Lessons 1-6 Flashcards
Who devised a method to measure the circumference of the Earth?
Eratosthenes
Which colour of light has the lowest frequency?
Red
When fusion begins in a high mass protostar, which kind of star is formed?
Blue star
Why doesn’t Venus have a magnetic field like Earth?
Venus does not rotate fast enough
What is the dimmest magnitude star that can be seen with the naked eye?
+6
Who discovered 228 asteroids in the early 1890’s by using photographic techniques?
Max Wolf
How long does it take our Sun to revolve around the center if the Milky Way galaxy?
200,000,000 years
Which process allows energy from the sun to reach the Earth?
Radiation
What is the difference between a meteoroid and an asteroid?
Meteoroids are small; asteroids are large
What is the solid part of comet called?
Nucleus
The sun shines most directly on the Tropic of Capricorn on which day? (Northern Hemisphere)
Winter Solstice
What is believed to be at the center of most galaxies?
Super massive black holes
There are certain gaps in the Asteroid Belt caused by Jupiter’s gravity. What are these gaps called?
Kirkwood Gaps
Who first attached a spectroscope to a telescope to study the spectrum of stars?
Angelo Secchi
Which two gasses is Jupiter mostly made up of?
Hydrogen and helium
What is Pluto’s atmosphere made of?
Methane
What are the four categories that galaxies are classified in?
Spiral, barred spiral, elliptical, and irregular
Which lunar phase occurs immediately after full moon?
Waning gibbous
About how many stars does an average galaxy contain?
100 billion
Who determined that planets orbit in ellipses, and not in circles?
Kepler
Which method allows us to estimate the distance to the furthest galaxies observable?
Brightest galaxy in cluster
Which kind of star allows astronomers to estimate he distance to galaxy up to about 15 million light-years away?
Cepheid variable stars
Which satellite is the largest one in the solar system?
Ganymede
To which galactic cluster does our solar system belong?
Local Group
Which stage of development is the sun at?
Yellow star
How many times brighter is a magnitude +1 star than a magnitude +2 star?
2.5 times brighter
Which of the following describes how bright a star appears to an observer on Earth?
Apparent magnitude
How are mass and luminosity related?
Larger mass implies more luminosity
Who proposed that temperatures at the core of the sun were hot enough for thermonuclear fusion?
Arthur Eddington
What is the name of Pluto’s satellite?
Charon
Where did the majority of stars fall on the H-R diagram?
Main sequence
What is the “point of no return” of a black hole called?
Event horizon
WHAT IS ANOTHER NAME FOR A “SHOOTING STAR”?
Meteors
What is the region called where most of the comets reside?
Oort Cloud
