Astronomy Flashcards
which way does the earth rotate (looking down from North Pole)
counterclockwise
geocentric
the view that earth is the center of the universe
Which is the North Star?
Polaris
Which direction is Polaris?
Always North (for northern hemisphere) It's very close to Celestial North
Celestial North
The point in the sky where straight north from the north pole. Polaris is very close to Celestial North.
How many constellations are there?
88
What are common Northern Sky constellations?
Casseiopeia, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor
Summarize the story behind Cassiopeia constellation
Named after queen of Ethiopia who was very vain and said she was prettier than nymphs in the sea, which made Poseidon the sea god mad
Who are the players in the Cassiopeia constellation story?
Cassiopeia - Vain Queen of Egypt
Poseidon -god of sea that was mad she drowned her daughter
What does Ursa Major mean and what language is it from?
Latin for Big Bear
What is an asterism?
It’s a constellation that is inside of another constellation. (Technically the smaller one isn’t a constellation, it’s an asterism.)
What are two of the most famous asterisms?
Little Dipper is inside the constellation Ursa Minor;
Big Dipper is inside the constellation Ursa Major.
Which asterism is Polaris in?
It’s the last star in the handle of the Little Dipper.
What is the story of Calisto?
Calisto was a nymph in Greek myth - was in a secret group of women who worshipped Artimas.
Which northern constellation is mentioned in Job?
Big Bear
Job 38-31-33 - Can you lead for the Mazzaroth in their season or can you guide the Bear with its children? (Also mentions a couple other constellations to be studied later.)
What did the ancients believe when the sun and planets didn’t rotate the same way as the stars?
The ancients thought that there were multiple celestial spheres rotating around the earth.
What is the Greek meaning of “planet”?
Wandering star
Did the Greeks understand that planets were planets?
No, they just thought they were wandering stars.
What is the path called that the sun takes through the sky?
Ecliptic
The planets stay pretty close to this as well.
Why do the planets follow the ecliptic line?
Because the planets are all pretty much lined up in a plane.
When was Uranus discovered?
1781
When was Neptune discovered?
1846
What was the furthest planet that the ancients knew about?
Saturn
Ancient peoples thought Saturn was what God?
Sikkuth and Kiyyun (star god - didn’t say who)
Molech (Canaanites)
Phoenecian’s - Baal-Human - threw children into fires for Molech
Cronus - youngest of 12 original titans - Greeks
Saturn - what the Romans renamed Cronus
Leviticus 18:21 - do not offer children to Molech
What was the Roman festival for Saturn?
Saturnalia - December festival where they turned social order upside down
What common calendar item is named after Saturn?
Saturday
What is Saturn’s mass compared to the earth?
95 times as large
What is Saturn’s circumference?
227,000 miles (9 times bigger than earth)
How long does one orbit around the sun take for Saturn?
Takes 29.45 earth years to revolve around the sun
It moves at 21,000 mph but since orbit is so big it takes a long time.
How long is a Saturn rotation on its axis?
Rotates at 10 hours 34 minutes - so fast it’s flattened out
What is Saturn made of?
Mostly hydrogen gas - one of the
What is the weather of Saturn?
-288 degrees F. Winds can be 1000 mph
Who first saw Saturn’s rings?
Galileo. He said they looked like ears. But they are particles 1 cm to a mile wide.
What is Saturn’s biggest moon?
Titan - it is 96% of the mass of other 60 moons AND the rings.
Who was the first to see Titan, and when?
Dutch guy Christiaan Huygens in 1655.
What are the lakes in Titan made of?
Liquid methane. Might be the most hospitable place for humans…has the right elements but cold!
What is Voyager 1 famous for?
It has left our solar system completely
What is Cassini?
Orbiting Saturn - finding moons, water on moon, sending back data, first probe to moon, landing in the outer planets.
Which direction does the earth spin
Eastward, so it makes it look like things are moving westward
What is the definition of a year?
