Astronomy for Non-Science Majors
Exam Preparation Guide
Course Introduction
Astronomy for Non-Science Majors offers an introduction to the fundamental concepts of astronomy with a focus on making the subject accessible and engaging for students without a scientific background. The course explores the history and methods of astronomical observation, the structure and scale of the universe, our solar system, stars, galaxies, and the search for extraterrestrial life. Emphasis is placed on understanding scientific reasoning, interpreting astronomical phenomena, and appreciating the impact of astronomy on culture and society. No prerequisite scientific knowledge is required, and students will have the opportunity to develop critical thinking skills while engaging with the wonders of the cosmos.
Recommended Textbook
HorizonsExploring the Universe 14th Edition by Michael A. Seeds
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20 Chapters
2483 Verified Questions
2483 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: Here and Now
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97 Verified Questions
97 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Draw a schematic (not to scale) diagram showing the Sun, the Earth circling around it, and the other seven planets with labels for each orbit.
Answer: Diagram should show the Sun and the eight planets in order: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
Q2) ________ is the smallest planet in the solar system.
Answer: Mercury
Q3) A(n) ____________________ is the distance that light would travel in one year. Answer: light-year
Q4) Assume a 100-yard football field represents the 14-billion-year history of the universe with one end as the origin and the other end representing the present. The existence of human beings will extend from ____ to the present "goal line."
A)the 50-yard line
B)the 5-yard line
C)the one-yard line
D)the one-inch line
Answer: D
Q5) ________________ is the closest star to Earth. Answer: Sun
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Chapter 2: A Users Guide to the Sky
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116 Verified Questions
116 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) An observer in the Northern Hemisphere watches the sky for several hours. Due to the motion of Earth, this observer notices that the stars near the north celestial pole appear to move
A)counter-clockwise around the celestial pole.
B)clockwise around the celestial pole.
C)from left to right.
D)from right to left.
E)nearly vertically upward.
Answer: A
Q2) A unit of angular diameter could be meters.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) The magnitude difference between Hubble Space Telescope apparent visual magnitude limit and the Sun's apparent visual magnitude is about 55.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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4
Chapter 3: Cycles of the Sun and Moon
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154 Verified Questions
154 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why don't eclipses occur at every new Moon and full Moon
Answer: The Moon's orbit is tipped a few degrees to the plane of Earth's orbit, so at most new or full Moons, the shadows miss, and there are no eclipses. For an eclipse to occur, the Moon must be passing through the plane of Earth's orbit.
Q2) When it is winter in the northern hemisphere, it is ____ in the southern hemisphere.
A)winter
B)summer
C)spring
D)fall
Answer: B
Q3) At the time of the winter solstice (the start of winter) the sunlight is at a lower angle and thus is ____ than(as) in the start of summer in the northern hemisphere.
A)less intense
B)more intense
C)the same intensity
Answer: A
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Chapter 4: The Origin of Modern Astronomy
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144 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Newton concluded that a force from the Earth had to act on the Moon because
A)a force is needed to keep the Moon in motion in its orbit.
B)a force is needed to pull the Moon outward.
C)a force is needed to accelerate the Moon toward Earth away from straight-line motion.
D)the Moon moved at a constant velocity in a straight line.
E)All of the other choices are correct.
Q2) Galileo's observations of a complete set of phases of Venus proved
A)that Venus orbited the Sun.
B)that Earth orbited the Sun.
C)that all of the planets orbited the Sun.
D)that the Moon orbited Earth.
E)that Venus had an atmosphere.
Q3) Which type of curve would accurately represent a closed orbit
A)ellipse
B)hyperbola
C)parabola
D)straight line
Q4) How can tidal forces affect the rotation of celestial bodies and their orbital motion Hint: Consider Earth and the Moon.
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Light and Telescopes
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156 Verified Questions
156 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Chromatic aberration occurs in a ________ telescope when __________.
A)reflecting; different colors of light do not focus at the same point
B)refracting; different colors of light do not focus at the same point
C)reflecting; light of different wavelengths get absorbed by the mirror
D)refracting; light of different wavelengths get absorbed by the lens
Q2) The colors of the rainbow from shortest to longest wavelength are ______________________.
