Chapter 1 & 2
Which of the following is largest?
* 4 light years * 1 parsec 10 trillion miles 1000 AU
Which of the following is largest?
1 light year 1 AU *7 trillion miles* 100 million miles
One billion is
1,000 millions
arc second
1/3600 of a degree, 1/60 arcminute
There are about __ stars in the Milky Way Galaxy.
100 billion
Which of the following is largest?
1000 billions *1 x 10^3* 9 trillions 1,000,000,000,000 They are equal.
How many arc-minutes are in 2 degrees?
120
1 AU =
150 million km/ 93 million miles
Earth-Sun distance
150,000,000 km/1 AU/ 93 million miles/
speed of light
186,000 miles per second or 300,000 kilometers per second
The Sun is an...
2nd generation star
The age of our solar system is approximately
4.6 (5) billion years old
The oldest meteorite on the earth is about
5 billion years old
1 light year
6 trillion miles
There are ____ constellations in the sky.
88
1 kg =
90 thousand trillion Jules
Pseudoscience
A fake or false science that makes claims based on little or no scientific evidence.
Circumpolar
A term describing a star that neither rises nor sets but appears to rotate around one of the celestial poles.
Suppose you live at latitude 30 degrees South. Which star is circumpolar in your sky
Alpha Centauri
Which star lies closest to the south celestial pole on the celestial sphere?
Alpha Centauri
Meridian
An arc drawn on a map between the North and South poles.
International Date Line
An arc that for the most part follows 180° longitude, although it deviates in several places to avoid dividing land areas. When you cross the International Date Line heading east (toward America), the clock moves back 24 hours, or one entire day. When you go west (toward Asia), the calendar moves ahead one day.
Most galaxies are moving
Away from the earth
Winter Solstice
December 22, when the sun is at its southernmost point (shorter days)
Which of these stars lies closest to the north celestial pole on the celestial sphere?
Deneb
Fall Equinox
Earth's rotation axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the Sun; occurs on September 21st (longer nights)
Which of the following statements about the celestial equator is true at ALL latitudes?
It represents an extension of Earth's equator onto the celestial sphere.
Summer Solstice
June 21, when the sun is at its northernmost point (shorter days)
celestial coordinates
Pair of quantities right ascension and declination similar to longitude and latitude on Earth, used to pinpoint locations of objects on the celestial sphere.
Which star lies closest to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere?
Sirius
For Forth Worth area, which of the following describes the conditions that make a star circumpolar?
Stars are circumpolar if they have a declination less than + 57 degrees.
Suppose you live at latitude 34 degrees North. Which of the following describes the conditions that make a star circumpolar?
Stars are circumpolar if they have a declination of less than +56 degrees.
By locating the north celestial pole (NCP) in the sky, how can you determine your latitude?
The altitude of the NCP is the same as your latitude.
Which of the following statements does NOT use the term angular size or angular distance correctly?
The angular distance between those 2 bright stars in the sky is about 3 meters.
What is the zodiac?
The band that extends about 8 degrees either side of the ecliptic
Which of the following statements about the celestial sphere is NOT true?
The celestial sphere is just another name for our universe
Supposed we loo kat a photograph of many galaxies. Assuming that all the galaxies formed at about the same time, which galaxy in the picture is the youngest?
The one that is the farthest away
nuclear fusion
The process by which two or more small nuclei fuse to make a bigger nucleus
The celestial co-ordinate of a star are (-16 39' 6 hr 43 m). This means...
The star has a right ascension RA) =6 hr 43 m and Declination (Dec) = -16 39'.
Which of the following statements does NOT use the term light-year in an appropriate way?
The universe is about 14 billion light years old
escape velocity
The velocity an object must reach to fly beyond a planet's or moon's gravitational pull.
Which of the following best describes the meaning of declination and right ascension?
They are coordinates on the celestial sphere, with declination telling us the angular distance of an object from the celestial equator and right ascension telling us how far around the celestial sphere an object is located from the vernal equinox.
What do the Sun Dagger, Stonehenge and the Templo Mayor all have in common?
They were all used by ancient people for astronomical observations.
Supernovae
This is the explosion of a star, when this happens the star becomes extremely bright for a while
Which of the following statements about circumpolar stars is true at all latitudes?
