Astronomy and the Universe
Midterm Exam
Course Introduction
This course offers a comprehensive exploration of the universe, from the fundamental principles of astronomy to the latest discoveries about stars, galaxies, and cosmology. Students will investigate the origin and evolution of celestial bodies, the structure of the solar system, and the physical laws governing astronomical phenomena. Emphasis is placed on understanding observational techniques, the role of space missions, and the significance of recent technological advancements in deepening our knowledge of the cosmos. The course also encourages critical thinking about the place of humanity within the vast expanse of the universe.
Recommended Textbook
The Essential Cosmic Perspective 6th Edition by Jeffrey O. Bennett
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18 Chapters
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Our Place in the Universe
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Milky Way is moving further away from most other galaxies in the Universe.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Relative to the age of the universe, how old is our solar system?
A) It is about 1% as old as the universe.
B) It is between about 5% and 10% as old as the universe.
C) It is about one-third the age of the universe.
D) It is nearly the same age as the universe.
Answer: C
Q3) Rank the following 4 items by how long it takes for light to reach us from these objects, from shortest to longest.
A) Sun, Pluto, the Andromeda Galaxy, center of the Milky Way
B) The Andromeda Galaxy, the center of the Milky Way, Pluto, Sun
C) Pluto, Sun, the Andromeda Galaxy, center of the Milky Way
D) Pluto, Sun, center of Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy
E) Sun, Pluto, center of the Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy
Answer: E
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Chapter 2: Discovering the Universe for Yourself
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following never goes in retrograde motion?
A) the Sun
B) Venus
C) Mars
D) Jupiter
E) Saturn
Answer: A
Q2) Suppose you lived on the Moon near the center of the face that we see from Earth. At what phase of the Moon would you see sunrise? What phase of Earth would you see at this time?
Answer: Sunrise would occur at the Moon's first-quarter phase. You would see Earth in third-quarter phase at this time.
Q3) Suppose you lived on the Moon near the center of the face that we see from Earth. During the phase of new moon, what phase would you see for Earth? Would it be day or night at your home?
Answer: During the new moon, it would be nighttime and you would see the phase of full Earth.
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Chapter 3: The Science of Astronomy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which pair of ball-drop experiments will best test whether mass affects the acceleration of gravity? Exp 1. Mass 0.5 kilograms, height 20 meters
Exp 2. Mass 5.0 kilograms, height 20 meters
Exp 3. Mass 0.5 kilograms, height 30 meters
A) Exp 1 and 3
B) Exp 2 and 3
C) Exp 1 and 2
Answer: A
Q2) Suppose the planet Uranus were much brighter in the sky, so that it was as easily visible to the naked eye as Jupiter or Saturn. Which one of the following statements would most likely be true in that case?
A) A week would have eight days instead of seven.
B) Its brightness would make it possible to read by starlight at night.
C) Its gravity would cause the tides to be much higher than they actually are.
D) The discovery that the Earth is a planet going around the Sun would have come hundreds of years earlier.
E) Its slow motion through the sky would have led it to be named after the Goddess of Procrastination.
Answer: A
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Making Sense of the Universe: Understanding
Motion, Energy, and Gravity
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the difference between a bound orbit and an unbound orbit around the Sun?
A) An object on a bound orbit follows the same path around the Sun over and over, while an object on an unbound orbit approaches the Sun just once and then never returns.
B) A bound orbit is an orbit allowed by the universal law of gravitation, and an unbound orbit is not.
C) An object on a bound orbit has a gravitational attraction to the Sun, while an object on an unbound orbit does not.
D) A bound orbit is circular, while an unbound orbit is elliptical.
Q2) State Newton's three laws of motion.
Q3) Suppose you drop a 10-pound weight and a 5-pound weight on the Moon, both from the same height at the same time. What will happen?
A) Both will hit the ground at the same time.
B) The 10-pound weight will hit the ground before the 5-pound weight.
C) The 5-pound weight will hit the ground before the 10-pound weight.
D) Both weights will float freely, since everything is weightless on the Moon.
