Deck 1: The Scale of the Cosmos: Space and Time

Question 1

Which statement best describes the study of astronomy in ancient times?

A) Only a few civilizations were interested in studying astronomy and they made most of the early discoveries.
B) Only people who could afford a telescope could participate in astronomy.
C) Astronomy was studied by many civilizations but didn't have much effect on people's daily lives.
D) Civilizations around the world used astronomy to help understand their place in the universe.

Answer 1

Civilizations around the world used astronomy to help understand their place in the universe.

Question 2

Which one of the following statements best describes a planet?

A) a non-luminous body
B) an irregular shape
C) a body that generates energy by nuclear fusion
D) a body located at the centre of the Solar System

Answer 2

a non-luminous body

Question 3

If the distance from the Sun to the Earth is represented by roughly 15 metres, then what would the distance from the Earth to the Moon on the same scale be?

A) about 30 metres
B) about 10 metres
C) about 1 metre
D) smaller than the width of your hand

Answer 3

smaller than the width of your hand

Question 4

Which one of the following statements best describes the Sun?

A) generates energy by nuclear fusion
B) located 10 AU from Earth
C) orbiting the Solar System
D) located in the centre of the Milky Way

Question 5

Which statement best describes the study of astronomy in modern times?

A) One country is responsible for almost all new discoveries.
B) A small number of scientists do research and report their results.
C) It has contributions from many cultures and countries.
D) It mainly involves studying the texts of ancient Greek astronomers.

Question 6

What is the average distance from Earth to the Sun?

A) 1 ly
B) 1 AU
C) 1 million km
D) 1 billion km

Question 7

In the diagram, what is the diameter of Jupiter?

A) about 7.0 × 10⁴ km
B) about 7.0 × 10⁵ km
C) about 1.4 × 10⁴ km
D) about 1.4 × 10⁵ km

Question 8

What is the approximate diameter of the Earth?

A) 1 AU
B) 13,000 light-years
C) 13,000 kilometres
D) 1,000,000 kilometres

Question 9

Earth has a radius of about 6400 km, the Sun has a radius of about 7.0×10⁵ km, and a rubber ball has a radius of 6.4 cm. If you were to construct a scale model of the Solar System using the rubber ball to represent Earth, what is the radius of a ball needed to represent the Sun in your model?

A) 7.0 × 10⁵ cm
B) 7.0 cm
C) 700 cm
D) 70 cm

Question 10

How is a planet different from a star?

A) Planets are larger than stars.
B) Planets reflect light, while stars produce their own light.
C) Stars move faster in the sky than planets.
D) Planets are brighter than stars.

Question 11

Assume the size of the Sun is represented by a baseball (diameter about 7 cm). At this scale, the Earth is about 15 metres (150 million km or 8 light-minutes) away. How far away, to scale, would the nearest stars to the Sun be? Pick the closest answer.

A) about the distance between Windsor and Toronto (about 400 km)
B) about 100 metres away
C) about the distance across Canada from Toronto to Vancouver (about 4300 km)
D) about the distance across 50 football fields (50 x 100 m, or 5 km)

Question 12

In the diagram, what is the diameter of Mercury?

A) about 240 km
B) about 2400 km
C) about 24,000 km
D) about 240,000 km

Question 13

Why is scientific notation used in science?

A) because it makes it easy to write very big or very small numbers
B) because all astronomical distances are expressed in metric units
C) because it makes conversions between units easy
D) because it makes conversions between distances easy

Question 14

What does the Solar System contain?

A) the Sun, its planets, and some smaller bodies
B) the Sun, galaxies, planets, and stars
C) the Sun, planets, moons, and stars
D) the Sun, planets, asteroids, and galaxies

Question 15

What is 5.7×10⁷ the same as?

A) 5.7 million
B) 57 thousand
C) 570 thousand
D) 57 million

Question 16

Which of the following is the smallest?

A) size of a typical planet
B) 1 AU
C) 1 light-year
D) size of a typical galaxy

Question 17

What is 1.95 billion the same as?

A) 1.95 × 10¹²
B) 1.95 × 10⁹
C) 1.95 × 10⁶
D) 1.95 × 10⁵

Question 18

Which of the following is no longer considered a major planet?

A) Mercury
B) Uranus
C) Pluto
D) Saturn

Question 19

How does the radius of the Moon's orbit compare to the radius of the Earth?

A) It is 0.6 times as large.
B) It is 6 times as large.
C) It is 60 times as large.
D) It is 600 times as large.

Question 20

Approximately how many times larger than the diameter of a typical planet (the Earth) is the diameter of a typical star (the Sun)?

A) 10 times
B) 100 times
C) 1000 times
D) 10,000 times

Question 21

How long does it take for light to cross the Milky Way galaxy?

A) about 8 minutes
B) about 4 years
C) about 100,000 years
D) about 200 million years

Question 22

Which sequence is correct when ordered by increasing size?

A) Earth, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy, clusters of galaxies
B) Solar System, Earth, galaxy clusters, Milky Way Galaxy
C) Earth, Milky Way Galaxy, Solar System, galaxy clusters
D) galaxy clusters, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy, Earth

Question 23

What is the name of the hazy band of light that circles our sky, produced by the glow of our galaxy?

A) the Milky Way
B) the Solar System
C) a spiral arm
D) Alpha Centauri

Question 24

The speed of light is 3.0×10⁵ km/s, and it takes 1.3 seconds for light to travel from the Moon to Earth. Based on this information, what is the distance from the Earth to the Moon?

A) 390,000 km
B) 230,000 km
C) 3.9 km
D) 2.3 km

Question 25

How long does it take for light to travel from the Sun to Neptune?

