Chapter 1

Light travels 3 x 10^5 meters every second. That number is words is

300,000 meters

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

The moon

The star that provides energy for life on Earth is

The sun

Of these, which is the largest?

The universe

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

an atom

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

The laws of nature (as determined by scientists)

more than one of the above

The Astronomical Unit (AU) as defined by astronomers is

the average distance between the earth and the sun

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

the number of protons in its nucleus

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

two or more atoms