Astronomy Test 2
An ion rocket engine produces 5 Newtons of thrust. What acceleration can it give to a space probe with a mass of 10,000kg?
0.0005 m/s^2
The first space probes to land on another planet were from the
Russian Venera series
Mars has
an atmosphere of carbon dioxide with about 1% the surface pressure of Earth's.
For an object that is moving along a straight path, the acceleration is
the change in the object's speed divided by the time it takes
The Moon rotates on its axis so that it always keeps
the same side (its far side) pointed away from the Earth
Pathfinder was the first
to use airbags to land on Mars
An ion rocket engine produces 5 Newtons of thrust. What acceleration can it give to a space probe with a mass of 1000kg?
0.005 m/s2
The first human landing on the Moon was
Apollo 11 in 1969
Which of the following types of objects are usually made of ice and possibly frozen gas.?
Comets
The surface magnetic field of Mercury is
about 1% of the Earth's magnetic field
In comparison to Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion, Newton's theory of Universal Gravitation predicted
almost the same motions but with corrections
The Lunar Maria are thought to have been caused by ancient
lava flows from large impacts
As viewed from the star Polaris, Venus
rotates clockwise and goes around the Sun counter-clockwise
Apollo 11 made the first
crewed landing on the Moon
Water ice can be found on all but one of these planets. Which one has no ice?
Venus
Which of the following planets has the highest surface temperature?
Venus
The first soft landing on Mars was by the
Viking landers
Galileo's used most of the same tools of thought that the ancient greeks had used. Which of the following approaches did use that would not have seemed natural to the ancient Greeks?
active construction of simplified experiments
Kepler's Laws of planetary motion were originally obtained by fitting accurate observations. Newton explained those laws by a force that acts on each planet. The force that specifically explains Keplers Laws
attracts each planet to the Sun
The discovery that there is water ice on the Moon has motivated many nations to launch Moon missions because it
could make a Moon base possible
The dark side of the Moon, where the Sun never shines,
does not exist
Comets are usually made of
ice and possibly frozen gas
Kuiper belt objects are usually made of
ice and possibly frozen gas
The circular structures on the surface of the Moon are the result of
impacts
A model in which the Moon forms by breaking away from the Earth would predict that the Moon's orbit should be
in the plane of the Earth's equator
A unit of mass is the
kilogram
Suppose that a comet is spotted while it is still far from the Sun (beyond the orbit of Mars). The tail of this comet is most likely
not yet formed
Which of these is a distinctive feature of the Earth's atmosphere?
temperature and pressure permit all three forms of water.
One way to change the course of an asteroid is to place a ëmass driveríon it. The mass driver is really just a catapult that throws things (like rocks for example) away from the asteroid. The force that acts on the combined object (mass driver plus asteroid) is actually exerted by
the rocks that the catapult throws
Mercury rotates so that its sidereal day last for
two thirds of a complete orbit around the Sun
According to our current model of how magnetic fields arise, the magnetic field of Earth's Moon is
understandable since the Moon rotates slowly and probably has no iron core
Once a space probe has gotten far enough from the Earth, it can reach the inner planets by
using its rocket motor and the gravity of various plants to change its speed and direction
At present (within the last few hundred years) the orbit of Mars around the Sun is
very elliptical so that the intensity of sunlight varies by 40%
A planet whose atmospheric pressure is exactly at the triple point of water and whose surface temperature has a range that includes the triple point will have
water as ice or vapor, depending on the temperature
An ion rocket engine produces 100 Newtons of thrust. What acceleration can it give to a space probe with a mass of 10,000kg?
0.01 m/s^2
A solar sail is a large sheet of light-reflecting plastic spread on an extremely low-mass framework and attached to a spacecraft. Sunlight exerts a force on the sail and moves the spacecraft. Suppose the spacecraft has a total mass of 100kg (including the sail) and sunlight exerts a total force of 2N on the sail. What will be the acceleration of the spacecraft?
0.02 m/s^2
The average radius of the Earth's orbit is
1.0 au
What total force will cause an object with a mass of 1kg to gain 10 meters per second every second?
10 Newtons
The density of water is 1000kg/m³, the density of rock is about 3000kg/m³, and the density of iron is 7800kg/m³. Which of the following densities would indicate an object that consists mostly of substances much less dense than rock or iron?
1000 kg/m^3
Suppose that you lift an object by exerting an upward force of 22 Newtons on it. If gravity exerts a force of 10 Newtons downward on the object, what is the total force on the object?
