Astronomy Quiz 2

all of the stated things would be different from the way it is in Florida

A graduate student in geology who grew up in Florida (near the southernmost tip of the United States) gets to accompany her research professor to the North Pole. What will be different at the North Pole from the way she remembers the sky in Florida?

Moons around the planet Jupiter

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?

by measuring the height of the Sun in the sky on the same day in two cities at different latitudes

How did Eratosthenes measure the size of the Earth?

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

If the Earth goes around the Sun, why is the ecliptic not lined up with the celestial equator?

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

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?

True

In a book published in 1543, Copernicus advanced the heliocentric theory of how the solar system is organized.

latitude of the observer

In the northern hemisphere, the altitude (height in degrees above the horizon) of the North Star is always roughly equal to the

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

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

Celestial equator

On the celestial sphere, halfway between the celestial pole lies the

True

One way Galileo demonstrated that the heliocentric hypothesis was correct was to show that the phases of Venus visible through his telescope could only be explained if Venus went around the Sun.

Copernicus

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

the ecliptic

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

The planet on which we live is rotating

The celestial sphere turns once around each day because

Ptolemy

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

Zenith

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

Galileo

The scientist who first devised experimental tests to demonstrate the validity of the heliocentric model of the solar system was

The Earth's axis

The south celestial pole and the north celestial pole lie in the sky directly above

Polaris

The star that is currently closest to the north celestial pole is

False

When Galileo pointed his "spyglass" (telescope) toward the night sky, he discovered that the planet Mars had four large moons.

retrograde motion

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:

Heliocentric

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

Aristarchus

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

Constellations

the 88 sectors into which astronomers today divide the celestial sphere (the whole sky) are called

at the north pole

where on earth do stars always circle the zenith (and never rise and set)?

at the north celestial pole

From a city in the US, where in the sky would you look to see a star that is not turning with the motion of the sky in the course of a night?