astronomy

Question 1

Ptolemy

Answer 1

proposed a geocentric system of astronomy that was undisputed until the late Renaissance

Question 2

Copernicus

Answer 2

Renaissance-era mathematician and astronomer who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe

Question 3

Brahe, Tycho

Answer 3

Danish astronomer whose observations of the planets provided the basis for Kepler’s laws of planetary motion

Question 4

Kepler, Johannes

Answer 4

German astronomer and mathematician who is considered the founder of celestial mechanics

Question 5

Galileo

Answer 5

Italian astronomer and mathematician who was the first to use a telescope to study the stars

Question 6

Newton, Isaac

Answer 6

English mathematician and physicist; remembered for developing the calculus and for his law of gravitation and his three laws of motion

Question 7

Hubble, Edwin

Answer 7

played a crucial role in establishing the fields of extragalactic astronomy and observational cosmology

Question 8

Ursa major

Answer 8

a constellation that is the most conspicuous of the northern constellations

Question 9

Ursa minor

Answer 9

It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy

Question 10

Orion

Answer 10

prominent constellation located on the celestial equator and visible throughout the world

Question 11

Canis major

Answer 11

a constellation in the S hemisphere close to Orion, containing Sirius, the brightest star in the sky Also called the Great Dog

Question 12

Cassiopeia

Answer 12

a constellation in the northern sky, named after the vain queen Cassiopeia in Greek mythology

Question 13

Red giant

Answer 13

a very large star of high luminosity and low surface temperature

Question 14

White dwarf

Answer 14

a small very dense star that is typically the size of a planet. A white dwarf is formed when a low-mass star has exhausted all its central nuclear fuel and lost its outer layers as a planetary nebula

Question 15

Main-sequence star

Answer 15

fusing hydrogen in its core and has a stable balance of outward pressure from core nuclear fusion and gravitational forces pushing inward

Question 16

Supernova

Answer 16

a star that suddenly increases greatly in brightness because of a catastrophic explosion that ejects most of its mass

Question 17

Black hole

Answer 17

a region of space having a gravitational field so intense that no matter or radiation can escape

Question 18

Parallax

Answer 18

the effect whereby the position or direction of an object appears to differ when viewed from different positions, e.g., through the viewfinder and the lens of a camera

Question 19

Light-year

Answer 19

a unit of astronomical distance equivalent to the distance that light travels in one year

Question 20

Polaris

Answer 20

A star located at the end of the handle of the Little Dipper, in the constellation Ursa Minor, approximately 408 light years from Earth, and almost at the north celestial pole