Final Exam Astronomy (Part 2)

Which of the following temperatures is closest to what you might expect on the planet Neptune?

(-350F)

Which of the following magnitudes corresponds to the brightest star? a. 1.2 b. 2.6 c. 4.1 d. -4.2 e. 1.0

(-4.2)

The mass of a carbon atom is 12.00amu while the mass of a helium-4 atom is 4.003amu. If three atoms of helium fuse to form carbon, how much mass is converted into energy?

(0.009amu)

Compared to the Earth, the planet Jupiter is roughly

(10 times as large.)

Barnard's Star shows a heliocentric stellar parallax near 1/2 seconds of arc. The distance from our Sun to Barnard's Star is

(2 parsecs.)

The star 3-Orionis is 8 parsecs from our Sun. The light from 3-Orionis has been traveling for

(26.4 years.)

The violet lines in the Hydrogen spectrum are normally seen with wavelengths 410nm and 434nm. In the light of a star that is moving toward us, we might expect to see those lines at wavelengths of

(400nm and 424nm)

What total force will cause an object with a mass of 10kg to gain 5 meters per second every second?

(50 Newtons.)

Which of the following statements is falsifiable? a. All of the fish in Lake Nyak are beautiful. b. There are fish in Lake Nyak. c. All of the fish in Lake Nyak are green.

(All of the fish in Lake Nyak are green.)

Which of the following objects is the most likely to be considered a scientific model? a. A blackboard. b. A computer program. c. An oil painting of a person. d. A test-tube. e. An accurate map of Richmond.

(An accurate map of Richmond.)

Underneath the Atlantic Ocean is an undersea mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. That ridge is caused by

(An upward current in the Earths Mantel.)

Suppose that you drop two objects from the same height at the same time. Both objects are heavy enough to be unaffected by air resistance and one object is twice as heavy. Who predicted that the heavier object would hit the ground long before the lighter one?

(Aristotle.)

Which of the following spectral types corresponds to a star on the main sequence?

(G2V)

The second space probe to reach the planet Mercury was

(MESSENGER.)

The angle between the rotation axis of a planet and the perpendicular to the plane of its orbit is called its axial tilt. Which of these planets has an axial tilt that is less than one degree?

(Mercury.)

Which of the following space probes flew past Saturn but not past Jupiter?

(None of these.)

The thickest part of the visible Milky Way is near the constellation

(Sagittarius.)

Consider a planet that is similar to Earth in size and Mass with a semiliquid interior. According to our current understanding, which of the following things is also necessary for that planet to have active plate tectonics?

(The core temperature should be much higher than the surface temperature.)

The frequency of a wave is defined to be

(The number of crests that pass in one second.)

A lunar crater is best described as

(a circular ring wall surrounding a flat area.)

A brown dwarf shines primarily with

(energy left over from its formation.)

The magnetic field of Earth's Moon is

(essentially zero.)

One objection to a solar system model that has the Earth moving around the Sun is that we would then see nearby stars seem to shift back and forth relative to more distant stars. The correct answer to that objection is that

(even the closest stars are so far away that the shift is very small.)

Suppose that the Space Shuttle is in a roughly circular orbit near the surface of the Earth, moving at around 5 miles per second. Suppose the Space Shuttle flips over backwards and res its rocket engine to slow its speed to 4.96 miles per second. The shuttle will then

(follow an ellipse that descends a bit and then rises again.)

Supernova explosions tend to

(form elements heavier than iron.)

To measure the heliocentric stellar parallax of a star, you mostly need a telescope with

(high resolving power.)

The rotation axis of Saturn is

(inclined at an angle to the perpendicular that is similar to Earths rotation axis.)

The Russian Venera 9 space probe was sent to Venus, where it

(landed on the surface and took pictures.)

Aristarchus measured the angle between the Sun and the Moon when exactly half of the Moon was illuminated. If the Sun were actually just two or three times as far away as the Moon, he would have found that angle to be

(less than 90 degrees by an amount that was easy for him to measure.)

The X-rays that reveal the possible presence of a black hole are the result of

(matter heating up as it falls toward the hole.)

The patent for inventing the telescope was obtained by

(nobody because it was too simple an idea to patent.)

Carbon is

(one of the four most common elements in the universe.)

The role of the DNA molecule in current Earth life is to

(provide the patterns for the enzymes that carry out the chemical processes of life.)

Colder air always

(sinks.)

In the picture that we used in class, with the Sun above the top of the picture and the Earth shown with its North Pole facing you, the part of the Earth that is to the right of the North pole in the picture is experiencing

(sunrise.)

The term greenhouse effect refers to

(the absorption of infrared light by gases in the atmosphere.)

Pathfinder was the first

(to use airbags to land on Mars.)

Which of the following phases of the Moon would be seen high in the south at dawn?

(waning quarter.)

An example of a planet which may occasionally have liquid water but retains an atmosphere of mostly carbon dioxide is

Mars

The reason that the Crab Pulsar is slowing down is

its magnetic field is dragging through nearby gas.)