Skyler wanted me to make flashcards so here we are

Newton's Second Law:

the change of motion of a body is proportional to and in the direction of the force acting on it

When a knowledgeable amateur astronomer tells you that she has a 14-inch telescope, what does the number 14 refer to?

the diameter of the primary lens or mirror

The U.S. has plans to build a 30-meter telescope, while the Europeans are thinking about 39-meter telescope. What technological innovation allows astronomers to be thinking about telescopes with that large an aperture?

the mirror in these telescopes will be constructed from many smaller mirrors which will work together

What was the major problem with the Hubble Space Telescope when it was first launched into orbit?

the mirror's shape was slightly wrong, so all the light did not come to a single focus

A future interplanetary tourist whose parents kept him too warm as a baby asks for your help to find a "really cold place" in the solar system. Which of the following would be the coldest place to take him?

the moons of Neptune

Which of the following statements about the nucleus of a typical atom (such as a carbon atom in your little finger) is true:

the nucleus takes up a very small amount of space compared to the entire atom, the nucleus contains most of the mass of the atom, the nucleus has an overall positive charge, the nucleus contains both protons and neutrons

Most ultraviolet radiation does not penetrate to the Earth's surface. Instead it is absorbed in:

the ozone layer

Which of the following pieces of observational evidence does our modern "solar nebula" theory of the formation of the solar system NOT explain directly?

the plane of the orbit of Pluto

The same process that explains why astronomers see less helium in the upper atmosphere of Saturn when they take spectra also explains

the reason Saturn is warmer than we expect

The process by which Venus became so much hotter than the Earth is called:

the runaway greenhouse effect

The period of the moon's rotation on its axis is

the same as its revolution around the Earth

The process of convection involves

the slow upward flow of warmer material and downward flow of cooler material

Our best evidence and theoretical calculations indicate that the solar system began with a giant spinning system of gas and dust that scientists call:

the solar nebula

Kepler's Second Law:

the straight line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas in space in equal intervals of time

An astronomer is studying galaxies of stars that are very far away and thus look extremely faint (using visible light). What kind of telescope should she and her graduate students apply for time on?

the telescope with the biggest aperture possible

In which region of the Earth's atmosphere have you spent most of your life?

the troposphere

Why do satellites launched into low-Earth orbits not remain there indefinitely?

they lose speed due to friction with the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere

Our textbook discusses that radio astronomers are building more and more arrays of radio telescopes, where many "dishes" are connected together. What advantage do such arrays have?

they provide a higher resolution than individual dishes

When the twin Keck telescopes were built in the 1990's, what distinguished them from other very large telescopes of the time?

they used a mirror assembly that was made of 36 smaller hexagonal mirrors working together

When England and the American colonies finally adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, what dramatic change had to be made?

12 days had to be dropped to bring the date and the seasons back into accord

Jupiter has enough mass to make 318 Earths. In contrast, Uranus and Neptune have only enough mass to make

15 Earths

Credit for the discovery of Neptune is shared by two astronomers. They are:

Adams and Leverrier

Which ancient Greek thinker suggested (long before Copernicus) that the Earth is moving around the Sun?

Aristarchus

Based on the scientific and statistical tests of astrological predictions, which of the following statements is the most reasonable?

Astrology has not passed any clear scientific or statistical test an, as a result, most scientists are very doubtful that it can predict anything meaningful about our lives

The largest and most massive of Saturn's rings is the

B ring

Compare the atmospheres of Mars and Venus.

Both are chiefly carbon dioxide, but at Mars it can freeze as dry ice.

How are the polar regions of Mercury and the Moon similar?

Both seem to have ice pockets in the deepest, darkest crater floors.

Why is an image recorded with a CCD better for astronomers than an image recorded on photographic film or plates?

CCD's allow more accurate measurements of the brightness of each part of the image, CCD's are more efficient; more of the light is recorded and not wasted, CCD's have digital output that can go directly to a computer

Astronomers believe that Mars formed with a much thicker atmosphere than it has today. Where did this atmosphere go?

it escaped into space (and some later froze out as Mars got cold)

Mercury experiences extreme high and low temperatures between night and day because:

it has no atmosphere to moderate temperatures over the globe.

Astronomical observatories have been available since ancient times, and many cultures set aside special sites for astronomical observations. The thing modern observatories have that was missing from these older observatories until about 1610 was:

telescopes

The Stefan-Boltzmann Law relates the energy flux coming from a blackbody (such as a star) to its:

temperature

Wien's Law relates the wavelength at which a star gives off the greatest amount of energy to the star's

temperature

What is the result of the Greenhouse effect on the surface environment of Venus?

It has raised the surface temperature by hundreds of degrees Celsius

How does the axial tilt of Mars compare with our own?

It is almost identical to the Earth.

The Earth is closest to the Sun in which month of the year?

January

The scientist who formulated the three laws of planetary motion by analyzing the data on the precise location of planets in the sky was:

Johannes Kepler

The planet that has an axis that points roughly straight up, and thus has no seasons to speak of, is:

Jupiter

Which of the following planets has a magnetic field centered on their cores?

Jupiter and Saturn

Which of the following planets has liquid metallic hydrogen in its deep interior?

Jupiter and Saturn

Which of the following statements about the seasons on Jupiter is correct?

Jupiter's axis is hardly tilted so it has no real seasonal variations

Which of the following are jovian planets? Select all answers that apply.

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

How do the following planets compare to each other in terms of mass?

Jupiter: 1st Largest Saturn: 2nd largest Uranus: 4th largest Neptune: 3rd largest

How do the following planets compare to each other in terms of radius?

Jupiter: 1st largest Saturn: 2nd largest Uranus: 3rd largest Neptune: 4th largest

Match the planet to the best description of its internal heat source.

