EXAM 2 Flashcards
Astronomy
What are Craters?
Circular excavated holes from impact events, usually due to material flying out from the explosive impact. Most impactors are not circular in shape.
What is Ejecta?
The impact spray material that is scattered out in all directions.
What are all the major parts of a crater?
a. Floor – bottom of crater
b. Central Peaks – forms when the crater pushes up after impact
c. Walls- the interior sides of a crater
d. Rim- The edge of the crater that is pushed up and surrounds the crater
e. Ejecta- Rock material thrown out of crater during impact
f. Rays – Bright streaks extending away from the crater composed of ejecta.
What is the difference between a simple and a complex crater?
Simple craters are small bowl-shaped, smooth-walled craters, no peaks. Complex craters are large and can have terraces, central peaks, and rings.
What is an example of a complex crater on the moon?
Copernicus
What influences the size and shape of a crater?
-Geology of the surface
-The velocity and mass of the impacting body
The faster the incoming impactor, the [____________________]the crater.
larger
Typically, materials from space hit Earth at about [___________] kilometers per second.
20
What creates a more elongate crater shape?
An impactor strikes the surface at a very low angle — less than 20 degrees
Why does Venus not have a lot of impact craters?
The surface has been covered by lava flows .
Why does Earth not have a lot of impact craters?
Plate tectonic activity (and erosion).
What type of crater is the Barringer Crater?
Simple Crater
What type of Meteoroid struck at Barringer Crater?
iron rich
What is suspected to be the oldest and largest impact crater on Earth’s surface?
Vredefort Impact Crater
Where is this crater located? ( The oldest suspected crater)
south africa
Meteors — incorrectly called ____ ___ are the streaks of light created as particles of dust and ice ___
in our atmosphere. Misspelled words will be counted incorrect.
1 Shooting
2 Stars
3 Vaporize
What type of crater is Sierra Madera Crater?
complex
About how old is Sierra Madera crater? About what geologic time period as well?
Cretaceous
What type if crater is Chesapeake Bay Crater?
Complex
What was the geological set up at the time of impact for the Chesapeake Bay Crater?
marine
What type of crater is the Santa Fe Crater?
complex
What evidence was found to indicate that there was an impact in the Santa Fe Crater area?
Shattercones
What type of crater is the Serpent Mound in Ohio?
complex
What type of rock is Serpent Mound located in?
Sedimentary
What type of crater is Upheaval Dome?
Complex
Where, specifically is Upheaval Dome located? Select the best and most accurate answer.
Canyonlands national park
___ ___have the most amount of energy in the electromagnetic spectrum. Each “ blank” should have only one word.
Gamma Rays
Which color on this image corresponds to x-rays?
short S’s on left side, loooooong S’s on right side
Xray is a little longer than the far left (purple/blue)
It takes light from the Sun about
___ minutes and seconds to reach Earth.
8.2
A telescope that uses mirrors is called a(n) ______.
Reflecting Telescope
The big radar dish looking thing is what type of telescope
Radio Telescope
Infrared space observatories are generally used to study _______.
Cool celestial objects
Sunspots are ________.
Solar Storms
Which of the following visible light colors is the most energetic?
again with tiny S’s that has more energy than longer S’s
What kind of telescope is visible in this figure?
has a lens and eye piece its refracting
When a galaxy is observed moving toward the Earth, what visible radiation (as in, which color) will it emit?
Blue
How will the wavelength of electromagnetic radiation change during the Doppler shift?
Short wavelengths when approaching an object, long wavelengths when moving away
What kind of Doppler shift has the shifted element in this figure undergone?
if all the colors move its blue shift
Which of the following is considered a form of electromagnetic radiation? Choose all that apply.
Visible Light
Infrared Radiation
Gamma Rays
X-Rays
Microwaves
Why does space make a good site for an optical observatory?
Optical observatories in space do not face the problems of interfering cloud cover, an atmosphere that blocks out much of the electromagnetic spectrum, and light pollution.
Discoveries made by the Hubble Space Telescope?
-Demonstration that disk shaped dust clouds are common around young stars
-Evidence for massive black holes in the center of our galaxy
-Deep space images never seen before
The Spitzer space telescope is ________.
A thermal infrared detecting telescope
We use light years to measure objects in the ___. We use __ __ to measure objects in the solar system.
Universe, Astronomical, Units
Gamma Rays and X Ray astronomy can assist astronomers in detecting/studying which of the following celestial objects. Check all that apply.
- Pulsars
-Solar flares - Black Holes
-Supernovas
Galileo invented the telescope. T/F
False
X-rays are completely absorbed Earth’s atmosphere. T/F
True
Which of the following has the Chandra X-Ray telescope help astrophysics? Choose all that apply.
- How elements are spread after a supernova events
- Found evidence to support the existence of dark matter.
- Witnessed powerful eruptions from black holes
The Hubble Space telescope has been in service for over 25 years and no upgrades have been made on the telescope. T/F
False
Which of the following are missions that NASA has designed for the James Webb Telescope. Choose all that apply.
Observe planets and the origins of life.
