Exam 1 Homework Questions Flashcards
The way scientists know that a hypothesis in astronomy is a reasonable description of nature is to…
do experiments and observations about the predictions of the hypothesis.
A star is 230 light-years away. The light we see tonight from that star left it…
230 years ago.
The location of the Earth in the Milky Way Galaxy is how far from the center?
a little less than 30,000 LY from the center.
Even with the best and largest telescopes, we can’t see all the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy despite the fact that these same telescopes can show us other galaxies. This is because…
Dust in the space between stars builds up over large distances and blocks the light of stars behind the dustier parts of the Milky Way.
The laws of nature (as determined by scientists) are constructed from…
many observations, hypotheses, and experiments.
The Astronomical Unit (AU) as defined by astronomers is…
the average distance between the Earth and the Sun.
What celestial object (excluding asteroids) is nearest to the Earth?
The Moon.
Written in correct scientific notation, the number 13.8 billion becomes
1.38 x 10^(10)
Suppose you started with 1.5 x 10^(2) and added 1.5 x 10^(4). How does the sum compare to the initial value?
The sum is much larger.
To determine the distance an object travels over a certain amount of time while moving at a constant speed, you should
multiply its speed by the time it took to travel.
If you increase a value by an “order of magnitude”, you have increased that value by a factor of…
10
In its early years, a relatively new vehicle company (whose chief executive is a great advocate for space exploration) lost 1.9 billion dollars on its operations. During that year, they delivered 258000 vehicles.
Calculate how much money was lost per vehicle sold.
Loss per car = 7364
dollars
The fastest human spaceship leaving the solar system is Voyager 1, which is traveling at 61,146 kilometers per hour. Imagine it is traveling to a star system 6.1 light-years away.
Calculate how long, in years, it will take for Voyager 1 to arrive.
1.077×10^(5) years
On January 2022, the New Horizons spacecraft reached a distance of 53 astronomical units (AUs) from the Earth.
If there are 150 million km in one AU, calculate how long it takes for New Horizons to send a radio wave signal back to Earth. (The speed of light is 300,000 km/s.) Express your answer in hours.
7.361hr
Rank the astronomical objects in terms of diameter, from smallest to largest.
Sun, Jupiter, Moon, Galaxy
Moon, Jupiter, Sun Galaxy
Because cosmic distances are so vast, astronomers use light-years as their unit of distance. One light-year is defined as __________. The nearest star is a little more than __________ light-years away from us. When we see light from a galaxy 2 million light-years away, it has taken __________ to reach us. Light from the Sun takes __________ to reach us.
Here’s the completion of your statements:
- One light-year is defined as the distance that light travels in one year, which is approximately 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers).
- The nearest star is a little more than 4 light-years away from us (specifically, Proxima Centauri).
- When we see light from a galaxy 2 million light-years away, it has taken 2 million years to reach us.
- Light from the Sun takes about 8 minutes and 20 seconds to reach us.
Rank the Sun, Pleiades star cluster, Coma Cluster of Galaxies, the Moon and the Andromeda Galaxy by their distance from Earth, from nearest to farthest.
Moon, Sun, Pleiades star cluster, Andromeda Galaxy, Coma Cluster of Galaxies
True or False: An astronomical hypothesis is a piece of knowledge that every astronomer accepts.
False
True or False: Scientific models are always an approximation of nature.
True
True or False: The laws that scientists have found about how things work on Earth do not apply to the stars and other objects that astronomers study; those astronomical objects work by completely different rules.
FALSE
True or False: Light takes a little bit more than 8 minutes to travel the distance between the Earth the Sun.
True
True or False: Our Sun is not located in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.
True
True or False: By looking billions of light-years out into space, astronomers are actually seeing billions of years into the past.
True
True or False: After studying the stars, astronomers have concluded that the most abundant element in the universe is oxygen.
False
The point in the sky directly above your head at any given time is called the…
zenith.
From a city in the U.S., where in the sky would you look to see a star that is not turning with the motion of the sky in the course of a night?
At the north celestial pole
The south celestial pole and the north celestial pole lie in the sky directly above
the Earth’s axis.
Someone who observes the sky every clear night in Boston for many years will NEVER get to see:
A) The north circumpolar zone
B) The south circumpolar zone
C) The Orion constellation
D) The Milky Way galaxy
The south circumpolar zone.
Where on Earth do stars always circle the zenith (and never rise and set)?
At the north pole
The strip of the sky through which the Sun, the Moon, and the bright planets appear to move in the course of a year is called…
the zodiac
Which of the following is NOT an argument for showing that the Earth must be round?
A) Ships disappearing hull-first over the horizon
B) The Earth’s shadow on the Moon during a lunar eclipse
C) The Sun is seen blocking different constellations in the course of a year
D) The varying positions of the North Star from different latitudes
The Sun is seen blocking different constellations in the course of a year.
Which of the following was NOT done by Hipparchus, the great ancient astronomer?
A) Creating a star catalog with over 850 stars
B) Developing a method for predicting lunar eclipses
C) Explaining retrograde motion
D) Measuring the length of the year
Explaining retrograde motion
How did Eratosthenes measure the size of the Earth?
By measuring the height of the Sun in the sky on the same day in two cities at different latitudes.
The slow tipping of the Earth’s axis in a circle with a period of about 26,000 years is called
precession.
The great astronomer of ancient times who summarized and improved a system of circles upon circles to explain the complicated motions of the planets (and published the system in a book now called The Almagest) was
Ptolemy.
In Ptolemy’s system, the planets orbit the Earth and not the Sun. How did the system explain the retrograde motion of planets like Jupiter?
The planets moved on a small circle whose center, in turn, circled a point near the Earth.
Which of the following was NOT done by Galileo Galilei?
A) Improving the telescope and making astronomical observations
B) Discovering the four largest moons of Jupiter
C) Explaining retrograde motion with the heliocentric hypothesis
D) Observing the phases of Venus
Explaining retrograde motion with the heliocentric hypothesis.
The Renaissance astronomer who wrote the pioneering book that suggested the Earth probably orbits the Sun (instead of the other way around) was
Copernicus
The scientist who first devised experimental tests to demonstrate the validity of the heliocentric model of the solar system was
Galileo
In Copernicus’ day, people were worried about the idea that the celestial sphere seemed to turn around us once a day because the Earth rotates. They argued that if the Earth were to rotate so fast, it should fly apart. What was one response Copernicus had to this worry?
Copernicus argued that the idea that the much larger celestial sphere is turning once a day (and the Earth is not) meant that the celestial sphere would be torn apart even more.
What portion of the celestial sphere can be observed from the North Pole during the course of a year? (Answer in percentages)
50%
During a retrograde loop of Mars, will Mars appear brighter than usual in the sky, about average in brightness, or fainter than usual in the sky?
Brighter
Given a figure where the Earth is in its standard North and South positioning. Let’s say there are 5 latitudes labeled, A-E. A being the North Pole, E being the South, C being the Equator, and B, and d being two mid-latitudes.
Where would a person be if they observed that all stars are visible over the course of a year?
C, the Equator
Given a figure the Earth is in its standard North and South positioning. Let’s say there are 5 latitudes labeled, A-E. A being the North Pole, E being the South, C being the Equator, and B, and E being two mid-latitudes.
Where would the person be if they observed that the stars rise and set perpendicular to the horizon?
C, the Equator