Q4) Give an example in which thermal energy might be converted to gravitational energy.
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Chapter 5: Light: the Cosmic Messenger
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Sample Questions
Q1) Spectra from neutral atoms compared with spectra from ionized atoms of the same element
A) are the same.
B) are slightly redshifted.
C) are slightly blueshifted.
D) have different sets of spectral lines.
E) have the same sets of spectral lines but different widths for those lines.
Q2) Which of the following is always true about images captured with X-ray telescopes?
A) They are always shown with colors that are not the true colors of the objects that were photographed.
B) They always are made with adaptive optics.
C) They show us light with extremely long wavelengths compared to the wavelengths of visible light.
D) They always have very high angular resolution.
E) They are always very pretty.
Q3) Electrons orbit an atomic nucleus like planets orbit the Sun.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Define atomic mass number
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Chapter 6: Formation of Planetary Systems: Our Solar
System and Beyond
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Sample Questions
Q1) How does the Sun's mass compare with that of the planets?
A) It is a hundred times more massive than Earth.
B) It is a thousand times more massive than Earth.
C) It is a hundred times more massive than all the planets combined.
D) It is a thousand times more massive than all the planets combined.
E) It is about as massive as all the planets combined.
Q2) According to our present theory of solar system formation, which of the following statements about the growth of terrestrial and jovian planets is not true?
A) The jovian planets began from planetesimals made only of ice, while the terrestrial planets began from planetesimals made only of rock and metal.
B) Both types of planet begun with planetesimals growing through the process of accretion, but only the jovian planets were able to capture hydrogen and helium gas from the solar nebula.
C) Swirling disks of gas, like the solar nebula in miniature, formed around the growing jovian planets but not around the growing terrestrial planets.
D) The terrestrial planets formed inside the frost line of the solar nebula and the jovian planets formed beyond it.
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Page 8
Chapter 7: Earth and the Terrestrial Worlds
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the importance of the carbon dioxide (CO ) cycle?
A) It regulates the carbon dioxide concentration of our atmosphere, keeping temperatures moderate.
B) It makes the growth of continents possible.
C) It allows for an ultraviolet-absorbing stratosphere.
D) It will prevent us from suffering any consequences from global warming.
Q2) Rank the five terrestrial worlds in order of size from smallest to largest:
A) Mercury, Venus, Earth, Moon, Mars.
B) Mercury, Moon, Venus, Earth, Mars.
C) Moon, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars.
D) Moon, Mercury, Mars, Venus, Earth.
E) Mercury, Moon, Mars, Earth, Venus.
Q3) Recent evidence suggests that Mars once had a global magnetic field. Assuming this is true, which of the following could explain why Mars today lacks a global magnetic field like that of Earth?
A) Mars's interior has cooled so much its molten core layer no longer undergoes convection.
B) Mars rotates much slower than the Earth.
C) The Martian core is made of rock, while Earth's core is made of metal.
D) Mars is too far from the Sun to have a global magnetic field.
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Chapter 8: Jovian Planet Systems
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the above applies to Triton?
A)the most volcanically active body in the solar system
B)thought to have a deep, subsurface ocean of liquid water
C)probably a captured Kuiper Belt object
D)the target of the Huygens probe, which landed on its surface.
E)the largest moon in the solar system
Q2) Which of the following is not a piece of evidence supporting the idea that Europa may have a subsurface ocean?
A) Astronomers have detected small lakes of liquid water on Europa's surface.
B) Europa has a magnetic field that appears to respond to Jupiter's magnetic field.
C) Photos of Europa's surface show regions that appear to consist of jumbled icebergs frozen in place.
D) Europa's surface shows very few impact craters.
Q3) If Jupiter were 10 times more massive, it would actually have a smaller radius.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a low-pressure storm like a hurricane on Earth.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 9: Asteroids, Comets, and Dwarf Planets: Their
Nature, Orbits, and Impacts
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Sample Questions
Q1) Assume that the average rate of 1-km sized asteroids hitting the Earth is about 1 every million years. The chance of the Earth being hit by a 1-km sized asteroid in the next 100 years is about:
A) one in a million.
