Deck 22: Motions in the Heavens

Question 1

____________________ argued that if Earth were moving, people would fall off.

Answer 1

Aristotle

Question 2

A(n) ____________________ uses a curved mirror to collect light and focus an image.

Answer 2

reflecting telescope

Question 3

Groups of stars that seem to form a pattern when viewed from Earth are called ____________________.

Answer 3

constellations

Question 4

The tendency of an object to resist a change in motion is called ____________________.

Question 5

The lunar cycle, from one new moon to the next, takes about ____.

A) 24 hours
B) 7 days
C) 29.5 days
D) 12 months

Question 6

A Doppler shift toward longer wavelengths is called a(n) ____________________ shift.

Question 7

In the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, colors represent different ____________________ of light.

Question 8

Galileo observed that the planet ____ passes through phases as the Moon does, an occurrence that could not be explained by the geocentric model.

A) Venus
B) Neptune
C) Mars
D) Saturn

Question 9

When the visible portion of the Moon increases, it is said to be ____________________.

Question 10

When light passes through a prism, it separates into an ordered array of colors called a(n) ____________________.

Question 11

A(n) ____________________ is a device that collects light from a wide area and then focuses it where it can be detected.

Question 12

____ telescopes use two lenses: one to collect light from a distant object and another to magnify the image.

A) Reflecting
B) Refracting
C) Retrograde
D) Inertia

Question 13

____________________ is the capability of distinguishing individual parts, such as the ability of an optical telescope to distinguish details.

Question 14

In 1530, ____________________ proposed that the Sun, not Earth, is the center of the Solar System.

Question 15

As Earth rotates on its axis, it wobbles like a spinning top in a motion called ____________________.

Question 16

What is the wide band outside of the area where the Sun is totally eclipsed, in which only a portion of the Sun is hidden from view?

A) crescent
B) parallax
C) corona
D) penumbra

Question 17

The nighttime glow of city lights that competes with the light of distant stars and reduces the vision of a telescope is referred to as ____________________.

Question 18

____________________ is the apparent change in position of an object due to the change in position of the observer.

Question 19

In Aristotle's model, a hypothetical series of concentric celestial ____ surround Earth.

A) prisms
B) cubes
C) spheres
D) ellipsoids

Question 20

____________________ was the first person to see that the Moon had mountains, hills, craters, and broad plains.

Question 21

Kepler calculated that the planets move in ____ orbits.

A) circular
B) elliptical
C) angular
D) parallax

Question 22

The waxing gibbous moon ____.

A) occurs just after the full moon and shows just a small sliver of brightness
B) is a thin crescent that forms after the new moon
C) occurs just before a full moon and shows a small sliver of darkness
D) is a thin crescent that forms before the new moon

Question 23

For each complete orbit around the Sun, Earth spins approximately ____ times.

A) 2
B) 12
C) 29.5
D) 365

Question 24

An absorption spectrum can be found in light collected by a telescope because ____.

A) as light passes through the cooler, outer layers of a star, some wavelengths are selectively absorbed by atoms in the star's atmosphere
B) planets absorb light rather than emit it
C) stars do not produce light at certain wavelengths
D) some wavelengths of light travel more slowly than others, and so are missing from the light collected by a telescope

Question 25

Why will Polaris no longer be the North Star in a few thousand years?

A) A closer star will have moved between Earth and Polaris by then.
B) Polaris will have moved away from Earth's axis.
C) Earth's axis will no longer point toward it because of precession.
D) The plane of the Solar System will have tipped away from it.

Question 26

The ____ is the narrow band on Earth where the Sun is completely blocked out during a solar eclipse.

A) corona
B) umbra
C) penumbra
D) resolution

Question 27

When the Moon passes directly between the Earth and the Sun, it produces a(n) ____.

A) solar eclipse
B) absorption spectrum
C) epicycle
D) lunar eclipse

Question 28

The Sun completes an orbit around the center of the Milky Way in about ____ years.

A) 20
B) 200
C) 20,000
D) 200 million

Question 29

The outer atmosphere of the Sun is called the ____.

A) epicycle
B) precession
C) penumbra
D) corona

Question 30

In the Northern Hemisphere, the Pole Star (or North Star) ____.

A) appears in the summer and is invisible during the winter months
B) circles the sky relative to the other stars
C) disappears completely every 29.5 days
D) remains motionless in the sky and all other stars appear to revolve around it

Question 31

Measuring the red shift or blue shift of light from a star allows astronomers to calculate the ____ of that star.

A) diameter
B) mass
C) relative velocity
D) temperature

Question 32

Isaac Newton was able to explain why ____.

A) the planets orbit the Sun instead of flying off in straight lines into space
B) some stars appear red-shifted
C) Jupiter is so large
D) Venus looks so bright

Question 33

Mars appears to reverse direction and drift westward across the sky at times because ____.

A) Mars does not orbit the Sun at a constant velocity
B) Earth orbits the Sun more quickly than does Mars
C) Earth's orbit crosses Mars' orbit
D) Mars is on the opposite side of the Sun from the Earth at times

Question 34

Different stars and constellations are visible during different seasons because ____.

A) the Sun's revolution around Earth changes our view of the night sky
B) Earth makes one complete rotation on its axis every 24 hours
C) parallax shows a shift in the relative positions of the stars
D) Earth's revolution around the Sun changes our view of the night sky

Question 35

What term best describes the motion of orbiting around a central point?

