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135 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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T/F: A scientific theory can be proven to be true |
False |
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Occam's razor states: |
if two hypotheses fit the facts equally well, choose the simpler one |
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T/F: a hypothesis and a theory are the same thing |
False |
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At noon on the vernal equinox, the Sun is directly overhead of: |
the Equator |
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The tilt of Earth's axis causes the seasons because: |
a. one hemisphere of earth is closer to the Sun in the summer and b. the days are longer in the summer |
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T/F: A full moon should rise at 6:00 pm and set at 6:00 am |
True |
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A lunar eclipse occurs when the ______ shadow falls on the _________. |
a. Earth's b. Moon |
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The path the Sun follows on a celestial sphere is called the: |
ecliptic |
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T/F: When an object falls to Earth, Earth also falls up to the object |
True |
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Image that you are standing at the top of a tall tower. You drop 4 objects, all the size of a bowling ball and made of difference substances. In what order do styrofoam, lead, bubble wrap, and pumpkin reach the ground? |
They all reach the ground at the same time |
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T/F: As the Earth goes around the Sun, it is accelerating |
true |
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All large astronomical telescopes are reflectors because: |
a. chromatic aberration is minimized b. they are not as heavy c. they can be shorter |
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Which has the most energy: ultraviolet light, blue light, orange light or infrared light? |
ultraviolet light |
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Which has the longest wavelength: UV light, blue light, orange light, infrared light? |
infrared light |
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T/F: Knowing the spectrum of light from a star can tell us its composition |
True |
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T/F: Our Sun is the most massive and lluminous star in the Milky Way |
false |
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T/F: the cosmological principle states that there is nothing special about our local region of the universe |
true |
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one of the nearest stars is Alpha Centauri, whose distance is 4.4 light years away. The time it takes the light to travel to us is: |
4.4 years |
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No matter where you are on Earth, stars appear to rotate about a point called the: |
Celestial Pole |
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T/F: a planet travels fastest when it is closest to the Sun |
true |
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Give 2 advantages of reflecting telescopes over refracting telescopes |
a. lighter and shorter b. don't have rainbow effect (chromatic aberration) |
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What is the diameter of the Milky Way? |
150,000 ly |
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Two reasons for putting telescopes in space |
a. far enough from Earth's infrared light b. Earth's atmosphere won't interfere |
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What is Newton's first law of motion? |
items in motion tend to stay in motion and objects at rest tend to stay at rest unless a force acts upon it |
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the direction directly overhead of an observer defines his/her: |
zenith |
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Because of conservation of angular momentum, when a skater throws her arms out she will: |
rotate more slowly |
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what method relies on measuring decreases in a star's brightness to detect an extra-solar planet? |
a. spectroscopic radial velocity method b. transit method c. gravitational lensing method d. direct imaging method |
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T/F: a molecular cloud is held together by gravity |
true |
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T/F: at one time, the composition of the atmospheres of Venus, Earth and Mars were similar |
true |
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Nuclear reactions require very high ______ and ________ |
a. temperature b. pressure |
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the rate at which a planet cools is determined mostly by its: |
size |
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Maria on the earth's moon are: |
vast areas of fluid lava which filled in low-lying areas |
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T/F: large terrestrial worlds remain geologically active longer than small terrestrial worlds |
true |
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___________,__________, and ________ build up structures on the terrestrial planets, while __________ tears them down |
a. impacts b. tectonism c. volcanism d. erosion |
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the present day atmospheres of terrestrial planets are largely the result of: |
volcanic activity and impacts |
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showers of comet nuclei could have been responsible for: |
bringing volatile elements to terrestrial planets |
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The atmospheric greenhouse effect is present on: |
Venus, Earth and Mars |
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What is the lowest level of Earth's atmosphere? |
troposphere |
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Hadley circulation is broken into zonal winds by: |
the planet's rapid rotations |
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Inside the Roche limit of a planet: |
moons are destroyed |
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stellar occultation occurs when: |
an object, such as a planet, moves in front of a distant star |
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Wind speeds on the giant planets vary with latitude. how can the rotation rate of a giant planet be measured if it has many relative wind speeds? |
observing the radio signals from the planet's magnetic field |
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the chemical composition of Jupiter and Saturn are most similar to those of: |
the Sun |
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Order a star forms: |
