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Descriptive Astronomy is an introductory course that explores the fundamental concepts and observational aspects of astronomy. The course covers the structure and scale of the universe, motions of celestial objects, the solar system, stars, galaxies, and the methods used to observe and interpret astronomical phenomena. Emphasizing conceptual understanding rather than complex mathematics, students learn about the historical development of astronomical knowledge, celestial coordinates, telescopes, and the life cycles of stars. By focusing on the appearance and behavior of objects in the night sky, the course helps students appreciate the scientific processes and discoveries that shape our understanding of the cosmos.
Recommended Textbook
Astronomy Today 8th Edition by Eric Chaisson
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Q1) About how many stars are visible on a clear,dark night with the naked eye alone?
A) a few dozen
B) a few hundred
C) a few thousand
D) tens of thousands
E) millions and millions
Answer: C
Q2) At apogee,the Moon is at its farthest from Earth and thus appears smaller than normal.Because of this it can produce only annular solar eclipses,but not total solar eclipses.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) When the Moon is directly opposite the Sun in the sky,its phase is:
A) new.
B) waxing or waning crescent.
C) first or third quarter.
D) waxing or waning gibbous.
E) full.
Answer: E

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Q1) The place in a planet's orbit that is closest to the Sun is called:
A) vernal equinox.
B) aphelion.
C) perihelion.
D) crossing the ecliptic.
E) None of these; a planet's distance from the Sun never changes.
Answer: C
Q2) Newton's modification of Kepler's Laws allows us to find the ________ of the planets,if we can observe satellites in orbit about them.
Answer: masses
Q3) Compared to orbital velocity,escape velocity is about:
A) the same.
B) 70% less.
C) 40% more.
D) twice as large.
E) four times greater.
Answer: C
Q4) We are at ________ in January,when we are closest to the Sun in our elliptical orbit.
Answer: perihelion
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Q1) Give an example of the Doppler Effect being used in a baseball game.
Answer: The Doppler "gun" can focus on the motion of the baseball,and give us the speed that the pitcher is delivering it to the plate.
Q2) Wein's law relates the peak wavelength of the blackbody to its size.The larger the black body,the shorter its peak wavelength.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) The number of waves passing the observer per second is:
A) the wavelength in angstroms.
B) the amplitude in nm.
C) the frequency in Hertz.
D) the period in seconds.
E) the energy in milliwatts.
Answer: C
Q4) The distance from a wave's crest to its undisturbed state is the ________. Answer: amplitude
Q5) The product of the wavelength times the frequency of a wave is its ________. Answer: velocity
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Q1) In an atom,electrons can have only specific,allowed orbital energies.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The spectra of molecules are more complex because molecules can vibrate and ________ instead of just exhibiting electronic transitions like atoms.
Q3) The energy required to move an electron in a hydrogen atom from energy level 2 to energy level 3 is:
A) 0.7 eV.
B) 1.9 eV.
C) 2.6 eV.
D) 2.9 eV.
E) 3.4 eV.
Q4) The particle which adds mass but no charge to the atomic nucleus is the:
A) positron.
B) proton.
C) neutron.
D) neutrino.
E) alpha particle.
Q5) ________ is the process of stripping electrons from their atoms.
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Q1) The amount of diffraction,and thus the resolution of the scope,depends upon:
A) the wavelength used and the size of the main telescope objective lens or mirror.
B) the design of the telescope.
C) whether the telescope is a reflector or refractor.
D) the brightness of the object.
E) the size and sensitivity of the CCD chip used for imaging.
Q2) What are some advantages of radio telescopes over optical scopes?
Q3) Which of the following is currently supplying high resolution X-ray images from space?
A) ROSAT
B) Chandra
C) Einstein
D) HEAO-2
E) COBE
Q4) What is a CCD,and how does it work? Why is it replacing film?
Q5) The light gathering ability of a telescope is most dependent on the diameter of its primary objective.
