Astronomy

Question 0

What is the sun?

Answer 0

An ordinary sized star

Question 1

Asteroid belt

Answer 1

345 million km wide

Located between mars and jupiter

Question 2

4 main galaxies

Answer 2

Elliptical
Spiral
Barred spiral
Irregular

Question 3

What happens when a comet nears the sun?

Answer 3

Its frozen nucleus starts to melt, releasing dust particles and gas to form a COMA and 2 tails. One gas and other dust.

Question 4

What is a star?

Answer 4

A star is a huge ball of gas that is held together by gravity and is made up of mostly hydrogen as well as helium.

Question 5

What is the celestial street directory?

Answer 5

Imaginary globe with earth at its centre.

Question 6

RA

Answer 6

Right ascension- longitude

Question 7

DEC

Answer 7

Declination- latitude

Question 8

What is a radio galaxy?

Answer 8

A galaxy that gives off energy in the form of radio waves from clouds of matter that have been blasted to either side of the galaxy.

Question 9

What is a quasar?

Answer 9

A galaxy whose centre is so bright that it obscures the outer regions.

Question 10

What is a light year?

Answer 10

The distance light travels in a year. 300000 km every second.

Question 11

What is a meteor?

Answer 11

Meteroids that burn up completely in earths atomosphere.

Question 12

What is an asteroid?

Answer 12

An irregularly shaped rocky object left over from the formation of the solar system.

Question 13

What are comets?

Answer 13

Dirty snowballs of ice mixed with dust, frozen carbon dioxide and carbon containing matter.

Question 14

What is a meteorite?

Answer 14

Meteroids that have made it to the ground without burning up completely.

Question 15

What is the oort cloud?

Answer 15

A region beyond Pluto where comets originate.

Question 16

What does ‘celestial’ mean?

Answer 16

‘Of the sky’

Question 17

Define galaxy

Answer 17

A huge collection of gas, dust and stars spinning in space, held together by gravitational forces.

Question 18

What is another name for the southern cross?

Answer 18

Crux

Question 19

What are the three different satellite orbits?

Answer 19

Geostationary
Asynchronous
Polar

Question 20

Geostationary orbit

Answer 20

Communication satellites

Data is transmitted to and from communication satellites using electromagnetic radiation.

Question 21

Asynchronous orbit

Answer 21

Observation satellites

Question 22

Polar orbit

Answer 22

Orbit in a path at right angles to the rotation of the earth.
Communication and observation satellites.

Question 23

What are some the applications of remote sensing technology?

Answer 23

Weather forecasting
Tracking pollution
Land use

Question 24

Two types of Earth based telescopes

Answer 24

Optical- large mirrors

Radio- large parabolic dishes

Question 25

What is the southern cross?

Answer 25

A constellation that can be used to help locate the south pole.

Question 26

Open clusters

Answer 26

A few hundred stars

Question 27

Globular clusters

Answer 27

Up to one million stars

Question 28

What did edmund hubble do?

Answer 28

Classified galaxies according to shape.

Question 29

What is the eliptic line?

Answer 29

The line followed by the sun as it moves across the sky.

Question 30

Halleys comet

Answer 30

A comet that is on an elliptical orbit (goes into the oort cloud then comes out again) that comes by every 74 years.

Question 31

When does a meteor shower occur?

Answer 31

When the earth passes through a region of space containing a cloud of dust.