Descriptive Astronomy Study Guide Questions
Course Introduction
Descriptive Astronomy provides an introduction to the fundamental concepts and phenomena of astronomy, designed for students in non-science majors. The course covers the structure and scale of the universe, motions of celestial bodies, the life cycles of stars, characteristics of planets, and the methods astronomers use to observe and interpret the cosmos. Through lectures, readings, and visual resources, students gain an understanding of our place in the universe, the scientific process, and the impact of astronomical discoveries on human culture.
Recommended Textbook
Astronomy The Universe at a Glance 1st Edition by Eric Chaisson
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Chapter 1: The Night Sky
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Sample Questions
Q1) As it orbits the Earth, the Moon appears to move eastward about its own diameter every hour.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Only at the equator are all the stars visible over the course of the year.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Modern scientific theories are NOT
A) testable.
B) continuously tested.
C) simple.
D) perfect.
E) elegant.
Answer: D
Q4) The Full Moon rises around sunrise, and sets around sunset.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Page 3
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Chapter 2: Light and Telescopes
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why would a hotter star appear blue-white while a cooler star appear red or not be visible at all?
Answer: The hotter the star the shorter the wavelength it peaks at. A star that emits light across the entire visible spectrum would appear white. One that peaked beyond the visible would appear blue-white. A cooler star may peak in the red part of the spectrum, or even in the infrared.
Q2) What problem does adaptive optics correct?
A) Defects in the optics of the telescope, such as the original Hubble mirror
B) The opacity of the Earth's atmosphere to some wavelengths of light
C) The light pollution of urban areas
D) Turbulence in the Earth's atmosphere which creates twinkling
E) Chromatic aberration due to use of only a single lens objective
Answer: D
Q3) In an atom, electrons can have only specific, allowed orbital energies.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q4) The colors of a neon light arise because it is a(n) ________ spectrum.
Answer: emission (or bright line)
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Chapter 3: The Solar System
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is TRUE about solar system densities?
A) The denser planets lie closer to the Sun.
B) In differentiated bodies, the denser materials lie near their surfaces.
C) The asteroids all have about the same density.
D) Saturn has the same density as water.
E) Planetary density increases with increasing distance from the Sun.
Answer: A
Q2) The orbits of most of the planets in our solar system have eccentricities close to zero.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Explain how the eccentricity describes the shape of an ellipse.
Answer: The higher the eccentricity, the more elongated the oval; a circle has an eccentricity of zero, while very stretched out comet orbits approach an eccentricity of one.
Q4) According to Newton, the gravity of the ________ is needed to explain planetary orbits.
Answer: Sun
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Chapter 4: Earth and Its Moon
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Q1) Describe the two different kinds of seismic waves. Distinguish between them by describing how they move through Earth's interior.
Q2) The rate of cratering
A) has remained constant over the last 4.6 billion years.
B) has recently increased with more collisions in the asteroid belt.
C) fluctuates over time, with massive bodies occasionally coming in from the Oort Cloud.
D) shows that large asteroid impacts are more common now than in the past.
E) shows that most interplanetary debris was swept up soon after the formation of the solar system.
Q3) Moonquakes on the Moon were detected by
A) the radar observations over time from Earth.
B) the seismographs left these by the Apollo astronauts.
C) laser beams reflected off mirrors left on the Moon by Apollo missions.
D) seismographs attached to the Russian Lunar rovers.
E) telescopic observations of lunar landslides.
Q4) Most of the information about the Moon's internal structure comes from ________ left on the lunar surface by Apollo astronauts.
Q5) What layers of the Earth's structure are not present in the Moon's structure?
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Chapter 5: The Eight Planets
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is TRUE of Jupiter's magnetosphere?
A) Although its surface field is greater, since the planet is larger the total field is actually weaker than Earth's.
B) It does not trap protons and electrons, as Earth's Van Allen belts do.
C) It has a tail that extends at least to Saturn's orbit.
D) It is most extensive on the sunward side of the planet.
E) It is only slightly stronger than Saturn's.
Q2) Mars' magnetic field is so weak because
A) it spins much slower than Earth does.
B) it core may no longer be molten.
C) its core contains less iron than our own.
D) Both B and C are probable.
E) All of the above are correct.
Q3) The tallest volcano in the solar system is Mauna Kea, when measured from its base on the ocean floor to its highest point.