The time it takes for the earth to orbit the sun
What is the ecliptic?
The path the sun takes through the sky
What does the Zodiac mean?
“Circle of animals”
How many constellations are there in the Zodiac?
12
Do you see the zodiac all of the time?
No, can only see some of them each season.
What does solstice mean?
“sun stands still”
Winter solstice
the sun is at the southernmost point below the celestial equator
What does equinox mean?
“equal night”
Arctic Circle
23.5 degrees from the North Pole
What is Land of the Midnight Sun?
The sun never sets because the arctic is facing the sunlight. In the top 23.5 degrees is the Arctic Circle. Six months of sunlight, six months of darkness.
Polar Night
The sun doesn’t rise for six months because it is always away from the sun.
Tropic of Cancer
23.5 degrees north of equator. The sun would be exactly above you (zenith) on the summer solstice. North of this, the sun doesn’t reach the zenith.
Tropic of Capricorn
23.5 degrees south of equator. On the winter solstice, the sun reaches the zenith.
When does the sun reach the zenith in the tropics.
Twice a year the sun reaches the zenith - once on the way toward north, once on the way toward south.
When does the sun reach the zenith on the equator?
Summer and Winter Solstices
Temperate Zone
The zone between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic.
Where is there continual twilight and when?
Far north, near the summer solstice. (Or far south, near the winter solstice)
Are the lines that make the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn latitude or longitude lines?
Latitude lines
What is the Pisces Austrinus?
Pisces Austrinus which means “The Southern Fish”
It’s one of the few constellations with a bright star in the fall. More visible closer to equator.
What is the bright star in the Pisces Austrinius constellation?
Fomalhaut which means “mouth of the fish” or “the lonely star of autumn.
What does the Aquarius constellation mean?
Aquarius means water bearer - it’s a dim constellation.
What does Aquarius mean to the Egyptians?
Appears when the Nile began to flood each year.
What does Aquarius mean to the Greeks?
Story of Gananine???
What is a Pisces about?
A big monster that Aphrodite and her son Eros changed themselves to fish to escape. Two fish with their tails tied together.
What asterism is inside asterism?
The square inside Pegasus
What does Pegasus represent?
A flying horse (just the front of it, upside down)
Who was Medusa?
Snakes for hair, turn to stone if you look at her, beautiful and terrifying. Persius used special sword to kill her and Pegasus the flying horse came out of her. Persius rescues Andromeda by taking Medusa’s head to scare off the sea monster.
What are the fall constellations?
Pisces Austrinus, Pisces, Andromeda, Casseopeia, Pegasus, Aquarius, Perseus
What is the closest galaxy to the Milky Way?
The Andromeda Galaxy - 2.5 million lightyears away. 1.5 trillion stars
How many galaxies are in the local group that the Milky Way is in?
about 50 in the local group -
about 10 million light years wide
What is our supercluster called?
Laniakea Hawaiian word meaning “immeasurable heavens” - about 520 million light years.
How many superclusters are there?
10,000,000
How many stars that we can see are there in the universe?
1 plus 29 zeros
100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
About how many galaxies are there in a supercluster?
100,000
What does the word zodiac mean?
Circle of animals (Latin “zodiacos ciclum” or something like that)
The path the sun takes through the sky
ecliptic
What is the difference between astrology and astronomy?
astrology is about predicting the future saying the stars “mean” something;
astronomy studies the motions of the heavens for practical reasons
What are the zodiac constellations?
Any Time Granny Covets Leo’s Vegan Lunch She Should Cut A Pizza.
Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo Virgo Libra Scorpius Sagittarius Capricornus Aquarius Pisces
Where does the Bible talk about the zodiac?
Job 38:31-32 - can you bind the chains of Pleiades? or loose the cord of the Orion? Can you lead for the Mazzaroth (the zodiac) in their season or can you guide the bear with its children?
Psalm 19 - God set in the heavens a tent for the sun. In ancient times, the sun was said
to move through 12 tents or 12 houses throughout the course of the year.
