NATS 1880 Midterm Review Flashcards
A habitable world is defined to be one that
has surface conditions similar to Earth’s and thus suitable for life
What would be an obvious advantage in searching for extraterrestrial life in our Solar System as opposed to on planets around another star?
We can physically search for life on planets or satellites in our Solar System
Which statement is incorrect.
Based upon the multitude of planets with life found so far, we can conclude that the principles of biology are universal.
Among the other planets in our own Solar System, probably the most likely place to find evidence for life that may exist now or may have existed in the past is on
Mars
Astronomy has shown us that the Earth
is just one planet orbiting an ordinary star in a vast universe
During the latter half of the twentieth century, astronomers and planetary scientists predicted that planets around other stars should be
common
Extraterrestrial life elsewhere in the universe
could be similar to life on Earth or might be completely different
Extraterrestrial life is defined to be
any kind of life found beyond the Earth
For most of human history it was believed that Earth was, erroneously, at the center of the Universe. This idea is referred to as
geocentric
The physics experiment conducted by astronauts on the Moon as discussed in class
verified that objects of different mass fall at the same rate in a gravity field as proposed by Galileo
Based upon our preliminary discussions of where life may be found in our Solar System, which of the following locations is considered least likely to harbour life?
Mercury
A basic definition for astrobiology is
the merger of astronomy and biology to find life beyond Earth
Beneath the surface or which moon of Jupiter is there the strongest evidence for the existence of a subsurface ocean of liquid water?
Europa
Biologists have found that life on Earth can
survive over a wide range of environmental conditions
While planets in our Solar System have been observed since the dawn of time, exoplanets are by comparison a recent discovery. Approximately when was the first exoplanet discovered?
Mid 1990s
Planets orbiting around stars other than our Sun are known as
extrasolar or exoplanets
Possible evidence for subsurface liquids has been found beneath the surfaces of one or more of the moons of
Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune
Astronomers have observational evidence that, in addition to being full of stars, our galaxy is also full of
Planets
The fact that the life on Earth appeared shortly after its formation (~600 million years or so) suggests that life
could arise on most habitable worlds
The molecular building blocks of life have been found
on the Earth, in interstellar clouds, and in meteorites
The portrayal of nearly all aliens in movies and on TV as being humanoid is
probably unrealistic because the human form is most likely a result of the particular conditions and events that occurred on the Earth
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program primarily involves
listening for radio signals broadcast by advanced civilizations
The search for life in the universe
is influenced by almost every other branch of science
Assuming current spacecraft speeds (e.g. Voyager), approximately how long would it take to reach the nearest stars (a few light years away)?
tens of thousands of years
Given the technological advances of recent years, astronomers are confident that we will probably be
able to detect the spectral signatures of life on planets and moons around other stars
The discussion of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe has
been a topic of great interest to humans for literally thousands of years
Which statement best characterizes the scientific community’s current understanding about life in the universe?
With the exception of life on Earth, no life elsewhere has yet been identified
Life on Earth exists in a multitude of forms. When humans search for life beyond our planet, we are looking for
any form of life that has similar characteristics to Earth based life (life we could recognize)
Astronomy has shown us that the fundamental laws of physics are
the same everywhere in the universe
Astronomical research now allows us to conclude that
the amount of real estate (planets) on which life may exist likely very large
Astrology and the creation of a “Horoscope” would be considered to violate the scientific method because
the “predictions’ that are made are rarely specific and cannot be repeated and thus verified
Which statement is correct? (2.1)
Brahe was arguably one of the best observational astronomers of the pre-telescopic era
The notion of the Celestial Sphere was first proposed by
Anaximander
What evidence did not challenge the Geocentric Model of the Solar System?
Retrograde motion of the planets.
In a Sun centred Solar System
all planets orbit the Sun which is at the centre of the solar system
A comet orbits the Sun with a semi-major axis of 9 A.U. What is its orbital period?
27 years
As you observe stars that are increasingly further from Earth
The parallax angle decreases
Which statement is correct? (2.2)
Planets normally moved eastwards across the celestial sphere
What is the correct sequence involved in the scientific method?
Observe, hypothesis, predict, test, iterate
From Toronto in the winter the Sun rises in the
east
Observations of a lunar eclipse led some early scientists to conclude
that the Earth was round based upon the appearance of its shadow on the Moon
Compared to Toronto, where would you look in the sky to find the zenith point in Sydney Australia?
straight up
Which Greek school of thought naturally lead to the possibility of the existence extraterrestrial life?
atomists
Copernicus
revived Aristarchus’s suggestion of a Sun-centered solar system and described it mathematically
Tycho Brahe
made detailed measurements of the motions of the planets in the sky
The methods of modern science were originated by the
Greeks
Johannes Kepler
showed that the orbits of the planets were ellipses and not circles
In its elliptical orbit, a planet is furthest the Sun at
aphelion
According to Kepler’s 2nd Law of planetary motion, a planet moves fastest in its orbit when it is
at perihelion
The astronomical unit (AU) is defined to be equal to the
average distance between the Earth and the Sun
Galileo discovered that Venus goes through a cycle of phases like the Moon. This suggested that
Venus moved about the Sun
Asteroid 13681 Monty Python has an orbit with a semi-major axis, a, of 2.99 AU. What is its orbital period?
5.17 years
In the scientific method a hypothesis is another name for
an educated guess
The apparent angular size of both the Moon and the Sun as seen from Earth are the same, approximately one half of one degree. How many minutes of arc is this equivalent to?
30
The four seasons we experience on Earth arise from
the tilt (obliquity) of the Earth’s axis
The possibility of extraterrestrial life was first considered
many thousands of years ago during ancient times
The observations of sunspots on the Sun and craters on the Moon by Galileo contradicted the commonly held belief that the universe was
perfect
Which of the following would need to be true for Kepler’s 3rd Law to apply to an extrasolar planetary system?
the parent star would have to have the same mass as the Sun
The astronomical object in our sky which plays the most fundamental role in our lives is the
sun
The Ptolemaic model has planets moving in
small circles, the centers of which move in a larger circle about the Earth
How would the Solar System be different if the solar nebula had cooled with a temperature half its current value?
Jovian planets would likely have formed closer to the Sun
A star that is less massive than the Sun will have
a longer lifetime since its central nuclear-burning core is cooler
Apart from terrestrial planets, another promising place to find life in the solar system is
beneath the surfaces of icy Jovian moons
Human beings mostly emit which kind of electromagnetic radiation?
infrared
Radio rays (waves) travel through space at what speed compared to microwaves?
at exactly the same speed as microwaves.
Given the basic building blocks of planets are widespread and the same laws of physics operate everywhere, we would expect
other planetary systems to be laid out in a similar manner to our own with inner rocky terrestrial planets and outer gaseous Jovian planets
The most abundant materials in the solar nebula were
hydrogen and helium gases
Isotopes have the same number of
protons but a different number of neutrons
The reason why the sky appears blue as observed by people from the surface of the Earth is
the atmosphere scatters blue light from the Sun making it appear as if the light is coming from all directions
What kind of energy does sunlight possess?
radiative
Place the three phases of water in order of increasing force of interaction between molecules
vapor, water, ice