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astronomy > astronomy history test > Flashcards

astronomy history test Flashcards

1
Q

What did Kepler’s first law say?

A

A planet orbits in an ellipse with the sun at a focus

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2
Q

what was Galileo charged for?

A

Heresy

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3
Q

What was Hubble’s big moment of discovery that changed astronomy?

A

Our galaxy is the not entire universe

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4
Q

Why didn’t Einstein like Lemaitre’s big bang theory?

A

Because Lemaitre had a religious background and didn’t believe he knew about science.

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5
Q

What was Newton considered the “father” of?

A

Calculus and physics

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6
Q

Why did the ancient men start taking an interest in astronomy and why did they need it?

A

They needed it to tell the time to harvest their crops

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7
Q

If the focal points of an ellipse get further away from the center, what does that do to eccentricity?

A

it makes it go further from zero and closer to 1 making it flatter

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8
Q

how did Copernicus try to refine Ptolemy’s explanation for the retrograde “loops” of planets?

A

explained it with parallax instead of epicycles

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9
Q

moving from perihelion towards aphelion, would a planet be speeding up or slowing down?

A

slowing down

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10
Q

are the eccentricities of the planets generally closer to 0 or 1?

A

0, making them more circular

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11
Q

who was the first person to see the moon up close and see the moons of Jupiter?

A

galileo

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12
Q

who developed the first working mathematical model for gravity that made good predictions of motion?

A

newton

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13
Q

who came up with the solar system view that was accepted for over a millennium even though it was wrong?

A

Ptolemy

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14
Q

whose personality clashed with Brahe’s to the point that he could not finish his equations till after Brahe died to acquire his data?

A

Keppler

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15
Q

who created an early catalog of stars and named many of the stars?

A

chinese and Arabic astronomers

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16
Q

who proposed that matter was able to curve space-time to create the orbits that we currently observe for the planets?

A

Einstein

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17
Q

Brahe discovered a supernova in the constellation Cassiopeia. What controversial idea was he able to prove?

A

The heavens may change

18
Q

who was the primary defender of the heliocentric theory of Copernicus?

A

galileo

19
Q

who was the first to seriously propose that the universe was created from a “big bang?”

A

Lemaitre

20
Q

who was the first to embrace the idea that the planets, stars, etc. all worked together in a “system”?

A

aristotle

21
Q

why was there conflict between newton and hooke?

A

they accused each other of stealing each others work

22
Q

what experiment by Edington confirmed that Einstein’s relativity might actually be right?

A

observed solar eclipse and saw stars behind the sun proving light could bend

23
Q

what orbiting bodies tend to have the highest eccentricity in our solar system?

A

comets

24
Q

How were the “ancients” able to tell the difference between stars and planets?

A

because the planets moved in retrograde, while the stars moved in prograde

25
Q

how do you use Kepler’s third law to figure out the length of time for a planet to go around the sun?

A

p^2=a^3

26
Q

what major breakthrough in the study of astronomy began around the beginning of the 1960s?

A

ability to space travel and put telescopes in space

27
Q

where and what is Stonehedge?

A

an observatory in England

28
Q

what was the first planet to be discovered?

A

uranus

29
Q

why does Saturn appear to move more slowly across the sky than Mars over a long period of time?

A

farther away from the sun

30
Q

nationality of Aristotle

A

greek

31
Q

nationality of Copernicus?

A

polish

32
Q

nationality of einstein and keppler?

A

german

33
Q

nationality of galileo?

A

italian

34
Q

what did galileo learn from dropping two balls from the leaning tower of pisa?

A

weight doesn’t affect gravity

35
Q

Using kepler’s second law, why does the wedge nearer to the sun look different than the one that is on the other side?

A

objects move faster closer to the sun

36
Q

why did Lemaitre have a hard time finding support for his theory?

A

he was a catholic priest, and was accused of not being a good scientist

37
Q

what important contribution did the Egyptians and greeks leave for us?

A

the size and shape

38
Q

what time of year is earth at perihelion?

A

winter

39
Q

the distance of the perihelion and the aphelion is what?

A

major axis

40
Q

the difference between Aristotle’s model and ptolemy’s model?

A

ptolemy accounted for retrograde motion of planets

astronomy (2 decks)

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