Astronomy Exam
If you live to be 87 years old, how many times will Uranus orbit the Sun in your lifetime? (Round to the nearest whole number. Do not spell out you answer.)
1
There are at least a million asteroids. How did spacecraft like Galileo survive their trip through the asteroid belt?
Although there are many asteroids, space is big. The asteroids are very widely spaced and eaasy to avoid.
Light from a blackbody has passed through a disperse gas before reaching your spectrometer in a straight line path. You find expect to find what kind of spectrum?
An absorption spectrum from the gas?
Why do the tectonic plates move?
Convection carries heat from the core to the mantle.
Rank the elements from the most abundant in the universe to the least.
Hydrogen, Helium, Oxygen, Iron.
The visible atmosphere of Saturn is composed of 75% of which substance?
Hydrogen.
When did asteroids first get discovered?
In 1801 after the invention of telescopes, Giovanni Piazzi found what he thought was a missing planet.
Put the structure of the Earth in order from deepest to shallowest.
Inner core, Core, Mantle, Crust
Which of the eight planets are chemically closest to the Sun? (Choose 2.)
Jupiter, Saturn.
Rank the mass of the following from smallest to largest.
Moon, Mars, Venus, Earth.
Where can you find the fastest wind in the solar system?
Neptune
Why is so much information known about Vesta's surface composition?
Pieces of Vesta have landed on Earth as meteorites.
What causes a solar eclipse?
The Moon moves between the Sun and the Earth casting a shadow.
In the original Heliocentric model of the solar system, what do the six known planets orbit?
The Sun.
During a new moon, which is closer to the Sun?
The moon.
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were phased out of use worldwide when it was discovered they did what?
They caused a depletion in the ozone layer of the atmosphere.
Titan has an atmosphere that exhibits behavior such as rain (although not from water.).
True
Where is the highest level of volcanic activity in the solar system?
lo
If you were to create a scale model of the solar system with the Sun being 1.5 m in diameter, about how far away would the Earth be?
1 city block
How much time does it take for radio waves to travel from the Earth to the Moon?
1.3 Seconds.
At what speed does an electromagnetic wave in space move>
300,000,000 m/s
How many terrestrial planets are there in our solar system (excluding our Moon)?
4.
Which of the following is not a characteristic that worlds in our solar system have in common?
All the planets contain solid surfaces that exhibit impact craters.
How does the amount of of carbon dioxide released from volcanoes compare to the amount released from burning fossil fuels?
Burning fossil fuels releases 100 times more.
Where can metallic hydrogen be found?
Deep within Jupiter or Saturn.
There are three major theories of the formation of Earth's moon. Which of the following is not one of them?
Einstein's frame dragging theory.
Who is credited with the first measurement of the Earth's diameter in 200 BCE?
Eratosthenes.
Where is an ocean of liquid water most likely to be located?
Europa
How was the magnetosphere discovered?
Explorer 1 found trapped ions.
Most of the asteroids that lie in the region between Mars and Jupiter orbit the Sun in the opposite direction as the Earth.
False
Triton's relatively warm temperatures are a result of its ability to absorb and not reflect the majority of incoming sunlight.
False
Rank the length of a day on each of the planets from shortest to longest.
Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn
Besides the Sun, where does the majority of the mass in our solar system reside?
Jupiter.
Why do astronomers put telescopes in orbit rather than keeping them on the ground?
Light with wavelengths shorter than visible light is absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere.
In the future, we may decide to mine asteroids for their metals. Which type of asteroid should we target?
M-type
Which of the following planets have seasons?
Neptune, Earth, Saturn
Who is credited with the creation of the heliocentric model of the solar system?
Nicolaus Copernicus
The Earth's atmosphere is mostly composed of what element?
Nitrogen.
According to Kepler's first law, where does the sun reside in the ellipse traced by a planetary orbit?
On one of the foci.
Why are four large moons of Jupiter called the Galilean moons?
They were discovered in 1610 by Galileo
Even though Mercury has a much smaller radius than Mars, It has a magnetic field that is larger.
True.
The rotation of the Moon is the same as the rotation of the Earth about its axis. This means that the same side of the Moon is always facing the Earth.
True.
What are two techniques that scientists have used to find exoplanets?
When a planet passes in front of the star it orbits as seen from Earth, the light that reaches Earth is reduced. This occurs on a regular basis as the planet orbits the star. Based on the dimming, the size of the planet can be determined. When a planet orbits a star, it causes the star to wobble. This slight change in a star's motion can be detected by looking at the Doppler shift of the light from the star.
What is the escape speed for Earth?
11KM per second.
When the Hubble was first launched, it was found that the primary mirror was slightly misshapen. How was this problem corrected?
A package of corrective optics was sent up on the shuttle to correct the problem.
Where is the Earth when it is moving the fastest in its orbit around the Sun?
At the perihelion.
How is the age of a meteorite determined?
Careful measurement of radioactive isotopes and their decay products are made.