Jupiter: Lots of internal heat from its formation and continuing contraction, Saturn: Lots of internal heat due to helium rain, Uranus: No measurable internal heat, Neptune: Some internal heat due to an unknown source

How do the following planets compare to each other in terms of orbital semimajor axis length?

Jupiter: Shortest Saturn: 2nd shortest Uranus: 2nd largest Saturn: Largest

How do the following planets compare to each other in terms of sidereal period?

Jupiter: Shortest Saturn: 2nd shortest Uranus: 2nd longest Neptune: Longest

How do the following planets compare to each other in terms of rotation period?

Jupiter: Shortest Saturn: 2nd shortest Uranus: Longest Neptune: 2nd longest

How do the following planets compare to each other in terms of axial tilt?

Jupiter: Smallest Saturn: 2nd smallest Uranus: Largest Neptune: 2nd largest

Which of the following ARE ways that Jupiter differs from terrestrial planets?

it includes much more gas and liquid, its average density is lower, it is farther away from the Sun, it is larger in diameter

Mass compared to Earth:

Mercury: much less than Venus: about the same Mars: much less than

Radius compared to Earth:

Mercury: much less than Venus: about the same Mars: much less than

Axial tilt compared to Earth:

Mercury: much less than Venus: much more than Mars: about the same

Length of Solar Day compared to Earth:

Mercury: much more than Venus: much more than Mars: about the same

Currently Active Volcanism:

Mercury: no Venus: yes Mars: no

Which of the following IS evidence that objects from space collide with the Earth?

Meteor Crater in Arizona, the devastation that happened in 1908 near the Tunguska river in Siberia, the Chicxulub crater buried near Mexico

The star that is currently closest to the North Celestial Pole is

Polaris

asteroid

Rocky objects which predominately orbit the Sun between Mars and Jupiter

Why does Mars have an overall reddish color when we see its surface from afar?

The material of Mars' surface contains a lot of iron oxide, the same chemistry that makes rusting metals look reddish

nucleus

The solid part of a comet predominately made up of ice and dust

Kepler's Third Law:

The square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit.

The largest refracting telescope in the world, financed by a Chicago millionaire in the 1890's, is at the:

Yerkes Observatory

The spacecraft that soft-landed successfully on the surface of Venus (and briefly sent back pictures while sitting in that destructive environment) were called

Venera

The planet that most resembles the Earth in size and internal composition is

Venus

Venus' lack of magnetic field means that:

Venus' upper atmosphere is permanently ionized.

Which of the eight planets has a smaller mass than Mercury?

You can't fool me, Mercury has the smallest mass of the eight planets

Which of the following has a longer integration time (can collect light for a longer period of time) than the human eye?

a CCD (charge coupled device), photographic film, photographic plates

An idealized object that does not reflect or scatter any radiation that hits it, but simply absorbs every bit of radiation that falls on it is called:

a blackbody

What relatively recent event shows that impacts continue to happen in our solar system even today?

a comet (which broke into more than 20 pieces) hit the planet Jupiter in 1994

Which of the following has the greatest density?

a cubic meter of lead

Astronomers estimate that the runoff channels seen on Mars must be at least 3.9 billion years old. How do they estimate ages like this?

by counting impact craters in the regions containing these channels

Astronomers estimate that the plains of Venus are only about 500 to 600 million years old. How do they estimate dates like this?

by counting the craters visible on the surface and comparing crater counts to other worlds

To come up with the precise mathematical form of his law of gravity, Newton first had to invent the mathematical techniques that we now call:

calculus

The same gas makes up most of the atmosphere of Mars and Venus. This gas is:

carbon dioxide

If no one has ever visited the core of the Earth, how do we know that it is made of metals?

circulating liquid metals in the core set up a large (measurable) magnetic field

The smaller objects in the solar system composed mainly of ices (frozen gases) that usually orbit far from the Sun are called:

comets

Of the people who landed on the Moon, how many were trained scientists?

exactly one

The Chandra Observatory orbiting the Earth is designed to

examine sources of cosmic x-rays

According to Kepler's 2nd Law, comets (which have eccentric orbits) should spend a lot more of their time:

far from the Sun

When a chunk of cosmic material the size of a golf ball or a baseball hits the Earth's atmosphere it makes a

fireball

In radioactive dating, the measure scientists use to note how long (on average) a particular radioactive nucleus will take to decay is called its

half-life

Atoms typically consist of electrons, protons, and neutrons. The most common isotope of one element, however, only has two of these three types of particles. This element is:

hydrogen

By far the most abundant element in the giant (jovian) planets is:

hydrogen

The element that can act like a metal when it is under tremendous pressure and is probably responsible for Jupiter and Saturn's magnetism is:

hydrogen

Which of the following statements about the Earth's magnetosphere is TRUE?

it is generated by circulating liquid metal inside the Earth's core, it contains particles that come mainly from the solar wind, it was first detected in space by the Explorer 1 satellite, it extends into space over a region much bigger than the diameter of the Earth

The most likely models of the planet Mercury indicate that more than half the planet may be composed of:

metals

The bluish color that makes the atmosphere of Neptune so beautiful to the human eye is caused by the interaction of sunlight with what gas?

methane

The lakes found in the north polar region of Titan are filled with liquid

methane

The upper clouds in the atmosphere of Neptune are composed of:

methane

Which element plays the same role on Titan as water does on Earth (existing as gas, liquid, and solid)

methane

In Newton's Law of Gravity, the force of gravity gets stronger as the:

more than one of the other answer options

A very wealthy donor decides to give a large sum of money to your college or university to build the world's largest visible-light gathering telescope. From an astronomical perspective, where would be the best location to put such a telescope?

on a tall, dry mountain peak

How could you make an ordinary atom that is minding its own business into an ion?

remove one or more electrons from the atom

The troposphere (the lowest layer in the atmosphere) of Venus

resembles being about a kilometer or so under the Earth's ocean -- a huge mass of air keeps temperatures pretty much the same all over the planet

A crucial difference that helps explain why Venus is so hot and the Earth isn't is that:

on Venus, there was eventually no ocean to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

NONE of these ways is the Moon similar to Earth:

similar atmosphere, takes the same time to rotate on its axis, same gravity on the surface, roughly the same size

If there really were a Santa Claus at the North Pole, what would the cycle of the seasons be like for him and Mrs. Claus?

six months of light, followed by six months of darkness (or at least dark twilight)

Earth and Venus are often called sister planets; in which ways are they most alike?

size, density, and surface gravity

Today, scientists believe that the main reason the Earth has had periodic ice ages is:

slow changes in the tilt of our planet's axis of rotation

The absence of a magnetic field on Venus probably stems from its:

slow rotation.

