Solar System Astronomy Exam Review
Course Introduction
Solar System Astronomy is an exploration of our solar neighborhood, focusing on the origin, structure, and dynamics of the Sun, planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and other celestial bodies. The course examines historical and modern methods of observation and discovery, planetary formation and evolution, and the physical processes that shape planetary environments. Students will analyze data from telescopes and spacecraft missions, learn about comparative planetology, and discuss current research topics such as planetary atmospheres, surface processes, and the search for life beyond Earth.
Recommended Textbook
Astronomy Today 8th Edition by Eric Chaisson
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28 Chapters
2941 Verified Questions
2941 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Charting the Heavens: The Foundations of Astronomy
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94 Verified Questions
94 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19903
Sample Questions
Q1) If a star rises about 9 PM tonight,and with the sidereal day being four minutes less than the solar one,then in a month it will rise about 7 PM.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) If your astrological sign is Aries,the Sun should be in the constellation Aries on your birthday.The dates,according to astrological tradition,during which the Sun is in the constellation Aries are March 21 to April 20th.In which constellation is the Sun actually in,during this time period?
A) Aquarius
B) Pisces
C) Aries
D) Taurus
E) Gemini Answer: B
Q3) The first quarter moon will rise about noon,and set about midnight.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Page 3
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Chapter 2: The Copernican Revolution: The Birth of Modern Science
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100 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Relate Kepler's Second Law to the speeds of the planets.
Answer: In equal time intervals,the lines that connect each of the planets to the Sun must all sweep out equal areas.The longer this line,the slower the planet could move and still sweep out this constant area.Thus more distant planets orbit the Sun more slowly,and each planet will speed up at perihelion and slow down at aphelion.
Q2) Of all his laws,Kepler was proudest of the third.Why was it so appealing in his search for cosmic harmony?
Answer: He found a simple math relation that directly connected the periods of revolution of each planet to its average distance from the Sun,so that P² = D³.
Q3) Explain how Newton could turn observations of a cannonball in flight into a satellite orbit.
Answer: Newton noted that the faster the ball was fired,the farther downrange it fell.He realized that if the speed were the orbital velocity of 18,000 mph,the ball would fall with a curvature that matched the Earth's,and remain in orbit.
Q4) We are at ________ in January,when we are closest to the Sun in our elliptical orbit.
Answer: perihelion
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Chapter 3: Radiation: Information from the Cosmos
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102 Verified Questions
102 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) As they move through space,the vibrating electrical and magnetic fields of a light wave must move perpendicular to each other.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) The radiation our eyes are most sensitive to lies in the color:
A) red at 6563 Angstroms.
B) yellow-green at about 550 nm.
C) violet at 7,000 Angstroms.
D) blue at 4,321 nanometers.
E) black at 227 nm.
Answer: B
Q3) What two regions of the electromagnetic spectrum are best utilized by ground-based astronomers,and why?
Answer: The atmosphere is opaque to most radiation except visible and radio waves.
Q4) Give and explain an example of the use of the Doppler Effect on the highway.
Answer: The radar gun of a highway patrolman sends out a pulsed beam to be reflected back,thus giving the speed of your car and perhaps netting you a ticket.
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Spectroscopy: The Inner Workings of Atoms
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following type of electromagnetic radiation has the highest energy?
A) radio
B) infrared
C) visible
D) ultraviolet
E) X-ray
Q2) ________ is the scientific study of the distribution of electromagnetic waves by energy and how these patterns are created in atoms and molecules.
Q3) Describe two ways light can be separated out into its component colors in detail for spectroscopic analysis.
Q4) What information about an astronomical object can be determined by observing its spectrum?
A) its temperature
B) its radial motion
C) its chemical composition
D) whether it has a strong magnetic field
E) All of the above
Q5) Explain how the Zeeman effect allows us to study stellar magnetic fields.
Q6) State the relationship between photon energy,frequency,and wavelength.