A)True
B)False
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Q1) Our best close-up views of the jovian moons came from the many passes by:
A) Voyager 2.
B) Galileo.
C) Cassini.
D) New Horizons.
E) Global Surveyor.
Q2) What physical characteristics of Mercury distinguish it among all the planets in our solar system?
Q3) As a rotating gas cloud contracts,it spins:
A) faster due to an increase in angular momentum.
B) slower due to a decrease in angular momentum.
C) at a constant rate.
D) faster due to conservation of angular momentum.
E) slower due to conservation of angular momentum.
Q4) What might have made the original solar nebula begin to contract?
A) the Big Bang
B) the formation of our arm of the Milky Way
C) the shock wave from a nearby exploding star
D) interstellar magnetism generated by pulsars
E) the large amount of angular momentum in the nebula
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Q1) The Dynamo Theory holds that:
A) lightning plays a major role in generating our magnetic fields.
B) any other planet of similar density will also have a strong magnetic field.
C) the Earth's core, like Mercury's, is now a solid, rigid bar magnet.
D) magnetic fields are generated by rapidly spinning, fluid magnetic interiors.
E) the Earth's magnetic field must switch polarities every few million years.
Q2) The ozone layer lies at the boundary of the stratosphere and mesosphere.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The relative size of the mantle of Earth compared to the solid inner core of Earth is most similar to:
A) the peel of an orange as compared to the meat of the orange.
B) the rind of a watermelon as compared to the meat of the watermelon.
C) the skin of a grape as compared to the meat of the grape.
D) the meat of a peach as compared to the pit of the peach.
E) the meat of a cherry as compared to the pit of the cherry.
Q4) The most abundant gas in Earth's atmosphere is oxygen.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Name two consequences of the Earth's magnetic field detected from space.
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Q1) For Mercury,the tidal stress of the Sun is much greater at aphelion than at perihelion.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Almost all we know about Mercury has come from:
A) telescopic observations for Earth near greatest elongations.
B) radar imaging of its rugged surface.
C) the three flybys of Mariner 10.
D) the messenger orbiter.
E) the Hubble Space Telescope's high resolution images.
Q3) Which of these features is attributed to the shrinking of Mercury's core?
A) rilles
B) scarps
C) craters
D) mare
E) rays
Q4) Describe some of the features of Mercury's surface and briefly explain how these features are believed to have formed.
Q5) Compare and contrast the interiors of the Moon and Mercury,including how these features formed.
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Q1) Venus Express is mapping what feature(s)of Venus?
A) elevations of Venus' surface
B) winds in Venus' atmosphere
C) craters on Venus' surface
D) temperatures of the surface and various layers of the atmosphere
E) the composition of various layers of the atmosphere
Q2) The atmosphere of Venus is about 95% ________.
Q3) Why is Venus' rotation unusual?
Q4) The most effective wavelengths to see through the clouds of Venus to the surface are ________.
Q5) Compared to Earth,Venus spins very rapidly.
A)True B)False
Q6) In its orbit about the Sun,when is Venus the brightest as seen from Earth? Why?
Q7) The clouds of Earth often generate rain storms on the Earth's surface.Is this true of Venus? Why or why not?
Q8) Venus has larger volcanoes than Earth's Hawaii.
A)True B)False
Q9) The Greenhouse Effect on Venus is due to ________ in its atmosphere. Page 11
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Q1) The residual polar cap that does not vanish during the Martian summer is
Q2) How does the axial tilt of Mars compare with our own?
A) Like Jupiter, Mars always keeps its equator pointing at the Sun.
B) It is about half our own, 12 degrees.
C) It is almost identical to the Earth.
D) Like Saturn, it's about 27 degrees.
E) Like Uranus, it is 98 degrees and flopped over on its side.
Q3) The largest shield volcano yet discovered is:
A) Maxwell Mons on Venus.
B) Kilimanjaro on Earth.
