Chapters 9-12

Question 1

Why are Red Giants so luminous?

Answer 1

Because they are very large

Question 2

One difference between a star and a planet is that the star ___ heat and light, while the planet ___ light.

Answer 2

produces (emails); reflects

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

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

Answer 5

Kepler

Question 6

Which stars can be used as an optical yardstick to measure distance?

Answer 6

cepheid variables

Question 7

What scientific instrument can determine chemical composition from light patterns?

Answer 7

spectroscope

Question 8

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

Answer 8

2nd

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

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

Answer 11

Edmund Halley

Question 12

The Little Dipper is part of the constellation ___ ___.

Answer 12

Ursa Minor

Question 13

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

Answer 13

The distance to the star

Question 14

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 14

The Law of Universal Gravitation

Question 15

What is the shape of a planet’s orbit?

Answer 15

elliptical

Question 16

Albert Michelson devised a way to measure the size of stars using interference of ___ ___.

Answer 16

light waves

Question 17

The “zone of life” is the region around a star known as the “Goldilocks zone” because it is neither too ___ nor too ___. On planets in this region, water can be found in ___ state.

Answer 17

hot; cold; liquid

Question 18

What methods are used to find an extra solar planet?

Answer 18

infrared, radial velocity, wobble

Question 19

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

Answer 19

comets

Question 20

What type of star is our sun?

Answer 20

main-sequence G

Question 21

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

Answer 21

Centauri

Question 22

Which element was identified in the sun before being discovered on earth?

Answer 22

helium

Question 23

If a star is moving away from earth, its spectral lines are shifted toward the ___ end of the specturm.

Answer 23

red