Which of the following are used to develop the model of the interior structure of the Earth?
Digging holes.
Put the following types of light in order from longest wavelength to shortest wavelength.
Radio waves, Red light, Blue light, Gamma Rays.
What problem does a refracting telescopes have that is avoided by using a reflecting telescope?
Refracting telescopes have chromatic aberration. Reflecting telescopes do not.
What is an object that revolves around a planet called?
Satellite.
What does the unit "light-year" measure?
The distance travelled by light in a vacuum in one year.
What is the estimated mass of the projectile that exploded over Tunguska in 1908?
10,000 tons
How many people have landed on the Moon?
12 Apollo astronauts.
How long did the first broadcast from the surface of Venus last?
23 Minutes.
What is the approximate temperature of an object whose blackbody curve peaks at 1,000 nm?
3,000 Kelvin
According to radiometric dating of samples taken from the Apollo missions, approximately how old is the Moon?
4.5 billion years.
An ellipse has a semimajor axis of 4AU. What is its period in years? (Submit your answer as a number, not a word. Ex 50 not fifty.)
8.
The number 300,000,000 is 3 x 10 raised to what power in scientific notation?
8.
What percent of photons does a very good silicon CCD detect?
90%
How are comets different from asteroids?
Asteroids are rocky bodies thatdo not form tails. Comets are mostly ice and do.
All lines of latitude and all lines of longitude are great circles.
False.
T or F The celestial equator and the ecliptic are the same thing.
False.
What is the largest moon in the solar system?
Ganymede
Rank the mass of 1 cubic cm of the following materials from largest to smallest.
Gold, Iron, Water, Silica Gel.
What is a meteor shower?
It is the burst of meteor activity caused when the Earth intersects the dust stream trailing behind a comet.
How much had the size of Jupiter's Great Red Spot changed between the Voyager observations of 1979 and the Galileo observations of 2000?
Its diameter shrank by 5,000 km.
Of the Jovian planets, which reaches room temperature (about 300 Kelvin) at the largest altitude?
Jupiter
To calculate the momentum of an object, which of the following must be known? (Choose as many answers as you want.)
Mass, Speed, Direction.
Which planet has the largest variation in its surface temperatures between day and night?
Mercury.
Which planet in our solar system has the largest eccentricity?
Mercury.
Chunks of solid material that survive passing through the Earth's atmosphere and are found on the Earth's surface are called what?
Meteorites
Meteorites of about 1km in diameter can produce effect felt globally. About how often has Earth been struck by object this size?
Once every million years.
Which category of rock is no longer found on Earth due to the early heating of the Earth?
Primitive Rock
Which of the following are the theories behind how rings are formed?
Rings are the remains of a moon that was shattered by a comet, Rings are the remains of particle that were unable to form into a moon.
What is the largest volcano on Venus?
Sif Mons.
What caused Percival Lowell to search for a ninth planet in the solar system?
Small, unexplained irregularities in the motion of Uranus
In June, where on Earth can you go so that the Sun will never fully rise?
South of the Antarctic Circle.
Why was the Julian Calender replaced by the Gregorian Calender?
The average year according to the Julian calender differed from the true year by 11 minutes, which added up over the centuries.
Why does Earth have seasons?
The axis of rotation of the Earth as it spins is tilted compared to the axis of rotation of the Earth as it orbits the Sun.
Why is the temperature on Venus higher than the temperature on Mercury even though it is farther away from the Sun?
The carbon dioxide atmosphere of Venus traps heat and thus raises the temperature.
How did the Cassini spacecraft detect small moons within Saturn's rings?
The moons create waves in the rings like the wake of a ship at sea.
Which of the following phenomena contributes to the tides?
The moons gravitational pull, the wind, the rotation of the earth, gravitational pull of the sun.
What is the difference between a solar day and a sidereal day?
The solar day uses the sun as the point to start and stop the timer for the Earth's rotation. The sidereal day uses the stars.
In order for differentiation to occur on a rocky planet, what must happen?
The temperature must be high enough for the rock to melt.
There are 88 constellations. Why does astrology focus on thirteen (it used to be only twelve)?
These are the constellations that lie in the region of the sky through which the Sun, Moon and planets seem to pass.
Jupiter's magnetosphere is so large that is reaches to the orbital path of Saturn.
True.
The Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year, but is is usually not the hottest day of the year. T or F?
True.
There is plenty of water outside of the Earth. However, most of it is in the form of ice in the outer planets.
True.
Which planet's rotational axis is tilted farthest away from its orbital axis?
Uranus
Which planet was unknown in the time of Copernicus?
Uranus.
By what factor would your weight increase if the mass of the Earth was doubled, but its volume remained the same?
Your weight would double.
When looking at the night sky, it appears to be a large dome with you at the center. What do you call the point on the dome directly over your head?
Zenith.
Around very young stars, circumstellar disks coalesce. What are these precursors to planets called?
planetesimals.