12 Newtons
The first successful soft landing on the Moon was Surveyor 1 in
1966
The first human landing on the Moon was Apollo 11 in
1969
If the planets are numbered from 1 to 8, going outward from the Sun, the planet Mars is number
4
The density of water is 1000kg/m³, the density of rock is about 3000kg/m³, and the density of iron is 7800kg/m³. Which of the following densities would indicate an object that might consist of rock surrounding an iron core?
4000kg/m^3
What total force will cause an object with a mass of 10kg to gain 5 meters per second every second?
50 Newtons
What total force will cause an object with a mass of 50kg to gain 1 meter per second every second?
50 Newtons
What total force will cause an object with a mass of 5kg to gain 10 meters per second every second?
50 Newtons
The density of water is 1000kg/m3, the density of rock is about 3000kg/m3, and the density of iron is 7800kg/m3. Which of the following densities is closest to the average density of the Earth?
5200 kg/m^3
If the planets are numbered from 1 to 8, going outward from the Sun, the planet Neptune is number
8
Suppose that you drop two objects from the same height at the same time. Both objects are heavy enough to be una§ected by air resistance and one object is twice as heavy. Who predicted that the heavier object would hit the ground long before the lighter one?
Aristotle
Which of the following types of object could reasonably be described as "dirty snowballs" or, for the larger ones, "flying icebergs?
Comets
Which of these Mars rovers has been operating on the surface of Mars for six years so far (as of 2018).
Curiosity
Suppose that you drop two objects from the same height at the same time. Both objects are heavy enough to be unaffected by air resistance and one object is twice as heavy. Who predicted that both objects would hit the ground at the same time?
Galileo
The International Space Station (ISS) is in a roughly circular orbit near the surface of the Earth, moving at around 5 miles per second. Suppose that it is desired to raise it to a new circular orbit, farther from the surface by having a rocket give it one or more short boosts. Which of the following schemes will work?
Increase its speed to 6 miles per second to put it on a rising path and give it another speed boost when its distance from the Earth stops increasing.
The Apollo program was thought to be part of a "race to the Moon" with the Soviet Union. Actually
It was a close race. The Soviets actually built a Moon rocket and tested it.
A planet with a large system of moons would have to be a
Jovian Planet
It is currently thought that moons typically form near
Jovian planets such as Jupiter and Saturn.
Which of these sequences places the outer planets in the correct order from the Sun, from the closest to the farthest.
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune (farthest)
Which of the following objects has no overall magnetic field except for small regions due to magnetized ore deposits?
Mars
Which of these planets has a solar day that is very close to an Earth day in length?
Mars
The Asteroid Belt is between the orbits of
Mars and Jupiter
Which of the following planets can be said to have almost no atmosphere?
Mercury
Changes in the intensity of sunlight due to shifts in both the Earth's orbit and rotation axis cause
Milankovich cycles
Which of these Mars rovers has been operating on the surface of Mars for fourteen years so far (as of 2018)?
Opportunity
The first space probe to place a robotic rover on the surface of Mars was
Pathfinder
The first space probe to test the air-bag landing system was
Pathfinder
Which of these Moons rises in the West as seen from its primary planet?
Phobos
Our Sun sends out intense streams of charged particle radiation. The radiation is prevented from hitting the Earthís atmosphere by
The Earth's magnetic field
Why couldn't we just fly a Space Shuttle to the Moon for at least a fly-by?
The Space Shuttle did not have enough fuel to reach escape velocity
Why don't we just shoot all of our really nasty waste products into the Sun where they could not possibly bother anyone?
The Sun is actually the hardest part of the Solar System to get to from here.
A horse is pulling a cart along a road. Which of the following pairs of forces is an action-reaction pair?
The force of horse on the road and the force of the road on the horse
You are standing in an elevator that is accelerating upward at 1m/s². Which of the following pairs of forces is an action-reaction pair that has to be exactly equal and opposite to each other?
The force that the floor of the elevator exerts on you and the force that you exert on the floor of the elevator.
A lunar crater is best described as
a circular ring wall surrounding a flat area
The atmospheric pressure on the surface of Mars is
about 1% the surface pressure of Earth's atmosphere
So far (as of 2008), the planet Venus has been visited by
about 20 successful space probes
Since 1990, the major spacefaring nations, Europe, China, Russia, Japan, India, and the U.S., have begun to return to the Moon. As of 2009, of these six space programs,
all except Russia have sent probes or orbiters to the Moon.
In comparison to Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion, Newtonís theory of Universal Gravitation predicted
almost the same motions but with corrections
Venus has
an atmosphere of carbon dioxide with about 90 times the surface pressure of Earth's
Once its rockets have ceased firing, an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile will follow a path that is best described as
an ellipse with the center of the Earth at one focus
Hydrated minerals on the Moon
are almost completely absent.
