Solar Systems CH. 1-6 Test

The latitude of the Earth's equator is

0 degrees

An astronomy textbook, when printed out, weighs four pounds on the surface of the Earth. After finishing your course, you are so tired of the book, you arrange for NASA to shoot it into space. When it is twice as far from the center of the Earth than when you were reading it, what would it weigh? (Note, assume that the book has been moving away from the Earth, not falling freely around it.)

1 lb

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 of the seasons back into accord

From horizon to opposite horizon, the sky takes up how much angular distance?

180 degrees

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

230 years ago

Light travels 3 x 108 meters every second (after rounding). That number in words is

300,000,000 meters

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

A force

The location of the Earth in the Milky Way Galaxy is

A little less than 30000 LY from the center

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

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

A star

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

Adams and Leverrier

During the period we have daylight savings time, we

Add one hour to local standard time

Which of the following is the Earth NOT located in?

All of the Above

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?

All of the above would be different from Florida

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

An Atom

Within a constellation, a smaller, recognizable pattern of stars is often called:

An asterism

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

Aristarchus

From a city in the U.S., 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?

At the North Celestial Pole

What problem has precession caused for many of the schools of astrology?

Because of precession, the constellations are no longer lined up with the astrological signs that need them; since astrology was set up, the two have slipped one sign apart

When the authors of our textbook say that astronomers are like police detectives trying to solve crimes, they are explaining that:

Both astronomers and detectives must test their hypothesis against any evidence that they gather

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

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

Celestial Equator

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:

Circular satellite velocity

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

Constellations

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

Copernicus

In Copernicus' day, people were worried about the idea that the celestial sphere seemed to turn around us once a day because the Earth rotates. They argued that if the Earth were to rotate so fast, it should fly apart. According to our textbook, what was one response Copernicus had to this worry?

Copernicus argued that the idea that the much larger celestial sphere is turning one a day meant that the celestial sphere would be torn apart even more

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

Do expiriement and observations about the predictions of the hypothesis.

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

Einstein

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

Galileo

The first person who regularly turned a telescope to astronomical observations (and published his observations) was:

Galileo Galilei

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

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

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

Greenwich, England

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

Heliocentric

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

In late Ju8ne

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

The idea that objects (in the absence of an outside force) tend to continue doing what they are already doing is called the law of

Inertia

When an atom has lost one or more electrons, it is said to be:

Ionized

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

The scientist who worked out the mathematics of the connections between electricity, magnetism, and light in the 19th century was:

James Clerk Maxwell

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 first radio telescope was built in the 1930's by

Karl Janksy

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 everywhere else must obey

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

Latitude

. In the Northern Hemisphere, the altitude (height in degrees above the horizon) of the North Star is always roughly equal to the

Latitude of the observer

In locating objects on the celestial sphere, we call the number of degrees east or west that something is from Greenwich, England its:

Longitude

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

Mercury

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

New moon

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 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

The planet in our solar system whose orbit actually brings it inside the orbit of another planet is:

Pluto

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

Polaris

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

The Earths Axis

The natural object (not one that humans built) in space that's closest to Earth is

The Moon

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

The North Pole

The celestial sphere turns once around each day because

The Planet We live on is rotating

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

The Suns ryas hit the earth more directly in the summer, and spread out less

Let's say we find a star that is located on the points or circles in the sky listed in the answer choices below. Then, on the same night, we move to a location on Earth that is some significant distance from our first location. There will now be a different star at or on:

The Zenith

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

Recently, the media, always trying to make things sound sensational, have started to call totally eclipsed moon "the blood moon." Why does the Moon look reddish to us when there is a total lunar eclipse?

The earth's atmosphere bends different colors of light to a different degree

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

The ecliptic

The Earth's escape speed (the speed you need to get away forever) is about 25,000 miles per hour. Escape speed depends on the gravity of the object trying to hold the spacecraft from escaping. Based on your understanding of gravity, how will the escape speed from the Moon compare to the escape speed from Earth?

The moon's escape speed will be smaller than the Earth's

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 planet's moved in a small circle whose center, in turn, circled a point near the Earth

The seven days of the week are named after

The seven wandering objects in the sky that were visible to the ancients

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

The shuttle is falling around th3 Earth

Which statement about the solar month and the sidereal month is correct

The solar monthly 9is more than two days longer than the sidereal month

Someone who observes the sky every clear night in Boston for many years will NEVER get to see:

The south circumpolar zone

Which of the following is NOT an argument for showing that the Earth must be round:

The sun is seen blocking different constellations over the course of a year

What would you have to change about the Earth to stop our planet from having significantly different seasons?

The tilt of its axis

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 room-mates head and he has a headache

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

All molecules (like molecules of water or carbon dioxide) are made up of

Two or More Atoms

The 17th 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

A Hertz is

Unit of frequency

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

Astronomers discover a new comet that orbits the Sun, but has its aphelion (the furthest point in its orbit) beyond Neptune. Astronomers studying this comet have the right to expect that it:

Will follow Newton's laws of motion

Which of the following types of telescopes can be used ONLY above the Earth's atmosphere?