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Chapter 5: Telescopes: The Tools of Astronomy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Hubble Space Telescope is still the largest scope ever built.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which design is subject to chromatic aberration?
A) refractor
B) prime focus reflector
C) Newtonian reflector
D) Cassegrain reflector
E) Gregorian reflector
Q3) Compare how doubling the diameter of a mirror will affect both resolution and light grasp.
Q4) Radio telescopes have poorer angular resolution than optical telescopes because radio waves have a much longer wavelength than optical waves.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What is a CCD,and how does it work? Why is it replacing film?
Q6) The simplest scope design,by Isaac Newton,uses only a primary mirror.
A)True
B)False
Q7) What are some advantages of radio telescopes over optical scopes?
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Chapter 6: The Solar System: Comparative Planetology and Formation Models
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151 Verified Questions
151 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Small rocky bodies with compositions similar to Earth that are in orbit around the Sun are called ________.
Q2) At what point does the accretion process turn a clump of debris into a planetesimal?
Q3) Any model of solar system formation must explain why terrestrial planets and jovian planets formed differently.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Asteroids are the densest form of interplanetary debris.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The masses of all the planets combined is about 1% of that of the Sun.
A)True
B)False
Q6) Any model of solar system formation must explain why comets come from the Oort Cloud,with orbits very different from the planets,asteroids,and Kuiper Belt Objects.
A)True
B)False
Q7) All the planets orbit the Sun in the ________ plane.
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Chapter 7: Earth: Our Home in Space
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which parts of the Sun's radiation are responsible for heating Earth's surface?
A) the radio and the ultraviolet
B) the X-ray and the gamma ray
C) the ultraviolet and the visible
D) the visible and the infrared
E) the infrared and the high energy particles
Q2) Plate ________ is the process by which convection within the mantle reforms the crust above it.
Q3) A region where a denser basaltic plate is subducted under a continental one is:
A) the Himalayas.
B) the Nazca Trench.
C) the Mid-Atlantic Rift.
D) Hawaii.
E) the San Andreas Fault.
Q4) The speed of the current warming trend is no different than those seen in fossil records.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Where is the newest material in the Earth's crust found?
Q6) List the six main regions of the Earth,in order,starting from the center.
Page 9
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Chapter 8: The Moon and Mercury: Scorched and Battered Worlds
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which type of feature is the best evidence of lunar volcanism?
A) rays around the latest eruptions
B) craters all over the Moon
C) vents seen erupting in the mountainous highlands
D) rilles associated with lava flows accompanying the mare formation
E) the Orientale Basin
Q2) Mercury and the Moon appear similar,but we note that:
A) the lunar mare are darker than Mercury's intercrater plains.
B) Mercury has "weird terrain" opposite its huge Caloris Basin.
C) Mercury has striking lobate scarps due to the shrinking of its core.
D) Mercury does not always keep the same face toward the Sun, while the Moon does have the Earthside always facing us.
E) All of the above are correct.
Q3) The dominant features of the highlands of the Moon,________ are chiefly the result of impacts of comets and asteroids early in the Moon's history.
Q4) Mercury's surface,upon casual visual observation,most resembles what other surface in our solar system?
Q5) Why was the discovery of a substantial magnetic field around Mercury a surprise? How was it detected?
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Chapter 9: Venus: Earth's Sister Planet
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Sample Questions
Q1) Contrast the compositions and heights of the clouds of Earth and Venus.
Q2) The only spacecraft to successfully land on Venus were:
A) ESA's Giotto.
B) Russian Veneras.
C) NASA's Vikings.
D) NASA's Magellan.
E) NASA's Venus Rovers.
Q3) Volcanic activity on Venus is thought to be:
A) more frequent, but less violent than volcanic activity on Earth.
B) more frequent and more violent than volcanic activity on Earth.
C) less frequent, but more violent than volcanic activity on Earth.
D) less frequent and less violent than volcanic activity on Earth.
