Chapter 1 Our sun is the most massive and luminous star in the Milky Way False The word astronomy Means patterns among the stars If there are about 6000 stars in the entire sky that can be seen by the unaided human eye about how many stars would be seen at a particular instant on a given dark night from a single location with an uninterrupted distant horizon 3000 If an event were to take place on the Sun how long would it take for the light to reach us 8 minutes The distance to the nearest large spiral galaxy Andromeda is 2 5 million light years How long does it take light to travel from us to Andromeda 2 5 million years The early universe was composed mainly of which two elements Hydrogen and helium A light year is measured in units of Distance The cosmological principle states that The universe looks the same everywhere as long as you look on large enough spatial scales Classify the following descriptions as either True of False False A scientific theory which has been proven to be true and is no longer subject to testing is a fact True A scientific theory may be a single hypothesis or group of hypothesis which has been tested and confirmed a number of times False A hypothesis is the same as a scientific theory The number 5 33 x 10 7 is equal to 53300000 Suppose you were writing to a pen pal in another universe What address would you put on the envelope that included all the major structures in which we reside Select the order from the list below in which you would put on your address starting with your local location 1 Earth 2 The Solar System 3 The Milky Way 4 The Local Group 5 Virgo Supercluster 6 The Universe The nightly motion of objects across our sky is caused by the Rotation of Earth on its axis Which of the following statements best represents the overall rationale for scientific investigation Reality is comprehensible and a limited number of fundamental principles governs the nature and behavior of the universe Chapter 2 The nightly motion of objects across our sky is caused by the Rotation of Earth on its axis If you go out at exactly 9P M each evening over the course of one month the position of a given star will move westward by tens of degrees What causes this motion The revolution of the Earth around the Sun For the following figure label each box with its appropriate descriptor Assume that the observer is in the continental United States Match each statement with one of the terms at the top The altitude of the sun at noon is lease on what date Winter Solstice The beginning of fall occurs on what date Autumnal Equinox The sun rises farthest south of east on what date Winter Solstice The shortest period of darkness occurs near which solstice or equinox Summer Solstice When is the Earth closest to the Sun In the winter in the northern hemisphere The picture below shows the position of the Earth at four times of the year For each position identify the transition to the correct season A Autumnal Equinox B Winter Solstice C Summer Solstice D Vernal Equinox Earth experiences seasons due to the tilt of its axis What are the consequences of this tilt that contribute to the seasons True Variation in the directness of the Sun s rays True Variation in the length of day False Precession of the Earth over time False Variation in the amount of Moonlight False Change in distance to the Sun If you were going to send a spacecraft to circle the Moon and photograph the entire far side the side not visible from Earth during with lunar phase as seen from Earth would you do the photography New moon A total lunar eclipse is visible in principle assuming clear skies everywhere To everyone in one hemisphere of Earth The figure below shows the different phases of the moon Approximately what time would each of the phase rise above your horizon Sunset full moon 9 am waxing crescent Noon first quarter Sunrise new moon 3 am waning crescent Why don t we have solar and lunar eclipses every month Because the Moon s orbit around Earth is tilted by about 5 degrees out of the ecliptic Chapter 3 Match each statement with the law According to this law planetary orbits are all ellipses Kepler s first law of planetary motion According to this law if the semimajor axis of the orbit is 1 AU then the orbit period is 1 year Kepler s third law of planetary motion According to this law the speed of a planet would be greatest when closest to the sun Kepler s second law of planetary motion This law referred to as the harmonic law shows the mathematical relationship between orbit period and orbit size Kepler s third law of planetary motion Match each description with the appropriate term from the top list Acceleration An increase in speed is an example of this Inertia This property of an object is greater if the mass of the object gets bigger Speed Distance divided by time without direction Velocity Distance divided by time with direction Force This if unbalanced will cause an object to accelerate Select the discoveries Galileo made by making astronomical observation through a telescope Sunspots Craters on the moon Jupiter s moons The phases of Venus Many stars in the Milky Way Galaxy Which of the following is true about a comet that is on an elliptical orbit around the Sun The comet s speed is greatest when it is nearest the Sun What two pieces of information do we need to know about the Earth in order to calculate the mass of the Sun The semimajor axis of the Earth s orbit is 1 AU and the Earth takes 1 year to orbit the Sun Two rocks call them S and T are a distance of 50 km from one another Rock S has 20 times the mass of rock T Which rock will move faster if the only force involved is their mutual gravitational attraction Rock T If the distance between the Earth and Sun were cut in half the gravitation force between these two objects would Increase by 4 The figure below showing the motion of a ball near earth s surface depicts how gravity Causes the ball to accelerate downward What is the wavelength of a 106 MHz FM 106 radio signal 2 8 m What types of electromagnetic radiation from space will reach the surface of Earth without being significantly absorbed by the Earth s atmosphere Visible light and radio waves All forms of light have what property in common Light in this case refers to the whole spectrum not just the visible range All formed of light are electromagnetic radiation What is the one fundamental difference between X rays and radio waves The wavelengths of X rays and radio waves are very