Solar System Astronomy Review
Questions
Course Introduction
Solar System Astronomy explores the origin, structure, and evolution of our solar system, focusing on the Sun, planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and other celestial bodies. This course covers fundamental concepts such as planetary formation, orbital mechanics, and planetary atmospheres, as well as the physical and chemical processes that have shaped the solar system. Students will analyze observational data and recent discoveries from spacecraft missions to better understand planetary environments and the potential for life beyond Earth. Emphasis is placed on scientific inquiry, comparative planetology, and the latest advances in solar system exploration.
Recommended Textbook
HorizonsExploring the Universe 14th Edition by Michael A. Seeds
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20 Chapters
2483 Verified Questions
2483 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: Here and Now
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Sample Questions
Q1) If light travels 63,000 AU in 1 year at \(3 × 10^8\) m/s, which of these best represents the unit of a light-year
A)63,000 AU
B)\(3 × 10^8\) m/s
C)1 year
D)All of the other choices are correct.
Answer: A
Q2) A typical galaxy like our Milky Way galaxy contains
A)primarily planets.
B)gas only.
C)stars (some with planets), gas, and dust.
D)a single star and planets.
E)thousands of superclusters.
Answer: C
Q3) An astronomical unit is larger than a light-year.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q4) ________ is the smallest planet in the solar system.
Answer: Mercury
Page 3
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Chapter 2: A Users Guide to the Sky
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Sample Questions
Q1) The magnitude scale
A)originated just after the telescope was invented.
B)can be used to indicate the apparent intensity of a celestial object.
C)was devised by Galileo.
D)is no longer used today.
E)was used to determine the rate of precession.
Answer: B
Q2) Stars in the same constellation
A)probably formed at the same time.
B)must be part of the same cluster of stars in space.
C)must have been discovered at about the same time at the same location in space.
D)may actually be very different distances away from the observer and from each other.
Answer: D
Q3) Describe the path that a star on the celestial equator follows from the time it rises until it sets for a person at a latitude of 60° N and a person at the equator.
Answer: A star on the celestial equator, when viewed from the Earth's equator, will rise due east and set due west.
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4
Chapter 3: Cycles of the Sun and Moon
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Sample Questions
Q1) The observed amount of difference between the perihelion of Earth in early January and aphelion in early July results in the northern hemisphere being _____.
A)cold in January and hot in July
B)hot in January and cold in July
C)equally cold in both January and July
D)equally hot in bot January and July
E)Wrong! The seasonal differences in northern hemisphere temperatures is not caused by differences in distance from the Sun.
Answer: E
Q2) On the autumnal equinox the Sun is
A)23.4° north of the celestial equator.
B)23.4° south of the celestial equator.
C)on the celestial equator and moving north with respect to the equator.
D)on the celestial equator and moving south with respect to the equator.
E)closest to the north celestial pole.
Answer: D
Q3) Complete the following analogy: ____________::______________ as spin::orbit.
Answer: rotation :: revolution
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Page 5
Chapter 4: The Origin of Modern Astronomy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Saturn is on average 10 AU from the Sun. What is the approximate orbital period of Saturn
A)10 years
B)32 years
C)100 years
D)1000 years
E)1,000,000 years
Q2) The period of Jupiter's orbit around the Sun is approximately 12 years. What is the approximate distance from the Sun to Jupiter
A)144 AU
B)1728 AU
C)42 AU
D)5.2 AU
E)2.3 AU
Q3) The Copernican model did not need to make use of epicycles.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Galileo used a telescope to observe the phases of the Sun.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 5: Light and Telescopes
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Sample Questions
Q1) __________________ is/are caused by the interaction of light waves with the telescope's apertures and thus limit the detail visible in an image.
Q2) The main reason for building large optical telescopes on Earth's surface is
A)that there is a lot of money in science that needs to get spent.
B)to collect as much light as possible from faint objects.
C)to nullify the blurring effects of the Earth's atmosphere and thus produce higher resolution images.
D)to bring astronomical objects closer to make them brighter.
E)that the warm temperatures of the Earth's surface allow for easier telescope operation.
Q3) Why might astronomers someday establish an observatory on the Moon
Q4) The resolving power of a telescope is
A)a measure of the minimum angular separation that can be seen with the telescope.
B)a measure of the maximum angular separation that can be seen with the telescope.
C)a measure of the amount of light that the telescope can gather in one second.
D)the separation between the objective and the image.
E)a measure of how blurry object appear in the telescope.
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Chapter 6: Atoms and Spectra
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Sample Questions
Q1) In Diagram 6-1, which of the transitions would absorb a photon with the greatest energy
A)Transition 1
B)Transition 2
C)Transition 3
D)Transition 4
E)Transition 5
Q2) In Diagram 6-1, which of the transitions would absorb a photon with the smallest energy
A)Transition 1
B)Transition 2
C)Transition 3
D)Transition 4
E)Transition 5
Q3) The lowest energy level in an atom is
A)the absolute zero temperature.
B)the ground state.
C)the ionization level.
D)responsible for Doppler shifts.
E)the energy level from which the Paschen series of hydrogen originates.
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Chapter 7: The Sun
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Sample Questions
Q1) The ordering of the atmospheric layers of the Sun from outer to inner is chromosphere, corona, photosphere.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The above image of the Sun is a false-color image.
A)True
B)False
Q3) In the proton-proton chain
A)no neutrinos are produced.
B)energy is released because a helium nucleus has a greater mass than a hydrogen nucleus.
C)no photons are produced.