The majority of the moons orbiting the outer (jovian) planets are:

small moons orbiting in a retrograde direction (opposite to the direction their planet turns and orbits)

The two regions of the electromagnetic spectrum where the Earth's atmosphere is transparent (radiation can get in) are visible light and:

some radio waves

An astronomer who is observing visible light from a glowing cloud of gas in space uses an instrument which contains a grating with thousands of grooves on its surface. What will this instrument allow our astronomer to do?

spread out the light from the cloud into a spectrum

Two stars have the same diameter and are at the same distance from us (but in different parts of the sky.) Star A has a temperature of 4000 K, while star B has a temperature of 8000K. Which of the following statements is true:

star B has 16 times the energy flux (luminosity) that star A has

What is the composition of the clouds of Venus?

sulfur and sulfuric acid droplets

A "New Age" bride and groom, who are enchanted by the Sun, want to get married on the day when it gets to be highest in the sky. If they live in the United States, around what day of the year will the wedding take place?

summer solstice

The total surface area of planet Mars is roughly equal to the

surface area of the Earth's continents

Two versions of an element with different numbers of neutrons are called:

isotopes

Meteor

"Shooting star"

Evidence for a permafrost layer of ice just a few meters below the surface of Mars include

"fluidized ejecta" craters.

Which of the following would be some of the problems faced by an unprotected Earthling stranded on Mars? (Unprotected meaning no space suit.)

(Mars is cold) the lack of liquid water today on the surface, the composition of the atmosphere, the lack of any ozone layer shielding, the low atmospheric pressure

The latitude of the Earth's equator is

0 degrees

How long is a day on Mars?

24 hours, 36 minutes

Light travels 3 x 10^5 meters every second. That number in words is:

300,000

The location of the earth in the milky way galaxy is:

A little less than 30,000 LY from the center

meteorite

A meteoroid that hits a planetary surface

satellite

An object that orbits something other than the Sun

The largest continental (highland) area on Venus is called:

Aphrodite

The largest impact basin on Mercury (located on that part of the planet which is closest to the Sun at noon) is called:

Caloris

Your friend, a graduate student in astronomy, is giving you a special tour of the local observatory. You notice that you are viewing the image from the big telescope from underneath the primary mirror; the beam of light has come through a small hole in the main mirror to an eyepiece below. This telescope uses what focusing arrangement?

Cassegrain focus

Where has frozen water has been discovered on the Moon?

Deep inside craters in the regions near the Moon's poles

The first x-ray telescope capable of forming images of x-ray source was called:

Einstein

Which of the following was not done by Hipparchus, the great ancient astronomer?

Explained retrograde motion

List the order of events that formed our Solar System.

First a cloud of dust and gas starts to collapse due to gravity, Second the dust cloud spins faster and forms a disk as it collapses, Third a protostar forms in the center of the disk, Fourth T-Tauri winds sweep gases out of the inner portions of the disk, Fifth temperatures in the center of the disk get hot enough to allow for nuclear fusion to start, creating the sun

Which of the following statements about eclipses of the Sun is true?

For a total eclipse of the Sun to happen, the Moon must get directly in front of the Sun, as seen from Earth

Newton's Third Law:

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction

The first spacecraft which did not merely fly bya jovian (or giant) planet, but actually went into orbit around it for an extended period of time was

Galileo

In what fundamental way did Galileo differ from his predecessors who had thought about the sky?

Galileo used instruments and experiments to show him what nature was doing, instead of pure logic

Which of the following ARE some of the largest moons in the Solar System?

Ganymede (around Jupiter), Triton (around Neptune), the Earth's Moon, Titan (around Saturn)

The Galileo spacecraft measured that the moon Ganymede had a magnetic field, indicating that its interior was at least partly melted and warm. What do scientists think is the most likely reason for this?

Ganymede is heated by tidal forces from Jupiter

The "prime meridian" (where longitude equals zero) passes through:

Greenwich, England

Why do many people consider Isaac Newton one of the greatest scientists who ever lived?

He combined the work of Galileo, Brahe, and Kepler into one framework. He figured out the mathematical form of a law of universal gravity. He formulated the laws that govern all motion in the universe.

comet

Icy chunks that orbit the Sun in eccentric orbits

Why are there no smaller craters on the surface of Venus, only bigger ones?

In Venus' thick atmosphere all smaller chunks of material burn up before they can reach the surface

You are on a camping trip, far away from city lights. You look up into the dark night sky, and see lots of stars, some brighter, some dimmer. All the stars you see with your unaided eye are

In the milky way galaxy

When NASA and a group of astronomers sent up a spacecraft designed to find planets orbiting other stars, they named it after Kepler. Why was this an appropriate name?

