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Which of the choices below correctly lists things in order from largest to smallest? |
Universe, Local Group, Milky Way, Solar System |
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Aristotle hypothesis was that: |
only a spherical Earth would always cast a circular shadow on the Moon. |
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Into how many constellations is the celestial sphere divided? |
88 |
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What are constellations? |
Groups of stars making an apparent pattern in the celestial sphere |
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Where on Earth can you observe all the stars in the sky over an entire year? |
Equator |
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In general, what is true of the alpha star in a constellation? |
It is the brightest star in the constellation. |
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What is the range of values for declination? |
+90 to -90 degrees |
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While watching a star, you see it moves 15 degrees across the sky. How long have you been watching it? |
1 hour |
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Which statement about declination is FALSE? |
It is measured eastward in units of time. |
|
A star with a right ascension of 1.0 hours will rise |
1.0 hour after the vernal equinox. |
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The place the Sun stops its northward motion along the ecliptic is the: |
summer solstice. |
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The places where the Sun crosses the equator are called the: |
equinoxes |
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Which statement about the ecliptic is FALSE? |
The Moon can never leave it, but moves twelve times faster than the Sun. |
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You note that a particular star is directly overhead. It will be directly overhead again in |
23 hours 56 minutes. |
|
That Polaris will not always be the pole star is due to |
precession shifting the celestial pole. |
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What celestial line is a product of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun? |
Ecliptic |
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When is the Sun located at 6 hours RA, -23.5 degrees declination? |
Sun is never found at this position. |
|
A solar eclipse can only happen during a: |
New Moon |
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A lunar eclipse can only happen during a: |
Full Moon |
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If you are in the Moon’s umbral shadow, then you will witness |
a total solar eclipse. |
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If new Moon fell on March 2nd, what is the Moon’s phase on March 14th? |
waxing gibbous |
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What conditions are necessary for an annular solar eclipse? |
new moon on ecliptic at apogee |
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What conditions are necessary for a total solar eclipse? |
new moon on ecliptic near perigee |
|
When the Moon is directly opposite the Sun in the sky, its phase is |
Full |
|
A star with a large parallax |
is at a short distance from Earth. |
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The Ptolemaic model of the universe: |
explained and predicted the motions of the planets with deferents and epicycles. |
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Scientists today do not accept the Ptolemaic model because: |
the work of Tycho and Kepler showed the heliocentric model was more accurate. |
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When a planet retrogrades, it appears to move westward for weeks at a time. |
True |
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On which of these assumptions do Ptolemy and Copernicus agree? |
All orbits must be perfect circles. |
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The heliocentric model was actually first proposed by: |
Aristarchus |
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According to Copernicus, the retrograde motion for Mars must occur |
at opposition, when the earth overtakes Mars and passes between Mars and the Sun. |
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Which was a contribution to astronomy made by Copernicus? |
He laid out the order and relative motion of the known solar system. |
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Which of these was NOT seen telescopically by Galileo? |
stellar parallax |
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Which of these was NOT a telescopic discovery of Galileo? |
the moons of Saturn |
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A fatal flaw with Ptolemy’s model is its inability to predict the observed phases of |
Mercury and Venus. |
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Kepler’s first law worked, where Copernicus’ original heliocentric model failed, because Kepler described the orbits as |
elliptical, not circular. |
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Tycho Brahe’s contribution to Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion were |
his detailed and accurate observations of the planet’s position. |
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A circular orbit would have an eccentricity of |
0 |
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Upon which point do Copernicus and Kepler disagree? |
The orbits of the planets are ellipses, with one focus at the Sun. |
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Which concept was NOT a part of Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion? |
Epicycles are needed to explain the varying brightnesses of the planets. |
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What does Kepler’s third law imply about planetary motion? |
Planets further from the Sun orbit at a slower speed than planets closer to the Sun. |
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A planet whose distance from the Sun is 3 A.U. would have an orbital period of how many Earth-years? |
square root 27 |
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The Law of Universal Gravitation was developed by: |
Newton |
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The force of gravity between two objects: |
increases with the masses of the bodies, but decreases with the square of the distances between them. |
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According to Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation, if the Moon were three times further from Earth, the force by Earth on the Moon would |
decrease by a factor of 9. |
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If the distance between two asteroids is doubled, the gravitational force they exert on each other will |
be one fourth as great. |
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Orbital speed is the speed with which a planet moves around the Sun. This speed is determined by |
the mass of both the planet and the Sun and the distance between the two. |
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Escape velocity is the speed required to |
overcome the graviational pull of an object. |
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According to Copernicus, retrograde motion for Venus must occur around |
inferior conjunction, when it passes between us and the Sun. |
|
Kepler’s second law implies what about planetary motion? |
A planet moves faster when it is closer to the Sun. |
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