a. a cloud contracts under gravity b. a disk forms because angular momentum is conserved c. planetesimals form from collisions d. nuclear reactions begin and a star is born e. a wind blows from the central star |
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difference between energy generated in a protostar and a star |
a. protostar gets energy from collapse of a star b. star gets energy from nuclear fusion |
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Planets that have rings: |
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune |
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Three greenhouse gases: |
carbon dioxide, water, methane |
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terrestrial planets, smallest to largest: |
Mercury, Mars, Venus, Earth |
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what kind of material erupts from cryovolcanoes? |
low-temperature volatile substances |
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the category "dwarf planet" pertains to objects that: |
are not massive enough to clear the planetesimals around them but are spherical in shape |
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meteor showers result from: |
the passage of Earth through region of comet debris |
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T/F: there are no dwarf planets interior to Jupiter's orbit |
false |
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T/F: the brightness of a star in the sky tells you how luminous it is |
false |
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Suppose an atom has energy levels at 1,3,4, and 6. |
4 is not a possible energy for an emitted photon |
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When an atom's energy goes from the ground state to an excited state, |
it absorbs a photon of light |
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the most prominent ingredient in stars |
hydrogen |
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helioseismology studies |
vibrations of the Sun (using Doppler effect) |
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the regions of the Sun (from inside to outside) |
core, radiative zone, convective zone, photosphere, chromosphere, corona |
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the solar wind: |
extends from the Sun for about 100 AU |
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the eventual fate of a low-mass star is: |
white dwarf |
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T/F: hydrostatic equilibrium is balance between energy production and loss |
false |
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a nova results from |
the fusion of hydrogen on the outside of a white dwarf |
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H-R diagrams of star clusters are snapshots of stellar evolution because |
stars in a cluster all formed at about the same time |
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Sunspots appear dark because: |
they are cooler than their surroundings |
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the length of time a star spends on the main sequence is determined by: |
its mass |
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the three types of meteorites come form different parts of their parent bodies. Stony-iron meteorites are rare because: |
only a small amount of a parent body has both stone and iron |
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Four categories of small bodies found in our Solar System: |
a. dwarf planets b. comets c. asteroids d. moons |
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A type "O" star is how much more luminous than a type "G" star? |
10^6 |
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what is the name of the layer of the Sun we normally see? |
photosphere |
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Suppose a star cluster has a main sequence turnoff point at spectral type G. What is approximate age of the cluster? |
10^10 years |
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types of fusion occurring in a low mass red giant |
a. hydrogen to helium b. helium to beryllium c. beryllium + helium =carbon 12 |
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The Sun produces 4x10^26. Spectral type of star that produces 4x10^23? |
M |
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considering the main sequence lifetimes of most stars, 800,000 years would be considered: |
short lifetime |
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at the center of a high mass star, different fusion processes |
layer themselves like an onion |
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an area of space-time distorted by a massive object will |
cause the path of light to bend |
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a Type II supernova occurs because |
an iron core collapses |
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a type II supernova will mostly likely leave behind |
a neutron star |
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according to Hubble's law, gravity: |
velocity away from us gets greater as its distance away from us increases |
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recombination refers to: |
the formation of hydrogen atoms from free protons and electrons |
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if galaxy A has a redshift of z=0.2 and galaxy B has a redshift of z=0.6 then: |
galaxy A is closer to us than Galaxy B, and Galaxy B is moving away from us at the greatest speed |
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looking at distant objects allows us to: |
a. look back in time b. see objects as they were when light left them |
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how old is the Universe? |
13.7 billion years old |
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cosmic background radiation traces back to: |
after the Big Bang and right after recombination of the Universe |
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on average, dark matter: |
accounts for 90% of the total mass of the galaxy |
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the outer parts of spiral galaxies are: |
mostly dark matter |
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at the center of an active galactic nucleus is |
a supermassive black hole
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Our Sun is where in our galaxy? |
disk |
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compared to the oldest stars in our galaxy, youngest stars will have: |
greater amounts of massive elements |
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What is at the center of our galaxy? |
supermassive black hole |
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in the disk of the Milky way, stars are _____ and dust and gas are ______ than in the halo |
a. older b. more diffuse |
