General Astronomy Exam Bank
Course
Introduction
General Astronomy is an introductory course that explores the fundamental concepts and phenomena of the universe beyond Earth. Covering topics such as the solar system, stars, galaxies, and the large-scale structure of the cosmos, the course examines the laws of physics that govern celestial objects and the methods astronomers use to study them. Students will learn about the life cycles of stars, the nature of exoplanets, the expansion of the universe, and the historical development of astronomical thought, while gaining insights into observational techniques and recent discoveries in the field.
Recommended Textbook
Understanding Our Universe 2nd Edition by Stacy Palen
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18 Chapters
1026 Verified Questions
1026 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Thinking Like an Astronomer
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54 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why does a theory that continues to be supported by the results of experimental tests need further tests?
Answer: There may be observational tests or measurements that might be performed with greater precision for which the predictions of the theory might fail.
Q2) One of the nearest stars is Alpha Centauri,whose distance is 4.4 light-years.The time it takes light to travel from Alpha Centauri to us is:
A) 1.25 seconds.
B) 8.3 minutes.
C) 4.4 years.
D) 600 years.
Answer: C
Q3) Approximately how many meters are in 12 ft?
A) 3
B) 4
C) 12
D) 36
Answer: B
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Chapter 2: Patterns in the Skymotions of Earth and the Moon
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Earth's axial tilt is 23.5 degrees.If the Earth's axial tilt was 15 degrees,which would be TRUE?
A) The seasons would remain the same.
B) Summers would be warmer.
C) Winters would last longer.
D) Winters would be warmer.
Answer: D
Q2) We experience seasons because:
A) Earth's equator is tilted relative to the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun.
B) Earth is closer to the Sun in summer and farther from the Sun in the winter.
C) the length of the day is longer in the summer and shorter in the winter.
D) Earth moves with a slower speed in its orbit during summer and a faster speed during winter.
Answer: A
Q3) On which great celestial circle(s)on the celestial sphere would you find the position of the autumnal equinox?
Answer: On both the celestial equator and the ecliptic planes.
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Page 4
Chapter 3: Laws of Motion
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Sample Questions
Q1) The centrifugal force experienced by a body in circular motion is a reaction to:
A) the force of gravity.
B) the body's weight.
C) the force that causes the motion to be circular.
D) the contact forces between the molecules of the material.
Answer: C
Q2) Which of the following properties of an astronaut changes when he or she is standing on the Moon,relative to when the astronaut is standing on Earth?
A) weight
B) mass
C) inertia
D) all of the above
Answer: A
Q3) In which of the following situations would the object be experiencing an unbalanced force?
A) a truck at rest
B) a car moving at constant speed turning a corner
C) a rocket moving at a constant speed straight up away from Earth
D) a car moving at a constant speed toward the right
Answer: B
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Chapter 4: Light and Telescopes
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62 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why do reflecting telescopes usually have a secondary mirror in addition to a primary mirror?
A) to increase the light-gathering power
B) to make the telescope shorter
C) to increase the focal length
D) to combat chromatic aberration
Q2) The 305-meter Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico has a resolution that is closest to that of:
A) the Hubble Space Telescope (0.1 arcsec).
B) a human eye (1 arcmin).
C) the Chandra X-ray Telescope (0.5 arcsec).
D) a 1-meter optical telescope (1 arcsec).
Q3) How does the resolution of a telescope depend on its focal length?
A) The longer the focal length is the better the resolution is.
B) The longer the focal length is the worse the resolution is.
C) There is no relation between resolution and focal length.
Q4) Give an explanation as to why electromagnetic radiation does not require a medium for propagation.
Q5) Explain why stars twinkle when viewed from the ground.Would they twinkle if viewed from outer space?
Page 6
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Chapter 5: The Formation of Stars and Planets
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is NOT considered evidence of cataclysmic impacts in the history of our Solar System?
A) Uranus is "tipped over" so that it rotates on its side.
B) Valles Marineris on Mars is a huge scar, many times deeper than the Grand Canyon, and spans one-fourth the circumference of the planet.
