Astronomy Exam

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Killer Asteroids

"More money is spent on making movies about ____________ than on actually finding them."

Sun is larger than earth

Aristarchus was able to prove that

Energy

As the frequency of a wave increases, the _______ of the wave also increases.

Metals

As the solar nebula cooled, which compounds were the first to condense from a gas to a solid?

Brighter

According to the Stefan-Boltzmann Law, a larger star will appear _________ than a smaller star of the same temperature.

Decrease

According to the small angle equation, if an object at a fixed distance is suddenly shrunk to a smaller size, then the angular size will

Increase

According to the small angle equation, if you bring an object closer to the observer, the angular size will

Ursa Major

All of the following are constellations in the Zodiac, EXCEPT

Young

An HR Diagram of a star cluster shows that nearly all of the stars fall along the main sequence. From this information, we can tell that the star cluster must be ...

Few Centuries

An explosion the size of the Tunguska Event is likely to happen every

Multiple independent methods

How can astronomers be sure that their measurements of distances to galaxies are accurate?

Distance/speed

How can astronomers measure the age of the universe from the speed and distance of a single galaxy?

Increase Magnification

How can you increase the resolution of a telescope?

Doppler Effect

How did Hubble and others measure the speed of galaxies moving through space?

300-500

How many asteroids (that we know of) are on a potential collision course with Earth?

300 Billion

How many stars are in the Milky Way?

Discovered Cepheid variables

Hubble was able to prove that galaxies are very far away because he

Less than 100 feet away

If a galaxy were shrunk down to the size of a paper plate, then the next nearest galaxy would be...

Sunset

If the full moon is rising, what time is it?

Sunrise

If the full moon is setting, what time is it?

First Quarter

If the moon is setting at midnight, what phase is it?

Third Quarter

If the moon is setting at noon, what phase is it?

Sunrise

If the new moon is rising, what time is it?

Dust

If you do not account for ____________, you may conclude that the distribution of stars in the sky provides evidence that we are located at the center of the Milky Way.

Smooth dark region on the moon where lava once flowed

Maria

On top of

On Mercury and the Moon, we notice that larger craters __________ smaller craters.

Upper-Right

On a standard HR Diagram, stars with the largest radius will appear in the _________ corner.

Upper-Left

On a standard HR diagram, where would you find the most massive main sequence stars?

Due West

On an equinox, the Sun sets

North of West

On the summer solstice, the Sun sets

We don't feel the earth moving

One of the main objections to the heliocentric model was that

Number of sunspots

One way that we can observe changes in the overall magnetic dynamo of the sun is

Ultraviolet and infared

Our atmosphere acts like a filter, which blocks

Space Telescopes

Parallax measurements of distant stars were dramatically improved with the use of

True

Professional astronomers, in general, know very few constellations in the night sky.

Retrograde Motion

Ptolemy's improvements were important because they explained

True

Ptolemy's model of the solar system was by far the simplest and most elegant model.

Hundreds of times per second

Pulsars appear to be rotating

Bright light emanating out of craters

Ray

Pulverized rock covering the moon as dust

Regolith

8-bit

Regular jpeg images have only 256 "levels" available in each pixel, so they are considered

Raised ridge on surface of Mercury

Scarp

Mercury has a network of strange wrinkles across its surface called

Scarps

Blue Book

Sitting on the table is a red book and a blue book. Which one is hotter?

Olympus Mons

The largest mountain in the solar system is

12 Hours

The length of the day on an equinox is

Equator

The location of zero latitude

Width of the lines

The luminosity of a star can be determined by measuring the _____________ in the stellar spectra.

Applying Kepler's third law

The mass of our galaxy has been found by ...

75%

The mass of the sun is composed of about ______ hydrogen.

Surface is Wet

The moon Titan is special because

Winter Solstice

Your noontime shadow will be the longest on which day of the year?

Prime Meridian

Zero point for longitude

Absolute Magnitude

_____________ measures how bright an object would appear if it were exactly 10 parsecs away from earth.

Nuclear Fusion

Every star, including our own sun, is powered by

All

Newton is credited with which of the following?

Largest mountain ever discovered

Olympus Mons

Earth + Jupiter not planets

Why do some astronomers object to the new definition of a planet that was adopted in 2006?

Planet lost its internal heat to space

Why doesn't Mars have active volcanoes today?

Change in position is tiny and hard to notice

Why was the parallax of the closest stars not observed until 200 years after the invention of the telescope?

Constellations provided a calendar to support agriculture

Why were constellations essential for ancient peoples?