Kepler figured out the rules of planetary motion, which planets in our solar system and planets elsewhere must obey

The spacecraft that sent back the most detailed radar images of Venus and showed us features as small as a football field is:

Magellan

The spacecraft that really gave scientists their first good close-up look of the planet Mercury was:

Mariner 10

The first spacecraft to orbit another planet circled Mars in 1971. It was:

Mariner 9

Mars appears to have long branching channels that have the appearance of being formed by a flowing liquid. Yet we know that liquids would not stay liquid in the very thin atmosphere we have on the Martian surface? So how can we explain the channels?

Mars had a thicker atmosphere long ago when the channels formed

Which of the following are terrestrial planets? Select all answers that apply.

Mars, Earth, Venus, Mercury

carbonaceous chondrite

Materials that made up planetesimals that created the terrestrial planets

When a planet, in its orbit, is closer to the Sun, it:

Moves faster than average

The highest mountain on Venus is also the only feature to be named after a man; its namesake is the Scottish scientist who laid the foundations for our understanding of electro-magnetic waves. This is Mount:

Maxwell

The planet in our solar system with the shortest period of revolution is:

Mercury

Which of the following statements about Mercury's orbit is TRUE?

Mercury has the highest speed in its orbit of any planet

Which is the correct size order, from smallest to largest?

Mercury, Mars, Venus

Primary Atmospheric Gases:

Mercury: Essentially no atmosphere Venus: carbon dioxide Mars: carbon dioxide

Atmospheric Pressure compared to Earth:

Mercury: No permanent atmosphere Venus: Much more pressure than Earth Mars: Some atmosphere, but much lower pressure than Earth

Magnetic Field Source:

Mercury: liquid iron in core Venus: no magnetic field Mars: remnant magnetism in crust

According to the geocentric view, everything in the heavens had to go around the Earth, which was the center of the universe. What objects did Galileo discover with his telescope that clearly didn't go around the Earth?

Moons around the planet Jupiter

Sun

Most massive object in the solar system

Which of the following options are parts of the IAU official definition of the word planet? Select all answers that apply.

Must be big enough for gravity to make it mostly round, Must have cleared out the area around its orbit, Must be in orbit around the Sun

The first human being to step out onto the surface of a world other than Earth was:

Neil Armstrong

How do the atmospheres of the Moon and Mercury compare?

Neither body has a permanent atmosphere.

In the far future, a daring interplanetary tourist wants to go "hang-gliding" on the jovian planet with the highest equatorial wind speeds. Which planet would have the fastest wind at its equator?

Neptune

The moon Triton orbits which of the planets?

Neptune

The idea that atoms radiate energy only when their electrons move from higher to lower energy levels was first advanced by:

Niels Bohr

A politician who has just said something very dumb on an AM all-talk radio station suddenly remembers the astronomy class he had in college, and he starts to worry that his words are now moving outward into space at the speed of light (and will embarrass him forever). Does he have a reason to worry?

No, because AM radio waves are bounced back or scattered by the ionosphere and don't get into space

Some Canadian troops are sent (as part of a U.N. peacekeeping force) to a country located on the Earth's equator. At night, when homesickness makes them gaze sleeplessly at the stars, which of the following will be familiar to them (the same at the equator as in Canada):

None of the above are the same on the equator as in Canada

transneptunian objects

Objects orbiting beyond the orbit of Neptune

The largest volcano on Mars is called:

Olympus Mons (Mt. Olympus)

The person who really publicized the idea of canals on Mars and impressed it on the public mind was:

Percival Lowell

The first spacecraft to explore the environment of the planet Jupiter was called

Pioneer

Which of the following worlds does NOT have a ring?

Pluto

Which planet has the biggest moon relative to its own size? Not the biggest moon in terms of kilometers, but the biggest as a percentage of the size of the planet it orbits.

Pluto

Two worlds in the outer solar system that seem remarkably similar to each other are:

Pluto and Triton

Why is Pluto not considered to be a planet?

Pluto shares its orbit with lots of other icy bodies

The slow tipping of the Earth's axis in a circle with a period of about 26,000 years is called:

Precession

The great astronomer of ancient times who summarized and improved a system of circles upon circles to explain the complicated motions of the planets (and published the system in a book now called The Almagest) is:

Ptolemy

The dwarf planet Pluto was discovered in 1930. Since that time, which jovian planet has completed a full revolution around the Sun?

Saturn, Uranus, and Jupiter

The observation that began the 19th and early 20th century fascination with Mars as a place for life was:

Schiaparelli's seeing what seemed to him to be long straight features on the red planet

Some college students decide to form a secret society that would meet each year after graduation at a time when the day and night were the same length. Which of the following would be a time they could meet?

September 23

The first artificial satellite the human race lofted into orbit was called:

Sputnik

A type of planet that our surveys of exoplanets are revealing around other stars, but we don't have any examples of around the Sun are:

Super-Earth's

One of the most impressive features of the geology of Mars is an uplifted area about the size of North America, with volcanoes on it, which is called the

Tharsis Bulge

If the earth goes around the sun, why is the ecliptic not lined up with the celestial equator?

The Earth's axis is tilted by about 23 degrees from the vertical

Which of the following statements about the rocks brought back from the Earth's Moon by the astronauts is TRUE?

The Moon rocks were puzzling, because they resemble rocks from the Earth's crust in many ways, but also have subtle differences

How does the Sun influence the tides that we experience on Earth?

The Sun also raises tides on Earth, but its effect is smaller than that of the Moon

Evidence of liquid water in Mars' distant past suggests that it had a substantial atmosphere compared to what it has presently. What happened to its water vapor?

The atmosphere has frozen out into the polar ice caps and permafrost as Mars has cooled.

The astronomical unit (AU) as defined by astronomers is:

The average distance between the earth and the sun

coma

The cloud around the head of a comet

solar nebula

The cloud of gas and dust from which the solar system formed

A light year is:

The distance that light travels in 1 year

For scientists, an element (like gold) is defined by

The number of protons in its nucleus

After a long night of cramming for a test, your college room-mate hits his head forcefully against the wall of your room in despair. According to Newton's 3rd Law, as he exerts a force against the wall, there must be an equal and opposite force. How does that opposite force show itself in this case?