A) several seconds
B) several minutes
C) several hours
D) several weeks

Question 26

How does one light-year relate to Astronomical Units, roughly?

A) 63,000 AU
B) 10,000 AU
C) 380,000 AU
D) 1,400 AU

Question 27

It takes light 1.3 seconds to travel from the Moon to Earth and 8 minutes for light to travel from the Sun to Earth. Which of the following statements is true?

A) The Sun is 6.2 times farther from Earth than the Moon.
B) The Sun is 10 times farther from Earth than the Moon.
C) The Sun is 370 times farther from Earth than the Moon.
D) The Sun is 0.10 times farther from Earth than the Moon.

Question 28

Which of the following has the distances arranged in order from smallest to largest?

A) kilometre, light year, millimetre, Astronomical Unit
B) Astronomical Unit, millimetre, light year, kilometre
C) millimetre, kilometre, Astronomical Unit, light year
D) light year, kilometre, Astronomical Unit, millimetre

Question 29

What does a typical galaxy like our Milky Way galaxy contain?

A) primarily planets
B) gas only
C) stars (some with planets), gas, and dust
D) a single star and planets

Question 30

Why can't we see any parts of the universe that are farther than 13.8 billion light-years away?

A) The farthest object in the universe is 13.8 billion light-years away and there is nothing beyond it.
B) We haven't built a telescope that is powerful enough to see any farther.
C) There is a giant cloud that obscures our view of anything farther away.
D) Light from farther distances hasn't had time to reach us.

Question 31

If light takes 8 minutes to travel from the Sun to Earth, and over 4 hours to travel from the Sun to the planet Neptune, what is the distance from the Sun to Neptune?

A) 5 AU
B) 30 AU
C) 30 ly
D) 5 ly

Question 32

Which statement best describes the Milky Way Galaxy?

A) It contains about 100 billion stars.
B) It is about 400 light-years in diameter.
C) It is the largest known object in the universe.
D) It contains numerous clusters and superclusters.

Question 33

If we say that an object is 1,000 light-years away, how does that affect how we see it?

A) We see it as it looked 1,000 years ago.
B) We see it as it would appear to our ancestors 1,000 years ago.
C) We see it as it looked 1,000 light-years ago.
D) We see it as it is right now, but it appears 1,000 times dimmer.

Question 34

How many centimetres are there in one kilometre?

A) 100
B) 1,000
C) 10,000
D) 100,000

Question 35

What is one thousandth of one metre?

A) one kilometre
B) one centimetre
C) one millimetre
D) one hectometre

Question 36

What is the implication if the distance to the nearest star is 4.2 light-years?

A) The star is 4.2 million AU away.
B) The light we see left the star 4.2 years ago.
C) The star must be very old.
D) The star must be very young.

Question 37

What is the reason for compressing the history of the universe into a single year in the cosmic calendar?

A) to compare astronomical timescales with human experience
B) to emphasize how old the universe is
C) to simplify calculations of ages of objects in the universe
D) to express the distances of objects in light-years

Question 38

If the distance to a star is 450 light-years, what can we conclude about the star?

A) The star is 450 million AU away.
B) The star's light takes 450 years to reach us.
C) The star must have formed 450 billion years ago.
D) The star must be very young.

Question 39

Which statement best describes the Milky Way Galaxy?

A) It is a spiral galaxy.
B) It is comprised of several smaller galaxies.
C) It is about 1,000 light-years in diameter.
D) It is type of supercluster.

Question 40

Which of the following has the distances arranged in order from largest to smallest?

A) light year, Astronomical Unit, kilometre, millimetre
B) Astronomical Unit, millimetre, light year, kilometre
C) kilometre, millimetre, Astronomical Unit, light year
D) light year, kilometre, Astronomical Unit, millimetre

Question 41

A(n) ____________________ is the distance that light would travel in one year.

Question 42

Using a cosmic calendar where the entire history of the universe is spread over only one day starting at 12 A.m., at about what time did the era of dinosaurs end?

A) 10:35 p.m.
B) 10:55 p.m.
C) 11:53 p.m.
D) 11:59 p.m.

Question 43

The nearest star is 1 ly from the Solar System.

Question 44

The name of the average distance from Earth to the Sun is one ____________________.

Question 45

The average distance from Earth to the Sun is 1 AU.

Question 46

The numbers 9.85 × 10⁵ and 985,000 are equivalent.

Question 47

A kilometre contains 1 million metres.

Question 48

The Sun is a star in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Question 49

Light takes about 8 minutes to travel from the Sun to Earth and about 40 minutes to travel from the Sun to Jupiter. Jupiter is about ____________________ AU from the Sun.

Question 50

A light-year is the distance that light travels in one year.

Question 51

Using a cosmic calendar where the big bang happened at midnight January 1, at what time did human civilization emerge?

A) 1 hour before midnight on December 31
B) 30 minutes before midnight on December 31
C) 30 seconds before midnight on December 31
D) 11 seconds before midnight on December 31

Question 52

A(n) ____________________ is the largest known structure in the universe.

Question 53

The metric system is a decimal system.

Question 54

The Sun is located at the centre of the Milky Way.

Question 55

3.49 × 10⁷ km is the same as 3.49 × 10⁴ m.

Question 56

A cluster of galaxy clusters is called a(n) ________________________.

Question 57

A supercluster refers to a large group of stars within the Milky Way.

Question 58

Using the cosmic calendar, where the Big Bang happened January 1, in which of the following months did the Milky Way most likely form?

A) January
B) March
C) August
D) December

Question 59

An astronomical unit is larger than a light-year.