C) Olympus Mons on Mars.
D) Prometheus on Io.
E) Caloris on Mercury.
Q4) Rank these magnetic fields,from weakest to strongest.
A) Venus, Mars, Mercury, Earth
B) Mars, Mercury, Venus, Earth
C) Earth, Venus, Mars, Mercury
D) The Moon, Mercury, Mars, Venus
E) Mars, Venus, Earth, Mercury

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Q1) Telescopically,Jupiter is the most colorful and changeable of the planets.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What is thought to be the cause of Io's volcanoes?
A) Jupiter's magnetosphere and its charged particles
B) Jupiter's gravity and the heat it creates
C) tidal stresses from both Jupiter and Europa
D) solar radiation focused by Jupiter's gravity
E) radioactive decay in Io's interior
Q3) What is oblateness,and what does it tell us about Jupiter's interior?
Q4) Of the Galilean moons,the one with striking grooved terrain and icy tectonic features as well as older craters is:
A) Amalthea.
B) Io.
C) Europa.
D) Ganymede.
E) Callisto.
Q5) The large moons of Jupiter have low densities suggesting compositions that are a mixture of rocky materials and ________.
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Q6) Contrast the compositions of Jupiter's belts and zones.
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Q1) Why are Saturn's rings much brighter than any other jovian's ring system?
Q2) Lightning in storms on Saturn produces bursts of radio waves.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What evidence suggests that Enceladus has ongoing geological activity?
A) Voyager 2 photographed liquid nitrogen geysers 10 kilometers tall.
B) Lack of impact craters on much of its surface, evidence of ice flows from possible volcanic activity, and geysers that supply material for the E-ring.
C) Voyager 1 showed sulfur eruptions all over its pizza-pie colored surface.
D) Enceladus is located within Saturn's Roche limit, and ready to blow up.
E) Enceladus undergoes severe tidal stresses from its resonance with Titan.
Q4) Compare the rotations and oblateness of Jupiter and Saturn.
Q5) What is a planet's Roche limit?
Q6) The atmosphere of Titan is composed mostly of:
A) oxygen.
B) methane.
C) carbon dioxide.
D) hydrogen.
E) nitrogen.
Q7) Why is Titan considered so interesting? Page 15
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Q1) Which of the following is true about the seasons on Uranus?
A) The seasons on Uranus are not unlike those on Earth or Mars.
B) The Uranian rotation axis produces some extreme seasonal effects.
C) Like Jupiter, Uranus has little tilt, with its equator always facing the Sun.
D) From the Uranian equator, the Sun would remain stationary all the time.
E) Uranus' weather will become less turbulent as equinox approaches in 2049.
Q2) We see differential rotation at Uranus and Neptune such that the equator is moving slower than higher latitudes.
A)True
B)False
Q3) William Herschel thought he had found a comet when he spotted the green disk of:
A) Triton.
B) Uranus.
C) Neptune.
D) Titania.
E) Oberon.
Q4) Why are the moons and rings of Uranus and Neptune believed to be dark?
Q5) Which moon of Uranus has the strangest terrain? What is a possible explanation for its jumbled appearance?
Q6) Discuss the seasons of Uranus. Page 17
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Q1) The first hint of the role of asteroids in extinction of the dinosaurs came from:
A) finding the huge crater in the Yucatan.
B) finding dinosaur fossils with meteorites imbedded in them.
C) finding a layer of worldwide iridium enriched dust.
D) finding that dinosaurs were warm-blooded and smart.
E) finding that no volcanic eruptions were linked to their disappearance.
Q2) How does the discovery of a comet typically differ from that of an asteroid?
Q3) Compared to Ida,Eros,and Gaspra,what was odd about Mathilde?
A) It had a small moon, so we could more accurately find its mass.
B) It was much denser, probably made of iron and nickel, a class M asteroid.
C) It was less dense than water, indicating it was a comet nucleus, rather than an asteroid.