E) the same as volcanic activity on Earth.
Q4) Our most detailed maps of Venus come from:
A) the Magellan space probe.
B) the Hubble Space Telescope.
C) direct observation from Earth based optical telescopes.
D) manned landings.
E) Earth based radio telescopes.
Q5) Discuss the evidence that suggests that Venus is still very active volcanically.
Page 11
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Chapter 10: Mars: A Near Miss for Life?
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102 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Evidence of liquid water in Mars' distant past suggests that it had a substantial atmosphere compared to what it has presently.What happened to its water vapor?
A) The carbon dioxide in its atmosphere dissolved in the water and combined with surface rocks.
B) Its atmosphere was mostly hydrogen and helium. Mars' gravity is too weak to hold them.
C) The water vapor has frozen out into the polar ice caps and permafrost as Mars has cooled.
D) Mars initially had such a large Greenhouse Effect that the atmosphere became quite hot and slowly escaped.
E) It has now all been lost in space, including the carbon dioxide and water vapor.
Q2) The surface of Mars is surprisingly smooth and featureless.
A)True
B)False
Q3) How can Mars,a planet with so little atmosphere,have so much wind?
Q4) Mars appears from Earth to go through all the phases like Venus.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 11: Jupiter: Giant of the Solar System
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the Galilean moons is the densest and most geologically active?
A) Io
B) Europa
C) Ganymede
D) Callisto
E) Titan
Q2) The particles making up the ring of Jupiter are composed of bright,reflective ice.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What spacecraft was intentionally destroyed in 2003 so that it could not hit Europa?
A) Cassini
B) Voyager 2
C) Galileo
D) Huygens
E) Pioneer 11
Q4) Colors in Jupiter's clouds are largely due to helium compounds.
A)True
B)False
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Page 13
Chapter 12: Saturn: Spectacular Rings and Mysterious
Moons
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Sample Questions
Q1) The wind speeds found in the bands and zones of Saturn,compared to those on Jupiter,are about:
A) 3 times faster.
B) 2 times faster.
C) the same.
D) 2 times slower.
E) 3 times slower.
Q2) 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.
Q3) Titan has oceans made chiefly of liquid ________.
Q4) How many medium-sized moons does Saturn have?
A) too many to count
B) 18
C) 9
D) 6
E) 1
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Chapter 13: Uranus and Neptune: The Outer Worlds of the Solar System
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108 Verified Questions
108 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) In 1846,Johann Galle found Neptune:
A) a few degrees from where it was predicted to be.
B) after many years of searching for it.
C) exactly where he predicted it would be.
D) using just a pair of binoculars.
E) using grossly inaccurate star charts.
Q2) Neptune and Uranus have a bluish tint because:
A) at their distances, the Sun appears blue, the red absorbed by dust in the ecliptic.
B) they are far away and distance makes objects appear bluish.
C) their atmospheres contain methane, which absorbs red light.
D) their atmospheres contain hydrogen and helium.
E) ammonia ice reflects blue light better than any other color.
Q3) Which of the Uranian moons displays the widest range of surface terrains,suggesting some catastrophic disruption?
A) Puck
B) Umbriel
C) Oberon
D) Miranda
E) Ariel
Page 15
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Chapter 14: Solar System Debris: Keys to Our Origin
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114 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Carbonaceous meteorites contain organic molecules,even amino acids.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which statement about Pluto's discovery is FALSE?
A) It was predicted by Percival Lowell, based on perturbation theory.
B) It was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh close to Lowell's predicted position.
C) It was found in 1930, the first planet found by an American.
D) It was the massive jovian Lowell described as "Planet X" in his calculations.
E) Cold and dark, it was named for the god of the underworld.
Q3) What are comets made of?
A) silicates and rocky dust
B) metallic dust particles
C) dark colored complex hydrocarbons
D) methane, ammonia, and water ice
E) All of the above.
Q4) Rocky debris larger than 100 meters in diameter seen to be orbiting the Sun are called ________.
