Astronomy Quiz 2
which of newton's laws states that if an unbalanced force acts on an object, then the object's motion changes?
Newton's 1st law
what is your acceleration if you go from 0 to 30 m/s in 3 seconds.
10 m/s^2
what is your acceleration if you go from 0 to 60 mph in 4 seconds
15 mph/s
we suspect that mars once had liquid water on its surface because
mapping satellites have detected dry river beds rovers have detected minerals that must have formed in the presence of liquid water mapping satellites have detected outflow channels coming from impact craters
the largest volcanic mountains in the solar system are found on
mars
mars, venus, and earth are much less heavily cratered than mercury and the moon. this is explained by the fact that:
mars, venus, and earth were geologically active longer than mercury and the moon.
the force of gravity that an object has it directly related to its
mass
the age of the solar system can be determined most accurately by
radioactive dating of rocks retrieved from the moon
how do the wavelength and frequency of red light compare to the wavelength and frequency of blue light
red light has a longer wavelength and lower frequency than those of blue light
a prism is able to spread white light out into a spectrum of colors based on the property of
refraction
two rocks (call them s and t) are a distance of 50 km from one another. rock s has 20 times the mass of rock t. which rock will move faster if the only force involved is their mutual gravitational attraction
rock t
what causes molecular clouds to collapse
self-gravity
Newton's first law states that objects in motion
stay in motion
which of the following is true about a comet that is on an elliptical orbit around the sun?
the comets speed is greatest when it is nearest the sun
which of the following is not a characteristic of the early solar system, based on current observations
the composition of gases varied between the inner solar system and the outer solar system.
if the wavelength of a beam of light were to double, how would that affect its frequency
the frequency would be two times smaller
according to Newton's third law, what is the other half of this pair of forces - earths gravity pulls down on man.
the man's gravity pulling up on the earth
why do outer planets like Jupiter have huge gaseous atmospheres of hydrogen and helium while the inner planets do not?
the outer planets grew massive quickly enough to gravitationally hold on to these gases before the solar wind dispersed the accretion disk.
studies of the amount of cratering at different locations on the moon indicate that
the rate of cratering in the solar system has changed dramatically over time.
when astronomers began searching for extra-solar planets, they were surprised to discover Jupiter-sized planets much closer than 1 AU from their parent stars. why is this surprising?
these planets must have formed at larger radius where temperatures were cooler and then migrated inward.
astronauts orbiting earth in the space shuttle feel weightless in space because
they are in constant free fall around the earth
the major advantage CCDs have over other imaging techniques is that
they have a higher quantum efficiency they have a linear response to light they yield output in digital format they operate at visible and near-infrared wavelengths
what method of looking for extrasolar planets requires the planet to pass in front of the star?
transit method
a satellite is a less massive object in free fall around a more massive object
true
mercury has the largest core compared to the size of the planet
true
the image quality of most optical telescopes is limited by differential atmospheric refraction experienced by light as it passes through the earth's atmosphere
true
which of the following properties of an astronaut changes when he/she is standing on the moon, relative to when the astronaut is standing on earth?
weight
if the woman pushes with a force of 50 N, what will the acceleration of the container be
0.5 m/s^2
you apply a force of 10 N to a grocery cart in order to get an acceleration of 0.5 m/s^2. if you apply a force of 20 N o the same grocery cart, its acceleration will be:
1 m/s^2
what is the best explanation for the heating of earth's interior today
decay of radioactive elements
suppose you are suddenly transported to a planet with 1/4 the mass of earth but the same radius as the earth. your weight would ______ by a factor of ______.
decrease; 4
as wavelength increases, the energy of a photon ______ and its frequency _________
decreases; decreases
cameras that use adaptive optics provide higher spatial resolution images primarily because
deformable mirrors are used to correct the blurring due to the Earth's atmosphere
the light-year is a unit of
distance
which of the following will NOT be a consequence of Earth's consumption of the bulk of its radioactive "fuel" in the future.
earth will spin more slowly on its axis
a radio photon travels more slowly than a gamma ray photon
false
astronauts in the space station feel weightless as they orbit the earth because thee is no gravity acting on them
false
ocean tides on Earth are caused only by the moon
false
one of the reasons why the hubble space telescope has better spatial resolution than a 4-m ground based telescope is that it has large mirror
false
our solar system is likely unique among the stars in our galaxy.
false
the interior of the earth is differentiated because it cooled very quickly.
false
which of the following lists different types of electromagnetic radiation in order of increasing wavelength
gamma rays, ultraviolet, visible, infrared, radio waves
the primary atmospheres of the planets are made mostly of
hydrogen and helium
if the distance between the earth and sun were cut in half, the gravitational force between these tow objects would
increase by 4
the natural tendency of an object to resist changes in motion is called
inertia
photography provides an improvement over naked-eye observations because
it is possible to detect fainter objects with the use of photographic plates
the fact that earth's interior is differentiated suggest that
it was liquid at some point in the past
If an object is moving in a circular orbit at constant speed, which of the following is FALSE
its acceleration is zero
what sets the temperature of the pocket of gas in a protoplanetary disk
its distance from the forming star how much gravitational energy was converted to heat how much radiation from the forming start shines on the gas
whether or not a planet is composed mostly of rock or gas is set by
its mass its temperature the distance from the star that it orbits