The wall exerts a force on your roommate's head and he has a headache

Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation:

There exists an attractive between any two bodies that is proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them

What do astronomers think is the origin of the many irregular moons around the outer planets (irregular meaning they are orbiting backwards and/or have eccentric orbits)?

These moons were likely formed elsewhere and captured by the giant planets

Jupiter

This object has a chemical composition that nearly matches the Sun's

The satellite which has the thickest atmosphere (so thick that it's quite a surprise for a satellite) is:

Titan

The 16th century astronomer who kept a roughly 20 year continuous record of the positions of the Sun, Moon, and planets was:

Tycho Brahe

What specific event really made it possible for the three laws of planetary motion to be discovered?

Tycho Brahe died and his assistant was able to get full access to his data

Which of the following planets has a magnetic field centered on their mantles?

Uranus and Neptune

The rings that most resemble Saturn's narrow F ring in the solar system are:

Uranus' rings

The Viking spacecraft were designed -- in part -- to search for life on Mars. Which of the following statements about the results of these experiments is true?

Viking found that the surface of Mars in the two places it searched did not have any life or even life's building blocks

Much of what we have learned about the jovian planets and their satellites has come from the work of two spacecraft called:

Voyager

Which of the following statements about the International Date Line is correct?

When crossing from west to east, you must decrease the date by one day

The Balmer Series of lines in the hydrogen atom was very important in the history of physics and astronomy. What made it so important?

When electrons change levels to produce the Balmer series, the emitted light is in the visible part of the spectrum, so the lines were easy to see with our eyes

Newton showed that to change the direction in which an object is moving, one needs to apply:

a force

Astronomers believe that Jupiter's strong magnetic field is caused by

a huge layer of metallic hydrogen inside Jupiter

Oort Cloud

a hypothesized spherical region that surrounds the solar system, that extends from the Kuiper Belt to almost halfway to the nearest star, and that contains billions of comets - a hypothesized spherical region containing icy chunks surrounding the sun at distances of of up to 1 light-year

These days the theory of the Earth's Moon's origin that best fits with the facts we have about the Moon is:

a large object hit the Earth and the collision produced a filament of material that condensed to make the Moon

A graduate student is trying to follow the weather on Jupiter for her PhD thesis. To see the big weather patterns in the upper atmosphere of the planet, she needs to have excellent resolution. What type of telescope would be best for her to use?

a large reflector located in orbit above the Earth's atmosphere

The largest visible-light telescopes in the world use what device to collect as much light as possible before the light is brought to a focus (to act as the "light bucket")?

a mirror

An asteroid is discovered to have a density of 5500 kg/m3. What is it likely mostly made of?

a mixture of 50% rock and 50% iron

What happens as an electron falls from a higher level to a lower level in an atom?

a photon is given off

What type of telescope can be used routinely on the surface of the Earth during the DAY?

a radio telescope

Which of the following is not an advantage that a reflector telescope has over a refractor telescope?

a reflector doesn't have to deal with the twinkling of the stars, as a refractor does

The Van Allen belt is

a region of trapped charged particles in the Earth's magnetosphere

When a projectile (a rock from space, say) hits the surface of the Moon, which of the following DO we get?

a rough hilly apron (or slope) of ejected material, secondary craters, an ejecta blanket, a crater

When an astronomer involved in a research project says he is going to look at the observatory's plate collection, what will he be looking at?

a series of glass plates, with light-sensitive chemicals on them, on which the appearance of the sky was recorded

The time it takes for the Sun to return to the same place in our sky after the Earth has rotated once is called:

a solar day

At their centers, all the jovian planets have cores made of:

a solid mixture of rocky and icy materials under great pressure

To break up light into the component colors that it contains, astronomers use a device called:

a spectrometer

A large body in space that consistently makes its own light (instead of merely reflecting another body's light) is called

a star

A Hertz is

a unit of frequency

The asteroid belt is

a zone where rocky chunks orbit between Mars and Jupiter

An astronomer observes two ordinary stars. The first one turns out to be twice as hot as the second. This means that the first one radiates:

about 16 times the energy of the second

Radioactive dating techniques have revealed that our Earth and Moon are approximately how old?

about 4.5 billion years

To go from a lower level in an atom to a higher level, an electron must

absorb a photon of energy

One way in which the ozone layer is useful for life forms on the Earth's surface is that it

absorbs ultra-violet light, preventing much of it from reaching the surface

To overcome the problems that blur images and don't provide the best resolution from Earth, astronomers have started using flexible mirrors that change shape many times each second. This technique is called:

adaptive optics

A friend of yours (who has not had the benefit of an astronomy course) tells you about a report he has read in a tabloid newspaper. They claim that on the dark side of the Moon, which is never in sunlight, there is a secret base of aliens who cannot stand light, and who send UFO's to Earth under the cover of darkness. Ignoring the UFO claim for a moment, what is the scientific error in this story?

all sides of the Moon are illuminated by sunlight in the course of a month; there is no dark side

The SOFIA Project is

an airplane with an infra-red telescope on board designed to fly above much of the water vapor in the Earth's atmosphere

The smallest piece of an element (like gold or lead) that still has all the properties of that element is called

an atom

We now know that the orbit of a stable planet around a star like the Sun is always in the shape of:

an ellipse

An artist who likes working with sources of light decides to make a modern sculpture out of electrified glass tubes that contain very thin (rarified) neon gas. When the sculpture is finished, and the electricity is turned on, the tubes glow with a rich red color. What we are seeing is:

an emission spectrum

Astronomers observe a typical star using a telescope and a spectrometer. They will see:

an emission spectrum, a Doppler shift, an absorption spectrum

We believe the maria on the Earth's Moon are:

ancient impact craters in which lava beds welled up from inside the Moon

The size of the device that collects radiation (such as light) is called a telescope's:

aperture

As seen from the continental United States, the Big and Little Dipper

are in the north circumpolar zone throughout the year

The mountains on the Moon

are the result of giant impacts during the Moon's long history of being hit

If you could see the new moon, at what time of day (roughly) would it rise?