The absence of a magnetic field of Venus is
as expected because the planet rotates so slowly
On the present surface of Mars, water has been confirmed to exist
as ice at the poles and water vapor in the atmosphere
Suppose that you drop two objects from the same height at the same time. Both objects are heavy enough to be unaffected by air resistance. If one object is twice as heavy as the other, Galileo predicted that
both objects would hit the ground at the same time
When Galileo wanted to understand how falling objects move, he did all of the things on the following list. Choose the one thing that is very different from the way that the ancient greeks approached the subject. He
built inclined planes and measured how balls roll down them
At present (within the last few hundred years), the distance from the Earth to the Sun
changes enough to make the intensity of sunlight vary by 6%
Milankovich cycles refer to
changes in the intensity of sunlight due to shifts in both the Earth's orbit and rotation axis.
The currently accepted theory of how the Moon formed is the
collision theory
When a space probe uses a gravitational slingshot maneuver, it
comes close to a planet to change the probe's speed and direction
Which of the following objects would be most likely to have a long elliptical orbit that takes it from far outside the orbit of Mars to a close approach to the Sun?
comet
Most Kuiper Belt Objects are similar in composition to
comets
Relative to the distant stars, Mercury
completes 1.5 rotations each time it orbits the Sun.
Relative to the distant stars, Venus
completes less than one full rotation each time it orbits the Sun
Mars' orbit is currently (within the last few hundred years)
elliptical enough to make the intensity of sunlight vary by 40 percent
Comets usually follow orbits which are
elliptical with aphelia far outside the orbit of Mars.
A rocket that leaves the Earthís atmosphere at a speed of 8 miles per second will
escape from the Earth's gravity forever
The magnetic field of Earth's Moon is
essentially zero
The magnetic field of Venus is
essentially zero
Earth's orbit is currently elliptical enough to make the intensity of sunlight vary by 6 percent. The shortest Earth-Sun distance (and highest intensity sunlight) currently occurs
every January
Earthís orbit is currently elliptical enough to make the intensity of sunlight vary by 6 percent. The shortest Earth-Sun distance (and highest intensity sunlight) currently occurs
every January
The Opportunity Mars rover
has been operating on Mars for fourteen years so far (as of 2018)
The Curiosity Mars rover
has been operating on Mars for six years so far (as of 2018)
The side of the Moon that faces away from the Earth
has only a few small lunar maria
Our current understanding of how planets acquire magnetic fields suggests that a planet with a large liquid iron core will
have a magnetic field if it rotates fast enough
The current model for the way that planets acquire magnetic fields suggests that a rapidly rotating planet will
have a magnetic field if its core contains enough liquid electrical conductor
When Newton calculated the magnitude and direction of the acceleration for a planet that was following Kepler's Laws, he found that the magnitude of the planet's acceleration was
inversely proportional to the square of the planet's distance from the Sun
The Earth's moon
is 1/4 the size of the Earth, which is unusually large for a moon.
The Moon's orbit around the Earth
is elliptical enough to give us an annular solar eclipse when the Moon is near its apogee.
If the acceleration of an object is zero, its speed
is not changing
According to Newton's Law of Gravity, the gravitational attraction of the Earth for other objects, such as the Moon, apples on trees and space shuttles in low earth orbit,
is smaller for objects farther from the Earth but never vanishes entirely
The gravitational attraction of the Earth for other objects,
is smaller for objects farther from the Earth but never vanishes entirely.
The Moon's orbit
is somewhat tilted relative to the plane of the Earth's equator.
An artificial satellite such as the International Space Station stays up because
it falls below a straight-line path in exactly the same way that the curved surface of the Earth does
Mercury rotates so that, relative to the Sun
it rotates just once during two complete orbits around the Sun
The Law of Inertia says that if an object is not acted on by any outside force,
its speed and direction of motion will not change
Compared to the rest of the Lunar surface, the Lunar Maria are
lower and younger
The Surveyor series of spacecraft
made unmanned landings on the Moon in the 1960s
The atmospheric pressure at the surface of Venus is
many times the pressure at the surface of the Earth
The Earth's Moon is about 1/4 the size of the Earth. When compared to other planets and their moons, the Earth's Moon is
much larger than we would expect
Galileo said that once an object is set in motion, it will keep moving at the same speed so long as
no force is acting against it
When a bullet is fired from a gun, the bullet keeps moving after it leaves the gun barrel because
no force stops it
The observed magnetic field of Mercury is surprising because it was expected to have
no magnetic field at all because it rotates so slowly
It is expected that a normal terrestrial planet, with no accidental encounters that could add or subtract moons, should have
no moon
The moons of Mars are
not large enough to be spherical
The Moon rotates on its axis relative to the distant stars
once every sidereal month
The distance from the Earth to the Sun is
one astronomical unit
The key argument against the Moon forming from the Earth alone, by breakup of a single object is that the Moon's
orbit is tilted relative to Earth's equator
the presence of frozen water on Mercury
possible because it has almost no axial tilt so that its poles never directly face the Sun.