A)True B)False
Q4) Venus' clouds are water vapor and are similar to clouds in Earth's atmosphere. A)True B)False
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Small Bodies in the Solar System
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Sample Questions
Q1) Shepherd satellites are defined as
A) satellites in the coma of a comet.
B) moons that confine a narrow ring.
C) a type of moon that orbits another moon.
D) moons that follow the exact orbit of another, larger, moon.
E) moons that orbit inside the system of rings.
Q2) Pluto is smaller than many moons in the solar system.
A)True
B)False
Q3) From its orbit, we now recognize Pluto as one of the largest members of the A) moons of Neptune.
B) asteroid belt.
C) Kuiper Belt.
D) Oort Cloud.
E) Zodiacal Belt.
Q4) Neptune's large moon ________ is the only large satellite known in a retrograde orbit.
Q5) Neptune's moon Triton appears to have a nearly uncratered surface. Explain.
Q6) Why were the mass and density of Pluto unknown until Charon was found?
Q7) Which of the Galilean Moons may have a subsurface layer of liquid water?
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Chapter 7: Formation of Planetary Systems
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Q1) In the currently accepted theory for the formation of the solar system, the planets and other minor bodies and the ________ formed at about the same time.
Q2) None of the other stars yet studied has more than one planet orbiting it.
A)True
B)False
Q3) In light of modern solar system theory, why do the orbits of the planets all lie in the same plane?
A) The Sun's gravity forced them into these orbits.
B) The angular momentum of the solar system was kept to a minimum this way.
C) The early solar nebula flattened into a disk.
D) Comets would have wiped out any not in this protected plane.
E) This happened purely by chance.
Q4) The Kuiper Belt is found where in the solar system?
A) Among the orbits of the terrestrial planets
B) Beyond the orbit of Neptune
C) Between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter
D) Between the orbits of Jupiter and Uranus
E) Sixty degrees ahead or behind Jupiter
Q5) Comets that we can see originate in the ________ and ________.
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Chapter 8: The Sun
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Sample Questions
Q1) Large sunspots are larger than our whole planet.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The speed of light is 3.00 × 10 m/s. If 2.00 kg of mass is converted to energy, how much energy will be produced?
A) 1.80 × 10¹ J
B) 6.00 × 10 J
C) 1.50 × 10 J
D) 6.00 × 10 J
E) 9.00 × 10¹ J
Q3) How does solar luminosity vary during the sunspot cycle?
Q4) A sunbather on the clear day is receiving about 500 watts of solar power.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Which is the net result of the proton-proton chain?
A) 4 protons = 1 helium 4 + a positron + a neutrino + gamma rays
B) 2 protons = deuterium + a positron + an antineutrino + X-rays
C) 4 protons = 2 heliums 2 + 2 positrons + ultraviolet radiation
D) 4 protons = 1 helium 4 + 2 neutrinos + gamma rays
E) 6 protons = 2 heliums + 3 positrons + 3 neutrinos + gamma rays
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Chapter 9: Measuring the Stars
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Sample Questions
Q1) Procyon lies about 13 light-years distant, thus its parallax is about
A) 0.01".
B) 0.25".
C) 0.40".
D) 0.65".
E) 1.3".
Q2) If a star appears to move back and forth relative to other stars over a six-month period, this motion is due to the star's
A) transverse motion.
B) radial motion.
C) parallax shift.
D) Doppler shift.
E) true space motion.
Q3) Hydrogen lines are weaker in both very hot and very cool stars.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Capella is the same temperature as our Sun, but about ten times the Sun's diameter; it must be about ________ times as luminous as our star.
Q5) Contrast main sequence stars of type B and G.
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Chapter 10: Star Formation and Evolution
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Sample Questions
Q1) Eventually, all low mass stars will become white, then black, dwarfs.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which event marks the birth of a star?
A) Formation of the planetary nebula
B) Fusion of hydrogen atoms into helium atoms
C) Collapse of an interstellar cloud
D) Formation of a photosphere
E) Instability in an interstellar cloud
Q3) How long does it take for a star like our Sun to form?
A) 100 thousand years
B) Two million years
C) Fifty million years
D) One billion years
E) 4.6 billion years
Q4) Why does gravitational contraction halt in collapsing protostars?
Q5) Most stars are usually formed singularly or as binaries, not in clusters.
A)True
B)False
Q6) Why can we say a star spends its life trying to maintain equilibrium?
