Astronomy for Non-Science Majors Study Guide
Questions
Course Introduction
This course introduces the fundamental concepts of astronomy in a format accessible to students without a background in the sciences. It covers the history of astronomy, the structure and scale of the universe, the solar system and its components, stars and their life cycles, galaxies, and cosmology. Students will explore how astronomical discoveries have influenced human understanding of our place in the universe and develop critical thinking skills through observation-based activities and discussions. Emphasis is placed on appreciating the methods scientists use to study the cosmos and the impact of astronomical phenomena on everyday life. No advanced mathematics or prior scientific knowledge is required.
Recommended Textbook
Foundations of Astronomy 13th Edition by Michael A. Seeds
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Chapter 1: The Scale of the Cosmos
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why is scientific notation used in astronomy?
A)It makes it easy to write big or small numbers.
B)All astronomical distances are expressed in metric units.
C)It makes conversions between units easy.
D)Astronomers invented scientific notation.
Answer: A
Q2) What does a typical galaxy like our Milky Way galaxy contain?
A)primarily planets
B)gas and dust only
C)stars, planets, gas, and dust
D)a single star and planets
Answer: C
Q3) How long does it take light to cross the Milky Way galaxy?
A)about 8 minutes
B)about 8 years
C)about 80,000 years
D)about 200 million years
Answer: C
Q4) A(n)___________________ is the largest known structure in the universe.
Answer: filament
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Chapter 2: User's Guide to the Sky
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Sample Questions
Q1) How does the Moon's appearance change during a total lunar eclipse?
A)The Moon goes from new to full.
B)The Moon disappears.
C)The Moon turns a dark red colour.
D)The Moon's far side is visible.
Answer: C
Q2) When does the first quarter Moon rise?
A)at about noon
B)at sunset
C)at sunrise
D)at about midnight
Answer: A
Q3) Why have more people seen total lunar eclipses than total solar eclipses?
Answer: Answer not provided.
Q4) What is the Saros cycle?
A)the pattern of repetition of solar and lunar eclipses
B)the time between annular eclipses at a particular location
C)the number of full Moons in a year
D)the pattern of events that happen in a single eclipse
Answer: A
Page 4
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Chapter 3: The Origin of Modern Astronomy
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Q1) Describe the differences between the Ptolemaic,Tychonian,and Copernican models of the universe.
Answer: Answer not provided.
Q2) What did Eratosthenes measure very accurately?
A)the size of the Earth
B)the length of the year
C)the distance to the Moon
D)the length of the month
Answer: A
Q3) Why does Ptolemy include epicycles in his model?
Answer: Answer not provided.
Q4) Ptolemy formulated a(n)____________________ model of the solar system to predict positions of the Sun,Moon,and planets.
Answer: geocentric
Q5) What two numbers tell us the size and shape of an ellipse?
A)radius, eccentricity
B)radius, deferent
C)semi-major axis, deferent
D)semi-major axis, eccentricity
Answer: D
Page 5
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Chapter 4: Astronomical Telescopes and Instruments
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Q1) How is the objective of most radio telescopes similar to the objective of a reflecting optical telescope?
A)They are both bowl-shaped (concave).
B)They are both hill-shaped (convex).
C)They are typically the same size.
D)They are both made of metal.
Q2) The Earth's atmosphere blocks most forms of electromagnetic radiation from entering,except for ____________________ and ____________________.
Q3) What is the ratio of the light-gathering power of a 10-metre telescope to that of a 1-metre telescope?
A)10 to 1
B)1 to 10
C)100 to 1
D)1 to 100
Q4) How does the energy of a photon relate to the other properties of light?
A)Energy is directly proportional to the wavelength of the light.
B)Energy is inversely proportional to the wavelength of the light.
C)Energy depends only on the speed of the light.
D)Energy is inversely proportional to the frequency of the light.
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Chapter 5: Sun Light and Sun Atoms
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Q1) A recent sunspot maximum occurred in 2001.What is the year of the sunspot maximum that immediately follows the 2001 maximum if the solar cycle continues?
A)2010
B)2012
C)2018
D)2023
Q2) Solar flares have no known effect on the Earth.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Why does a filtergram reveal details in higher layers of the solar atmosphere?
