How Would We Be Able to Detect a Large Asteroid

question 49

Multiple Choice

How would we be able to detect a large asteroid if it were heading straight for the EarthEarth?

• A) The asteroid would appear as a slowly brightening starlike object where no star was previously charted, with a redshifted solar spectrum of reflected light.
• B) The asteroid would appear as a short trail against the background stars on a sky-tracked long-exposure photograph, and its spectrum would show no Doppler shift.
• C) The asteroid would appear as a slowly brightening point of light where no star had previously been charted, and the spectrum of sunlight reflected from it would be blueshifted by the Doppler effect.
• D) The asteroid would appear as a slowly brightening and growing diffuse sphere of light where no star was charted because of light scattered from the dust and gas surrounding it, and it would show a blueshifted spectrum.

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Definitions:

Occipital Lobe

The rearmost lobe in each cerebral hemisphere of the brain, primarily responsible for processing visual information.

Acetylcholine

A neurotransmitter in the nervous system responsible for muscle contraction and plays a role in brain function, including memory and cognition.

Hippocampus

A critical region of the brain involved in memory formation, organization, and storage.

Visual Association Cortex

The visual association cortex is a part of the brain involved in processing complex visual information, integrating it with memories and sensory modalities to form meaningful perceptions.