at sunrise

An eccentric billionaire wants to build a mansion in a location on Earth where the effect of the seasons is the least pronounced -- where summer and winter are not that different. Where should his personal astronomer advise him to build?

at the equator

How fast do electro-magnetic waves travel?

at the speed of light

Why is there a 4-minute difference between the solar day and the sidereal day?

because the Earth is going around the Sun in the course of a year

Why are the largest craters we find on the Moon and Mercury so much larger than the largest craters we find on the Earth?

because the largest craters were made early in each world's history, and geologic activity has erased all traces of this early period on the Earth's surface

Why are almost all the craters we see on the Moon circular?

because the rocks and icebergs that hit the Moon are moving so fast, they explode on impact, making a circular hole

Why do different types of atoms (elements) give off or absorb different spectral lines?

because the spacing of the energy levels is different in different atoms

According to Kepler's third law, there is a relationship between the time a planet takes to revolve around the Sun and its

distance from the Sun

Kepler's First Law:

each planet moves around the Sun in an orbit that is an ellipse, with the Sun at one focus of the ellipse

The fact that each type of atom has a unique pattern of electron orbits helps explain why

each type of atom shows different absorption or emission spectra

In the 19th century, it became clear that magnetism was not a separate force, but was always produced by the action of

electric charges that were in motion

To leave the gravitational pull of the Earth, and explore other planets, satellites must have at least:

escape speed

Newton's First Law:

every object will continue to be in a state of rest or move at a constant speed in a straight line unless it is compelled to change by an outside force

Mercury presents the same side to the Sun

every other orbit.

The primary clouds in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn are composed of:

frozen ammonia crystals

During what phase of the Moon is the Moon up only during the night hours and all night long?

full moon

What theory of Mercury's origin can best explain the fact that its core is made of such dense materials?

giant impacts in its early history may have torn away much of its original crust and mantle

The spacecraft that visited Pluto and send back our first images:

got a gravity boost from Jupiter to get it to Pluto faster, was called New Horizons, used plutonium to keep it warm

The type of rock we find predominant in the crust of the Earth's continents is called:

granite

One of the most perplexing issues raised by the discovery of thousands of exoplanets is the existence of "hot Jupiters" - planets with the masses and compositions of Jupiter, but orbiting closer to their stars than Mercury does in our solar system. What is our best idea currently about how such "hot Jupiters" came to be?

hot Jupiters formed further out in their star system, and then migrated inward somehow

Any rock in the Earth's crust that has cooled from an originally molten state is called

igneous

In Australia (in the Southern Hemisphere), when are the days the shortest and the nights the longest?

in late June

A very rich and eccentric tourist in the future hires you to fly him to a region of Venus' atmosphere where the temperatures and pressures are the most Earth-like. Where would you take him?

in the cloud layers about 50 km above the surface

You are alone in a large, completely dark auditorium on Earth. What kind of telescope should I use from the other side of the auditorium to detect the electromagnetic radiation emitted by your body?

infra-red

An asteroid is discovered to have a density of 8000 kg/m3. What is it likely mostly made of?

iron

The atmospheric pressure on Venus:

is much higher than on Earth.

When white light passes from the air into a different medium such as glass, it:

is reflected backwards, is refracted (bent), is dispersed into different colors

At the largest and most modern astronomical observatories on Earth today, which of the following regularly happens to the image formed by the telescope?

it is recorded using an electronic detector called a CCD for later analysis

Which of the following statements about the atmosphere of Mars today are TRUE?

it is roughly as thin as the Earth's air would be about 30 km up, it has a haze made of carbon dioxide crystals, it is made mostly of carbon dioxide, there are occasionally great windstorms in the lower atmosphere

What is the source of the fine, powdery dust found on the Moon's surface?

it is the result of many impacts, breaking surface rocks apart over billions of years

Valles Marineris is a wide, deep network of chasms stretching for some 2500 miles on the surface of Mars. How do we believe such a big set of canyons formed originally?

it was caused by tectonic pressures from deep within the planet

Which of the following statements about the Galileo probe that dropped into Jupiter are TRUE?

it was slowed by atmospheric friction and a parachute, it found that the temperature and pressure increased as it got further down, it was the first spacecraft to enter the atmosphere of a jovian planet, it sent back information for a little less than an hour

When the James Webb Space Telescope is finally launched, what will be its distinguishing characteristic (what about it will really help astronomers)?

it will have the largest mirror ever put into space for observing faint objects

Which of the following IS a way that Venus resembles the Earth?

its overall density, its size (diameter), the surface gravity (which tells us how much we would weigh there)

Which of the following is a way that the planet Mercury is similar to the Moon?

its surface is heavily cratered

A friend of yours who takes her astronomy class very seriously challenges you to a contest to find the thinnest crescent moon you can find just after new moon? What time of day is best for looking for this very thin crescent?

just as the sun is setting, or just after

The number of degrees of arc that your location is north or south of the Earth's equator is called your:

latitude

Which of the following IS something that was accomplished by the Apollo missions to the Moon?

leaving experiment packages behind which continued to operate after astronauts left, the collection of almost almost 400 kg of moon samples, brought back to Earth, taking detailed photographs from the Command Module from orbit around the Moon

Sometimes, when the Moon is a thin crescent, you can still dimly make out the full disk of our satellite. What is the reason for this?