This is a reference to the constellations of the Zodiac
Which of these is not a reason God created the stars:
- To give light to the earth
- To mark days and years
- To separate day from night
- To predict the future
- To mark seasons
- To help us navigate the earth
- To predict the future
What does Astrology mean
the study of stars
What does Astronomy mean
the law of stars
What did ancient Jews call the zodiac constellations?
Mazzaroth
Which constellations are mentioned in Job?
Orion
Pleiades
Ursa Major
How many superclusters are there?
100,000
Where do the zodiac constellations lie?
Along the ecliptic
What does Psalm 19 say?
Psalm 19: The heavens declare the glory of god and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
In them (the 12 zodiac constellations) he has set a tent for the sun…
How many constellations of the zodiac can you see at once?
six (half of the sphere)
What are the two bright stars in Gemini?
Pollux and Castor
What is the story that goes with Pollux and Castor?
They are known as princes of Sparta, sons of Queen Leda, and were aboard a ship with Jason and the storm calmed. Became a sailor’s god.
How does the Bible refer to Pollux and Castor?
It was an Alexandrian ship with the heads of Pollux and Castor on it
What is the blue/purple glow on a ship (and what is it)?
It’s called St. Elmo’s Fire and it is caused by electricity in a thunderstorm.
What is the story about them (later)?
The immortal brother asked to become mortal to be with his brother. Zeus instead had them switch daily and it’s an example of brotherly love.
What is the Taurus
Zeus turned himself into a white bull to lure a woman to the island of Crete.
Sumarians saw it as a bull - it’s in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Ishtar asks for bull of heaven.
What is the brightest star in Taurus?
Aldebaran, a first magnitude orange star 44x times bigger than the sun.
What is Aries?
The ram - very faint.
Why was Aries important when it’s faint?
The sun used to be in Aries at the Vernal Equinox. Signaled a new season.
What does Capricornus mean?
Sea Goat, half fish, half goat. In winter solstice. Sun used to be in the constellation in the winter solstice. Was called the southern gate to the sun, or the cave of the sun’s rising. Tropic of Capricorn is named after this.
What is the story of Capricornus?
Pan - a man-goat, shepherd companion. Escaped from something by jumping in water and swimming away.
Which model of the world is when you think everything revolves around the earth?
Geocentric model
What
Planet means Wandering Stars
What did the ancients think the planets were?
Wandering stars because they didn’t follow the rules
Who came to earth as weary travelers and who was hospitable to them and where did it happen?
Zeus and Hermes were the gods that came to earth.
Bacchus and Philemon were hospitable.
It happened in modern day Turkey, in Lystra.
The gods destroyed the city with a flood and their house became a temple that they guarded until they turned into
What story from the Bible happened here?
The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. They called Barnabas “Zeus” and called Paul “Hermes” and the people brought a bunch of offerings to them. Paul and Barnabas said they are just men and pointed them to God instead. from Acts 14:8-15.
What was Zeus’ (the king god) Roman name?
Jupiter
What were the various names of Zeus?
Romans = Jupiter
Greeks = Zeus
Germanic = Thor - chief of lightning
Babylonians - Marduk
Why was Jupiter considered the king of the gods?
- Because it’s bright (-1 1/2 magnitude to -3 magnitude). There are only three things brighter - Venus, the moon and the sun.
- It takes Jupiter 1 year to go through each zodiac sign.
How big is Jupiter?
2.5 times bigger than all the planets combined.
318 times bigger than earth.
88,846 miles diameter. 11 times the diameter of the earth.
Circumference - 272, 946 miles
How many earth years is a Jupiter year?
11.86 years (this is why it is in each zodiac constellation for a year)
How long is one rotation on its axis (a Jupiter day) in earth time?
It’s the fastest spinning planet - 9 hours and 56 minutes per rotation.
Is Jupiter a gas giant or a rocky planet?