Flat

According to astronomers' best measurements, space appears to be ....

Newton

A complete physical theory to explain the motion of the planets was developed by

Elliptical

A galaxy that looks like a smooth squashed sphere would like be classified as a(n) __________ galaxy.

Escape Speed

A gas particle will escape a planet's atmosphere if it moves faster than the

Cold, ton of gravity

A planet will keep a large atmosphere if it _________ or __________.

45 Degrees

A star located halfway up the sky due south would have an altitude of

Four times greater

According to Newton's Law of Gravity, if two objects were to move twice as far apart, the force of gravity between them would be

Very large impact crater on Mercury

Caloris Basin

Absolute magnitude

Cepheid variables make good standard candles because their period is closely related to their _____________.

Molecular Clouds

Cold clouds of gas and dust between stars are called ...

False

Copernicus was the first person to suggest that the Sun is at the center of our solar system.

False

Copernicus was the first to be able to prove that the Earth orbited around the Sun.

Every type of galaxy

Dark matter is found in

Celestial Equator

Declination is measured north and south from here

Completely unrelated to one another

Describe how the stars in a constellation are connected to one another.

40 Miles

During the Tunguska Event, people were thrown 20 feet through the air, even though they were ________ away from the explosion.

Not lens

Each pixel acts kind of like a

False

Edwin Hubble single-handedly made all of the discoveries necessary to prove that our universe is expanding.

White Dwarf

Electron degeneracy is what holds up a __________ against the compressing force of gravity.

True

In Ptolemy's model, it is possible to have a planetary orbit without retrograde motion.

Emit or absorb light

In order for an electron to move from one orbit to another, it must

Blue star

In the sky, you see a red star and a blue star. Which one is hotter?

Winter Solstice

In the southern hemisphere, the Sun will reach its highest point in the sky on

Looking at solid material heated to hot temperature

Kirchoff's Laws suggest that a continuous spectrum (plain rainbow) is caused when

Looking at hot gas against dark background

Kirchoff's Laws suggest that emission lines in a spectrum are caused when

Largest mountain on earth

Mauna Kea

Has no athmosphere

Mercury gets incredibly hot and incredibly cold because

False

Most astronomers believe that space ends at the edge of the observable universe.

Red-shifted

Most of the galaxies we observe in the sky have spectra that are

Continuous Spectrum and Absorption Lines

Star spectra contain

Before 300 BC

Sunspots were first observed

Can be seen from far away

Supernovas are particularly useful as distance indicators because

Visual

The "v" in "V filter" stands for

False

The Hubble Tuning Fork diagram proves that galaxies gradually move from being elliptical galaxies to spiral galaxies over time.

Doppler Method

The _________ for discovering exoplanets looks for tiny dips in light as a planet passes in front of its star.

Altitude

The angle measured up from the horizon is called

Declination

The angle that measures north and south from the celestial equator is called the ...

Mercury

The appearance of Earth's moon is nearly identical to

Several Million

The black hole at the center of the Milky Way has a mass of _________ solar masses.

Declination

The change in seasons is caused by the change in the Sun's

Occam's Razor

The concept in science that the simpler ideas are preferred to the more complex ones is known as

Zodiac

The constellations that the Sun passes through are called the

Parallax

The cosmic distance ladder begins with the most direct measurements of distance, such as ....

3 Kelvin

The cosmic microwave background allows us to talk about the "temperature of the universe." What is roughly the temperature of the universe today?

Curvature Constant

The curvature of space as a whole is primarily determined by

Main sequence

The diagonal line across the middle of the HR Diagram is known as the ...

Distance Modulus

The difference between the apparent magnitude and the absolute magnitude is known as the ...

William Herschel

The discovery of light "beyond the rainbow" is attributed to which scientist?

Mapping distribution of globular clusters

The distance to the center of our galaxy can be found from...

Energy levels of electrons in the cloud

The exact wavelength of the spectral lines of a gas cloud are determined by

-12

The full moon has an apparent magnitude of roughly

Meridional Altitude

The height of the Sun in the sky at noontime is called the

Temperature

The horizontal axis of the HR Diagram is

Georges Lamaitre

The idea of the big bang model was first proposed by....

Kepler

The idea that planets do not move at constant speeds in their orbits can be attributed to

Declination

The north celestial pole has a(n) ________ of 90 degrees.

Frequency

The number of waves passing a point each second is the

Photosphere

The part of the sun that we see with our eyes is called the

Ecliptic

The path of the Sun on the celestial sphere is called the

Zenith

The point directly overhead is called what

Zenith

The point with the highest altitude

Shadows on earth

The size of the Earth could be measured accurately in ancient times by using

True

The small angle equation was known to people in ancient times.