light reflecting from the Earth onto the Moon

We have two waves of light, A and B. Wave A has a higher frequency than wave B. Then wave B must have:

longer wavelength

How do astronomers learn what elements are present in a given star?

look at the absorption lines in its spectrum

About 75% of the surface of Venus consists of

lowland lava plains

An astronomer discovers a new star and wants to measure its temperature. She would typically do this by:

making a blackbody curve and finding the wavelength of the peak (maximum)

The large, roughly circular, dark, and somewhat younger regions on the Moon are called:

maria

An important way that scientists have been able to study the interior of the Earth is by:

measuring how seismic waves are transmitted through the Earth

What phase of the Moon must it be to have a solar eclipse?

new moon

The most abundant gas in the Earth's atmosphere is

nitrogen

The mountains on Pluto are made of frozen water, which at Pluto temperatures, is as hard as rock. Pluto also has a smooth, round basin which could be thought of as a frozen sea. What material is in the basin (nicknamed Sputnik) likely to be made of?

nitrogen

A very rich, very shady international banker (with residences all over the globe, including Bayonne, New Jersey) mysteriously disappears. Someone later mails a wide-angle photo of his body to a London newspaper, taken on June 22, showing the Sun exactly overhead at noon. What can the police deduce from this photograph about where on Earth the body is located?

on the Tropic of Cancer (about 23.5 degrees north)

Earthquake producing faults are much more likely to be found

on the boundaries of continental plates, where they meet other plates

The rate at which a collection of the same radioactive atoms will decay depends on:

only on internal processes within the atoms; nothing external matters

The minimum speed required to launch an object so that it remains the same distance above the ground and just falls around the Earth is called:

orbital speed

Comparing the clouds of Earth and Venus, we find that:

ours lie in the troposphere, within 10 kilometer of our surface, but Venus has a higher troposphere, with its clouds about 40 kilometers high.

Today, the chemistry of the terrestrial planets does not include a lot of free hydrogen. Chemists call the chemistry in places like the Earth:

oxidized

When a comet like Comet Hale-Bopp comes closest to the Sun in its orbit, we say that it is at:

perihelion

Small changes in the orbits of planets caused by the gravitational pull of the other planets in the solar system are called:

perturbations

The material that would eventually make all the major bodies in our solar system first gathered together as smaller pieces which astronomers call:

planetesimals

When the solar system was forming, the building blocks from which the protoplanets gathered together were the:

planetesimals (a few km to tens of km wide)

Rocks that have not been chemically modified by being significantly heated are called

primitive

I want to examine the surface of a planet which is completely covered by a thick layer of clouds all the time. What wavelength of electromagnetic radiation would I be smartest to use:

radio waves (like radar)

Not all wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation can penetrate the Earth's atmosphere. Of the following types of waves that come from space, which one is most likely to reach Earth's surface?

radio waves of the wavelength that carry FM broadcasts

How do astronomers know that the age of the solar system is about 4.5 billion years old?

radioactive dating of the primitive meteorites indicates they have that age (since they are left-over building blocks of the solar system)

A fashion designer decides to bring out a new line of clothing which reflects the longest wavelength of visible light. What color will these articles of clothing be to the human eye?

red

When a star or galaxy is moving away from us, we observe the Doppler effect by seeing the lines in its spectrum

red-shifted (shifted toward the red end of the light spectrum)

The earliest telescopes used by astronomers were:

refractors

If you want to locate someone precisely on the surface of the Earth, you specify her exact latitude and longitude. If you want to locate a star precisely on the sky, you need to specify its exact:

right ascension and declination

The lunar highlands are made mostly of rocks that

rose to the top as the Moon cooled from a molten state early in its history

A serial killer from a strange cult only kills his victims when the Moon is full. He leaves a note on the body of his latest victim, explaining that the murder was committed when the Moon was rising. What time of day did the murder take place?

roughly around sunset

A writer of mystery novels wants to portray something gruesome happening just as the full moon is at its highest point in the sky. What time of day will the gruesome event occur?

roughly midnight

Which of the following IS a way we have studied the planet Mars so far

sending a spacecraft into orbit around it, landing a spacecraft on the surface and examining the soil in an automated laboratory, studying samples of Mars that were blasted off Mars by impacts long ago, and found later on Earth, observing it through telescopes from Earth

In its overall composition, the Moon roughly resembles:

the Earth's crust and mantle

Why was the problem of devising a workable yearly calendar so difficult on Earth?

the Earth's rotation period does not divide evenly into the Earth's period of revolution

What was a surprise to astronomers when they carefully examined Neptune with the Hubble Space Telescope in 1994?

the Great Dark Spot had disappeared

Which of the following is NOT an advantage that the Hubble Space Telescope has over large telescopes on Earth?

the Hubble has a larger aperture than any visible-light telescope on Earth

Which of the following major telescopes was not located in space?

the Keck Telescope

In size, Mercury is intermediate between:

the Moon and Mars.

Comparing the densities of the Moon and Mercury, we find:

the Moon's is similar to Earth's crust, while Mercury's is similar to the entire Earth.