To observe the birth of stars and protoplanetary systems
To observe/find the first light of the universe and reionization
To understand the assembly of galaxies
The James Webb telescope was deployed in stages when the telescope was finally launched into space. T/F
True
Which of the following are primary lines of evidence for the Big Bang? Select all that apply.
Red Shift of light from distant galaxies.
Residual, cosmic background microwave radiation.
Cosmic abundance of Hydrogen and Helium
Average temperature in space is 3K
How old is the Solar System?
4.6 Billion Years Old
Our own earth formed out of what was left over after the birth of the [___________].
Sun
Select the planets below that are the “Inner” Planets of the Solar System.
Venus Earth Mercury Mars
Which planets make up the “ Outer” Solar System?
Saturn Uranus Jupiter Neptune also called Jovian planets
What are two other dwarf planets mentioned in Episode 1- Solar System?
Ceres, Eris
Define the Heliosphere
It is a huge magnetic bubble that forms the outer edge of the solar system.
The sun in the center of our Solar System and contains [____________]% of its mass.
99
What is the name for the process that the sun converts Hydrogen into Helium to produce energy?
Nuclear Fusion
Which of the following would be the best description/order of the “ death” of our sun?
Red Giant- Gas Shedding-White Dwarf- Black Dwarf
Mercury orbits the Sun every [________________] days
88
Mercury lacks an [_______________], thus Mercury has no weather.
atmosphere
What do scientists think caused most of the erosion on Mercury?
The sun
Venus spins most slowly than all of the planets, a single rotation, a single day is [____________] Earth Days.
243
Which two planets in the Solar System lack a moon?
Mercury, Venus
Why is mars red?
The surface of mars is covered by volcanic rock that is iron rich and sprinkled with Iron Oxide Rust.
Largest known volcano in the solar system?
Olympus Mons
What are the two moons of Mars?
Phobos, Deimos
It is hypothesized that the moons of Mars are actually captured [_______________]
Asteroids
On Mars, one of the best indicators that water used to be on the planet was that scientists come across [ ________________] a mineral that forms only in the presence of water.
hematite
Jupiter has a giant storm that it is known for, what is the name of this storm?
The great red spot
How has Jupiter protected Earth?
The gravity of Jupiter is so immense that it deflects asteroids from hitting Earth by its own gravitational pull.
The planet Saturn rotates the slowest than any other planet in the Solar Syatem. T/F
False
How do scientists think Saturn got its rings?
Scientists believe the rings were once a moon of Saturn that had mysteriously crumbled. This left behind particles each in their own independent orbit.
Which one of Saturn’s moon had a visit from the Huygens probe in 2005?
Titan
Why are Neptune and Uranus blue in color?
CH4 in the atmosphere
Which planet has the most extreme seasons?
Neptune
Neptune has the strongest winds in the solar system. T/F
True
Explain the relationship between Neptune and Pluto and how that relationship “ demoted” Pluto from planetary status?
The orbit of both planets intersects each other. This sometimes makes Pluto closer to the Sun than Neptune instead of maintaining a consistent orbit around the Sun. Pluto being unable to clear objects from its orbital neighborhood is what demoted it from a planet and is considered a dwarf planet.
Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune all have rings. T/F
True
What objects does the Kuiper Belt hold?
Dwarf Planets, Comets, Icy Objects
advantages of radio telescopes
less affected by weather
less expensive
can be used 24 hours a day
detects material that doesn’t emit visible radiation
can “see” through interstellar dust clouds
Why is interstellar matter often referred to as a stellar nursery?
It is the region where a star is born
Death of a “huge star”
Supergiant, supernova, neutron star
Death of a Giant star, bigger than huge star
Red supergiant, supernova, black hole
What are the 3 types of galaxies?
Ellipticals - galaxies that are bulge, no disk component
Spirals- Galaxies have varying amounts of disk
Irregulars- odd looking galaxies
How do large elliptical galaxies form?
Spherical, egg shaped galaxies.
Have little gas and dust, mostly form from collisions and merging of spiral galaxies
What is a NEO
near earth objects
Chevy Asteroid
in 1992 a football sized meteorite went through the trunk of michelle knapps chevy in peekskill new york
what is a comet?
Composed of dust and ice, travel faster than asteroids
What is the Oort cloud?
a shell of icy bodies that surrounds our solar system, past kuiper belt
heliocentric
a model where the sun is assumed to be the center while the earth and other bodies orbit it
Ptolemaic System
where the earth is the center and things orbit the earth, also called geocentric
perihelion
the point of orbit that an object is closest to the sun
hubbles law
the velocity of recession between our galaxy and the other galaxies are directly proportional to the distance between them
terrestrial planets are..
rocky worlds with water and/or carbon
Kepler’s 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)
Special Relativity vs General Relativity
special relativity, which explains the relationship between space, time, mass, and energy; and general relativity, which describes how gravity fits into the mix
Barred spiral galaxy
looks like a hurricane, made of stars for arms and a bar that runs in the middle connecting them
Vernal Equinox
where the sun is exactly above the equator marking spring
Epicycle
geometric model used to explain the variations in speed and direction of the apparent motion of the Moon, Sun, and planets
Galilean Moons on jupiter
Io, Europa, Ganymede, and callisto
circumpolar constellations
constellations that are always visible in the night sky because they circle the celestial poles and never set below the horizon
