Earth and Space chapter 21

According to the Ptolemaic model of the universe how many heavenly bodies could be observed wondering along the background of stars?

D) Seven

Why did Galileo's observation that Venus showed phases like the moon indicate that the geocentric theory of the solar system is not possible?

It demonstrated that Venus cannot be in orbit around Earth between earth and the sun because it shows full and new phases that would never occur with geocentric geometry

Alpha Centauri is a famous Star because it is one of the closest stars to earth. Where would you look in the night sky for Alpha Centauri?

Look for the brightest star in the constellation Centaurus

Gallio observed several features using the telescope. Which one of the following did he not discover

The two moons of Mars

What is the modern explanation for what the ancient Chinese called guest stars?

They are Nova or Supernova.

How did the Greeks estimate the size of the earth?

They measured the angle of the sun above the horizon at midday in two places with different latitude and used the angle to estimate the circumference of the earth.

The southern cross is the southern hemisphere constellation that is as famous the big dipper in the northern hemisphere because of the brightness of the stars. It has a southern hemisphere declination slightly higher than the big dipper's northern hemisphere declaration. Is it visible anywhere in the United States?

Yes, it is visible in Hawaii during the summer months

The apparent westward drift of the planets compared to the background stars is called _____

retrograde motion

At the beginning of spring, the vernal equinox, what is the right ascension of the sun?

0

Kepler's third law states that the planets orbital period squared is equal to its means solar distance cubed. Consequently, the solar distances of the planets can be calculated when their periods of revolution are known. The orbital period of Jupiter is 12 years, what is the distance from the sun in astronomical units?

5.2

Why were planets called "wanderers" by early Astronomers?

B) They move relative to the stars

In the Ptolemaic model of the universe, The stars are attached to the _____

Celestial sphere

The earliest astronomical records appear to have been made by the ancient Chinese, Egyptian's and Babylonians in order to _____

Determine when to plant crops or hunt animals based on seasonal changes

This scientist was the first to use the telescope in astronomy

Galileo

This scientist wrote a book entitled dialogue of the great world systems that compared to earth centered system with the sun centered system

Galileo

Tyco Brahe set out to disprove Copernicus, so why is he famous for developing modern astronomical theory?

He made very precise measurements that were key data used by Kepler.

The true shape of the planetary orbits was discovered by ______

Johannes Kepler

Three laws of planetary motion were discovered by _______

Johannes Kepler

Who wrote the book entitled Of the Revolutions of Celestial Spheres?

Nicholas Copernicus

The first modern astronomer to propose a Sun-centered universe was _____

Nicolaus Copernicus

Think about the correlation of the celestial coordinate system, the total of the earths axis, in the positions on earth. If you are an observer in the southern hemisphere, 2° north of the Tropic of Capricorn, what time of year will you be able to see the north star?

On the southern hemisphere summer solstice, around December 21

This scientist determine the nature of the forces that kept the planets in their orbits

Sir Isaac Newton

Which of these men formulated the law of universal gravitation?

Sir Isaac Newton

What is the modern explanation for guest stars that appear in the night sky and then disappear?

Stars that go nova or supernova and appear as bright objects during the event

Why do the planets drift east relative to the stars and then move west for periods of time?

They are moving in the same rotation sense as the earth around the sun, but as the earth moves faster (or slower, depending on the planet) the motion appears to be backwards.

The planets are wanders in the night sky because they move relative to the stars. However, the moment is limited to the plane of the solar system, which is dish shaped. So relative to the celestial coordinate system, how do the planets actually move across the sky?

They move along the zodiac

Astrology is The folklore that arose from watching alignments in the night sky and the belief that the celestial events controlled human events. A 1960s folk song, the age of Aquarius has numerous astrology references that relate to the positions of objects in the sky. The song has a line: " when the moon is in the seventh house, in Jupiter aligns with mars, then Peace will guide the planet..." from your knowledge of the stellar constellations in the celestial coordinate system, what does this line mean?

When Jupiter and Mars a line in the sky, in the moon is in the seventh constellation of the zodiac, then peace

The belt of constellations throughwhich all the planets move is called the

Zodiac

In the Ptolemaic model of the universe, the ____

b. Earth was the center of the universe

Planets appear to move ____ each night, but occasionally they appear to stop in reverse direction

eastward

One of the discoveries which led to the modern view of the solar system was that the orbits of the planets are ______

ellipses

When viewing the planets, Mars appears to move backwards, or retrograde, because ________.

it is rotating around the sun slower than the earth's rotation

Any variance in the orbit of a planet from its predicted path is referred to as _____

perturbation