D) It was less dense than rock, but more than ice, suggesting a porous structure.
E) It was the same density as the Earth's Moon, indicating it had been knocked off our Moon.
Q4) Carbonaceous meteorites contain organic molecules,even amino acids.
A)True
B)False
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Q1) Astronomers expect extrasolar planetary systems to have very different overall properties than those found in our solar system.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Describe an example of catastrophic creation in our solar system.
Q3) Most extrasolar Neptunes and Jupiters found to date have:
A) orbits very close to their parent stars, making them hot Neptunes and hot Jupiters.
B) orbits that are more eccentric than those of planets in our solar system, with eccentricities greater than 0.1.
C) orbits that are less eccentric than those of planets in our solar system, with eccentricities less than 0.01.
D) much larger orbits than the jovian planets in our solar system.
Q4) Extrasolar planets are placed in groups by their approximate masses.What are four of these classes?
Q5) Why are Earths and super-Earths in the habitable zones of their stars of special interest?
Q6) Hot Jupiters have ________ period orbits.
Q7) The planet ________ may have been the result of the merger of two bodies.
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Q1) From where does most of the solar wind flow?
A) granules
B) sunspots
C) flares
D) prominences
E) coronal holes
Q2) Two pairs of sunspots appear similar,but if one photo was made in 1990,and the next photo was made in 2002,what difference would we note?
Q3) What is it about the Sun's corona that astronomers don't understand?
A) No one knows why that part of the Sun's atmosphere does not drift away into space.
B) During total solar eclipses, the corona sometimes disappears from view.
C) The corona seems to absorb 2/3 of the neutrinos that pass through it.
D) The corona is much hotter than layers of the Sun that are closer to the solar interior.
E) The Sun's corona extends to the outer reaches of the solar system.
Q4) The observable ________ is a thin layer in which the solar material becomes suddenly much more opaque as we look deeper into the Sun.
Q5) What do sunspots tell us about the Sun's rotation rate?
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Q1) Star A and star B have the same apparent magnitude.Star A is twice as distant as star B.Therefore,star A has twice the luminosity as star B.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What is proper motion?
A) It is the true, not apparent, motion of a star in space.
B) It is the apparent shift as we go to opposite sides of our orbit every six months.
C) It is the annual apparent motion of a star across the sky.
D) It is the motion of a star towards or away from us, revealed by Doppler shifts.
E) It is the orbital motion of a star around the Galaxy.
Q3) For luminosity classification,fat stars have skinny spectral lines.
A)True
B)False
Q4) A type B9 star is hotter than a type A0.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Contrast main sequence stars of type B and G.
Page 22
Q6) From hottest to coolest,the seven letters for the star types are ________.
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Q1) Emission nebulae are blue.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What are the very cold (about 20 K),dense clouds of gas thought to be the most massive objects in the Galaxy called?
A) emission nebulae
B) absorption clouds
C) dust clouds
D) molecular clouds
E) reflection nebulae
Q3) What information does 21 cm radiation provide about the gas clouds?
A) their motion
B) their distribution
C) their density
D) their temperature
E) all of these
Q4) The form of electromagnetic radiation most effectively blocked by a dark nebulae is ________.
Q6) Contrast the sizes of molecular clouds with emission nebulae. Page 23
Q5) Contrast observations of ionized and neutral hydrogen in space.
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Q1) What do we mean by the term molecular clouds? Why do they exist? How can observation of their properties yield clues to the processes of stellar formation?
Q2) A stage 4 object can be plotted on the H-R diagram.At this stage,the star will appear:
A) in the middle left of the diagram.
B) in the middle right of the diagram.
C) just on the bottom right of the main sequence.
D) down and to the left of where it will be when it is a main sequence star.
E) in the middle of the main sequence.
Q3) During a protostar's T Tauri phase,it:
A) begins a period of reduced activity.
B) expands dramatically.
C) lies on the main sequence.