Q5) What are the Kirkwood Gaps? What role does Jupiter play?
Q6) Few ________ actually strike the Earth,because most are small and burn up in the atmosphere.
Page 16
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Chapter 15: Exoplanets: Planetary Systems Beyond Our Own
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74 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) When looking for the radial velocity changes or "wobbles" detected due to Doppler shifts,which mass combination is most likely to be detected?
A) high mass star, high mass planet
B) high mass star, low mass planet
C) low mass star, high mass planet
D) low mass star, low mass planet
E) a high mass planet; the mass of the star is irrelevant
Q2) According to the Solar Nebula theory,planets:
A) should be randomly oriented to their star's equator.
B) will revolve opposite the star's rotation.
C) should be a common result of star formation.
D) should be extremely rare.
E) should orbit perpendicular to their star's equator.
Q3) Discuss the important features that allow space-based telescopes to search for transiting exoplanets.
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?
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Chapter 16: The Sun: Our Parent Star
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Sample Questions
Q1) By what mechanism does solar energy reach the Sun's photosphere from the layer just underneath it?
A) differentiation
B) ionization
C) radiation
D) convection
E) conduction
Q2) We know the Sun rotates differentially by observing sunspots; as with Jupiter the solar equator rotates the fastest.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The ________-year solar cycle is characterized by a variation in the number of sunspots and a reversal of the polarity of the Sun as a whole.
Q4) Scientists suspect changes in the flow of the Sun's Conveyor Belt caused the Sun to be less active in 2008 and 2009 than had been seen in almost 100 years.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What are the main constituents of the solar wind? Which travel faster?
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Chapter 17: The Stars: Giants,Dwarfs,and the Main Sequence
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Sample Questions
Q1) Two red stars have surface temperatures of 3000 K,but Star A's luminosity is about 5% of the Sun's and Star B's luminosity is about 32,000 times the luminosity of the Sun.How much bigger is star B than star A?
A) They are the same size.
B) Star B's radius is about 16 times larger than star A's radius.
C) Star B's radius is about 800 times larger than star A's radius.
D) Star B's radius is about 640,000 times larger than star A's radius.
E) This cannot be determined from the information given.
Q2) Why must both parallax and proper motion be known to give transverse velocity?
Q3) Star A is a main sequence star of spectral type F2 and star B is a white dwarf of spectral type B4.Which statement below is correct?
A) Star A appears brighter than star B.
B) Star B appears brighter than star A.
C) Star A is hotter than star B.
D) Star B is hotter than star A.
E) None of the above can be said about these two stars.
Q4) What is the relationship between a star's mass and its lifetime?
Q5) What role does helium play in spectral classification?
Q6) From hottest to coolest,the seven letters for the star types are ________.
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Chapter 18: The Interstellar Medium: Gas and Dust among the Stars
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Sample Questions
Q1) Spectra of stars often show narrow absorption lines from interstellar matter.What type of interstellar matter produces these?
A) dust
B) neutral gas
C) ionized gas
D) molecules
E) All of the above.
Q2) The polarization of light passing though the dust grains shows that:
A) the dust grains are elongated in shape.
B) the dust grains are aligned by a weak interstellar magnetic field.
C) the dust grains are chiefly made of iron.
D) Both A and B are correct.
E) All of the above are correct.
Q3) The form of electromagnetic radiation least blocked by a dark nebula is ________.
Q4) What are the properties of the neutral hydrogen gas that exists in the interstellar medium?
Q5) Most molecules found in the giant molecular clouds are based on silicon.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 19: Star Formation: A Traumatic Birth
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Sample Questions
Q1) During stage 3 of star formation,the dense,opaque region at the center of the cloud is called a:
A) Herbig-Haro object.
B) T Tauri star.
C) protostar.
D) protoplanetary nebula.
E) zero-age main sequence star.
Q2) What factors can complicate the collapse of an interstellar cloud into a star?