At which of the following locations on Earth is the direction we call East not clearly defined?

the North Pole

Why do astronauts (and cans of soft drink) float around in the Shuttle instead of falling?

the Shuttle is falling around the Earth (and everything aboard is in free fall)

In the far future, a visiting tourist from another planetary system asks to see the most massive object in our solar system. Where would you take him/her/it?

the Sun

Which of the following does the composition of a planet like Jupiter resemble:

the Sun

The terms "a.m." and "p.m." (as in see you at the movies at 8:30 p.m.) derive from what astronomical idea?

the Sun passes through the meridian in roughly the middle of the day

Mercury is a small planet and therefore has trouble holding on to an atmosphere. How then do scientist account for the extremely thin atmosphere that was found around the planet in 1985?

the Sun's "wind" of particles is chipping atoms off the surface of Mercury

Which of the following is an important part of the reason it is hotter in summer in North America than in winter?

the Sun's rays hit the Earth more directly in the Summer, and spread out less

Of the following, which has the highest resolution (ability to make out fine detail):

the Very Long Baseline Array of Radio Telescopes, stretching from the Virgin Islands to Hawaii

The Moon is heavily cratered, but the Earth which "lives next door" is NOT. Why?

the active geology and weather on Earth destroy traces of impacts over millions of years

Why does the Moon show phases in the course of a month?

the angle the Moon makes with the Sun changes and we see differing amounts of reflected sunlight

Which of the following statements about temperature changes on Mercury is correct?

the difference in temperature between Mercury's daylight side and its night side is the greatest difference of any planet in the solar system

In 1980, scientists suggested that the great mass extinction of 65 million years ago (which ended the reign of dinosaurs) may have been caused by a large impact from space. What discovery gives a big boost to this idea?

the discovery of a buried crater (about 200 km across) near Chicxulub, Mexico

Newton's reformulation of Kepler's third law allows us to measure the masses of bodies in orbit around each other, if we can measure:

the distances and periods of revolution

The presence of a Mercurian magnetic field surprised the planetary scientists on the Mariner 10 team because

the dynamo theory predicted that Mercury was spinning too slowly for one.

In an ellipse, the ratio of the distance between the foci and the length of the major axis is called:

the eccentricity

In the four terrestrial planets, the densest, heaviest materials are at the center and not evenly distributed throughout the planet. Scientists interpret this observation to mean that:

the four terrestrial planets must once have been hot enough to be molten (like a liquid)

The scarps on Mercury were probably caused by

the interior cooling and shrinking.

Ceres

the largest asteroid, also a dwarf planet

A characteristic of shield volcanoes is the formation of a crater at the summit which occurs when:

the lava withdraws and the surface collapses.

One way in which Mars closely resembles the Earth is:

the length of its day (period of rotation)

If you could somehow return to the Earth in many millions of years, which of the following will be different?

the length of the month

What formation or formations are evidence that the planet Mercury may have shrunk (gotten a bit smaller) as it cooled?

the long scarps or cliffs

Which of the following ARE correct statements about the rotation of Venus?

the two definitions of a day (how long it takes for a star to return to the same position in the sky and how long it takes the Sun to return to the same position) do not agree on Venus, Venus rotates in a retrograde way (east to west), the rotation rate of Venus had to be determined from radar measurements, Venus has the longest rotation period of any planet in the solar system

How did the world's countries solve the problem that mean solar time varies continuously as a traveler's longitude changes?

the world was divided into 24 time zones, with all communities within a time zone keeping the same mean standard time

How does Saturn's F ring stay so thin (narrow), when the other rings are so wide?

there are 2 shepherding satellites on either side of it

Which of the following statements about forces is FALSE?

there are places on Earth where all forces are absent

On which of the planets (other than Earth) could a human being step out of a spacecraft and survive without any protective gear (special suit, oxygen tanks, etc)?

there is no other planet on which we could survive unprotected

terrestrial planet

these are rocky and metallic planets that have thin or no atmospheres

Which of the following characteristics do all four terrestrial planets have in common?

they all have solid surfaces with signs of geological activity on them

Which of these did the June 1908 impact event in Siberia and the 2013 event in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk have in common?

they both exploded high in the atmosphere and produced a shock wave that reached the ground

What is one important way in which both the Moon and Mercury are different from Earth?

they do not have an atmosphere

Which of the following ARE the key reasons that so many spacecraft from Earth have visited Venus and Mars?

they each have a solid surface on which we can trace their geological history, both have tantalized us when seen through a telescope -- one because it is perpetually covered by clouds, the other because it shows seasonal changes, they are the two planets closest to the Earth, they resemble the Earth in a number of significant ways

Mars rovers (such as Opportunity and Curiosity) have identified evidence that their landing sites were once under water. Which of the following is among the kinds of evidence they have identified?

they found rock formations that show the area was under water and also minerals that only form in water

How many moons does Mars have?

two

In the future, a pair of astronauts are sent on a mission to the planet Mercury. They watch the Sun set one mercurian evening and decide they will go exploring in opposite directions and meet again the NEXT time the Sun is setting in the spot where they started. How long will they have to wait for the next sunset at that spot?

two Mercury years, 176 Earth days

To figure out what you weigh on the surface of the Moon (how much gravity there pulls you downward), you need to know

two of the above factors

A spot where magma rises to the surface can be seen as a

volcano

Today, a significant amount of new gas is joining the atmosphere of the Earth from what source:

volcanoes release gas that was trapped within the Earth

A student in your class whom you kind-of like asks you come to watch a meteor shower. What exactly are you being invited to?

watching the left-over dirt from a comet burn up by friction as the pieces hit the Earth's atmosphere

The light which allows you to see this very interesting exam is made up of waves. In these waves, the distance between crests is called the:

wavelength

What is one way that we humans are currently making the atmosphere of the Earth more like that of Venus?

we are adding carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, which is leading to global warming

Radio telescopes of modest size can't make out as much detail (have a lower resolution) than visible light telescopes. How do astronomers overcome this limitation?

we can connect several radio telescopes some distance apart together electronically to give us the resolution of a larger telescope

What is the most important reason that astronomers have learned more about our planetary system in the last 30-40 years than all of history before then.

we have been able to send spacecraft to gather information about planets and moons up close

What evidence can you give that shows the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa must be relatively young?

we see very few craters compared to the surfaces of Callisto and Ganymede

In the future, several students living on board a space station decide to have a race among different types of electromagnetic radiation. Which of the following travels through space the fastest?

you can't fool me, all of these travel through space at the same speed

Which of the jovian planets does NOT have any satellites?

you can't fool me, all the jovian planets are accompanied by satellites