astronomy

Question 1

Ptolemy

Answer 1

a 2nd century Greek mathematician, astronomer and geographer

Question 2

Copernicus

Answer 2

a mathematician and astronomer who proposed that the sun was stationary in the center of the universe and the earth revolved around it

Question 3

Brahe, Tycho

Answer 3

made accurate observations of the stars and planets

Question 4

Kepler, Johannes

Answer 4

discovered that the orbit of Mars was an ellipse

Question 5

Galileo

Answer 5

a natural philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician who made fundamental contributions to the sciences of motion, astronomy, and strength of materials

Question 6

Newton, Isaac

Answer 6

known for having invented the calculus in the mid to late 1660s

Question 7

Hubble, Edwin

Answer 7

determining that there are other galaxies in the Universe beyond the Milky Way, and for observing that the universe is expanding at a constant rate

Question 8

Ursa major

Answer 8

Ursa Major completes a full rotation around the North Star every 24 hours, and for that reason, it can never be seen below the horizon

Question 9

Ursa minor

Answer 9

the group of stars that includes the north pole of the heavens and the stars which form the Little Dipper with the North Star at the tip of the handle

Question 10

Orion

Answer 10

a group of stars in the sky that looks like a hunter with a line of three bright stars for a belt

Question 11

Canis major

Answer 11

the Greater Dog, one of Orion’s two hunting dogs that follow him in the sky

Question 12

Cassiopeia

Answer 12

is most notable because of its W shape, which is said to represent the Queen sitting on her throne

Question 13

Red giant

Answer 13

a dying star in the final stages of stellar evolution

Question 14

White dwarf

Answer 14

is what stars like the Sun become after they have exhausted their nuclear fuel

Question 15

Main-sequence star

Answer 15

is any star that has a hot, dense core which fuses hydrogen into helium to produce energy

Question 16

Supernova

Answer 16

occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion

Question 17

Black hole

Answer 17

is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other electromagnetic waves

Question 18

Parallax

Answer 18

the apparent displacement or the difference in apparent direction of an object as seen from two different points not on a straight line with the object

Question 19

Light-year

Answer 19

the distance light travels in one year

Question 20

Polaris

Answer 20

the bright star almost directly above the North Pole