Mostly gas. Deep in, it becomes liquid, and maybe there is a rocky metal core.
Mostly hydrogen gas like the sun.
What is the surface temperature?
-162 degrees fahrenheit. (Not as cold as Saturn, but cold.
Clouds on Jupiter are made up of what?
Ammonia crystal and sulfur
Talk about Jupiter’s red spot.
First seen 1660’s maybe, but observed for sure since 1880s.
Winds are 250 mph. Six days to get around the whole spot.
Three earths fit in red spot.
Which satellite took the first great pictures of the red spot in 1979?
Voyager 1
What comet collided with Jupiter?
Shoemaker Levy 9
Which planet has the most moons?
Over 60 on Jupiter, the most according to the video.
Saturn, according to Alex, since new ones discovered since the video was made.
What is special about the four biggest moons of Jupiter?
They were discovered by Galileo and are called the Galilean moons. They are huge - everything else orbiting is .003% of the total.
They were the first
What are the names of the Galilean moons?
Europa (Phonecian woman that Zeus tried to get by turning into a bull)
Io (Zeus changed her into a cow so wife Hera wouldn’t suspect)
Callisto (Beautiful nymph Zeus tried to get by turning into Artemis and then she ended up in the sky as a bear Ursa Major)
Ganymede (Prince of Troy that became the cupbearer - constellation Aquarius)
What is there to know about Europa?
It’s a water-ice rock, might have liquid water underneath.
sixth biggest moon in solar system
smallest of the four
smoothest object n solar system
Io
100 mountains, some taller than Everest
Sulfur and sulfur dioxide gas
Callisto
3rd largest moon in the solar system made of rock, maybe a subterranean ocean carbon dioxide very cratered best place to live for humans
Ganymede
largest moon in solar system larger than Mercury 1/3 covered in craters thin oxygen largest of Jupiter's moon
Which constellation actually kind of looks like what it is an is easy to find because it has 3 really bright stars?
Orion
Which constellation is mentioned in the Bible more than any other.
Orion
Which constellation has 3 stars on its belt right at the c
Orion
Which star is in Orion, is a red super-giant, and how big is it? Where is it in Orion?
Betelgeuse. It is in Orion’s left shoulder and 300-400 times the diameter of the sun.
How far away is Betelgeuse and how bright is it compared to other stars
9th brightest star in the sky and is 640 light years away
Where does the name Betelgeuse come from?
The hand of the central one, from Arabic
Which star is the 7th brightest star in the sky, and where is it in Orion?
Rigel. In the right knee of Orion
What are facts about Rigel?
40,000 brighter than the sun if they were at the same place. It’s super-hot - we’d have to live 200 times as far away as we are from the sun (or 5 times as far away as Pluto)
It’s 773 light years away.
What does Rigel’s name mean?
Left leg of the great one (but it’s the right knee)
What is interesting about the three stars on the sword of Orion?
The middle one is actually a nebula, not a star
What is a nebula?
Group of clouds of dust and gases
How big is the Orion nebula?
24 light years across
What did the Aborigines in Australia think Orion was
A canoe holding 3 guys fishing, and one of them caught the forbidden fish, so they were captured and sun goddess “Aloo” or “Waloo” pulled them into to the sky in a waterspout to remind people not to catch the forbidden fish
What did all the ancient people think Orion was?
Syrian/Ancient Arabs: The Giant Iceland: The Armed King Greeks: Warrior Hero Orion - that one stuck Mayan: The Warrior Navajo: The slim one (young warrior)
Who was Orion’s dad? What’s the story?
Poseidon, god of the sea. Orion can walk on water. So Orion walked across the Agean Sea. He was taken in as King Onamopium’s huntsman. Onamopium’s name means wine drinker.
Orion was at a party and got drunk and flirted with the King’s daughter, so he gouged Orions eyes. He asked Ephestus? or Thestus? for help and his apprentice guided him. They went to Helios the sun god who healed them.
Another Legend: Hunting with Artemis