C) Mercury has crust that has buckled on the opposite side of an impact crater.
D) Mimas has a crater whose diameter is roughly one-third of the Moon's size.
Q2) The primary atmospheres of the planets are made mostly of:
A) carbon and oxygen.
B) hydrogen and helium.
C) iron and nickel.
D) nitrogen and argon.
Q3) Explain how astronomers use the Doppler effect to detect the presence of extrasolar planets.
Q4) The solid form of a volatile material is generally referred to as:
A) a metal.
B) a silicate.
C) rock.
D) ice.
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Chapter 6: Terrestrial Worlds in the Inner Solar System
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Sample Questions
Q1) The source or sources of internal heat of the Earth are:
A) tidal stress.
B) radioactive decay.
C) leftover heat of planetary formation.
D) All of the above.
Q2) Describe one form of tectonic disruption on Mercury,Venus,and Mars,respectively,and how these disruptions formed.
Q3) Name the terrestrial planets in order of increasing distance from the Sun.What are the terrestrial planets in order of increasing geological age of their surfaces?
Q4) What is the evidence for the Earth's deep interior being composed of regions of different density?
A) volcanism
B) continental drift
C) subduction
D) differences in the propagation of seismic waves
Q5) Why are impact craters rare on the surface of Earth but plentiful on the Moon?
Q6) How does the radioactive heating of Earth vary from when it was first formed 4.6 billion years ago until today?
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Chapter 7: Atmospheres of Venus, earth, and Mars
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Sample Questions
Q1) If Saturn has a semimajor axis of 10 AU and an albedo of 0.7,what is its expected temperature?
A) 130 K
B) 65 K
C) 35 K
D) 170 K
Q2) The main greenhouse gases in the atmosphere of the terrestrial planets are:
A) oxygen and nitrogen.
B) methane and ozone.
C) carbon dioxide and water vapor.
D) hydrogen and helium.
Q3) Earth has roughly ________ times more atmospheric pressure than Mars and ________ times less than Venus.
A) 10; 100
B) 100; 100
C) 10; 10
D) 100; 10
Q4) If sunlight cannot penetrate Venus's cloud layer efficiently,why does the temperature remain so high?
Q5) What two factors control a planet's temperature?
Page 9
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Chapter 8: The Giant Planets
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Sample Questions
Q1) You could fit roughly ________ Jupiters across the diameter of the Sun and roughly ________ Earths across Jupiter's diameter.
A) 10; 100
B) 100; 10
C) 10; 10
D) 100; 100
Q2) ________ has the most extreme seasons of any planet in the Solar System.
A) Jupiter
B) Saturn
C) Uranus
D) Neptune
Q3) Particles that make up the rings of Uranus and Neptune are composed of:
A) rocky material from tidally disrupted moons.
B) organic material that has darkened because of bombardment by cosmic rays.
C) icy material from tidally disrupted comets.
D) all of the above
Q4) On which of the giant planets do we think we can find deep oceans of water? Why do we think this?
Q5) How can water exist as liquid at temperatures higher than its boiling point?
Q6) How does the discovery of Neptune relate to the discovery of extrasolar planets?
Page 10
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Chapter 9: Small Bodies of the Solar System
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Sample Questions
Q1) You find a blackened rock lying on top of the snow.You find that it is fairly dense and suspect it might be a meteorite.You take it to a lab,and they find that its age is 1.3 Gyr.Is this a meteorite? Why,or why not?
Q2) Europa is a very interesting moon that NASA is considering visiting with a spacecraft in order to search for signs of life.What is it about this moon that makes it so interesting,and what surface features give us clues about its interior?
Q3) What are the two basic materials of which the moons in the Solar System are composed? For each type of material,name an example of a moon whose surface is composed primarily of that material.
Q4) The mass of all the known asteroids combined would be as much as:
A) half the mass of Earth.
B) three times the mass of Earth.
C) the mass of Mars.
D) one-third the mass of the Moon.
Q5) Why is Io,a moon that is smaller and farther from the Sun than our own Moon,still geologically active?