D) may develop very strong winds.
E) changes its spin direction.
Q4) If a star is spinning rapidly,this may limit its final mass.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What stage of star formation is ZAMS?
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Q1) When a star's inward gravity and outward pressure are balanced,the star is said to be:
A) in gravitational collapse.
B) in thermal expansion.
C) in rotational equilibrium.
D) in hydrostatic equilibrium.
E) a stage 2 protostar.
Q2) Mass transfer in binaries occurs when one giant swells to reach the:
A) Chandrasekhar Limit.
B) Cassini Division.
C) Hayashi Track.
D) Roche Lobe.
E) Herbig-Haro Limit.
Q3) There is no helium flash for a high mass star; for them,it is just one more step toward the heaviest element formation.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The Sun will get brighter in the next 4 to 5 billion years.
A)True
B)False
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Q1) Which of these events is NOT possible?
A) low-mass stars swelling up to produce planetary nebulae
B) red giants exploding as Type II supernovae
C) close binary stars producing recurrent novae explosions
D) white dwarfs and companion stars producing recurrent Type I supernova events
E) a white dwarf being found in the center of a planetary nebula
Q2) In a nova,there is a white dwarf,an evolving companion star,and a(n)________ surrounding the white dwarf's equator.
Q3) Which type of heavy atomic nuclei are most common,and why?
A) Transuranium elements, for only very heavy elements are made in supernovae.
B) Odd numbered elements, because hydrogen is the building block for all heavier elements.
C) Even numbered elements, for helium is "giant food" for everything beyond itself.
D) Metals, for iron is the last abundant element formed before the type II supernova.
E) Noble gases, for they are the most stable elements.
Q4) Why should the youngest stars be made of the heaviest elements?
Q5) Why does iron formation cause a high mass star to "have a heart attack"?
Q6) Can our Sun ever become a nova? Why?
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Q1) Two important properties of young neutron stars are:
A) extremely slow rotation and a strong magnetic field.
B) extremely rapid rotation and a weak magnetic field.
C) extremely rapid rotation and a strong magnetic field.
D) no rotation and a weak magnetic field.
E) no rotation and no magnetic field.
Q2) Michelson and Morley demonstrated that the speed of light is ________ of the motion of the observer.
Q3) What explanation does general relativity provide for gravity?
A) Gravity is the result of curved spacetime.
B) Gravity is directly proportional to the mass of the attracting body.
C) Gravity is inversely proportion to the radius of the body.
D) Gravity is the opposite of the electromagnetic force.
E) Gravity can affect only massive particles, not massless photons.
Q4) A normal neutron star is spun up to a millisecond pulsar by accretion of matter from a ________ binary companion.
Q5) All pulsars are neutron stars; why is the reverse not true?
Q6) Why is the light from near a black hole redshifted?
Q8) How can a black hole of a few solar masses be detected? Page 28
Q7) Explain why the Crab Nebula cannot involve a rapidly rotating white dwarf star.
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Q1) What features of the telescopic view of the Andromeda Galaxy,M-31,are also visible to the naked eye for our similar Galaxy?
Q2) From Earth,the view of the Milky Way is a thin band of stars across the night sky.The part of the Milky Way galaxy that is described here is the:
A) bulge.
B) spiral arm.
C) disk.
D) halo.
E) globular cluster.
Q3) What are the observational pieces of evidence that confirm the existence of a three-part structure (bulge,disk,halo)to the Milky Way Galaxy?
Q4) List at least one naked-eye observation that is consistent with the ancient idea that Earth is at the center of the Milky Way.List at least one naked-eye observation that is inconsistent with the notion that Earth is at the center of the Milky Way.
Q5) What do the orbits of Populations I and II stars tell us about the formation of the Milky Way?
Q6) We can estimate the mass of the Galaxy from observations of its ________ curve.
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Q1) If we are directly in the line of a jet coming out of the lobe galaxy's core,we see a:
A) hypernovae.