X-ray telescope

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

Yerkes Observatory

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

Zenith

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

Which of the following has the greatest average energy of random atomic and molecular motion?

a cube of the sun

Which of the following has the greatest density?

a cubic meter of lead

In a radio telescope, the role that the mirror plays in visible-light telescopes is played by:

a large metal dish

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

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

a photon is given off

Which of the following statements about photons is FALSE?

a photon visible light cannot pass through the atmosphere of the Earth, and thus cannot be seen at the Earths surface

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

a radio telscope

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

Which of the following is NOT a detector of radiation from space that astronomers have used?

a refracting telescope

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

a self-contained "packet" of electro-magnetic energy

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 chemical on them which the apperearance of the sky was recorded

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

a spectrometer

From a particular location on Earth, why can we see many more total eclipses of the Moon than total eclipses of the Sun?

a total lunar eclipse is visible over a much larger part of the Earth's surface than a total solar eclipse

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

A dashing Romanian count asks his sweetheart to marry him. She says she will give her reply when the Moon is full. If he asked when the Moon was at first quarter, how long will he have to wait?

about a week

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

absorb a photon of energy

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

Two stars are giving off electromagnetic radiation. The hotter star will:

all of the above

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

all of the above

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

all of the above

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

all of the above

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 off a more: 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

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

an elipse

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

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

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 and, as a result, most scientist are very doubtful that it can predict anything meaningful about our lives.

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

at sunrise

Where on Earth do stars always circle the zenith (and never rise and set)?

at the North Pole

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 do telescopes have to have a good motorized drive system to move them quickly and smoothly?

because the Earth is rotating, with the telescope attached to it

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

because the Earth's rotation is variable due to the pull of the moon.

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

Why do astronomers prefer to put infrared telescopes on high-flying airplanes or on satellites in space?

because the water vapor in the lower atmosphere is very good at absorbing inferred

How did Eratosthenes measure the size of the Earth?

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

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 most important function of an astronomical telescope is to:

collect as much light as possible and bring it to a focus

A new technique called adaptive optics allows astronomers to:

compensate for changes in the Earth's atmosphere and achieve better resolution

After a nice dinner around the campfire on a camping trip, you and a friend decide to get away from the fire to observe the stars. As you get farther and farther away, you see the brightness of the fire:

decreased as the distance squared

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

Even with the best and largest telescopes, we can't see all the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, even though these same telescopes can show us other galaxies. Why is that?

dust in space between stars builds up over large distances and blocks the light of stars behind the dustier parts of the Milky Way

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

each type of atom shows different absorption of 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 velocity

By the term universe, astronomers mean

everything that we can observe

The Chandra Observatory orbiting the Earth is designed to

examine sources of cosmic X-rays

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

explained retrograde motion

Which of the following was NOT done by Galileo Galilei?

explaining retrograde motion with the heliocentric hypothesis

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

far from the Sun

You and some friends decide (during a wild party held at the time of the Full Moon) that you cannot live without having the secret recipe for the veggie burger they serve in the college cafeteria. So you decide to plan a break-in to steal the recipe from the chef's office. So that you don't get caught, you want to carry out your plan when there is no moonlight in the evening. What is the next phase of the Moon with no evening moonlight (i.e. when the Moon rises roughly at midnight or later)?

first quarter

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

for a total ellipse the moon must get directly infant of the sun

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

full moon

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

full moon

Which of the following has the highest frequency?

gamma rays

The energy of random atomic and molecular motion is called

heat

You are an astronomer who wants to study a faint star in the process of being born, which gives off most of its faint radiation in the infra-red. Which of the following would NOT be a step you would want to take?

heat your telescope, so its delicate optics are not cold

One of the great triumphs of spectroscopy was when astronomers identified a new element in the Sun (one that was only later found on Earth). Today, this element is called:

helium

Typically, astronomers express the right ascension of a star on the sky in what units?

hours, minutes, and seconds

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

Taking astronomy in college ruins you for having any kind of ordinary job, so after graduation you decide to become the leader of a new religious cult. You decide to hold a big religious festival around the time that the days are shortest and the nights are longest in the United States. At what time of year will these celebrations be held?

in late December

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

The Julian calendar made the significant advance of:

introducing the leap year, so that every fourth year had an extra day, c

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

isotopes

Why is an absorption spectrum especially useful for astronomers?