Q4) Most of the light we see coming from the Sun originates in the
Q5) Which of the following occur when energy in the solar wind guided by the Earth's magnetic field excites gases in the Earth's upper atmosphere?
A)coronas
B)flares
C)auroras
D)coronal holes
Q6) What is the solar wind,and how does it affect objects in the solar system?
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Chapter 6: The Family of Stars
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Sample Questions
Q1) The parsec is defined so that a star at a distance of 1 parsec has a parallax of one arcsecond.If a star has a parallax of 0.02 seconds of arc,what is its distance?
A)2 parsecs
B)5 parsecs
C)20 parsecs
D)50 parsecs
Q2) Which of the following kinds of stars best obey the mass-luminosity relation?
A)main-sequence stars
B)giant stars
C)supergiant stars
D)white dwarfs
Q3) How does a star's surface temperature determine the appearance of its spectrum?
A)Surface temperature affects which elements are solid, liquid, or gaseous.
B)Surface temperature determines the luminosity of the star.
C)Surface temperature affects which elements can escape from the surface of the star.
D)Surface temperature determines the velocity of collision rates of atoms and ions.
Q4) Describe the measurements needed to determine the orbit of a visual binary star.
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Chapter 7: The Structure and Formation of Stars
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why do nuclear fusion reactions only take place in the interior of a star?
A)The magnetic fields are strongest there.
B)The temperature and density are highest in the centre.
C)The core is the only place where hydrogen is found.
D)The strong nuclear force is only active in the centres of stars.
Q2) As a human with a temperature of about 310 K,you radiate most strongly at a wavelength of about 10 micrometres.If the dust around a protostar radiates most strongly at 30 micrometres,what is the approximate temperature of that dust?
A)100,000 K
B)10,000 K
C)1000 K
D)100 K
Q3) The nucleus of the hydrogen atom consists of a single neutron.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Explain what keeps the nuclear reactions in a star under control.
Q5) Why are massive stars more luminous than low mass stars? That is,why is there a mass-luminosity relation?
Q6) What observations confirm the existence of protostars?
Page 9
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Chapter 8: The Deaths of Stars
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Sample Questions
Q1) Do all supernova remnants contain pulsars?
A)Yes, pulsars are visible in all supernova remnants.
B)No, some supernova explosions form white dwarfs instead of the neutron stars necessary for pulsars.
C)No: all supernova remnants start out having pulsars but the pulsars can disappear before the supernova remnant dissipates.
D)Yes, but some pulsars' pulses are not visible from Earth because of the direction of their rotational axis.
Q2) Helium fusion does not begin until the star has entered the giant region of the H-R diagram.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A scientific theory can be proven true if the correct experiments are performed. A)True
B)False
Q4) Stars swell into giants when hydrogen is exhausted in their centres.
A)True
B)False
Q5) From what part of the H-R diagram have the giants in a star cluster evolved?
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Chapter 9: The Milky Way Galaxy
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Sample Questions
Q1) The orbits of halo stars are typically circular and have a low inclination with respect to the disk.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Refer to the figure.A Type II Cepheid with a period of 10 days has been located in a distant globular cluster.What is the star's absolute magnitude?
A)-6
B)-4
C)-1
D)0
Q3) Which of the following is believed to make up most of the extended galactic halo?
A)dark matter
B)faint brown dwarfs
C)G, K, and M stars
D)globular clusters
Q4) The disk of the galaxy is older than the halo.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 10: Galaxies
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Sample Questions
Q1) What evidence do we have that active galaxies are powered by black holes at their centres?
Q2) Which of the following are produced when two galaxies pass near each other and pull large streamers of stars,gas,and dust away from each other?
A)ring galaxies
B)rotation curves
C)tidal tails
D)irregular galaxies
Q3) The Local Group of galaxies is dominated by the presence of spiral galaxies.
A)True
B)False
Q4) If a quasar has a redshift of 0.98,then it is receding from Earth at 98 percent of the speed of light.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Propose a hypothesis to explain why rich galaxy clusters have a larger proportion of elliptical and S0 galaxies than other galaxy clusters.
Q6) Why can't galaxy evolution go from elliptical to spiral to irregular?
