Astronomy First Exam

The tilt of the Earth's equator relative to its orbital plane is about

23.5

A star is 230 light years away. The light we see tonight from that star left it

230 years ago

How many days are there in a Lunar month (new moon to new moon)?

29.5

Joe has a weight of 180 lbs. How much would Joe weigh if he went to the Moon?

30

What is the shortest wavelength light that can be seen with the human eye?

400 nm

A person is attracted towards the center of Earth by a 440 N gravitational force. The force with which Earth is attracted toward the person is _____.

440N

What is the approximate orbital speed for an object near Earth's surface?

8 km/s

Light takes approximately ____ to travel between Sun and the Earth.

8 min

How International Astronomical Union (IAU) recognizes how many constellations?

88

If you express 93,000,000 miles in scientific notation, you would show it as .

9.3 x 10^7

What is the latitude of the South Pole?

90 degrees south

Which of the following is a reason for the appearance of dark bands in absorption spectra?

Absorption of light at certain frequencies by certain elements

Kepler's Second Law

As a planet moves around its orbit, it sweeps out equal areas in equal times

You are standing near a railroad track and a train is moving toward you at 60 mph and blowing its horn. What will you notice as the train moves past you?

As the train approaches, the horn will sound higher in pitch than when the train is moving away.

In which of the following locations can the length of daylight range from zero to 24 hours?

At latitudes greater than 66.5º north or south

September 22, 2020 marks which of the following events?

Autumnal Equinox

The emission spectrum produced by hydrogen is

Composed of a red line, a turquoise line, a blue-violet line, and a violet line.

The Renaissance astronomer who wrote the pioneering book that suggested the Earth probably orbits the Sun (instead of the other way around) was:

Copernicus

During a "leap year" we add an extra day to our calendar because:

Earth takes 365 ¼ days to revolve

A low density gas confined to a narrow glass tube is heated by an electric current so that it glows; this situation describes a "neon" light. What kind of spectrum would you expect to observe were you to pass the light of this source through a prism?

Emission Line

Which of the following is a Dwarf Planet?

Eris, pluto, makemake , ceres, haumea

Tycho Brahe used the first telescope to measure positions in the sky with great precision.

False

Who discovered four of Jupiter's moons?

Galileo

From shortest to longest wavelength, which of the following correctly orders the different categories of electromagnetic radiation?

Gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet, visible light, infrared, radio

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

Why is an absorption spectrum especially useful for astronomers?

It has dark lines in it that allow astronomers to determine what elements are in the star

When is the Earth closest to the Sun?

January

What makes it possible to see the Moon from Earth?

Light emitted by the Sun is reflected to Earth by the Moon's surface

Which planet has the fastest average orbital speed around the Sun?

Mercury

Aristotle concluded that the Earth is spherical from the curvature of its shadow on the

Moon during a lunar eclipse

What planet is said to be the first planet to be discovered through the use of mathematics?

Neptune

Is pluto bigger than our moon

No

Astronomy can be classified as what type of science?

Observational and Historical

When does a "Supermoon" occur?

Perigee

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

Polaris

Although the number of steps in the scientific method depends on how you learned it, the sequence is always the same. Which of these steps comes before the others in the list?

Propose a hypothesis

A bowling ball and feather are dropped at the same time from rest in a vacuum. Which object hits the ground first?

Same time

When the Sun and Moon are lined up and pull together, the tides they raise are called:

Spring tides

Which is the largest

The milky way

Kepler's First Law

The orbit of each planet around the Sun is an ellipse with the Sun at one focus.

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.

astronomy

The study of the objects that lie beyond our planet Earth and the processes by which these objects interact with one another.

What is absolute zero?

The temperature at which all molecular motion ceases.

Which of these sets of phases is the correct order from new to full moon for viewers in the evening sky?

Waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous

Are the following objects accelerating: Children riding a carousal around in a circle at a constant speed.

