Astronomy
What are 2 ways for scientists to detect what is going on in the interior of the Sun?
- The periodic expansion and contraction of the Sun caused by waves in the interior of the Sun. - The detection of neutrinos created during fusion in the interior.
What are 2 techniques that scientists have used to find exoplanets:
-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. -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 DIMMING, the size of the planet can be determined.
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
What is the estimated mass of the projectile that exploded over Tunguska in 1908:
10,000 tons
How much time do scientists estimate it takes for energy to move from the center of the Sun to its surface?
100,000 to 1,000,000 years
What is the escape speed for Earth:
11 km/s
How many people have landed on the Moon:
12 Apollo astronauts
How long did the first broadcast form 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
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
Each second, how much matter must be converted to energy in order to produce the luminosity of the Sun?
4 million tons
According to a radiometric dating of samples taken from the Apollo missions, approximately how old is the Moon:
4.5 billion years
What percent of photons does a very good silicon CCD detect:
90%
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
What is NOT a characteristic that worlds in our solar system have in common:
All the planets contain solid surfaces that exhibit impact craters.
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 easy to avoid.
Light from a blackbody has passed through a disperse has before reaching your spectrometer in a straight line path. You expect to find what kind of spectrum:
An absorption spectrum from the gas
"Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me." What does this phrase refer to in astronomy?
Annie Cannon created the mnemonic for the spectral classes in order for their temperature.
How are comets different from asteroids:
Asteroids are rocky bodies that do not form tails. Comets are mostly ice and dust
Where is the Earth when it is moving the fastest in its orbit around the Sun:
At the perihelion
How does the amount of carbon dioxide released from volcanoes compare to the amount released from burning fossil fuels:
Burning fossil fuels releases 100 times more
How is the age of a meteorite determined:
Careful measurement of radioactive isotopes and their decay products are made.
Why do the tectonic plates move:
Convection carries heat from the core to the mantle
Where can metallic hydrogen be found:
Deep within Jupiter or Saturn
What planets in our solar system have seasons:
Earth Saturn Neptune
There are 3 major theories of the formation of Earth's mon. What 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
T or F: All lines of latitude and all lines of longitude are great circles:
False
T or F: Most of the asteroids that lie in the region between Mars and Jupiter orbit the Sun in the opposite direction as the Earth:
False
T or F: The celestial equator and the ecliptic are the same thing:
False
T or F: Triton's relatively warm temperatures are a result of its ability to absorb and not reflect the majority of incoming sunlight:
False
What is the largest moon in the solar system:
Ganymede
You have 1kg of several materials, each is shaped like a sphere. What sphere is smallest:
Gold
Even though it was later shown to be impossible for it to be the primary source, Kelvin and Helmholtz first theorized that the energy generated by the Sun is created how?
Gravitational Contraction
The visible atmosphere of Saturn is composed of 75% of what substance:
Hydrogen
What is the most abundant element in our Sun?
Hydrogen
When did asteroids first get discovered:
In 1801 after the invention of telescopes, Giovanni Piazzi found what he thought was a missing planet.
Where is the highest level of volcanic activity in the solar system:
Io
Where is most of the water on Mars:
It is frozen in the northern permanent cap
What is a meteor shower:
It is the burst of meteor activity cause 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
Besides the Sun, where does the majority of the mass in our solar system reside:
Jupiter
What planet has the shortest days:
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
The surface of the Moon resembles the surface of what planet in our solar system:
Mercury
What planet has the largest variation in its surface temperatures between day and night:
Mercury
What 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:
Meteorites
Where can you find the fastest wind in our solar system:
Neptune
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 1st law, where does the sun reside in the ellipse traced by a planetary orbit:
On one of the foci
Meteorites of about 1 km in diameter can produce effects felt globally. About how often has Earth been struck by object this size:
Once every million years
The 2 most abundant elements in the cosmos, by far, are hydrogen and helium. What is the next most abundant after these 2?
Oxygen
Why is so much information known about Vesta's surface composition:
Pieces of Vesta have landed on Earth as meteorites.
Around very young stars, circumstellar disks coalesce. What are the precursors to planets called:
Planetesimals
What category of rock is no longer found on Earth due to the early heating of the Earth:
Primitive Rock
What color of light has the longest wavelength:
Red
What problem does a refracting telescope have that is avoided by using a reflecting telescope:
Refracting telescopes have chromatic aberration. Reflecting telescopes do not.
What is the Doppler effect:
Relative motion between the source and detectors that will shift the wavelengths of the light
What are theories behind how rings are formed:
Rings are the remains of particles that were unable to form into a moon. Rings are the remains of a moon that was shattered by a comet. When a planet is massive enough, gravity compresses the heavier parts of the planet to a smaller size; Rings are the lighter materials left behind after this process occurs.
What is an object that revolves around a planet called:
Satellite
Humans have never been deeper than the crust of the Earth. How do we know what the structure of the Earth looks like in the deeper portion, like the core:
Seismic waves travel through the Earth. Detecting these waves in a network of seismographs helps scientists construct a model of the interior of the Earth in a similar way to know how ultrasounds work to image the interior of a person
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
Why are electrical outages due to CMEs more likely in North America than in Europe?
The Earth's magnetic pole is closer to North America which means the current produced by CMEs are stronger
What causes a solar eclipse:
The Moon moves between the Sun and the Earth casting a shadow
What phenomena contributes to the tides:
The Moon's gravitational pull The Sun's gravitational pull The rotation of the Earth
What theory did Albert Einstein create to win his Nobel Prize?
The Photoelectric Effect
What is the deepest part of the Sun that we can see?
The Photosphere
In the original Heliocentric model of the solar system, what do the 6 known planets orbit:
The Sun
Why was the Julian Calendar replaced by the Gregorian Calendar:
The average year according to the Julian Calendar 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
What does the unit "light-year" measure:
The distance traveled by light in a vacuum in one year
During a new moon, what is closer to the Sun?
The moon
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.
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 13 (It used to be only 12):
These are the constellations that lie in the region of the sky through which the Sun, Moon and planets seem to pass
Cholorofluorocarbons (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
Why are four large moons of Jupiter called the Galilean moons:
They were observed in 1610 by Galileo
T or F: Even though Mercury has a much smaller radius than Mars, it has a magnetic field that is larger.
True
T or F: Jupiter's magnetosphere is so large that it reaches to the orbital path of Saturn:
True
T or F: The HR Diagram is a plot of star's luminosity versus the star's temperature.
True
T or F: The Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year but it is usually not the hottest day of the year:
True
T or F: 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
T or F: There is plenty of water outside of the Earth. However, most of it is in the form of ice in the outer planets:
True
T or F: Titan has an atmosphere that exhibits behavior such as rain (although not from water):
True
What planet was unknown in the time of Copernicus?
Uranus
What planets rotational axis is tilted farthest away from its orbital axis:
Uranus
What planet has the largest average surface pressure:
Venus
What planet is most similar in mass and size to the Earth:
Venus
How do we know what the outer layers of the Sun are made of?
We take an absorption line spectrum of the Sun. The absorption line tells us what elements are present in the outer layer.
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