B) pulsar.
C) quasar.
D) blazar.
E) magnetar.
Q2) Within the boundaries of the constellations Coma and Virgo are found:
A) all the galaxies in the Local Group.
B) the most distant known quasars.
C) the largest nearby superclusters of galaxies.
D) the closest red dwarfs to the Sun.
E) the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.
Q3) The elliptical galaxies are most like what part of our Milky Way? Explain.
Q4) Most galaxies in the Local Group are:
A) dwarf spirals.
B) small irregulars similar to the Magellanic Clouds.
C) larger spirals than either the Milky Way or M-31 in Andromeda.
D) dwarf ellipticals, similar to the companions of M-31.
E) brown dwarfs, with even more dust than our own Galaxy.
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Q1) In the Local Group,how might even the Milky Way become a victim?
Q2) The lensing of a distant quasar is produced by ________ of a foreground galaxy.
A) all the normal matter and dark matter
B) only the mass of the black hole in the nucleus
C) an individual star
D) a pulsar's intense magnetic field
E) a relativistic jet
Q3) Due to the galaxy density and collisions,________ are rare in the centers of clusters.
A) irregulars
B) quasars
C) spirals
D) black holes
E) blazars
Q4) For nearby spirals,their rotation curves help measure both light and dark matter.
A)True
B)False
Q5) When two galaxies move very closely to each other,their ________ may dramatically rearrange their visible structures.
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Q1) The open universe would require be less than zero.
A)True
B)False
Q2) On the surface of a sphere the shortest distance between two points is:
A) an arc on a great circle.
B) a straight line.
C) a circle.
D) a triangle.
E) a curvy line.
Q3) When dark matter first became popular,many astronomers thought that was greater than one from the extra gravity,favoring what type of Universe?
Q4) The Big Bang was an expansion of matter into empty space.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Why can one not use quasars to check the Hubble relation relating distances of objects to their velocity of recession?
Q6) How is the geometrical structure of the universe today related to the presence of matter in the universe? How is this related to the future history of the universe?
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Q1) Scientists are able to use the theories of physics to describe the conditions of the universe back to:
A) the moment of the Big Bang.
B) the end of the Planck Epoch.
C) the beginning of GUT.
D) the end of the Radiation Era.
E) the Recombination Epoch.
Q2) The period before the separation of the gravitational force is the Planck Epoch.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The period from about 100 seconds up to 15 minutes after the Big Bang is the:
A) Radiation Era.
B) Lepton Epoch.
C) Nuclear Epoch.
D) Decoupling Epoch.
E) Matter Era.
Q4) Why were elements heavier than helium not produced during the Big Bang?
Q5) During the Planck Epoch,all forces were ________,and the universe was considered as a singularity.
Q6) What are the important relics of the quark epoch? Why? Page 34
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Q1) An experiment similar to the Miller-Urey Experiment was more recently done by NASA using an icy mixture of water,methanol,ammonia and carbon monoxide.The mixture was exposed to ultraviolet radiation.The results of this experiment were that no amino acids or DNA were formed,but complex organic molecules were observed.The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether:
A) DNA could form from amino acids.
B) DNA could form from ultraviolet radiation.
C) ultraviolet radiation could create amino acids.
D) amino acids could form in the harsh vacuum of outer space.
E) amino acids cold form from water, methanol, ammonia and carbon monoxide.
Q2) In terms of temperature alone,there are ________ terrestrial planets within the widest boundaries of the Sun's zone of habitability.
Q3) Which four moons of the jovian planets show the most promise of life?
A) Io, Ganymede, Callisto, Europa
B) Titan, Enceladus, Dione, Mimas
C) Miranda, Titania, Ariel, Oberon
D) Enceladus, Europa, Ganymede, Titan
E) Ganymede, Titan, Miranda, Enceladus
Q4) What happened to the dinosaurs? How does that enter into the Drake Equation?
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