Q6) Why has planet formation essentially stopped in the solar system?
Q7) What does the existence of M-type asteroids tell us about their origin?
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Chapter 10: Measuring the Stars
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Sample Questions
Q1) On a typical H-R diagram,where are the largest stars located?
A) in the upper left corner
B) in the upper right corner
C) in the lower left corner
D) in the lower right corner
Q2) Stars are made mostly of:
A) helium.
B) oxygen.
C) hydrogen.
D) nitrogen.
Q3) Stars of similar temperatures but different sizes will have:
A) similar luminosities but different masses.
B) similar masses but different distances.
C) different spectral types but similar luminosities.
D) similar spectral types but different luminosities.
Q4) You observe a binary star system and find that star 1 has a velocity of 20 m/s while star 2 has a velocity of 40 m/s.What is the ratio of masses of the two stars (M /M )? If star 2 has a mass of 2 solar masses what is the mass of star 1?
Q5) How do astronomers use spectra to determine the composition of a star?
Q6) How is the unit of length known as a parsec defined?
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Our Star: the Sun
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Sample Questions
Q1) We can determine how the density changes with radius in the Sun using:
A) radar observations.
B) neutrino detections.
C) high-energy (gamma ray) observations.
D) helioseismology.
Q2) Why is hydrogen burning the main energy source for main-sequence stars?
A) Hydrogen is the most common element in stars.
B) Hydrogen nuclei have the smallest positive charge.
C) Hydrogen burning is the most efficient of all fusion or fission reactions.
D) All the above are valid reasons.
Q3) If a sunspot appears one-third as bright as the surrounding photosphere,and the average temperature of the photosphere is 5800 K,what is the temperature of the gas in this sunspot?
A) 4100 K
B) 4400 K
C) 5200 K
D) 5500 K
Q4) Explain why the solution to the solar neutrino problem is an excellent example of how observations drive the evolution of science.
Q5) What is "limb darkening"? Explain why limb darkening occurs in the Sun.
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Chapter 12: Evolution of Low-Mass Stars
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Sample Questions
Q1) Degenerate refers to a state of matter at:
A) high temperature.
B) high density.
C) high luminosity.
D) high mass.
Q2) What factor is most important in determining a star's position on the main sequence and subsequent evolution?
A) temperature
B) pressure
C) mass
D) radius
Q3) About how long will a 2-M¤ star live as a main-sequence star?
A) 10 million years
B) 1 billion years
C) 10 billion years
D) 100 million years
Q4) Explain the two different forms of pressure that support the core of a low-mass main-sequence star and the core of a low-mass red giant star?
Q5) What particles are degenerate in a white dwarf?
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Chapter 13: Evolution of High-Mass Stars
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the difference between the singularity and the event horizon of a black hole?
Q2) If you measure the average brightness and pulsation period of a Cepheid variable star,you can also determine its:
A) age.
B) rotation period.
C) distance.
D) mass.
Q3) Although a Type II supernova shines with a luminosity of 100 billion L¤,most of the energy in the explosion is emitted in another way.What is it,and how much more energy does it carry compared to the light?
Q4) Neutron stars have masses that range from:
A) 3.5 M¤ to 25 M¤.
B) 1.2 M¤ to 30 M¤.
C) 2.5 M¤ to 10 M¤.
D) 1.4 M¤ to 3 M¤.
Q5) Explain why Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts the existence of gravitational lensing.
Q6) Why do large,high-mass main-sequence stars never become red giants?
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Chapter 14: Measuring Galaxies
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Sample Questions
Q1) If the distance of a galaxy at a redshift z = 0.5 is 1,800 Mpc,what is H ?
A) 3,600 km/s/Mpc
B) 0.0003 km/s/Mpc
C) 83 km/s/Mpc
D) 900 km/s/Mpc
Q2) Which of the following is NOT associated with the arms of a spiral galaxy?
A) density waves
B) ongoing stellar formation
C) dust lanes
D) random stellar orbits
Q3) Why can Type Ia supernovae be used to determine a galaxy's distance?
