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ASTR 1010: FINAL
You are standing on the earth's equator. Which way is Polaris ? |
on the northern horizon |
Sun is about . . . larger than the Earth. |
100 times |
(True or False) The largest altitude occurs at the zenith. |
TRUE |
Our address in the correct order: |
USA, Earth, solar system, Milky Way, Local Group, Local Supercluster |
Is this sentence: "In Atlanta, the Sun exactly rises due East and sets exactly due West" (true/false) |
True, but only at the equinoxes |
What is the ecliptic ? |
the Sun's apparent path along the celestial sphere |
By locating the north celestial pole (NCP) in the sky, how can you determine your latitude? |
The altitude of the NCP is the same as your latitude. |
Kepler's second law, which states that as a planet moves around its orbit it sweeps out equal areas in equal times, means that: |
a planet travels faster when it is nearer to the Sun and slower when it is farther from the Sun. |
The point of closest planetary approach to the Sun is called |
perihelion |
upiter and Saturn have some satellites that are larger than the Moon (T/F) |
true |
It is the summer solstice. This means: |
summer is starting in the northern hemisphere and winter is starting in the southern hemisphere |
On June 21st (summer solstice) the Sun never sets at the North Pole. (t/f) |
TRUE |
The controversial book of this famous person, published in 1543, suggested that the earth and other planets orbit the Sun. |
Copernicus |
What makes Polaris special ? |
It appears very near the north celestial pole |
How many planets (besides Earth) are visible to the unaided eye ? |
5 |
Which of the following never goes in retrograde motion ? |
the sun |
What conditions are required for a solar eclipse? |
The phase of the Moon must be new, and the nodes of the Moon's orbit must be nearly aligned with the Earth and the Sun. |
Which of the following is largest ? |
the size of the Milky Way divided by 1,000 |
Tycho Brahe is famous for his naked eye observations of |
a supernova a comet planetary motions |
Spring and Fall start: |
at the equinoxes,
when the hemispheres are equally illuminated |
The names of the seven days of the week are based on the: |
seven naked-eye objects that appear to move among the constellations. |
What conditions are required for a lunar eclipse? |
The phase of the Moon must be full, and the nodes of the Moon's orbit must be nearly aligned with the Earth and the Sun. |
If two planets have the same angular diameter but one is four times farther away, then the more distant is . . . times larger than the closer one. |
4 |
Why did Ptolemy have the planets orbiting the Earth on "circles upon circles" in his model of the universe? |
to explain the fact that planets sometimes appear to move westward, rather than eastward, relative to the stars in our sky |
How did Eratosthenes estimate the size of the earth in 240 B.C.? |
by comparing the maximum altitude of the Sun in two cities at different latitudes |
Which of the following was not observed by Galileo? |
stellar parallax |
What causes the apparent retrograde motion of the planets? |
As the Earth passes another planet, the other planet appears to move backward with respect to the background stars, but the planet's motion does not really change. |
The nearest star in the sky (other than the Sun) is about how far away |
4 light years |
Suppose you live on the Moon. How long is a lunar day (from sunrise to sunrise) in Earth units ? |
about a month |
Ptolemy was important in the history of astronomy because he: |
developed a model of the solar system that made sufficiently accurate predictions of planetary positions to remain in use for many centuries. |
The apparent diurnal motions of the stars are caused by: |
earths rotation |
He discovered that the orbits of planets are ellipses. |
kepler |
The ancient Greek philosophers realized that if the Earth moved around the Sun then we would see small variations in the angular positions of nearby stars, a variation astronomers call |
parallax |
When Copernicus first created his famous model of the universe, it did not lead to substantially better predictions of planetary positions than the Ptolemaic model. Why not? |
Copernicus used perfect circles for the orbits of the planets. |
In the Northern hemisphere, the position of the Sun on the meridian: |
depends on your latitude.
is more the North in summer
is at lower altitude in winter |
How many arcseconds are in one degree: |
3,600 |
Why do we see essentially the same face of the Moon at all times? |
b/c the Moon's rotational and orbital periods are equal |
There are twelve constellations in the zodiac (t/f) |
f |
What is a circumpolar star? |
a star that is close to the north celestial pole |
The Moon and the Sun appear to have nearly the same angular diameter. |
true |
Why do we have seasons on Earth? |
As the Earth goes around the Sun and the Earth's axis remains pointed toward Polaris, the Northern and Southern hemispheres alternately receive more and less direct sunlight. |
Kepler's third law, P2 = a3, means that |
all orbits with the same semimajor axis have the same period.
a planet's period does not depend on the eccentricity of its orbit.
planets that are farther from the Sun move at slower average speeds than nearer planets.
the period of a planet does not depend on its mass. |
He discovered that Jupiter has moons. |
Galileo |
Copernicus suggested that the Sun rather than the Earth is placed at the center of the Solar System. |
true |
Let's assume the conditions for a solar eclipse fulfilled. If the Moon is relatively far from the earth, so that the umbra does not reach the earth, someone directly behind the umbra will see: |
an annular eclipse. |
What is an astronomical unit ? |
the average distance from the Earth to the Sun |
Tycho Brahe suggested a model with the Sun at the center of the Solar System. (t/f) |
false |
Kepler found that the period P of a planet's orbital motion around the Sun was related to the planet's "average" distance a from the Sun according to the following proportionality equa- tion: P2 = a3. What would be the approximate period for a planet located at 5 times the Earth's distance from the Sun? |
11.2 years |
Roughly how many stars are in the Milky Way ? |
100 billion |
Jupiter is about . . . larger than the Earth. |
10 times |