CP - Ch 2 & 3

An astronomy textbook, when printed out, weighs four pounds on the surface of the Earth. After finishing your course, you are so tired of the book, you arrange for NASA to shoot it into space. When it is twice as far from the center of the Earth than when you were reading it, what would it weigh? (Note, assume that the book has been moving away from the Earth, not falling freely around it.) - 4 lbs - 1 lbs - 8 lbs - 2 lbs - 16 lbs

1 lbs

Credit for the discovery of Neptune is shared by two astronomers. They are: - Kepler and Newton - Hubble and Humason - Doppler and Wien - Fraknoi and Morrison - Adams and Leverrier

Adams and Leverrier

Which ancient Greek thinker suggested (long before Copernicus) that the Earth is moving around the Sun? - Eratosthenes - Aristarchus - Hipparchus - Aristotle - Zorba

Aristarchus

In an ellipse, the ratio of the distance between the foci and the length of the major axis is called: - Newton's ratio - the astronomical unit - perihelion - the semi-major axis - the eccentricity

the eccentricity

In Ptolemy's system the planets orbit the Earth and not the Sun. How did the system explain the retrograde motion of planets like Jupiter? - the Sun moved among the planets, and pulled them out of their circular orbits - the planets were not moving along the ecliptic but all over the celestial sphere - the planets moved in very elongated ellipses, and their speed in orbit changed radically over the course of a year - you can't fool me, Ptolemy's system did not include ANY explanation of retrograde motion - the planets moved on a small circle whose center, in turn, circled a point near the Earth

the planets moved on a small circle whose center, in turn, circled a point near the Earth

Which of the following was Not done by Hipparchus, the great ancient astronomer? - discovered that the Earth has a motion called precession - you can't fool me; Hipparchus did all of these - created the system of star magnitudes that we still use today - compiled a pioneering catalog of the positions of hundreds of stars - explained retrograde motion

explained retrograde motion

To figure out what you weigh on the surface of the Moon (how much gravity there pulls you downward), you need to know - just the distance from the Moon's center to its surface - just the size of the Moon's orbit around the Earth (its semi-major axis, say) - just the mass of the Moon - which part of its orbit the Moon is in

just the size of the Moon's orbit around the Earth (its semi-major axis, say)

Which of the following is Not an argument for showing that the Earth must be round: - the Sun is seen blocking different constellations in the course of a year - photographs of the Earth from space always show a round body - during an eclipse of the Moon, the shadow of the Earth is always seen to be round - when ships travel a large distance away, we see their hulls disappear first and their masts disappear last - the height of the North Star changes as we travel to different latitudes

the Sun is seen blocking different constellations in the course of a year

The minimum speed required to launch an object so that it remains the same distance above the ground and just falls around the Earth is called: - the Keplerian speed - Newtonian orbit velocity - the speed of sound (or Mach 1) - circular satellite velocity - perigee speed

circular satellite velocity

Let's say we find a star that is located on the points or circles in the sky listed in the answer choices below. Then, on the same night, we move to a location on Earth that is some significant distance from our first location. There will now be a different star at or on: - the celestial north pole - the celestial south pole - the celestial equator - all of these - the zenith

the zenith

Why do satellites launched into low-Earth orbits not remain there indefinitely? - this is an unsolved problem, but a NASA committee has been assigned to work on it - they tend to collide with other spacecraft and spacecraft fragments - they do not have enough speed to fall freely around the Earth - they run out of fuel, and without fuel, all satellites, no matter what their orbit is, must fall - they lose speed due to friction with the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere

they lose speed due to friction with the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere

Within a constellation, a smaller, recognizable pattern of stars is often called: - a cameo - an ecliptic - a zodiac - a Dipper - an asterism

an asterism

The 17th century astronomer who kept a roughly 20 year continuous record of the positions of the Sun, Moon, and planets was: - Galileo Galilei - Tycho Brahe - Isaac Newton - Jean Luc Picard - Nicolaus Copernicus

Isaac Newton

When NASA and a group of astronomers sent up a spacecraft designed to find planets orbiting other stars, they named it after Kepler. Why was this an appropriate name? - Kepler was the first person to express the law of universal gravity in mathematical terms - Kepler was the first person to suggest how to launch rockets into space - Kepler used his telescope to find the first planet orbiting another star - Kepler designed the first telescope ever built - Kepler figured out the rules of planetary motion, which planets in our solar system and planets elsewhere must obey

Kepler figured out the rules of planetary motion, which planets in our solar system and planets elsewhere must obey

The planet in our solar system with the shortest period of revolution is: - Jupiter - Venus - you can't fool me, all the planets have the same period of revolution - Mercury - Pluto

Mercury

The star that is currently closest to the North Celestial Pole is: - Polaris - Arcturus - Rigel - Betelgeuse - Tom Cruise

Polaris

The Earth's escape speed (the speed you need to get away forever) is about 25,000 miles per hour. Escape speed depends on the gravity of the object trying to hold the spacecraft from escaping. Based on your understanding of gravity, how will the escape speed from the Moon compare to the escape speed from Earth? - The Moon's escape speed will be smaller than Earth's - The Moon's escape speed will change depending on whether it's a crescent Moon or a full Moon - The Moon's escape speed will be balanced by the Earth being so close and it will be zero - The Moon's escape speed will be greater than Earth's - The Moon's escape speed will be exactly the same as Earth's

The Moon's escape speed will be smaller than Earth's

The 88 sectors into which astronomers today divide the celestial sphere (the whole sky) are called: - celestial states - asterisms - zodiacs - epicycles - constellations

constellations

What problem has precession caused for many of the schools of astrology? - Because of precession, the constellations are no longer lined up with the astrological signs that are named after them; since astrology was set up, the two have slipped one sign apart - Because of precession, some of the planets that astrologers use to construct horoscopes no longer orbit the Sun - Because of precession, the stars making up the constellation figures (like Leo the Lion) have moved so far apart, they no longer look like their names - You can't fool me, precession has not affected anything about astrology - Because of precession, Mars no longer shows retrograde motion and so all the horoscopes done using Mars turn out to be wrong

Because of precession, the constellations are no longer lined up with the astrological signs that are named after them; since astrology was set up, the two have slipped one sign apart

The great astronomer of ancient times who summarized and improved a system of circles upon circles to explain the complicated motions of the planets (and published the system in a book now called The Almagest) is: - Copernicus - Pythagoras - Alfonso the Wise - Hipparchus - Ptolemy

Ptolemy