Astronomy Exam
Killer Asteroids
"More money is spent on making movies about ____________ than on actually finding them."
Sun is larger than earth
Aristarchus was able to prove that
Energy
As the frequency of a wave increases, the _______ of the wave also increases.
Metals
As the solar nebula cooled, which compounds were the first to condense from a gas to a solid?
Brighter
According to the Stefan-Boltzmann Law, a larger star will appear _________ than a smaller star of the same temperature.
Decrease
According to the small angle equation, if an object at a fixed distance is suddenly shrunk to a smaller size, then the angular size will
Increase
According to the small angle equation, if you bring an object closer to the observer, the angular size will
Ursa Major
All of the following are constellations in the Zodiac, EXCEPT
Young
An HR Diagram of a star cluster shows that nearly all of the stars fall along the main sequence. From this information, we can tell that the star cluster must be ...
Few Centuries
An explosion the size of the Tunguska Event is likely to happen every
Multiple independent methods
How can astronomers be sure that their measurements of distances to galaxies are accurate?
Distance/speed
How can astronomers measure the age of the universe from the speed and distance of a single galaxy?
Increase Magnification
How can you increase the resolution of a telescope?
Doppler Effect
How did Hubble and others measure the speed of galaxies moving through space?
300-500
How many asteroids (that we know of) are on a potential collision course with Earth?
300 Billion
How many stars are in the Milky Way?
Discovered Cepheid variables
Hubble was able to prove that galaxies are very far away because he
Less than 100 feet away
If a galaxy were shrunk down to the size of a paper plate, then the next nearest galaxy would be...
Sunset
If the full moon is rising, what time is it?
Sunrise
If the full moon is setting, what time is it?
First Quarter
If the moon is setting at midnight, what phase is it?
Third Quarter
If the moon is setting at noon, what phase is it?
Sunrise
If the new moon is rising, what time is it?
Dust
If you do not account for ____________, you may conclude that the distribution of stars in the sky provides evidence that we are located at the center of the Milky Way.
Smooth dark region on the moon where lava once flowed
Maria
On top of
On Mercury and the Moon, we notice that larger craters __________ smaller craters.
Upper-Right
On a standard HR Diagram, stars with the largest radius will appear in the _________ corner.
Upper-Left
On a standard HR diagram, where would you find the most massive main sequence stars?
Due West
On an equinox, the Sun sets
North of West
On the summer solstice, the Sun sets
We don't feel the earth moving
One of the main objections to the heliocentric model was that
Number of sunspots
One way that we can observe changes in the overall magnetic dynamo of the sun is
Ultraviolet and infared
Our atmosphere acts like a filter, which blocks
Space Telescopes
Parallax measurements of distant stars were dramatically improved with the use of
True
Professional astronomers, in general, know very few constellations in the night sky.
Retrograde Motion
Ptolemy's improvements were important because they explained
True
Ptolemy's model of the solar system was by far the simplest and most elegant model.
Hundreds of times per second
Pulsars appear to be rotating
Bright light emanating out of craters
Ray
Pulverized rock covering the moon as dust
Regolith
8-bit
Regular jpeg images have only 256 "levels" available in each pixel, so they are considered
Raised ridge on surface of Mercury
Scarp
Mercury has a network of strange wrinkles across its surface called
Scarps
Blue Book
Sitting on the table is a red book and a blue book. Which one is hotter?
Olympus Mons
The largest mountain in the solar system is
12 Hours
The length of the day on an equinox is
Equator
The location of zero latitude
Width of the lines
The luminosity of a star can be determined by measuring the _____________ in the stellar spectra.
Applying Kepler's third law
The mass of our galaxy has been found by ...
75%
The mass of the sun is composed of about ______ hydrogen.
Surface is Wet
The moon Titan is special because
Winter Solstice
Your noontime shadow will be the longest on which day of the year?
Prime Meridian
Zero point for longitude
Absolute Magnitude
_____________ measures how bright an object would appear if it were exactly 10 parsecs away from earth.
Nuclear Fusion
Every star, including our own sun, is powered by
All
Newton is credited with which of the following?
Largest mountain ever discovered
Olympus Mons
Earth + Jupiter not planets
Why do some astronomers object to the new definition of a planet that was adopted in 2006?
Planet lost its internal heat to space
Why doesn't Mars have active volcanoes today?
Change in position is tiny and hard to notice
Why was the parallax of the closest stars not observed until 200 years after the invention of the telescope?
Constellations provided a calendar to support agriculture
Why were constellations essential for ancient peoples?