A) revolution
B) rotation
C) waxing
D) refracting

Question 36

The ____ lens is farthest from the eyepiece in a refracting telescope and collects light from a distant object.

A) focus
B) prism
C) objective
D) celestial

Question 37

Right after a full moon, the Moon goes into the ____ phase.

A) waning crescent
B) waxing crescent
C) waning gibbous
D) waxing gibbous

Question 38

How did Galileo's observation of four moons orbiting Jupiter contradict Aristotle's ideas?

A) Aristotle believed that every celestial body orbited Earth.
B) Aristotle believed that Jupiter had rings, not moons.
C) Aristotle believed that Jupiter was a star outside our Solar System.
D) Aristotle believed that Jupiter could not be seen from Earth.

Question 39

The phenomenon that causes the pitch of a passing train's whistle to sound higher than usual as it approaches, and lower than usual as it travels away, is called ___.

A) the emission spectrum
B) refraction
C) parallax
D) the Doppler effect

Question 40

The phase following the new Moon is the ____ moon.

A) waning crescent
B) waxing crescent
C) waning gibbous
D) waxing gibbous

Question 41

Astronomers build telescopes that collect wavelengths of electromagnetic energy outside the visible portion of the spectrum, such as radio waves or X-rays.

Question 42

Absorption spectra cannot be used to determine surface temperatures and pressure of stars.

Question 43

Our constellations would not be recognizable if the stars were viewed from a planet very far from our Solar System.

Question 44

The Doppler effect causes light from an object moving away from Earth to reach us at a lower frequency than it had when it was emitted.

Question 45

Why was Aristotle wrong about the lack of parallax shift in stars when proposing this as evidence for the geocentric model of the Universe?

A) Parallax would also not occur in a heliocentric Solar System.
B) The stars only appear to show no parallax when viewed with the naked eye; parallax can, in fact, be measured with the right instruments.
C) Parallax should be apparent in the geocentric model; Aristotle's basis for his calculations were incorrect.
D) Aristotle was simply looking at the wrong sea of stars-only some stars display parallax.

Question 46

Earth's gravitation pulls on the Moon sufficiently to cause it to bulge, despite the fact that it is solid rock.

Question 47

The Moon goes through phases because it is much farther from Earth at one end of its orbit.

Question 48

The ancient Greeks coined the term "planet," from the word meaning "wanderer."

Question 49

As light passes from the hot interior of a star through the cooler outer layers, ____.

A) some wavelengths are selectively reflected in the star's outer atmosphere
B) some wavelengths are selectively absorbed in the star's outer atmosphere
C) all of the energy is absorbed
D) all of the energy is transmitted

Question 50

Copernicus based his heliocentric model on the belief that Ptolemy's geocentric model was too simple.

Question 51

What was Ptolemy's solution to the problem of retrograde motion in a geocentric Universe?

A) That each planet moves in small circles called epicycles as it follows its larger orbit
B) That some of the celestial spheres really did slow and reverse direction regularly
C) That some planets could slide around on the celestial spheres
D) That observations of retrograde motion had been made incorrectly

Question 52

Because of parallax, stars appear to change color as Earth moves in its orbit.

Question 53

Astronomers discovered the element helium in the Sun 27 years before it was discovered on Earth.

Question 54

Absorption spectra can be used to detect ____.

A) the chemical composition of a star
B) the diameter of a star
C) asteroids in distant star systems
D) black holes

Question 55

A new moon appears round and fully illuminated.

Question 56

An object moves in a straight line unless acted on by an outside force.

Question 57

Aristotle proposed a heliocentric Universe.

Question 58

Ptolemy modified the geocentric model to explain the retrograde motion of the planets.

Question 59

Why do we always see the same side of the Moon?

A) A given location on Earth will always see the same side, but each location sees a different portion as the Moon rotates once each day.
B) The Moon does not rotate; it only orbits Earth.
C) The Moon is motionless; it only appears to orbit Earth because Earth is rotating.
D) The Moon rotates on its axis at the same rate it orbits Earth.

Question 60

Aristotle believed that the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars must be unblemished spheres because the gods would only create perfection.

Question 61

What is a spectrum?

Question 62

Describe Earth's axis in terms of the direction that they point. What will happen in the future with Earth's axis?

Question 63

Describe the Earth's spin and rotation.

Question 64

Give an example of the Doppler effect and describe who first explained it.

Question 65

What is Newton's first law of motion?

Question 66

Describe Ptolemy's model.

Question 67

How are instruments carried aloft by spacecraft important?

Question 68

What is Earth's precession cycles?

Question 69

What happens during a total eclipse?

Question 70

Describe the phases of the moon.

Question 71

Describe Brahe and Kepler's contributions to astronomy.

Question 72

What is the geocentric model and who proposed it?

Question 73

What happens during a lunar eclipse?

Question 74

Describe a refracting telescope and its two lenses.

Question 75

Describe Aristotle's geocentric theory that was based on two observations and one philosophical premise.

Question 76

Who was Galileo and what was his contributions to science?

Question 77

Describe light pollution and how it can interfere with how a telescope operates.

Question 78

What causes the tides on the Earth?

Question 79

What kind of information does emission and absorption spectra provide?

Question 80

Describe Copernicus' contributions to astronomy and his beliefs on Ptolemy's model.