Exam 1 Study Guide
Which of the following are created by solar magnetic activity?
-prominences -solar flares -sunspots -coronal mass ejections
If you observe a maximum number of sunspots right now, how long would you have to wait to see the next solar maximum?
11 years
If a coronal mass ejection occurred on the Sun and ejected particles toward the Earth that traveled at the speed of 1,000 km/s, how long would it take them to reach Earth?
149,604 seconds
Compare two blackbody objects, one at 200 K and one at 400 K. How much larger is the flux from the 400 K object compared to the flux from the 200 K object?
16 times larger
At what temperature does water freeze?
273 K
The Sun has a mass of
2x 10^30 kg.
How much would you have to change the temperature of an object if you wanted to increase its flux by a factor of 100?
3.162 increase
The speed of light in a vacuum is
300,000 km/s.
The speed of light is approximately
300,000 km/s.
At a latitude of +50°, how far above the horizon is the north celestial pole located?
50°
The latitude of the Antarctic Circle is
66.5° S.
There are _________ constellations in the entire sky.
88
If the core of the Sun were hotter than it is now, how would the Sun's energy production change?
It would produce more energy per second than it does now.
What is the difference between visible light and X-rays?
Wavelength; X-rays have a shorter wavelength than visible light.
If Earth's axis were tilted by 5° instead of its actual tilt, how would the seasons be different than they are currently?
Winters would be warmer.
Which of these stars would have the biggest redshift?
a star moving at high speed away from you
Circumpolar stars are stars that are
always above the horizon.
What does amplitude reveal about light?
brightness
The figure shows the Sun during a solar eclipse at visible wavelengths. Which part of the Sun is visible around the shadow of the Moon?
chromosphere
When you turn on the heater in a car, the passengers in the front seat warm up first, and then eventually the warm air gets to the passengers in the back seat. This is an example of energy being transported by
convection.
A light-hour is a measure of
distance.
Right ascension is a measure of a star's location on the celestial sphere that is most closely similar to which measurement of location on Earth?
longitude
Which of these can travel directly from the center of the Sun to Earth in about 8 minutes?
neutrinos
For a person who lives at a latitude of +40°, when is the Sun directly overhead at noon?
never
When two atomic nuclei come together to form a new species of atom, this is called
nuclear fusion.
A scientific theory can be shown to be wrong if
scientists gather new data that contradict its predictions.
Which force is responsible for holding the protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom together?
strong nuclear force
During summer above the Arctic circle
the Sun can always be seen.
What keeps the gas in the Sun's corona from flying away from the Sun?
the Sun's magnetic field
If you go out at exactly 9 P.M. each evening over the course of 1 month, the position of a given star will move westward by tens of degrees. What causes this motion?
the revolution of Earth around the Sun
When the northern hemisphere experiences summer, the southern hemisphere experiences
winter.