Q3) The birthplaces of stars correspond to the ________ clouds in the interstellar medium.
Q4) Star clusters have been observed within dark nebulae with:
A) optical movies made over decades.
B) radio interferometers.
C) infrared observations.
D) the Chandra X-ray observatory.
E) ultraviolet light creating the emission nebulae.
Q5) What are some complications that interfere with star formation?
Q6) A protostar develops a bipolar flow of gas when it is still surrounded by an equatorial disk of ________.
Q7) What are some sources of the shock waves that initiate star formation?
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Chapter 20: Stellar Evolution: The Life and Death of a Star
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Sample Questions
Q1) A solar mass star will evolve off the main sequence when:
A) it completely runs out of hydrogen.
B) it expels a planetary nebula to cool off and release radiation.
C) it explodes as a violent nova.
D) it builds up a core of inert helium.
E) it loses all its neutrinos, so fusion must cease.
Q2) What are at least three possible explanations for historical records indicating that Sirius was red,even though it is now clearly seen as blue-white?
Q3) The region in the H-R Diagram where evolved,low mass stars are converting helium to carbon in their cores is the ________.
Q4) When a star becomes a red giant,its core expands to a roughly proportional larger size too.
A)True
B)False
Q5) For our Sun,the production of carbon will be the end of its nucleosynthesis.
A)True
B)False
Q6) Relate hydrostatic equilibrium to the star's mass,composition,and evolution off the main sequence.
Page 22
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Chapter
Formation of the Elements
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Sample Questions
Q1) The core of a highly evolved high mass star is a little larger than:
A) our solar system.
B) our Sun.
C) Jupiter.
D) Earth.
E) a white dwarf.
Q2) The Chandrasekhar mass limit is:
A) 0.08 solar masses.
B) 0.4 solar masses.
C) 1.4 solar masses.
D) 3 solar masses.
E) 8 solar masses.
Q3) Beyond the formation of iron,nuclear energy can be produced only by:
A) fusion of still heavier elements.
B) ionization of the radioactive nuclei.
C) fission of heavy nuclei back toward lighter ones.
D) gravity.
E) the dark force.
Q4) Why is the post-Main Sequence structure of a high mass star sometimes described by an "onion-layer" model? Explain.
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Chapter 22: Neutron Stars and Black Holes: Strange States of Matter
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Sample Questions
Q1) If the Sun were replaced by a one solar mass black hole:
A) all terrestrial planets would fall in immediately.
B) we would still orbit it in a period of one year.
C) we would immediately escape into deep space, driven out by its radiation.
D) our clocks would all stop.
E) life here would be unchanged.
Q2) As a spaceship nears an event horizon,a clock on the spaceship will be observed:
A) to run faster.
B) to stop.
C) to run slowly.
D) to run backwards.
E) to run the same as one on Earth.
Q3) Any main sequence star over 25 solar masses will probably retain enough matter in its core after its type II supernova to make a black hole.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Not all neutron stars can be observed as pulsars.Explain.
Q5) The escape speed for a black hole's event horizon is the speed of light.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 23: The Milky Way Galaxy: A Spiral in Space
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Sample Questions
Q1) The spiral structure of the Milky Way is best revealed by ________ cm radio observations of HI regions.
Q2) It is harder to map the structure of the Milky Way as a whole in visible light than with any other form of electromagnetic radiation.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What perception of the Milky Way Galaxy did astronomers have in 1900?
A) They believed that the Earth rested inside concentric spheres, with the Milky Way stars fixed to the outermost sphere.
B) They believed that the Milky Way was one of billions of galaxies in the universe.
C) They believed that the Milky Way was the entire universe.
D) They believed that, because the Sun was at the center of the Milky Way, it was impossible to see the rest of the universe.
E) They believed we were one of billions galaxies in an expanding universe.