The magnetic field of Mars is
present only locally, near magnetized ore deposits.
The phase diagram for water is presented on a graph with axes for temperature and
pressure
Space probes often visit several planets before getting to their final destinations. The main reason they do this is to
reduce the amount of rocket fuel needed
Asteroids can be made of
rock and possibly iron
Venus
rotate backwards so that the Sun rises in the West
The current model for the way that planets acquire magnetic fields requires which of the following combinations of things?
rotation and a core that contains a liquid electrical conductor
A full cycle of day and night on Mars is called a `sol.' In terms of 24 hour Earth days, a Martian sol is
slightly longer than one Earth day
Aristotle said that a moving earthly or "mundane" object with nothing pushing or pulling on it will always
slow down and stop
Aristotle said that a moving earthly or 'mundane' object with nothing pushing or pulling on it will always
slow down and stop
A rocket is in a roughly circular orbit near the surface of the Earth, moving at around 5 miles per second. Suppose that it is desired to lower it to a new circular orbit, sliightly closer to the surface. The rocket flips over and fires its main rocket engine in a short burst to slow its speed to 4.96 miles per second. What must it do next?
slow its speed again by a bit when its distance from the Earth stops decreasing
A rocket is in a roughly circular orbit near the surface of the Earth, moving at around 5 miles per second. Suppose that it is desired to lower it to a new circular orbit, sliightly closer to the surface. The rocket áips over and Öres its main rocket engine in a short burst to slow its speed to 4.96 miles per second. What must it do next?
slow its speed again by a bit when its distance from the Earth stops decreasing
When Galileo dropped a wooden ball and a heavier iron ball at the same time, he found that
sometimes the wooden ball hit first, sometimes the iron one hit first
Since the last Apollo mission to the Moon and the last Soviet LUNA sample-return mission
spacecraft began to be sent there again by 1994.
Aristotle said that the amount of force on a moving earthly object determines its
speed
The ancient greeks connected the force exerted on an object to the object's
speed
The Soviet Union had a secret program to put the first human on the Moon. This program
test launches their Moon Rocket several times, but it blew up each time
Between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter you find
the Asteroid Belt
An artificial satellite such as the International Space Station stays up because
the Earth curves out from under it as fast as it falls
In Newton's theory of planetary motion,
the Earth moves around the unmoving Sun
The capture theory, in which the Moon forms as a separate object similar to Earth and is then captured by the Earth, would predict that
the Moon should have an iron core similar to Earth's
The recoil or 'kick' of a gun that is firing a bullet is a force exerted on the gun by
the bullet
According to Galileo, a thrown spear keeps moving after it has left the spear thrower's hand because
the force of friction with the air is not enough to stop the spear
If you are told that an object that weighs 20 Newtons is raised a distance of 10 meters, you know that.
the force of gravity on the object is 20 Newtons
A bazooka is actually a small rocket-launcher. The reason a bazooka does not have a recoil is that
the force on the rocket is exerted by the rocket exhaust and not by the launcher
In comparison to Keplerís Laws of Planetary Motion, Newtonís theory of Universal Gravitation predicted almost the same motions, but with small corrections due to
the gravitational attractions between different planets
If you are told that a 20 kilogram object is raised by 10 meters, you know that
the mass of the object is 20 kilograms
Compare the magnitude of the acceleration of Earth's Moon to the acceleration of falling objects on the surface of the Earth.
the moon's acceleration is smaller
Suppose that an object with a mass of one kilogram and an object with a mass of two kilograms are both in free fall near the Earth's surface. As compared to the one kilogram object, the two kilogram object accelerates
the same because gravity pulls on it more strongly and it has more inertia
Moon missions since 2007 have mostly been focused on
the search for water needed for a Moon base.
In the ancient Greek theory of gravity, everything was attracted to the center of the universe. In Newton's theory of gravity, everything was attracted
to every other object in the Universe
A planet that is following Kepler's Laws, accelerates
toward the Sun
When Newton calculated the magnitude and direction of the acceleration for a planet that was following Kepler's Laws, he found that the direction of the acceleration was
toward the Sun
The Van Allen Belts are
where Earth's magnetic field traps charged particles from the Sun
The Van Allen Belts are
where Earth's magnetic field traps charges particles from the Sun
The Law of Inertia says that if an object is not acted on by any outside force, its acceleration
will always be zero
If an object is moving at constant speed in a straight line, its acceleration is
zero
