Unit E Section 1.2

Question 1

If you used a plane to get from Earth to the Sun, how long will it take?

Answer 1

traveling at about 965 km/h, the flight would last close to 17 years.

Question 2

How many km is the Earth from the Sun?

Answer 2

149 599 000 km

Question 3

What are Sundials used for?

Answer 3

measure the passage of time.

Question 4

What is merkhet?

Answer 4

• Ancient Egyptians invented the device

- to chart astronomical positions and predict the movement of stars.

Question 5

What is a quadrant?

Answer 5

• A tool designed by Egyptian astronomers

- to measure a star’s height above the horizon.

Question 6

What is an astrolabe?

Answer 6

• Arabian astronomers

- to make accurate charts of star positions.

Question 7

What is a cross-staff?

Answer 7

In-14th century, astronomer Levi ben Gurson
-to measure the angle between the Moon and any
given star

Question 8

What were the devices and tools astronomers used to discover more about outer space?

Answer 8

quadrant 
astrolabe 
cross-staff 
early telescope
merkhet

Question 9

What is the telescope?

Answer 9

late 16th century

revealed exciting details about Earth’s closest planetary neighbours, and showed the existence of other neighbours in our solar system

Question 10

What is the Sun to the galaxies?

Answer 10

that our Sun is only an average star, lying in a small corner of
an average galaxy that is one among billions of other galaxies.

Question 11

What are the two new units to measure in outer space?

Answer 11

• The astronomical unit (AU)

- Light-years

Question 12

What is the Astronomical Unit?

Answer 12

is used for measuring “local” distances, those

inside our solar system.

Question 13

What does one AU equal?

Answer 13

One AU is equal to the average distance from the

center of Earth to the center of the Sun (149 599 000 km)

Question 14

What do the Astronomical Unit for?

Answer 14

Astronomers use this when describing the positions of the planets relative to the Sun.

Question 15

What are Light-years used for?

Answer 15

The vast distances beyond the solar system, out to stars and galaxies

Question 16

What do light-years equal to?

Answer 16

It equals the distance that light travels in one year

Light travels at a speed of 300 000 km/s. In a year, that adds up to about 9.5 trillion km.

Question 17

What is the distance of the next nearest star

to Earth after the Sun?

Answer 17

4 light-years

Question 18

Earth compared to Jupiter and Jupiter compared to Earth:

Answer 18

Earth is about 1/1000 the volume of Jupiter,

Jupiter is about 1/1000 the volume of the Sun.

Question 19

How long for the light to reach from the sun to earth?

Answer 19

Light from the Sun takes about 8 min to reach Earth.

Question 20

Why is it that when you look at an object in space, you are seeing it as it was at an earlier time?

Answer 20

That’s because it takes time for the light from the object to travel to Earth across the great distance in space.

The farther out into the universe we are able to look, the deeper into the past we see