SCIENCE BOWL QUESTIONS 2 Flashcards
What star(s) are closest to the sun?
ALPHA CENTAURI or PROXIMA CENTAURI
(apart of the same star system)
The greatest distance of a planet from the sun is called what? Is it the planet’s:
w) aphelion (pron: ah-feel-yen)
x) perihelion (pron: per-eh-heel-yen)
y) helix
z) eccentricity
W) APHELION
What is the name given to very bright meteors or bolides?
FIREBALLS
How is the atmospheric pressure of Mars compared to the atmospheric pressure of earth?
w) about the same as the earth’s
x) about 100 times as great as the earth’s
y) about 1/200th that of the earth’s
z) half as much as that of the earth’s
y) about 1/200th that of the earth’s
What gas it the main component of the atmosphere of mars?
Carbon Dioxide
The planet jupiter has a mass that is:
w) equal to the combined masses of the earth and Mars
x) equal to the combined masses of Saturn and Pluto
y) equal to the combined masses of Saturn, Neptune and Uranus
z) greater than the combined masses of all of the planets
Z) greater than the combined masses of all the planets.
Which of the following moon features is named copernicus? Is it a:
w) sea
x) crater
y) mountain range
z) rill
X) crater
What is a solstice?
A moment in the year when the Sun’s apparent path in the sky is farthest north or south from Earth’s Equator
In which day of the year is a solstice most likely to occur?
June 21st
When the earth is farthest from the sun, what season is it in the northern hemisphere?
Summer
Of the nine known planets in our solar system, seven have one or more natural satellites. Name the two planets without moons.
Venus and Mercury
The English nickname for this CONSTELLATION is “The Chained Maiden”. Give me the astronomer’s name for this constellation.
Andromeda
Hercules is a constellation which is commonly viewed in the summer in North America. In which of the seasons is the constellation Pegasus normally viewed?
Autum
The brightest star in this constellation is vega? In which constellation can Vega be found?
Lyra
The brightest star in this constellation is Aldebaran (pron: al-DEB-ar-on). In which constellation can this star be found?
Taurus
What is the theory which states that an object at rest will remain at rest, and an object in motion will continue in motion at a constant velocity unless acted upon by an external force.
Inertia
barycenter
The center of mass between two or more celestial bodies that orbit each other /the point around which the objects orbit
What is a binary star system?
A system of two stars that orbit each other around a common center of mass, or barycenter, due to their gravitational attraction
The center of mass between two or more celestial bodies that orbit each other
barycenter
A binary star system lends itself very well to a determination of the total mass of the binary star system. What TWO observables must be measured to make the total mass determination?
- SEPARATION OF THE TWO STARS
- THE STARS’ PERIOD OF REVOLUTION
THE SEPARATION OF TWO STARS AND THE PERIOD OF REVOLUTION DETERMINE WHAT?
The combined mass of two stars
WHAT IS KELPER’S FORMULA FOR TWO STARS?
(M1 + M2) = a^3 / P^2; where M1 and M2 are the masses of the two stars, “a” is the semi-major axis of their orbit (average distance between them), and “P” is the orbital period of the system.
THE ORION NEBLUA IS A GOOD EXMPLE OF WHAT KIND OF NEBULA?
EMISSION NEBULA
A major component of the interstellar media consists of charged particles which have speeds close to that of light. What are these charged particles called?
COSMIC RAYS
A typical galaxy, such as our milky way galaxy, has approximately how many billion stars? Is it:
w) 10 billion
x) 40 billion
y) 200 billion
z) 800 billion
Y) 200 BILLION
What do we call the path in the sky that the sun appears to traverse over the course of a year?
ANSWER: ECLIPTIC
Refracting telescopes always have which of the following?
w) mirrors
x) lenses
y) television systems
z) film
X) LENSES
A comets tail always points in which direction?
w) toward the sun
x) toward the earth
y) behind the comet in its orbit
z) away from the sun
Z) AWAY FROM SUN
A spectral line splitting due to the influence of magnetic fields is called?
ZEEMAN EFFECT
What is the term applied to the dark, relatively smooth LUNAR plains whose name is derived from the Latin for “sea”?
MARE (singular) or MARIA (plural)
TAURUS’S BRIGHTEST STAR
ALDEBARAN
LYRA’S BRIGHTEST STAR
VEGA
kepler’s semi-major axis
one-half the sum of the perihelion and the aphelion
1/2(a+p)
The formula for calculating the semi-major axis of an ellipse is: a = (r1 + r2) / 2; where “a” represents the semi-major axis, “r1” is the distance from one focus to a point on the ellipse, and “r2” is the distance from the other focus to the same point on the ellipse; essentially, it’s half the sum of the distances from any point on the ellipse to the two foci.
DEFINE SEMI-MAJOR AXIS
the longest radius of an ellipse
DEFINE SEMI MINOR AXIS
the shortest radius of an ellipse
What’s the only planet that rotates on its side?
uranus