Q4) The Milky Way is simply our edge-on view of our home Galaxy.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 24: Galaxies: Building Blocks of the Universe
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Sample Questions
Q1) Although theory says a massive black hole with an accretion disk should be emitting X-rays,many black holes emit:
A) mostly in the infrared.
B) only in the visible.
C) mainly in the gamma.
D) virtually no radiation at all.
E) equally across the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
Q2) Why is light variability a critical issue with the sizes of active nuclei?
Q3) Why is the energy source for active nuclei like Seyferts thought to be compact?
A) The sources appear to be single stars in photos.
B) Their energy appears to be non-stellar synchrotron radiation.
C) The light can vary over short time intervals.
D) We know the masses of the black holes that lurk there, and can find their radii.
E) They are all strong radio sources, with assigned frequencies by their sizes.
Q4) Irregular galaxies,although small,have large H II regions and much on-going star formation for their size.
A)True
B)False
Q5) How did Hubble use the cosmological redshift to determine distance?
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Chapter 25: Galaxies and Dark Matter: The Large-Scale
Structure of the Cosmos
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Sample Questions
Q1) To what three types of modern survivors can the masses of the protogalactic blobs be compared?
Q2) Why would galaxies colliding in a small cluster tend to stick together,while galaxies in a large cluster tend to pass through each other?
Q3) Careful observations of nearby normal and active galaxies reveal that the ass of the central black hole is well correlated with the mass of the galactic bulge.The ratio of bulge mass to black hole mass is roughly:
A) 1 to 2000.
B) 1 to 200.
C) 1 to 20.
D) 20 to 1.
E) 200 to 1.
Q4) How can some mergers activate spirals,and others destroy them?
Q5) Gas that has never been cycled through a galaxy or a star is said to be ________.
Q6) Giant irregulars are the most massive of all known galaxies.
A)True
B)False
Q7) Why would spiral galaxies be less common now than in the early universe?
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Chapter 26: Cosmology: The Big Bang and the Fate of the Universe
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Sample Questions
Q1) ________ is the concept that the universe looks the same in all directions.
Q2) In a closed universe a beam of light will:
A) come back to where it originated.
B) continue on forever.
C) move on a circular path around its origin.
D) reflect off the edge of the universe and come back.
E) go on some strange path, never to return.
Q3) If the density of the universe is lower than the critical density,this means that:
A) the universe is expanding at a rate equal to the escape speed of the universe.
B) the universe is expanding at a rate less than the escape speed of the universe.
C) the universe is expanding at a rate greater than the escape speed of the universe.
D) the universe is expanding at a rate equal to the speed of light.
E) the universe is expanding at a rate greater than the speed of light.
Q4) A critically bound universe is geometrically flat.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 27: The Early Universe: Toward the Beginning of Time
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Sample Questions
Q1) There is observational evidence that supports the theoretical conditions of the universe.The farthest back in the history of the universe this evidence goes is:
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 Big Bang formed:
A) only hydrogen.
B) only helium.
C) hydrogen and helium, but nothing else.
D) all elements up to iron.
E) all elements found in nature now.
Q3) What is the antimatter problem in pair production?
Q4) Sound waves in the early universe traveled faster than half of the speed of light.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Relate the inflationary theory to the GUTs.
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Chapter
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the most important consideration in the "habitable zone" of a planetary system?
Q2) How long between the evolution of single versus multicellular organisms?
A) 4.5 billion years
B) 2.5 billion years
C) one billion years
D) 600 million years
E) 63 million years
Q3) The cheapest and probably most effective means of interstellar communication is ________.
Q4) As a radio source,the period of "pulsar Earth" is:
A) 30 minutes.
B) 23 hours, 56 minutes.
C) 24 hours.
D) 29.5 days.
E) 365.25 days.
Q5) What happened to the dinosaurs? How does that enter into the Drake Equation?
Q6) What is meant by the idea life on Earth had an "interstellar origin"?
Q7) Life on Earth remained single celled for ________ years,according to the microfossil record.
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