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Why would an astronaut be stretched when falling into a black hole? |
black holes rotate rapidly, dragging spacetime with them |
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Stages of nuclear burnings that evolving high-mass stars experience: |
a. hydrogen b. helium c. carbon d. oxygen e. neon f. silicon |
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adjectives to describe the Big Bang: |
a. hot b. dense c. tiny |
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what does CMB stand for? |
cosmic microwave background |
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2 properties of dark matter: |
a. it doesn't interact with light, as far as we can tell b. it gravitationally attracts other matter |
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What type of galaxy is the Milky Way |
spiral, barred, 2 arms |
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Suppose that Bob is moving away from Ann at 0.5 times the speed of light, and that he shines a laser at Ann. How fast will the photons from the laser beam be moving when they arrive at Ann? |
the speed of light, 300,000 km/s |
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if there is enough mass in the universe that the density is higher than the critical density, the universe will: |
eventually collapse |
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when astronomers discovered that the universe was ______, they had to revive Einstein's cosmological constant |
accelerating |
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What are properties of the young universe as revealed by the cosmic microwave background? |
a. it was hot b. it was dense c. it was uniform on large scales |
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what problem let astronomers to hypothesize inflation? |
a. the horizon problem b. the flatness problem |
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List forces in order of their "freeze out" in the first moments after the Big Bang |
a. gravity b. strong nuclear force c. weak nuclear force d. electromagnetic force |
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what are candidates for composition of cold dark matter? |
a. axions b. photinos c. tiny black holes |
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our universe will expand: |
forever |
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T/F: the cosmological constant makes the universe accelerate |
true |
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T/F: inflation is the theory that the universe is expanding today |
false |
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T/F: the early universe was filled with almost equal numbers of matter and antimatter particles |
true |
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T/F: the universe became transparent when it cooled below the temperature of the sun |
true |
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If critical mass is lower than critical density then: |
universe will expand forever |
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if the universe is dominated by dark energy, it will |
expand forever |
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if the universe is dominated by matter, it will |
a. expand forever b. expand and then contract c. expand but gradually slow down |
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a positron is related to an electron in that |
it has all the same properties except opposte change |
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the horizon problem states that: |
the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is too uniform |
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on the largest scales, galaxies in the universe are distributed: |
along filaments and walls |
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galaxies in the young universe were ____ galaxies in the universe today |
smaller and more irregular |
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the term primordial soup refers to |
conditions in early Earth's oceans |
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the Urey-Miller experiment produced ____ in a lab jar |
amino acids |
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scientists think that terrestrial life probably originated in Earth's oceans because |
a. all the chemical pieces were there b. energy was available there c. earliest evidence for life on Earth comes in ocean-dwelling forms |
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natural selection means that |
poorly adapted forms of life die |
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any system with heredity, mutation, and natural selection |
will improve over time |
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the fact that we have no detected alien civilizations yet tells us that: |
WE DON'T KNOW |
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all life on Earth must eventually come to an end because: |
the sun will make the planet uninhabitable |
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T/F: all life on earth branches from the same evolutionary tree |
true |
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T/F: all that is required for life to begin is a solitary, self-replicating molecule |
false |
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T/F: astronomers do not consider the possibility of non-carbon-based life |
false |
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T/F: there are several planets other than earth where life might exist in our solar system |
true |
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T/F: it is likely that we will discover many civilizations that are not advanced |
false |
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T/F: today we can use the Drake equation to find the actual number of intelligent communicating civilizations in the galaxy |
false |
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T/F: it is impossible that humans will exist on Earth 7 billion years from now |
true |
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the difference between prokaryotes and eukaryotes is that: |
prokaryotes have no nucleus |
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in the phrase "theory of evolution" the word theory means that evolution: |
is a well tested, well corroborated scientific explanation of natural phenomena |
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mutations are: |
changes to a life-form's DNA |
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the habitable zone is the place around a star where: |
liquid water can exist on the surface of a planet |
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the length of time an intelligent, communicating civilization lasts affects ______ in the Drake equation |
the value of L |
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the most critical threat to the survival of humanity is: |
humanity itself |