Q3) Increasing the diameter of a telescope I.increases its light-gathering power.II.increases its resolving power.III.increases it magnifying power.IV.increases its chromatic aberration.
A)I, II, III, & IV
B)I, II, & III
C)I, II, & IV
D)III & IV
E)I & II
Q4) Both optical and radio telescopes can suffer from light pollution.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The main lens or mirror of a telescope is called the ____________________.
Page 7
Q6) Why might astronomers someday establish an observatory on the Moon
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Chapter 6: Atoms and Spectra
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125 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Doppler effect is sensitive only to motion along the line of sight.
A)True
B)False
Q2) A plot of the continuous spectra of five different stars is shown in Figure 6-1. Based on these spectra, which of the stars is the hottest
A)Star A
B)Star B
C)Star C
D)Star D
E)Star E
Q3) Isotopes of the same element have the same number of protons.
A)True
B)False
Q4) An atom that has lost an electron is called an ion.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Electrons in an atom are attracted to the nucleus by the _______________ force.
Q6) The process of removing an electron from a stable nucleus is known as ____________________.
Q7) Describe two ways in which an atom can be excited.
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Chapter 7: The Sun
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146 Verified Questions
146 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) A recent sunspot maximum occurred in 2013. What is the year of the sunspot maximum that immediately follows the 2013 maximum if the solar cycle continues
A)2017
B)2019
C)2022
D)2024
E)The last cycle started a Maunder minimum and the next maximum cannot be predicted.
Q2) What is the Babcock model
Q3) Spicules
A)are found in the photosphere.
B)are magnetic disturbances that push large loops of material off the solar surface.
C)are responsible for twisting the solar magnetic field and causing the sunspot cycle.
D)appear in the corona near the north and south poles of the Sun during a total solar eclipse.
E)are visible in filtergrams of the solar chromosphere.
Q4) What effects does solar activity have on Earth
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Chapter 8: The Family of Stars
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190 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) A star's luminosity depends only on the star's A)distance and diameter.
B)temperature and distance.
C)distance.
D)temperature and diameter.
E)apparent magnitude.
Q2) Which star in Diagram 8-1 is most like the Sun
A)Alnilam
B)Antares
C)Arcturus
D)HR 5337
E)Sirius B
Q3) The combined mass of a binary system is three solar masses. Star A is 1 AU and Star B is 2 AU from the center of mass. What are the masses of Star A and Star B, respectively
A)2.5, 0.5
B)1, 2
C)2, 1
D)0.5, 2.5
Q4) Why do molecular bands only occur in the spectra of the coolest stars
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Chapter 9: The Formation and Structure of Stars
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Sample Questions
Q1) The lowest-mass object that can initiate thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen has a mass of about
A)1 solar masses.
B)80 solar masses.
C)8 solar masses.
D)0.08 solar masses.
E)0.001 solar masses.
Q2) How long can a four-solar-mass star live
A)1 solar lifetime
B)0.03125 solar lifetimes
C)3 solar lifetimes
D)None of the other choices are correct.
Q3) Convection is important in stars because it
A)increases the temperature of the star.
B)mixes the gases of the star.
C)transports energy outward in the star.
D)carries the neutrinos to the surface of the star where they can escape.
E)mixes the gases of the star and transports the energy outward in the star.
Q4) Energy transport by ____________________ is important when photons cannot readily travel through a gas.
Page 11
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Chapter 10: The Deaths of Stars
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127 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Synchrotron radiation is produced
A)in planetary nebulae.
B)by red dwarfs.
C)in massive stars as their iron core collapses.
D)in supernova.
E)by neutrinos.
Q2) The age of a star cluster can be determined from the ____________________ of the cluster.
Q3) As material leaves an expanding star and begins to fall into a white dwarf close companion
A)an accretion disk will form around the white dwarf.
B)the material will cool off because it begins to move at high velocities.
C)the material will fall directly straight onto the surface of the white dwarf.
D)the white dwarf will produce a protostar.
E)the white dwarf's iron core will collapse.
