Chapters 9-10

Question 1

Name the astronomer who traveled to St. Helena to plot the position of stars in the southern sky.

Answer 1

Edmund Halley

Question 2

During Edmund Halley’s time, the most mysterious objects in the solar system were ___.

Answer 2

comets

Question 3

The big dipper is not a constellation, but an ___.

Answer 3

asterism

Question 4

Name the Danish astronomer who made the most careful record of star locations after Ptolemy.

Answer 4

Tycho Brahe

Question 5

What is the shape of a planet’s orbit?

Answer 5

elliptical

Question 6

Name the astronomer who described the shape of a planet’s orbint with his first law.

Answer 6

Kepler

Question 7

Most of the stars in the Big Dipper are ___ magnitude.

Answer 7

2nd

Question 8

Other than the sun, the star closes to the earth is Proxima ___.

Answer 8

Centauri

Question 9

Which is brighter, -3.0 magnitude or 4.0 magnitude?

Answer 9

-3.0

Question 10

The Milky Way galaxy has a ___ shape.

Answer 10

spiral

Question 11

The Little Dipper is part of the constellation ___ ___.

Answer 11

Ursa Minor

Question 12

What are astronomers able to determine when they measure stellar parallax?

Answer 12

The distance to the star

Question 13

Isaac Newton combined the work of Kepler (on planetary motion) and the work of Galileo (motion of objects on earth) and developed what important law?

Answer 13

The Law of Universal Gravitation