B) inevitable, it has to happen sometime.
C) zero.
D) one in 100 million.
E) one in ten thousand.
Q2) What is Eris?
A) An icy object that orbits in the Kuiper belt and is larger than Pluto
B) The largest known asteroid
C) A moon of Pluto
D) An extrasolar planet ejected by another solar system and captured by ours
Q3) Which of the following statements best describes the size of the largest asteroid, Ceres?
A) It is a little less than half the diameter of our Moon.
B) It is about the size of a terrestrial planet.
C) It is smaller than the jovian planets but larger than the terrestrial planets.
D) It is no larger than a typical mountain on one of the terrestrial planets.
Page 11
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Chapter 10: Our Star
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Sample Questions
Q1) Imagine that you are trying to stop neutrinos with a lead shield. How thick would you need to make this shield to ensure that it can stop a neutrino?
A) About one meter.
B) About 700,000 kilometers (the radius of the Sun).
C) About 150 million kilometers (the size of an astronomical unit).
D) About one light year.
E) About 14 billion light years (the size of the observable universe).
Q2) Every second, the Sun converts about 600 million tons of hydrogen into 596 million tons of helium. The remaining 4 million tons of mass is ________.
A) ejected into space in a solar wind
B) ejected into space by solar flares
C) converted to an amount of energy equal to 4 million tons times the speed of light squared
D) reabsorbed as molecular hydrogen
Q3) The source of energy that keeps the Sun shining today is ________.
A) nuclear fission
B) nuclear fusion
C) gravitational contraction
D) chemical reactions
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Page 12
Chapter 11: Surveying the Stars
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Sample Questions
Q1) Since all stars begin their lives with the same basic composition, what characteristic most determines how they will differ?
A) location where they are formed
B) time they are formed
C) luminosity they are formed with
D) mass they are formed with
E) color they are formed with
Q2) Which of the following best describes the axes of a Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram?
A) surface temperature on the horizontal axis and luminosity on the vertical axis
B) mass on the horizontal axis and luminosity on the vertical axis
C) surface temperature on the horizontal axis and radius on the vertical axis
D) mass on the horizontal axis and stellar age on the vertical axis
E) interior temperature on the horizontal axis and mass on the vertical axis
Q3) Which of the following stars has a spectrum that peaks at the highest frequency?
A) A yellow star
B) A red star
C) A blue star
Q4) Which group represents stars of the smallest radii?
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Chapter 12: Star Stuff
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which part of the electromagnetic spectrum generally gives us our best views of stars forming in dusty clouds?
A) Infrared
B) Visible light
C) Ultraviolet
D) Blue light
Q2) Our Sun is considered to be a ________.
A) low-mass star
B) intermediate-mass star
C) high-mass star
D) brown dwarf
Q3) What is the approximate range of masses that newborn main sequence stars can have?
A) 0.1 to 150 solar masses
B) 0.001 to 150 solar masses
C) 0.1 to 1,000 solar masses
D) 0.001 to 10 solar masses
E) 0.1 to 10 solar masses
Q4) Briefly summarize the stages of life for a high-mass star.
Q5) Briefly describe how a star forms.
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Chapter 13: Bizarre Stellar Graveyard
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Sample Questions
Q1) Based on current evidence, which of the following statements about gamma ray bursts is true?
A) All those that we have detected occurred in distant galaxies.
B) They come primarily from the Milky Way's central black hole.
C) They occur in the same types of close binary systems that produce X-ray bursts.
D) All gamma ray bursts are produced by supernovae.
Q2) Which of the following is closest in size (radius) to a white dwarf?
A) the Earth
B) a small city
C) a football stadium
D) a basketball
E) the Sun
Q3) If you had something the size of a sugar cube that was made of white dwarf matter, it would weigh ________.
A) as much as a truck
B) about 5 pounds
C) as much as the entire Earth
D) as much as an average person
Q4) Briefly describe what you would see if your friend plunged into a black hole.