Q4) Type II supernovae are believed to occur when the cores of massive stars collapse.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Explain the major differences between type II supernova and a type I supernova.
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Chapter 11: Neutron Stars and Black Holes
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99 Verified Questions
99 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) If the inner accretion disk around a black hole has a temperature of \(10^6\) K, at what wavelength will it radiate the most energy (Hint: From Wien's law, T =3,000,000 where is in nm and T is in K.)
A)\(10^6\) nm
B)3 nm
C)\(3 × 10^6\) nm
D)1 nm
E)\(3 × 10^{11}\) nm
Q2) Although neutron stars are very hot, they are faint and not easy to see at visual wavelengths because
A)light does not escape from their event horizon.
B)most lie beyond dense dust clouds.
C)they have only a small surface area from which to emit.
D)the peak of their thermal emission is at much shorter wavelengths than visual.
E)they have only a small surface area from which to emit and the peak of their thermal emission is at much shorter wavelengths than visual.
Q3) LMC X-3 is a binary system that is believed to contain a black hole.
A)True
B)False
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Page 13
Chapter 12: The Milky Way Galaxy
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117 Verified Questions
117 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The first scientific attempt to map the Milky Way galaxy
A)showed that the Sun was located in the center of the system of planets making up our galaxy.
B)showed that our galaxy is a round ball on which we live.
C)showed that our galaxy has 9 stars.
D)used globular clusters to determine the location of the center of the Earth.
E)was completed by William and Caroline Herschel.
Q2) Shapley found the distance to the center of the galaxy by studying the distance to open clusters.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The center of the Milky Way galaxy must be less than 1 AU in diameter and contain at least 4 million solar masses. Therefore, the center of the Milky Way galaxy must be a
Q4) What is the orientation of the galaxy shown above relative to Earth
A)face-on
B)edge-on
C)not quite edge-on
D)not quite face-on
Q5) Why are all spiral tracers young
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Galaxies: Normal and Active
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151 Verified Questions
151 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why can't galaxy evolution go from elliptical to spiral to irregular
Q2) Astronomers now speculate that a galaxy's shape depends on all of the following except
A)the rate of star formation.
B)the history of past collisions.
C)the mass.
D)All of the other choices may be important in determining a galaxy's shape.
Q3) Poor clusters
A)contain more than 1000 stars and are found in the halo of the galaxy.
B)contain lots of young stars and are found in the disk of a spiral galaxy.
C)contain more than 1000 galaxies and are generally elliptical in shape.
D)contain fewer than 1000 galaxies and tend to be irregularly shaped.
E)are found in the nucleus of the galaxy.
Q4) Recent high resolution radio observations show that quasars can be classified as
A)exploding supernova stars.
B)exploding planets.
C)normal galaxies like our Milky Way Galaxy.
D)a kind of active galaxy similar to Seyfert and radio galaxies.
Q5) Where jets run into surrounding gas in the intergalactic medium, ____________ are formed before feeding the lobes.
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Chapter 14: Modern Cosmology
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112 Verified Questions
112 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) How might we tell whether the Universe is open or closed
Q2) If galaxy A is four times more distant than galaxy B, then according to the Hubble law, galaxy A will recede ___________ than galaxy B.
A)16 times faster
B)4 times faster
C)2 times faster
D)1.2 times faster
E)0.25 times faster
Q3) Dark matter makes up 18.7% of the Universe.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Cosmetologists are the astronomers and physicists who do research in cosmology. A)True B)False
Q5) The flatness problem states that
A)the density of the Universe is very close to the critical density.
B)the density of the Universe is much larger than the critical density.
C)the density of the Universe is much less than the critical density.
D)the Universe is two-dimensional.
E)the Universe is one-dimensional.
Page 16
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Chapter 15: The Origin of the Solar System
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108 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The condensation sequence suggests that ____________ should condense as solids closest to the Sun.
A)hydrogen and helium
B)metals and metal oxides
C)silicates
D)ices of water, methane, and ammonia
Q2) Once a terrestrial planet had formed from a large number of planetesimals, heat could have melted it and allowed it to differentiate into a metallic core of ____________density and a rocky mantle or crust of ____________ density.