Kepler's Third Law

The statement: "A planet's orbital period squared is equal to its semimajor axis cubed." is also known as

Newton's First Law

The statement: "An object in motion will continue in motion unless acted on by an outside force." is also known as...

Kepler's First Law

The statement: "Planets move in ellipses with the Sun at one focus." is also known as

Volcanoes

The surface of the moon contains geologic evidence for ___________ on the moon in the past.

Regolith

The surface of the moon is covered with a fine powder of pulverized rock called

5700 K

The temperature at the surface of the sun is about

Luminosity

The total energy that a star produces in one second is known as the

Altitude, Azimuth

The two coordinates of the "horizon coordinate system" are

Phone Company

The two engineers who discovered the cosmic microwave background worked for

Prime Meridian

The zero point of longitude is ....

90 Degrees

To an observer located on the earth's north pole, what is the altitude of the north celestial pole?

Velocity v Distance

What are the axes of the graph of Hubble's Law?

Flat rotation curves far from center of galaxy

What evidence do we have that there is dark matter in the galaxy?

Greenhouse Gasses

What factor most helps the Earth maintain a relatively constant temperature?

Gradual warming of sun

What initiated the runaway greenhouse effect on Venus?

0 Degrees

What is the altitude of the horizon?

90 Degrees

What is the altitude of the north celestial pole for an observer standing on the north pole of the earth?

270 Degrees

What is the azimuth of due west?

Invent Universe

What is the first step in making an apple pie from scratch?

Mass

What is the key quantity that controls the evolution of a star?

Untimely Death of Tycho

What key event allowed Kepler to develop his own model for solar system motion?

Carbon Dioxide and Water Vapor

What molecules dominated the Earth's primordial atmosphere?

Hot gas pressure

What outward force balances against gravity in a star like our sun?

Red and Green

What two colors of light would you combine to make the color yellow?

Gravity + Heat

What two factors influence whether gas particles stay or leave a planet's atmosphere?

More or less all

When Kepler began his work, which solar system model was able to make the most accurate predictions?

Other stars catapulting comets toward earth

When the sun passes through densest parts of the galaxy, we risk ...

Into the Past

When we look into the night sky, we are literally looking

Grains of sand

Where could you find 300 billion of something in everyday life? (Select all that apply)

Photosynthesis

Where did the oxygen in our atmosphere come from?

Eratothenes

Which ancient astronomer measured the radius of the Earth?

Vesto Slipher

Which astronomer worked a decade before Hubble to measure the spectra of galaxies?

Miami and Amsterdam

Which cities would be covered with water if the Greenland Ice Sheet melted completely?

Doppler + Kepler

Which equation(s) are used to detect the presence of dark matter in galaxies?

Temperature + Radius

Which of the following factors influences the luminosity of a star? (Select all that apply)

So cold that it does not shine

Which of the following is NOT a possible explanation of dark matter?

Circular

Which of the following is NOT a type of galaxy identified by Hubble?

-1

Which of the following magnitudes would correspond to the "brightest star."

Cleared neighborhood around orbit

Which of the following parts of the formal definition of a planet does Pluto fail to meet?

All

Which of the following planets in our solar system have rings?

All

Which of the following provides clear evidence for dark matter?

All

Which of the following provides observational evidence that Mars has weather and an atmosphere?

Ultraviolet

Which of the following regions of the electromagnetic spectrum has the shortest wavelength?

1 Solar Mass Star

Which of the following stars will take the longest to go from a protostar to a compact object?

Dust gives HII regions red color

Which of the following statements about interstellar dust is FALSE

Emits small amount of light

Which of the following statements best describes the mass in the outer parts of the Milky Way (beyond the orbit of the sun)?

B

Which of the following stellar spectral types corresponds to the hottest stars.

GPS, TV, cell phones

Which of the following technologies use radio waves?

New Methods For Treating Cancer

Which of the following was not listed as an unexpected benefit of astronomy research?

Not Mauna

Which of the four observatories you explored had the worst light pollution?

Waning Gibbous

Which phase comes between full and third quarter?

Waxing Crescent

Which phase comes between new and first quarter?

Waning Crescent

Which phase comes between third quarter and new moon?

First Quarter

Which phase of the moon comes between waxing crescent and waxing gibbous?

Edwin Hubble

Which scientist used Cepheid variables to measure the distance to faint "nebulas" in our sky, proving they were actually whole other galaxies?


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