past quizzes homework and study guides new material AST1002 1 STUDY GUIDE Quiz 1 Most modern telescopes are REFLECTORS In an elliptical orbit the aphelion is THE POINT OF GREATEST DISTANCE FROM THE SUN Given Newton s Law of Gravitation How does the force on M2 change if I quadruple the mass M1 4M1 and double the radius THERE IS NO CHANGE What causes Earth s Seasons THE EARTH HAS A CONSTANT TILT WITH RESPECT TO THE SUN True or False A scienti c theory must make testable predictions TRUE Quiz 2 What is Light A WAVE AND A PARTICLE Modern telescopes are generally either located on mountains or in space Why is this LESS ATMOSPHERE TO SEE THROUGH According to Kepler s laws how does the eccentricity of an orbit affect its period THE ECCENTRICITY DOES NO AFFECT THE PERIOD True or False Earth s atmosphere is transparent to all electromagnetic radiation FALSE Which of these is not one of NASA s great satellite observatories GALILEO Quiz 3 What is the process by which heavier molten material sank deeper into the planetary core leaving the outer layers made of lighter material DIFFERENTIATION Why are most known extra solar planets very massive MORE MASSIVE PLANETS ARE EASIER TO DETECT VIA THE WIGGLE INDUCED IN THEIR STARS True or False Of the terrestrial planets Mars is closest in size to earth FALSE Which of these planets has an atmosphere which is mainly carbon dioxide MARS AND VENUS Which of these is NOT a greenhouse gas NITROGEN Quiz 4 Which of these is the most massive of the Jovain planets JUPITER Which of these is NOT descriptive of the Jovian planets as compared to the Terrestrial planets DENSE The chemical compositions of Jupiter and Saturn are most similar to THE SUN Which of the Jovian worlds does not exhibit any internal heating e g it radiates away as much energy as it receives from the Sun URANUS Which of these gases makes Uranus and Neptune appear more blue than Saturn and Jupiter METHANE Quiz 5 Which of these moons possesses an atmosphere composed mainly of nitrogen TITAN What drives the volcanic activity on Io GRAVITATIONAL TIDAL FORCES ON JUPITER How can one use light to distinguish between a nearby dim star and a much more luminous star which is further away WITHOUT KNOWING THE DISTANCE THESE CANNOT BE DISTINGUISHED What are emission lines PHOTONS OF DISCRETE ENERGIES EMITTED BY EXCITED ATOMS OF A GIVEN ELEMENT Which of the following is the hottest of spectral types O Quiz 6 Which of these gives the approximate temperature at the core of the Sun nearest factor of 10 10 000 000 KELVIN Which of the following describes what was known as the Solar Neutrino Problem ONLY ABOUT 1 3RD THE EXPECTED NUMBER OF NEUTRINOS WERE BEING DETECTED ON EARTH About how much of the Sun s energy is produced in the innermost 9 of it s radius 50 What is the name for the surface of the Sun e g where most of the light we observe originates THE PHOTOSPHERE What is the name of the region of the Sun in which light from the fusion process at the core travels freely until encountering high opacity cooler material THE RADIATIVE ZONE Quiz 7 In low mass stars a core of non burning helium ash is steadily built up which becomes hotter and hotter until it ignites What is this ignition called HELIUM FLASH When helium burning begins what element is formed CARBON True or False Low mass stars can become hot enough to burn carbon FALSE What is the name for the expanding outer material that has been driven off the hot core of what will become a white dwarf PLANETARY NEBULA In theory what will the ultimate fate of a single white dwarf be A BLACK DWARF Quiz 8 Black holes have very few physical attributes to speak of Which of these apply to black holes ALL OF THESE ELECTRIC CHARGE MASS ANGULAR MOMENTUM What is the name given to a rapidly spinning neutron star PULSAR Which of the following is the correct approximate size of 1 solar mass neutron star NYC Two rockets are red toward each other at approximately 0 7 times the speed of light c An astronaut on one rocket res a laser towards the other How fast is that laser light traveling c True or False A person sitting in an accelerating rocket is equivalent to a person sitting still in a gravitational eld TRUE Quiz 9 What is the cosmic microwave background CMB HIGHLY REDSHIFTED LIGHT FROM THE EARLY UNIVERSE What do Type 1 supernovae provide signposts for large distance scales used to better de ne the Hubble Law THEY ALL HAVE THE SAME ABSOLUTE LUMINOSITIES Which of these are among the chief consequences of a major galactic merger STAR FORMATION AND CHANGE OF A NORMAL GALAXY TO AN ACTIVE ONE HOMEWORK REVIEW WITH CORRECT ANSWERS AST HW 1 If we compare out place in the universe with a very distance place we can say that ALL OF THE LAWS OF PHYSICS ARE THE SAME IN EACH PLACE MATHEMATICS is the science and language of patterns and thus is the language of science A scienti c theory can be tested by observations and proven to be true FALSE A pattern in nature can reveal an underlying physical law TRUE Astronomers use instruments from many branches of science to investigate the universe TRUE A light year is a measure of DISTANCE 5 879 trillion miles Occam s razor states that IF TWO HYPOTHESES FIT THE FACTS EQUALLY WELL CHOOSE THE SIMPLER ONE If the Sun should suddenly explore how soon after would we know about it WE WOULD KNOW IN ABOUT EIGHT MINUTES WHICH IS THE TIME IT WOULD TAKE FOR THE LIGHT OF THE EXPLOSION TO REACH THE EARTH It it takes sunlight 8 minutes to reach Earth how long does it take to reach Uranus which is 19 2 times farther from the Sun than Earth is 153 6 MIN The phases of the Moon are caused by the relative position of Earth the Moon and the Sun TRUE We always see the same side of the Moon because THE MOON ROTATES ONCE EACH REVOLUTION Kepler s second law says that PLANETS MOVE FASTEST WHEN THEY ARE CLOSEST TO THE SUN The tilt of Jupiter s rotational axis is 3 If Earth s axis had this tilt how would it affect our seasons SEASONAL DIFFERENCES WOULD BE SMALLER Suppose you drop items off a tower rank the items in terms of gravitational acceleration ALL THE OBJECTS EXPERIENCE THE SAME GRAVITATIONAL ACCELERATION Newton s universal law of gravitation THE FORCE IS PROPORTIONAL TO BOTH MASSES Suppose you are transported to a planet with 10x the mass of Earth but the same radius as Earth You weight would INCREASE by a factor of 10 Astronauts in a space shuttle can oat while orbiting Earth Why are these astronauts weightless THEY ARE FALLING AROUND EARTH AT THE SAME RATE AS