Flat
According to astronomers' best measurements, space appears to be ....
Newton
A complete physical theory to explain the motion of the planets was developed by
Elliptical
A galaxy that looks like a smooth squashed sphere would like be classified as a(n) __________ galaxy.
Escape Speed
A gas particle will escape a planet's atmosphere if it moves faster than the
Cold, ton of gravity
A planet will keep a large atmosphere if it _________ or __________.
45 Degrees
A star located halfway up the sky due south would have an altitude of
Four times greater
According to Newton's Law of Gravity, if two objects were to move twice as far apart, the force of gravity between them would be
Very large impact crater on Mercury
Caloris Basin
Absolute magnitude
Cepheid variables make good standard candles because their period is closely related to their _____________.
Molecular Clouds
Cold clouds of gas and dust between stars are called ...
False
Copernicus was the first person to suggest that the Sun is at the center of our solar system.
False
Copernicus was the first to be able to prove that the Earth orbited around the Sun.
Every type of galaxy
Dark matter is found in
Celestial Equator
Declination is measured north and south from here
Completely unrelated to one another
Describe how the stars in a constellation are connected to one another.
40 Miles
During the Tunguska Event, people were thrown 20 feet through the air, even though they were ________ away from the explosion.
Not lens
Each pixel acts kind of like a
False
Edwin Hubble single-handedly made all of the discoveries necessary to prove that our universe is expanding.
White Dwarf
Electron degeneracy is what holds up a __________ against the compressing force of gravity.
True
In Ptolemy's model, it is possible to have a planetary orbit without retrograde motion.
Emit or absorb light
In order for an electron to move from one orbit to another, it must
Blue star
In the sky, you see a red star and a blue star. Which one is hotter?
Winter Solstice
In the southern hemisphere, the Sun will reach its highest point in the sky on
Looking at solid material heated to hot temperature
Kirchoff's Laws suggest that a continuous spectrum (plain rainbow) is caused when
Looking at hot gas against dark background
Kirchoff's Laws suggest that emission lines in a spectrum are caused when
Largest mountain on earth
Mauna Kea
Has no athmosphere
Mercury gets incredibly hot and incredibly cold because
False
Most astronomers believe that space ends at the edge of the observable universe.
Red-shifted
Most of the galaxies we observe in the sky have spectra that are
Continuous Spectrum and Absorption Lines
Star spectra contain
Before 300 BC
Sunspots were first observed
Can be seen from far away
Supernovas are particularly useful as distance indicators because
Visual
The "v" in "V filter" stands for
False
The Hubble Tuning Fork diagram proves that galaxies gradually move from being elliptical galaxies to spiral galaxies over time.
Doppler Method
The _________ for discovering exoplanets looks for tiny dips in light as a planet passes in front of its star.
Altitude
The angle measured up from the horizon is called
Declination
The angle that measures north and south from the celestial equator is called the ...
Mercury
The appearance of Earth's moon is nearly identical to
Several Million
The black hole at the center of the Milky Way has a mass of _________ solar masses.
Declination
The change in seasons is caused by the change in the Sun's
Occam's Razor
The concept in science that the simpler ideas are preferred to the more complex ones is known as
Zodiac
The constellations that the Sun passes through are called the
Parallax
The cosmic distance ladder begins with the most direct measurements of distance, such as ....
3 Kelvin
The cosmic microwave background allows us to talk about the "temperature of the universe." What is roughly the temperature of the universe today?
Curvature Constant
The curvature of space as a whole is primarily determined by
Main sequence
The diagonal line across the middle of the HR Diagram is known as the ...
Distance Modulus
The difference between the apparent magnitude and the absolute magnitude is known as the ...
William Herschel
The discovery of light "beyond the rainbow" is attributed to which scientist?
Mapping distribution of globular clusters
The distance to the center of our galaxy can be found from...
Energy levels of electrons in the cloud
The exact wavelength of the spectral lines of a gas cloud are determined by
-12
The full moon has an apparent magnitude of roughly
Meridional Altitude
The height of the Sun in the sky at noontime is called the
Temperature
The horizontal axis of the HR Diagram is
Georges Lamaitre
The idea of the big bang model was first proposed by....
Kepler
The idea that planets do not move at constant speeds in their orbits can be attributed to
Declination
The north celestial pole has a(n) ________ of 90 degrees.
Frequency
The number of waves passing a point each second is the
Photosphere
The part of the sun that we see with our eyes is called the
Ecliptic
The path of the Sun on the celestial sphere is called the
Zenith
The point directly overhead is called what
Zenith
The point with the highest altitude
Shadows on earth
The size of the Earth could be measured accurately in ancient times by using
True
The small angle equation was known to people in ancient times.