Thy always remain above your horizon
Arcminute (minute of an arc)
Unit of angular distance that is equal to a 60th of a degree
If you live in the DFW area, which star passes closest to your zenith on its daily path through you sky?
Vega
Which star lies closest to the north celestial pole on the celestial sphere?
Vega
How many stars can you see with your naked eye on a clear, moonless night from a dark location?
a few thousand
What is meany by a scientific paradigm?
a generally well-established scientific theory or set of theories
Which of the following correctly describes the (upper) meridian in your sky?
a half circle extending from your horizon due north, through your zenith, to your horizon due south.
angular size
a measure of the angle formed by extending imaginary lines outward from our eyes to span an object
A black hole is:
a region in space where mass produces a gravity field so intense that neither matter nor light itself can escape
The present day astronomers define a constellation as...
a region of the sky, as seen from earth
In science, a theory is
a synthesis of a large body of well-tested knowledge
Parsec
a unit of measurement used to describe distances between celestial objects, equal to 3.26 light years
Astronomers who subscribe to the Big Bang theory believe the big bang occured
about 14 billion years ago
The approximate latitude of forth worth area is
about 33 degrees North
One light-hour is the distance that light travels in an hour. How far is this, in miles? (Recall that the speed of light is 300,000 km/s or 186,000 miles/s.)
about 670 million miles
A circumpolar star is a star that
always remains above your horizon (never sets)
What is meany by a hypothesis?
an explanation for a phenomenon that makes a prediction
Altitude Angle
angle between horizon and sun's position above horizon
Constellations are
arbitrary regions that cover the entire sky, which astronomers have named
Some constellations like Orion are visible on winter evenings but not summer evenings...
because of the location of Earth in its orbit.
The burning Sun's mass is
decreasing
The time between rising and setting of a star...
depends on the observer's latitude
Compared to most stellar objects, quasars are more
distant, energetic, puzzling
Science and technology are
fundamentally different from each other
The nabulae are
huge clouds of interstellar gas
Science is a body of knowledge that goes back to
humankind's beginnings
There are ___ galaxies in the observable universe.
hundreds of billion
The north celestial pole appears 40 degrees about your horizon. The star Vega is on your meridian. By studying your star charts and your clocks, you determine that Vega crossed the meridian in Greenwich (England) 2 hours ago. Where are you?
latitude 40 degrees North, longitude 30 degrees West
The south celestial pole appears on your meridian at an altitude of 60 degrees in the south. Where are you?
latitude = 60 degrees South
Which of the following describes someones location on earths surface?
latitude and longitude
In science, facts
may change
In a museum collection you can likely see a
meteorite
Which way is Polaris, the North star, if viewed from the equator?
on the northern horizon
Of the sciences known as physics, chemistry, and biology, the most basic is
physics
The ancient goal of astrology was to
predict human events
If you could count stars at a rate of about one per second, how long would it take to count all the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy?
several thousand years
The celestial co-ordinate of a star are (-13 39', 6 hr 43 m). The star is...
south of the celestial equator
A pulsar is likely a
spinning neutron star
Polaris (North Star)
star at the zenith of the North Pole
circumpolar stars
stars that can be seen at all times of the year and all times of night.
The heavy elements found on earth have much to do with
supernovae
What is the ecliptic?
the Sun's apparent path along the celestial sphere
zenith angle
the angle formed between a line perpendicular to the earth's surface and the position of the sun in the sky
angular distance
the angle that appears to separate a pair of objects in the sky
An astronomical unit (AU) is _________.
the average distance between the earth and the sun
Spring Equinox
the equinox that occurs on March 21 or 22 in the Northern Hemisphere (longer days)
What is meant by Occam's Razor?
the idea that scientists should prefer the simpler of two models that agree equally well with observations
horizon
the line at which the sky and Earth appear to meet
Southern Cross
the most familiar group of stars in the southern sky
The constellations in our sky look the same from year to year because...
the stars in the constellations are so far away
astronomy
the study of stars and planets
astrology
the study of the movements and relative positions of celestial bodies interpreted as having an influence on human affairs and the natural world.
The synthesis of a large collection of information that contains well-tested and verified hypotheses about certain aspects of the world is known as a scientific
theory
The point directly over your head is called...
zenith