Q7) Why is the number of galaxies in the Local Group uncertain?
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Cosmology in the 21st Century
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Sample Questions
Q1) The rate of expansion of the universe is currently increasing.
A)True
B)False
Q2) If we lived in a static,unchanging universe,which of the following would you expect to see?
A)detection of the cosmic microwave background (CMB)
B)dark sky at night
C)redshift of galaxies that change with distance
D)galaxy properties that are constant with distance
Q3) How can the Big Bang still be visible? In what form has it been detected?
Q4) What does the Large Hadron Collider have to do with cosmology?
A)It is accelerating electrons so that they can travel across the universe.
B)It is accelerating protons to energies like those in the very early universe.
C)Its superconducting magnets are the same temperature as most of the universe.
D)It will produce deuterium and helium by fusion, as in the very early universe.
Q5) Explain why the principle of homogeneity is an important aspect of the cosmological principle.
Q6) The night sky is dark because the universe is not infinitely old.
A)True
B)False
Page 13
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Chapter 12: The Origin of the Solar System
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Sample Questions
Q1) The original cloud from which the Sun and planets formed had a composition rich in hydrogen and helium.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The pressure of sunlight was one of the forces that cleared the solar nebula.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What is the main improvement of the Kepler spacecraft compared to other planet-finding methods?
A)Kepler can detect signs of life on planets.
B)Kepler can detect planets outside the Milky Way.
C)Kepler can detect many more planets.
D)Kepler can detect much smaller planets.
Q4) The present motions of the planets were inherited from the rotation of the solar nebula.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Which are the oldest solar system objects that have been dated radioactively? What are their ages?
Page 14
Q6) How does the solar nebula theory account for the presence of comets?
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Chapter 13: Comparative Planetology of the Terrestrial
Planets
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Sample Questions
Q1) The largest satellite orbiting a terrestrial planet is ____________________.
Q2) The Himalayan Mountains are rugged,jagged peaks,while the Appalachians are smooth and rolling.Why is there a difference?
A)The Himalayas are much older and the rocks have begun breaking off.
B)The Himalayas are volcanic mountains and the Appalachians are not.
C)The Appalachians are much older and have been smoothed by erosion.
D)The Appalachians are younger and have just started to be thrust upward by plate tectonics.
Q3) Radar maps of Venus show impact craters.
A)True
B)False
Q4) In what way is Venus very different from the Earth?
A)radius
B)mass
C)density
D)surface temperature
Q5) The largest volcano found on one of the terrestrial planets is
15
Q6) Why is volcanism associated with regions where one tectonic plate slides under another plate?
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Chapter 14: Comparative Planetology of the Jovian Planets
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the term for the region around a planet where the magnetic field is able to deflect the solar wind and other charged particles?
A)aurora
B)magnetosphere
C)hydrosphere
D)corona
Q2) Pluto is no longer classified as a planet;instead it is now classified as a(n)____________________.
Q3) Jupiter radiates less heat than it absorbs from the Sun.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Which of the following objects may have organic particles on its surface as a result of the interaction of sunlight with methane in its upper atmosphere?
A)Io
B)Titan
C)Mimas
D)Ganymede
Q5) What is the significance of the colours of Uranus and Neptune?
Q6) Why can Saturn have a ring of icy particles,while terrestrial planets cannot?
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Chapter 15: Life on Other Worlds
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Sample Questions
Q1) If you uncoiled and stretched out all of the DNA molecules in a typical human,what would their total length be?
A)about 1 kilometre
B)about 600 kilometres
C)about 1 astronomical unit
D)about 600 astronomical units
Q2) What is the difference between chemical evolution and biological evolution?
Q3) How can we select stars with planets that are likely homes for life?
Q4) DNA molecules cannot be altered by chance errors in reproduction.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What is ALH 84001?
A)It is a meteorite that some scientists think shows evidence for life evolving on Mars.
B)It is the compound used by Miller to begin his experiment to produce amino acids.
C)It is the molecule that controls the reproduction of DNA within a cell.
D)It is the molecule that acts as DNA's messenger to assemble proteins from amino acids.
Q6) What kind of information is stored in DNA molecules?
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