ASTRONOMY EXAM 1 Flashcards
When we see Venus in its full phase, what phase would earth be in as seen by a hypothetical?
FULL
Keplers second law, which states that as a planet moves around its orbit it sweeps out equal areas in equal times, means that
A planet travels faster when its nearer to the sun and slower when its farther from the sun
T/F: Tycho used his high accuracy observations to conclude that the earth revolves around the sun
F
T/F: Columbus was the first person to discover that the earth is round
F
Galileo challenged the idea that objects in the heavens were perfect by
observing sunspots on the sun and mountains on the moon
How many laws of planetary motion did Kepler have?
3
The name of the seven days of the week are based on
the seven naked-eye objects that appear to move among the constellations
which of the following statements about an ellipse is NOT true
the focus of an ellipse is always located precisely at the center of the ellipse
the great contribution of Nicholas Copernicus was to
create a detailed model of our solar system with the Sun rather than Earth at the center
when did Ptolemy live
about 2000 years ago
Galileo observed which of the following phases of Venus
full, crescent, gibbous, new
which of the following was NOT observed by Galileo
stellar parallax
he discovered that the orbits of planets are ellipses
Kepler
his model put the sun in the center, but was not very accurate because the orbits were perfect circles
Copernicus
consider the elliptical orbit of a comet around the sun. where in its orbit is the comet moving the fastest?
when its closest to the sun
when did humans first learn that earth is not the center of the universe
within the past 500 years
the point along a planets orbit where it is closest to the sun is called the orbits
perihelion
which planet hosts the Galilean moons
Jupiter
Why did the greeks conclude that the Earth was stationary, and that the sun and the planets orbited around the Earth
They did not observe any change in the seperation of stars during Earth’s orbit
a galaxy is
a collection of a few hundred million to a trillion or more stars, bound together by gravity
during a lunar eclipse the Moons phase must be
full
T/F: in the northern hemisphere , the day that the sun is up the longest in the sky is on the June solstice
True
T/F: As earth orbits the sun, its axis is tilted from the vertical by 23-1/2 degrees, with the North Pole always tipped toward the sun
False
How long does it take the earth to complete one orbit around the sun
one year
if the moon is 3rd quarter phase, what shape does it have in the sky
a half circle
what is the ecliptic
the path the sun appears to trace around the celestial sphere each year
how long does it take our solar system to complete one orbit around the Milky Way Galaxy
230 million years
why is it summer in the northern Hemisphere when it is winter in the southern Hemisphere
the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the sun and receives more direct sunlight
T/F: if you lived on the moon, you’d see full earth when we see new moon
T
you observe a full moon rising at sunset, what will you see 6 Hours later
a full moon on or near your meridian
how does earth;s varying distance from the sun affect our seasons
it doesn’t, earth’s orbital distance plays no significant role in the seasons
if we have a new moon today, when will we have the next full moon
in about two weeks
what do astronomers mean by a constellation
a constellation is a region in the sky as seen from earth
which of the following has your “cosmic address”
you, Earth, solar system, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Local Supercluster
when is a comets orbital speed at its maximum
when its closest to the sun
what part of the electromagnetic spectrum, do the biggest telescopes on earth operate
radio
what is a asterisms
pattern of the stars
what is a constellation
a area of the sky
what is a equinox
where a planets sub-solar point passes through the equator
what is the phases of the moon
new moon, first quarter, full moon, and last quarter, waxing crescent, waxing gibbous, waning crescent and waning gibbous.
what is a lunar eclipse
SUN< EARTH< MOON
what is kepler’s 3 laws
(1) planets move in elliptical orbits with the Sun as a focus, (2) a planet covers the same area of space in the same amount of time no matter where it is in its orbit, and (3) a planet’s orbital period is proportional to the size of its orbit (its semi-major axis).
what is newton’s 3 laws
In the first law, an object will not change its motion unless a force acts on it. In the second law, the force on an object is equal to its mass times its acceleration. In the third law, when two objects interact, they apply forces to each other of equal magnitude and opposite direction