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Chapter 14: Our Galaxy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following statements is not true of the object known as Sgr A* in the center of our Galaxy?
A) It is by far the brightest source of visible light lying in the direction of the galactic center.
B) It is thought to harbor a black hole of more than 3 million solar masses.
C) It is a source of X-ray emission that we have observed with telescopes in space.
D) It is a source of bright radio emission.
Q2) What kinds of objects lie in the disk of our galaxy?
A) open clusters
B) O and B stars
C) old K and M stars
D) gas and dust
E) all of the above
Q3) Which kind of star is highly unlikely to be found in the halo of the Milky Way?
A) G star
B) M star
C) K star
D) O star
Q4) Explain why in space, "no one can hear you scream."
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Chapter 15: Galaxies and the Foundation of Modern Cosmology
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Sample Questions
Q1) If an object doubles its luminosity in 10 hours, how large can the emitting source of light be?
A) about 10 light-years across B) about 10 parsecs across C) about 10 light-hours across D) varies depending on how luminous the object is E) varies depending on how far away the object is
Q2) Use the graph above showing data for the brightest galaxies in clusters of galaxies to answer the following question. If new studies show that the exceptions are a class of galaxies with extraordinarily bright centers, which conclusion is NOT justified based on the plot and the findings of these new studies?
A) Bright nuclei are caused by supermassive black holes surrounded by hot gas.
B) Galaxies appear redder the farther away they are.
C) Bright nuclei are more common in cluster galaxies that are farther away.
D) Bright nuclei were more common long ago, since the light from more distant galaxies has been traveling much longer.
Q3) Explain why galaxy-galaxy interactions are far more common than star-star interactions.
Q4) How do quasars produce so much energy in such a small volume.
Page 17
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Chapter 16: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Fate of the Universe
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Sample Questions
Q1) What fraction of the mass needed to halt expansion of the universe exists in the form of visible, luminous matter (such as the stars within galaxies)?
A) less than 1 percent
B) 10 percent
C) 25 percent
D) 50 percent
Q2) Which of the following would NOT be considered evidence for dark matter in clusters of galaxies?
A) The velocities and radii of galaxy orbits around the center of mass in the cluster.
B) The total amount of stars
C) The temperature of the intergalactic gas
D) The curvature of gravitationally-lensed galaxies
Q3) Which of the following is an example of baryonic matter?
A) you
B) the particles produced by physicists in particle accelerators
C) electrons and positrons produced by pair production
D) WIMPs
E) neutrinos
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Chapter 17: The Beginning of Time
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Sample Questions
Q1) How many forces operated in the universe during the GUT era?
A) One: a single, symmetric "super force"
B) Two: gravity and the GUT force
C) Two: gravity and the electroweak force
D) Three: gravity, the strong force, and the electroweak force
E) All four of the known forces
Q2) Which of the following claims cannot be proved or disproved by science?
A) The universe is about 14 billion years old.
B) The universe is about 2000 years old.
C) The universe was created by God.
D) The universe started out very hot.
Q3) Why is the night sky is dark?
A) The universe has a physical edge, beyond which there is nothing.
B) The dust clouds in interstellar space block the light.
C) Dark matter obscures light from distant objects.
D) The universe is finite in age.
Q4) The Big Bang predicts that the universe should be 25 percent hydrogen and 75 percent helium.
A)True
B)False
Page 19
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Chapter 18: Life in the Universe
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Sample Questions
Q1) We have already launched a spacecraft bound for Alpha Centauri.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following best describes natural selection?
A) It is the idea that organisms with genetic traits that improve their ability to reproduce are more likely to pass those traits on to future generations.
B) It is the idea that the strong survive and the weak die off.
C) It is a guess made by scientists about how life develops, but it has no hard evidence to support it.
D) It is the idea that organisms naturally increase in complexity and intelligence with time.
Q3) Which of the following was the most important for maintaining the Earth's stable climate over the time it took for large organisms to evolve?
A) sustained volcanic activity
B) the cessation of the heavy bombardment phase
C) plate tectonics
D) the Moon
E) underground sea vents
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