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Stellar Explosions
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Sample Questions
Q1) A surface explosion on a white dwarf, caused by falling matter from the atmosphere of its binary companion, creates what kind of object?
A) Hypernova
B) Nova
C) Gamma ray burstar
D) Type I supernova
E) Type II supernova
Q2) The Crab Nebula and the Orion Nebula are regions where new stars are being formed.
A)True
B)False
Q3) An iron core will collapse in approximately one ________ in a type II supernova event.
Q4) The maximum mass of a white dwarf is about ________ times the mass of the Sun.
Q5) The supernova of 1054 AD produced
A) a remnant still visible to the naked eye, the Crab Nebula, M-1.
B) a pulsar with a period of 33 milliseconds, visible optically.
C) the closest known neutron star to our Sun.
D) the most famous black hole.
E) no remaining visible trace, as it was a type I supernova.
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Chapter 12: Black Holes
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Sample Questions
Q1) The current theories of gravity are ________ because they do not incorporate a proper description of matter on the smallest scale.
Q2) The largest known black holes
A) create the dark nebulae in the plane of the Milky Way.
B) can be no more than 1.4 solar masses, according to Chandrasekhar.
C) lie in the cores of the most massive galaxies.
D) can be no bigger than a small city, just like neutron stars.
E) can be no bigger than the Earth, like white dwarfs.
Q3) The mass range for neutron stars is
A) 0.08 to .4 solar masses.
B) 0.4 to 3 solar masses.
C) 1.4 to 3 solar masses.
D) 3 to 8 solar masses.
E) 6 to 11 solar masses.
Q4) Why do scientists describe the theory of gravity as "incomplete"?
A) It does not incorporate a description of matter on a very small scale.
B) It does not explain why light bends near a dense object.
C) It does not agree with the expansion of the universe.
D) The gravity waves it predicts have not been observed.
E) It does not explain the effects on time from a massive object.
Page 14
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Chapter 13: The Milky Way Galaxy
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Sample Questions
Q1) In our vicinity, the Galactic disk is about 100 times wider than it is thick.
A)True
B)False
Q2) From the Sun, the distance to the Galactic center is about
A) 8 pc.
B) 8,000 pc.
C) 100,000 pc.
D) 225 million pc.
E) 100 billion pc.
Q3) Compare the speed of spiral density waves with the orbital speeds of stars in the visible part of the Galactic disk.
Q4) Between us and the Galactic center, the Milky Way has a mass of
A) several hundred thousand suns.
B) one to two million suns.
C) 250 million suns.
D) 100 billion suns.
E) over a trillion suns.
Q5) We can estimate the mass of the Galaxy from observations of its ________ curve.
Q6) The Galactic center in ________ is best studied using radio and infrared observations.
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Chapter 14: Galaxies
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why is it that the quasars we see represent a time when the universe was younger?
Q2) Most galaxies are in ________, which contain hundreds or thousands of galaxies.
Q3) The smallest dwarf irregular galaxies are no richer in stars than the largest known globular clusters.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The pregalactic blobs had masses similar to A) the earth.
B) the Sun.
C) globular clusters.
D) the Large Magellanic Cloud.
E) the Milky Way.
Q5) From studies of the masses of individual galaxies and the masses of clusters of galaxies, it is now apparent that up to ________ of the universe is composed of dark matter.
Q6) How did Hubble use the cosmological redshift to determine distance?
Q7) Distinguish an Sa from an Sc galaxy.
Q8) The elliptical galaxies are most like what part of our Milky Way? Explain.
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Q9) What lines of evidence show that the Milky Way Galaxy is indeed a spiral galaxy?
Chapter 15: Cosmology and the Universe
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Sample Questions
Q1) The fate or future of the universe depends only on the total number of galaxies and quasars.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What is the cosmic microwave background, and why is it significant?
Q3) Primordial nucleosynthesis refers to the Big Bang making all elements up to iron.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What key event happened during the decoupling epoch?
A) Pairs of neutrons and protons were created.
B) Electrons and positrons were created.
C) Expansion cooled the universe enough that protons could capture electrons in orbit.
D) Dark energy accelerated the cosmos on to infinity.
E) The universe underwent a brief period of very rapid expansion.
Q5) Regular atoms did not show up in the universe until when?
Q6) The universe was two minutes old when ________ started to form from deuterium fusion.
Q7) How does dark energy affect the expansion of the Universe?
Page 17
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