Kepler's Third Law
The statement: "A planet's orbital period squared is equal to its semimajor axis cubed." is also known as
Newton's First Law
The statement: "An object in motion will continue in motion unless acted on by an outside force." is also known as...
Kepler's First Law
The statement: "Planets move in ellipses with the Sun at one focus." is also known as
Volcanoes
The surface of the moon contains geologic evidence for ___________ on the moon in the past.
Regolith
The surface of the moon is covered with a fine powder of pulverized rock called
5700 K
The temperature at the surface of the sun is about
Luminosity
The total energy that a star produces in one second is known as the
Altitude, Azimuth
The two coordinates of the "horizon coordinate system" are
Phone Company
The two engineers who discovered the cosmic microwave background worked for
Prime Meridian
The zero point of longitude is ....
90 Degrees
To an observer located on the earth's north pole, what is the altitude of the north celestial pole?
Velocity v Distance
What are the axes of the graph of Hubble's Law?
Flat rotation curves far from center of galaxy
What evidence do we have that there is dark matter in the galaxy?
Greenhouse Gasses
What factor most helps the Earth maintain a relatively constant temperature?
Gradual warming of sun
What initiated the runaway greenhouse effect on Venus?
0 Degrees
What is the altitude of the horizon?
90 Degrees
What is the altitude of the north celestial pole for an observer standing on the north pole of the earth?
270 Degrees
What is the azimuth of due west?
Invent Universe
What is the first step in making an apple pie from scratch?
Mass
What is the key quantity that controls the evolution of a star?
Untimely Death of Tycho
What key event allowed Kepler to develop his own model for solar system motion?
Carbon Dioxide and Water Vapor
What molecules dominated the Earth's primordial atmosphere?
Hot gas pressure
What outward force balances against gravity in a star like our sun?
Red and Green
What two colors of light would you combine to make the color yellow?
Gravity + Heat
What two factors influence whether gas particles stay or leave a planet's atmosphere?
More or less all
When Kepler began his work, which solar system model was able to make the most accurate predictions?
Other stars catapulting comets toward earth
When the sun passes through densest parts of the galaxy, we risk ...
Into the Past
When we look into the night sky, we are literally looking
Grains of sand
Where could you find 300 billion of something in everyday life? (Select all that apply)
Photosynthesis
Where did the oxygen in our atmosphere come from?
Eratothenes
Which ancient astronomer measured the radius of the Earth?
Vesto Slipher
Which astronomer worked a decade before Hubble to measure the spectra of galaxies?
Miami and Amsterdam
Which cities would be covered with water if the Greenland Ice Sheet melted completely?
Doppler + Kepler
Which equation(s) are used to detect the presence of dark matter in galaxies?
Temperature + Radius
Which of the following factors influences the luminosity of a star? (Select all that apply)
So cold that it does not shine
Which of the following is NOT a possible explanation of dark matter?
Circular
Which of the following is NOT a type of galaxy identified by Hubble?
-1
Which of the following magnitudes would correspond to the "brightest star."
Cleared neighborhood around orbit
Which of the following parts of the formal definition of a planet does Pluto fail to meet?
All
Which of the following planets in our solar system have rings?
All
Which of the following provides clear evidence for dark matter?
All
Which of the following provides observational evidence that Mars has weather and an atmosphere?
Ultraviolet
Which of the following regions of the electromagnetic spectrum has the shortest wavelength?
1 Solar Mass Star
Which of the following stars will take the longest to go from a protostar to a compact object?
Dust gives HII regions red color
Which of the following statements about interstellar dust is FALSE
Emits small amount of light
Which of the following statements best describes the mass in the outer parts of the Milky Way (beyond the orbit of the sun)?
B
Which of the following stellar spectral types corresponds to the hottest stars.
GPS, TV, cell phones
Which of the following technologies use radio waves?
New Methods For Treating Cancer
Which of the following was not listed as an unexpected benefit of astronomy research?
Not Mauna
Which of the four observatories you explored had the worst light pollution?
Waning Gibbous
Which phase comes between full and third quarter?
Waxing Crescent
Which phase comes between new and first quarter?
Waning Crescent
Which phase comes between third quarter and new moon?
First Quarter
Which phase of the moon comes between waxing crescent and waxing gibbous?
Edwin Hubble
Which scientist used Cepheid variables to measure the distance to faint "nebulas" in our sky, proving they were actually whole other galaxies?