A) Type Ia supernovae occur only in very luminous galaxies.
B) Type Ia supernova have approximately the same luminosity.
C) Type Ia supernovae have approximately the same size.
D) A Type Ia supernova occurs in a typical galaxy about once every 100 years.
Q4) What was the Hubble tuning fork originally intended to explain,and what does it mean to astronomers today?
Q5) How did Edwin Hubble definitively prove that "spiral nebulae" were individual galaxies that were separate from the Milky Way?
Q6) Explain the connection between quasars and AGNs and their source of power.
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Chapter 15: Our Galaxy: the Milky Way
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Milky Way Galaxy is a(n)________ galaxy.
A) irregular
B) elliptical
C) barred spiral
D) lenticular
Q2) Open star clusters primarily inhabit which part of spiral galaxies?
A) disk
B) halo
C) bulge
D) nucleus
Q3) Why is 21-cm radiation the best way to map the spiral arms in the Milky Way?
A) The molecular hydrogen gas that produces this emission is concentrated in the spiral arms.
B) These photons, which are produced by neutral hydrogen, penetrate the dense clouds of gas and dust in the disk.
C) This synchrotron emission is produced by supernovae, which are concentrated in the spiral arms.
D) Radio telescopes are easier to operate than optical telescopes, and observations can be made even during the daytime.
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Page 17
Chapter 16: The Evolution of the Universe
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Sample Questions
Q1) The cosmic microwave background radiation has a temperature of approximately 2.7 K and a Planck blackbody spectrum.Calculate the wavelength where the cosmic microwave background radiation spectrum peaks.
Q2) How does the addition of a nonzero cosmological constant affect the expansion of the universe?
A) It is possible for the mass density of the universe to be below the critical density and still collapse.
B) It is possible for the density of the universe to be below the critical density and still expand forever.
C) It is impossible to have a collapsing universe, regardless of its density.
D) It is impossible to have an expanding universe, regardless of its density.
Q3) Why does the sum of Wm ss and WL determine the shape of our universe?
Q4) Whether or not parallel universes exist is hard to determine because:
A) our universe is so big.
B) the parallel universes cannot communicate with each other.
C) the other universes do not emit any light.
D) parallel universes destroy each other if they come into contact.
Q5) Why is the universe made up of matter as opposed to antimatter?
Q6) What can solve the flatness and horizon problem in cosmology,and why?
Page 18
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Chapter 17: Formation of Structure
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which part of our Milky Way Galaxy has the youngest stars?
A) bulge
B) disk
C) halo
D) cannot measure relative ages of these structures
Q2) Which era corresponds to the final stage of the universe?
A) Dark Era
B) Degenerate Era
C) Stelliferous Era
D) Primordial Era
Q3) What process is most responsible for shaping the large-scale structure of the universe?
A) supernovae from the first generation of stars
B) gravity
C) matter/antimatter annihilation
D) magnetic fields
Q4) Put the following eras in the history of the evolution of the universe in their proper order from the earliest to the latest: Black Hole Era,Dark Era,Degenerate Era,Primordial Era,Stelliferous Era.
Q5) Describe how elliptical galaxies form.
19
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Chapter 18: Life in the Universe
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why does a planet's size matter when predicting if it can support life?
A) Gravity will determine if a planet can retain an atmosphere.
B) Large worlds are most likely to have life based on our own Solar System.
C) Only very large worlds have atmospheres.
D) Water only exists on very large planets.
Q2) Describe what is meant by "galactic habitable zone."
Q3) The phylogenetic tree of life was established using:
A) bacteria.
B) DNA sequencing.
C) fossils.
D) fungi.
Q4) As the Sun evolves into a red giant,where will we need to move to within our Solar System if humanity still exists?
A) Mars
B) Mercury
C) our Moon
D) the moons of the outer planets
Q5) Make an argument in support of the following statement: "The earliest forms of life on Earth must have been extremophiles."
Page 20
Q6) What are the four main chemicals that make up all living organisms on Earth?
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