A)higher; lower
B)lower; higher
C)Wrong! The interior stays solid.
D)Wrong! There is no separation according to density.
Q3) The solar system contains no extrasolar planets.
A)True
B)False
Q4) All planets rotate in the counterclockwise direction as seen from the north.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 16: Earth and Moon: Bases for Comparative Planetology
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Sample Questions
Q1) What causes erosion
A)wind
B)water
C)glacier ice
D)all of the other choices.
Q2) Earth and the Moon could not have condensed from the same materials because they have different densities and compositions.
A)True
B)False
Q3) In the development of a terrestrial planet, the stage of ___________ when dense material settled to the core and less dense to the outer parts.
A)differentiation
B)cratering
C)glaciation
D)accretion
E)flooding
Q4) The central part of Earth's core is solid.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 17: Mercury, Venus, and Mars
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Sample Questions
Q1) The two moons of Mars are known as ____________________ and ____________________.
Q2) What physical property of Venus is vastly dissimilar compared to Earth
A)radius
B)mass
C)density
D)surface temperature
Q3) Venus is very hot because its atmosphere is rich in carbon dioxide.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The daytime surface temperature of Mercury is higher than Earth's Moon's surface temperature because
A)clouds shield the Earth's Moon during the day.
B)Mercury is farther from the Sun than the Earth's Moon.
C)Mercury is closer to the Sun than the Earth's Moon.
D)the atmosphere of the Earth's Moon has a strong greenhouse effect.
Q5) How did the four-stage history of Mars differ from that of Earth
Q6) The size of the volcanoes on Mars indicate that Mars has a(n) ____________________ crust than Earth.
Q7) What evidence do we have that Mars once had a thicker atmosphere
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Chapter 18: The Outer Solar System
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of these are nearly 90 degrees to the orbit plane of Uranus
A)Uranus' equator
B)the orbital planes of its major satellites
C)the orbital plane of its rings
D)Uranus' equator, the orbital planes of its major satellites, and the orbital plane of its rings.
Q2) Jupiter's interior is mostly liquid helium.
A)True
B)False
Q3) In Jupiter's atmosphere, winds circulate _________ in the ________ hemisphere and ________ in the _________ hemisphere
A)clockwise, southern, counterclockwise, northern
B)counterclockwise, southern, clockwise, northern
C)clockwise, northern, counterclockwise, southern
D)counterclockwise, northern, clockwise, southern
Q4) Titan is smaller in mass and somewhat larger in size than the planet Mercury. How can Titan keep a substantial atmosphere while Mercury is virtually airless
Q5) The ____________ was a large cyclonic storm in the atmosphere of Neptune observed by Voyager 2.
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Chapter 19: Meteorites, Asteroids, and Comets
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Sample Questions
Q1) How does the dirty snowball theory explain some of the observed characteristics of comets and how may this description not be correct
Q2) What physical processes have led to the creation of stone and iron meteorites from carbonaceous chondrite asteroids
A)collision only
B)differentiation only
C)fragmentation only
D)melting only
E)melting, differentiation, collision, fragmentation
Q3) The meteors in meteor showers are believed to be the debris left behind in comet orbits.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Carbonaceous chondrites have been heated to high temperature at least once since they formed.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What observational evidence do we have that some meteors are caused by debris from comets
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Chapter 20: Astrobiology: Life on Other Worlds
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Sample Questions
Q1) The complex organism fossil cast shown above first appeared in the __________ period.
A)Pre-Cambrian
B)Cambrian
C)Tertiary
D)Jurassic
Q2) What kind of information is stored in the DNA molecules
Q3) What are the three properties of living things that the chapter identifies
Q4) In the Arecibo message shown above, the purple line leads to a purple arc with a letter M, which represents ______________.
A)a common color of the rainbow being transmitted in a region of the EM spectrum that text messages are sent in
B)two letters of the Greek alphabet
C)the radio dish sending a common letter of the English alphabet
D)the radio dish sending a signal
Q5) List three celestial objects in our solar system that may be good candidates for life and explain why.
Q6) Describe three things that limit travel between stars.
Q7) The Viking landers searched for life on ____________.
Page 22
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