quiz 2/21 astronomy

Which of the following forms of light can be observed with telescopes at sea level?

Both visible light and radio waves pass almost freely through Earth's atmosphere, and therefore are easily observed with ground-based telescopes. The only other light that can be observed with ground-based telescopes is infrared, but it can be detected only at high altitudes (such as mountaintops) and even then only in selected portions of the infrared spectrum.

If you had only one telescope and wanted to take both visible-light and ultraviolet pictures of stars, where should you locate your telescope?

IN SPACEWhile visible light can be observed from the ground, ultraviolet light can be easily observed only from space. Indeed, the capability of observing ultraviolet light is a major advantage of the Hubble Space Telescope over larger ground-based telescopes.

The following images show four planets in our solar system. Rank these planets from left to right based on the number of moons that orbit them, from highest to lowest. (Not to scale.)

JUPITER MARS EARTH MERCURY Jupiter has many moons as a consequence of its formation, in which moons formed in a disk of material surrounding it and its extended atmosphere at the time allowed it to capture numerous small bodies into orbit. Mars has two very small moons that it presumably captured at a time when it, too, had an extended atmosphere. Earth's single but surprisingly large moon is thought to have formed as a result of a giant impact. Mercury (and Venus) have no moons. You have correctly identified Jupiter as having the most moons among these four planets — and it does by a huge margin, because jovian planets generally have many more moons than terrestrial planets. However, you have not correctly ranked the three terrestrial planets by their numbers of moons. There is no known reason why we would expect some terrestrial planets to have more moons than others, so answering this question will require you to look up the numbers in your textbook.

What do astronomers mean by light pollution?

Light pollution refers to light used for human activities that brightens the sky and hinders astronomical observations

The following images show five planets in our solar system. Rank these planets from left to right based on the amount of time it takes them to orbit the Sun, from longest to shortest. (Not to scale.)

Notice that, for these five planets, temperature correlates with distance from the Sun: the closer to the Sun, the hotter the planet. Remember, however, that this is not always the case, because a planet's temperature also depends on its reflectivity and on the strength of its greenhouse effect (if any). For example, the greenhouse effect gives Venus a higher average temperature than Mercury, even though Venus is nearly twice as far from the Sun.

PLANETS AND MASS

SUN, JUPITER, EARTH, MARS. MERCURY, PLUTO,Be sure to notice that the masses of these objects are vastly different. For example, the Sun is more than 1,000 times as massive as all the planets combined, and Jupiter is more massive than all the rest of the planets combined.

The following images show six objects in our solar system. Rank the objects from left to right based on their average distance from the Sun, from farthest to closest. (Not to scale.)

SUN, MERCURY VENUS EARTH MARSjUPITER, SATURN URANUS NEPTUNE

images below show six objects in our solar system. Rank these objects by size (average equatorial radius), from largest to smallest. (Not to scale.)

Sizes (radii) do not vary nearly as much as the masses, but the differences are still substantial. For example, the Sun's radius is more than 100 times that of Earth, while Jupiter's radius is more than 10 times that of Earth. SUN, JUPITER, EARTH, MARS, MERCURY, PLUTO

Shown following are six different types of light that travel to Earth from the Sun. Rank these types of light from left to right based on the altitude in the atmosphere where they are completely absorbed, from highest to lowest (Earth's surface). If two (or more) of the choices reach the same altitude or the surface, rank them as equal by dragging one on top of the other(s).

That is why radio telescopes and visible-light telescopes work on the surface, infrared telescopes are useful on high mountaintops or airplanes, ultraviolet telescopes can be lofted up with high-altitude balloons, and X-ray telescopes are useful only in space. highest altitude X RAYS, ULTRA VIOLET, INFRARED, THEN EQUAL GREEN VISIBLE AND RADIO WAVES

Which technology can allow a single ground-based telescope to achieve images as sharp as those from the Hubble Space Telescope?

adaptive optics

Interferometry uses two or more telescopes to achieve

an angular resolution equivalent to that of a much larger telescope

If our eyes were sensitive only to X rays, the world would appear __________.

dark because X-ray light does not reach Earth's surface Because X rays from the Sun do not reach Earth's surface, eyes that were sensitive only to X rays would have nothing to see.

Where should you put a telescope designed for ultraviolet observations?

in Earth orbit

The twinkling of stars is caused by:

motion of air in our atmosphere