Yes

The point in the sky directly above your head at any given time is called the

Zenith

When a dense gas or solid body is heated to high temperatures the result is

a continuous spectrum

neap tide

a tide just after the first or third quarters of the moon when there is the least difference between high and low water.

n 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?

all of these travel through space at the same speed

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

an absorption spectrum

What does A.M. stand for?

ante meridian

When is the Earth furthest from the Sun?

aphelion

The big dipper and the Orion's belt are two examples of

asterisms

By definition this ideal object absorbs all energy that hits it:

blackbody

Our Sun is yellow-white in color. Which color star is hotter?

blue

Zodiac means

circle of animals

These stars are always above the horizon.

circumpolar

The way scientists know that a hypothesis in astronomy is a reasonable description of nature is to

do experiments and make observations about the predictions of the hypothesis

Which of the following is the third planet from the Sun?

earth

What particle is not found in the nucleus of an atom?

electron

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

escape velocity

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

full moon

The model where the Earth is the center of the system of planets is called the

geocentric

When it comes to our place in the solar system today, which model do we accept?

heliocentric

As a planet moves closer to the Sun its speed

increases

What property summarizes a body's tendency to stay in the state of rest or motion?

inertia

The type of electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength just longer than that of red light is

infrared radiation

The complete removal of an electron from an atom due to the absorption of sufficient energy by that electron is called _____.

ionization

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

isotopes

Adam's toy gun emits blue light, Sue's emits red light, Bonnie's emits infrared light, and James' emits ultraviolet light. Who has the most energetic toy gun?

james

Compared to a blue photon, a red photon has ____ wavelength and ____ speed.

longer, same

Right ascension on the celestial sphere has this role on the Earth:

longitude

As you walk from the North Pole to the Equator will Polaris get higher, lower, or stay in the same spot in the night's sky?

lower

Which of these properties of an object best quantifies its inertia?

mass

Which planet has the largest semi-major axis?

neptune

Solar eclipses can only occur when the moon is .

new

A shift in the direction of an object caused by a change in the position of an observer is called

parallax

When does a "Supermoon" occur?

perigee

Light is described as having a wave-particle duality. The particles of electromagnetic energy are called .

photons

What does P.M stand for

post meridian

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

precession

The velocity toward you or away from you is called

radial

Which of the following has the lowest frequency or lowest energy?

radio waves

When an object is moving away from you, the visible light it emits is Doppler-shifted toward the _ .

red

When a planet temporarily moves westward in the sky over the course of several weeks or months (instead of eastward, as it typically does), we call it:

retrograde motion

Blue light has a

shorter wavelength and a higher energy than red light

When we say the moon is waning, the illuminated part of the moon that we see is said to be .

shrinking

Radio waves travel through space at what speed?

speed of light

Star A is blue, Star B is yellow, and Star C is red. Which one of these is the hottest star?

star A

The star that provides energy for life on Earth is

sun

the color of a star indicates

temperature

Tides are mostly caused by .

the Moon's pull of gravity on the Earth

The inverse square law for light propagation indicates that:

the apparent brightness of a source of light gets weaker with distance.

The Astronomical Unit (AU) as defined by astronomers is

the average distance between the Earth and the Sun

A light year is

the distance light travels in a year

The principle that if a sound source is approaching or receding from the observer, the sound waves will be, respectively, crowded more closely together or spread out is known as _____.

the doppler effect

The Sun's apparent path around the celestial sphere is called

the ecliptic

In astronomy what set of units do we use?

the metric International System of Units

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

the number of protons in its nucleus

In Ptolemy's system the planets orbit the Earth and not the Sun. How did the system explain the retrograde motion of planets like Jupiter?

the planets moved on a small circle whose center, in turn, circled a point near the Earth

The mass of a 5- kg bowling ball would be _______ if it were located in deep space, far from any star or planet.

the same

At winter solstice

the sun reaches its most southerly point on the celestial sphere

Why were epicycles used in Ptolemy's model of the solar system?

to explain the retrograde motions of planets

To report the ____ of an object, we must specify both its speed and its direction.

velocity

You are observing a star about 95 trillion km (10 light-years) away. How old is the most recent information you can get about this star?

10 years

What is the approximate diameter of our own Galaxy (the Milky Way)?

100,000 lightyears