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

One reason that human eyes evolved to detect visible light is:

it is a band of the spectrum where the sun puts a great deal of energy

Which of the following statements about infrared radiation is TRUE?

it was first discovered in 1800 in an expiriment using sunlight and thermometers

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 statements about the force of gravity is FALSE?

its strength is inversely proportional to the mass: the more mass, the less gravity

Consider a radio wave from the transmitter of your favorite radio station, which has just reached the antenna of the radio in your room. Which of the following statements about this radio wave is CORRECT?

its wavelength is much longer than the wavelength of the light you see reflected from the page of this exam

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

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

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 planet Neptune was discovered by means of:

mathematical calculations of how it was perturbing the motion of a neighbor planet

Of these which is the closest to us?

moon

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

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

more than one of the above

In Newton's Law of Gravity, the force of gravity goes up as the:

more than one of the above

The laws of nature (as determined by scientists)

more than one of the above

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

more than one of the above

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

moves faster than average

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

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

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

As of the time our textbook went to press, 118 different elements had been discovered. All of the ones with atomic number over 92 have been made in physics laboratories. When element 119 (one that has not yet been identified) is found, provided it is like the other artificially made elements, it will:

only remain stable for an extremely small fraction of a second

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 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

I want to examine the surface of a planet that is covered by a thick atmosphere (which includes oxygen and contains a very thick layer of water clouds that never clears). What wavelength of electromagnetic radiation would I be smartest to use:

radar waves

Which of the following has the longest wavelength?

radio waves

Not all wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation can penetrate the Earth's atmosphere. Of the following types of waves that come from space, which one are you likely to be able to detect most easily from our planet's surface:

radio waves of the wavelength that carry FM broadcast

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

The earliest telescopes used by astronomers were:

refractors

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

remove one or more electrons from the atom

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

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

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 midnigfht

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 moths of darkness

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

The fastest speed in the universe is:

speed of light

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 as spectrum

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

spring tides

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

The star that provides energy for life on Earth is

sun

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

In 1911 Ernest Rutherford did a famous experiment using fast-moving alpha particles as bullets and very thin gold foil as a target. The results of this experiment showed that:

that the nucleus of an atom was tiny compared to the size of the whole atom

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

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

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

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-ray telescope on Earth

In what location on Earth could an eager math student NOT use her solar-powered calculator at any time at all during the course of a day in June?

the South Pole

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 amou8ntds of redoec6ed sunlight

The Astronomical Unit (AU) as defined by astronomers is

the average distance between the Earth and the Sun

We observe a glowing cloud of gas in space with a spectroscope. We note that many of the familiar lines of hydrogen that we know on Earth seem to be in a different place. They are shifted toward the blue or violet end of the spectrum compared to their positions in the spectrum of glowing hydrogen gas on Earth. From this we can conclude that:

the cloud is moving toward us

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

A light year is

the distance light travels in one year

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

the eccentricity

The ground state in an atom is

the electron with the lowest amount of energy

Planck's constant relates:

the frequency of a wave to its energy (when thought of as a photon)

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

the keck telescope

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

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

Every celestial object appears to go around the Earth once a day. In addition to this motion, which celestial object has the fastest apparent motion in the sky?

the moon

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

the nuclear repels the electrons which move around it

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

the ozone layer

When they build big new (visible -light) telescopes, astronomers want to put them in places where they will get the best views of the sky. Which of the following is not an important part of how astronomers select places for new telescopes?"

the place must be near a university or college

Christian Doppler discovered what we now call the "Doppler Effect" by measuring:

the properties of sound waves coming from a group of musicians on a moving, open railroad car

Which of the following statements about electromagnetic radiation is FALSE?

the radiation consist of tiny charged particles given off by the nuclei of atoms

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

the same as its revolution around the Earth

Which of the following is not a type of electromagnetic wave with lower energy than visible light waves?

the sound waves coming from transistor radio

Which of the following is NOT a result of the Earth's precession?

the stars twinkle when seen from the surface of planet Earth

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

the sun also raises tides open Earth, but its effect os smaller than that of the moon

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

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.

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

Of the following, which consists of electro-magnetic waves with the shortest wavelength?

the waves of a dental x-ray

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

The strip of the sky through which the Sun, the Moon, and the bright planets appear to move in the course of a year is called:

the zodiac

(In the absence of a strong magnetic field), what is the chief factor that determines what type of electromagnetic radiation objects give off:

their temperature

Which of the following statements about forces is FALSE?

there are places on Earth where all forces are absent

When astronomers do radar astronomy, they

they bounce a radar beam off the surface of solid objects in our solar system

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 assemblebly that was made of 36 smaller hexagonal mirror working together

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

Of these, which is the largest?

universe

In the summer of 1996, the European Space Agency announced that it would be suspending the operations of the International Ultraviolet Explorer. Astronomers who were most unhappy about that announcements were likely to be studying what types of objects?

very hot stars

If I were to scale up an atom until it were the size of a sports arena, the space filled by the positive charges inside the atom (according to the work of Ernest Rutherford early in this century) would be:

very small (perhaps the size of a soccer ball) and in the middle

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

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 solution of a larger telescope

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

A single star in the process of forming starts by spinning slowly (while it is quite large and relatively cool.) As the star collapses under the pull of its own gravity, its size decreases. As a result, its rate of spinning:

will increase

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, they all travel the same speed