A) too many craters
B) not within a habitable zone in the Solar System
C) lack of atmosphere to keep water on its surface
D) lack of oxygen in its atmosphere
E) too cold a surface

Question 35

When deciphered correctly, an anticoded message ultimately becomes ____.

A) a mathematic equation
B) letters and words
C) Morse code
D) a picture of life on Earth
E) music

Question 36

Which telescope did astronomers use in 1974 to send an anticoded message to globular cluster M13?

A) HST
B) Keck
C) Arecibo
D) Chandra
E) Kepler

Question 37

Which celestial body is the most likely candidate for life to emerge and evolve?

A) Mars
B) Io
C) Jupiter
D) Venus
E) Europa

Question 38

Molecular biologists must determine the order in which the ____ occur along the DNA ladder.

A) base pairs
B) RNA strands
C) chromosome strands
D) carbon atoms
E) genetic coding

Question 39

What is a key limitation to traveling outside our Solar System in search for life?

A) We have the wrong type of fuel source to power a spacecraft.
B) We lack spacecraft that can escape Earth's gravity.
C) We lack a decent place to send spacecraft outside of our Solar System.
D) We have no way to communicate with an alien civilization.
E) We have not yet been able to develop the technology to travel far distances.

Question 40

What is the name for the radio frequency window astronomers use to search for extraterrestrial communication?

A) Drake window
B) Phoenix waves
C) SETI window
D) water hole
E) OH hole

Question 41

Genes are organized into long coiled chains called _______________.

Question 42

What period of Earth's geologic history saw a dramatic increase in life?

A) Cretaceous
B) Devonian
C) Jurassic
D) Tertiary
E) Cambrian

Question 43

Examine the accompanying figure. Which portion of the radio window astronomers use to search for extraterrestrial communication?

A) a
B) b
C) c
D) d
E) e

Question 44

_______________ are fossilized remains of colonies of single-celled organisms that built up layer after layer of trapped sediments.

Question 46

Why couldn't life have originated on any of the Jovian planets?

Question 47

Examine the accompanying figure. Which wavelength range is representative of the noise from Earth's atmosphere?

A) a
B) b
C) c
D) d
E) e

Question 48

What do the radio pulses within the anticoded message sent in 1974 represent?

A) all the letters in the alphabet
B) dots and dashes, like Morse code
C) binary numbers, ones and zeroes
D) Music, notes and measures
E) the numbers one through ten

Question 49

In all living things on Earth, the chemical reactions making, breaking, and combining carbon chains take place in _______________ within the cell of living organisms.

Question 50

The chemical recipes of life are stored within each cell as information in _______________ molecules that resemble a ladder with rungs, composed of chemical bases.

Question 51

Why can't we send a space mission to a star system outside of our own?

Question 52

Was oxygen a part of Earth's early atmosphere? Explain how today's atmosphere evolved to support life.

Question 53

The formula proposed for determining the number of technological civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy with which we might communicate, is known as the _______________.

Question 54

Which describes the direct change in genetic information of a cell?

A) chromosome
B) mutation
C) evolution
D) natural selection
E) heredity

Question 55

If we have the technology to transmit messages, then why can't we "carry on a conversation" with an alien civilization?

Question 56

As Earth evolved with life, an oxygen abundance of only 0.1 percent would have created a(n) _______________, protecting organisms from the Sun's ultraviolet radiation.

Question 57

Jupiter's moon _______________ appears to have a liquid-water ocean below its icy crust and may contain minerals as a source of raw material for chemical evolution.

Question 58

The first cells must have been simple, single-celled organisms similar to modern _______________.

Question 59

In 1974, astronomers sent an anticoded message as a string of 1679 _______________ and _______________.

Question 60

Can there be life on Mars? Is there proof that life existed on Mars? Defend your answer.

Question 61

What makes silicon an unlikely source as the basis of life?

Question 62

Discuss the Miller-Urey experiment. What did these scientists had set out to prove?

Question 63

Astronomers have defined a(n) _______________ around a star as a region within which planets that orbit there have temperatures permitting the existence of liquid water.

Question 64

Why is it difficult to find fossils representative of the time that life began on Earth?

Question 65

A(n) _______________ can thrive in extreme conditions, such as ice-covered lakes in Antarctica, far underground inside solid rock, amongst the cinders of summits of extinct volcanoes, or in pools of acids.

Question 66

What is the radio window astronomers use to search for alien transmitted communication? What is this window nicknamed?

Question 67

Why couldn't life have originated on the Moon or Mercury?

Question 68

About 540 million years ago, a sudden increase in biological complexity occurred, known as the _______________.