D)carbon serves as a catalyst for the nuclear reaction.
E)energy is produced in the form of gamma rays and the velocity of the created nuclei.
Q4) Most of the light we see coming from the Sun originates in the
Q5) The above image of a sunspot is taken in the visual wavelengths.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 8: The Family of Stars
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the total mass of a binary star system with P = 20 yr and a = 10 AU
A)2 solar masses
B)2.5 solar masses
C)0.5 solar mass
D)80 solar masses
E)0.4 solar mass
Q2) star has a radius similar to that of the Sun but half the Sun's luminosity. What is the surface temperature of this star using this data
A)0.84 TSun
B)0.43 TSun
C)1.2 TSun
D)2.4 TSun
Q3) The largest of the red stars are the ____________________ stars.
Q4) The method of spectroscopic parallax cannot be applied to stars beyond about 100 pc.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The masses and diameters of each star in a binary can be determined from ____________________ binaries.
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Chapter 9: The Formation and Structure of Stars
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Sample Questions
Q1) Stars are born in
A)reflection nebulae.
B)dense molecular clouds.
C)HII regions.
D)the intercloud medium.
E)the local bubble.
Q2) Which of the following energy transport processes involves mass motions of material
A)radiation
B)conduction
C)convection
D)All of the other choices are correct.
Q3) The Orion region contains young main-sequence stars and an emission nebula, but the original molecular cloud they formed out of has been dispersed.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Energy transport by ____________________ is important when photons cannot readily travel through a gas.
Q5) ____________________ is the resistance of a gas to the flow of radiation.
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Chapter 10: The Deaths of Stars
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Sample Questions
Q1) Stars with 0.4-4 solar masses swell into giants when hydrogen is exhausted in their centers.
A)True
B)False
Q2) After what evolutionary stage does a star become a white dwarf
A)protostar
B)pre-main sequence
C)main sequence
D)giant
Q3) From what part of the H-R diagram have the giants in a star cluster evolved
Q4) What are the two longest stages in the life of a one-solar-mass star
A)Protostar, pre-main-sequence
B)Protostar, white dwarf
C)Protostar, main-sequence
D)Main-sequence, white dwarf
Q5) Even in degenerate matter, pressure depends on temperature.
A)True
B)False
Q6) If the Sun and stars are supported by gas pressure, what supports a white dwarf
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Q7) If the Sun and stars are supported by gas pressure, what supports a white dwarf
Chapter 11: Neutron Stars and Black Holes
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Sample Questions
Q1) An isolated black hole in empty intergalactic space would be difficult to detect because
A)there would be no stars behind it whose light would be affected by gravitational lensing.
B)it could not emit light from inside its event horizon.
C)no companion stars would be affected by its gravitational field.
D)no matter would be falling into it to create an X-ray-emitting accretion disk.
E)All of the other choices are correct.
Q2) Complete the reaction: e + p _______________; the reaction applies to ________________.
A)n, white dwarfs
B) , neutron stars
C)n + , white dwarfs
D)n + , neutron stars
Q3) Neutron stars were first discovered in the 1930's.
A)True
B)False
Q4) If the Sun and stars are supported by gas pressure, what supports a neutron star
Q5) Why do we not expect to find a 5-solar-mass neutron star
Q6) What observational evidence do we have that black holes exist
Page 13
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Chapter 12: The Milky Way Galaxy
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Sample Questions
Q1) The first scientific attempt to map the Milky Way galaxy
A)showed that the Sun was located in the center of the system of planets making up our galaxy.
B)showed that our galaxy is a round ball on which we live.
C)showed that our galaxy has 9 stars.
D)used globular clusters to determine the location of the center of the Earth.
E)was completed by William and Caroline Herschel.
Q2) The galaxy shown above is ___________.
A)a grand design
B)a flocculent
C)in between a grand design and a flocculent
D)the Milky Way galaxy
Q3) Which of the above shown variable types is brightest
A)RR Lyrae
B)Type II
C)Type I
D)all are equally as bright
Q4) Why are all spiral tracers young
Q5) Regions of compression that move at their own speed in the disk and are outlined by the spiral arms are _____________.
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Galaxies: Normal and Active
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Sample Questions
Q1) What was the first evidence that quasars were different from astronomical objects before they were observed in visual wavelengths
A)The first quasars were seen to have fuzz.
B)Quasars emitted radio energy like active galaxies, but appeared to be point sources in radio wavelengths.
C)Quasars showed significant gravitational lens effects.
D)The spectra of quasars looked like that of an M dwarf.
E)The larger redshifts originally indicated that they were orbiting the center of the Milky Way.
Q2) Observations of galaxies and clusters of galaxies indicate that about ___________ percent of the matter in the universe is dark matter.
A)5
B)25
C)35
D)45
E)90
Q3) Where jets run into surrounding gas in the intergalactic medium, ____________ are formed before feeding the lobes.
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Chapter 14: Modern Cosmology
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Sample Questions
Q1) If gravity alone acts to retard the expansion and nothing acts to accelerate it, the Universe is said to be closed if I.gravity is strong enough to stop the expansion in a finite time. II.the density of the Universe is less than the critical density. III.the Universe is finite.
A)I & II
B)I & III
C)II & III
D)I, I, & III
E)None of the other choices are correct.
Q2) If the density of the universe is equal to the critical density, and H equals 50 km/s/Mpc, then the true age of the Universe is 13.3 billion years.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Prior to 10-36 seconds, the Universe existed as one unified force.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The ___________ is that the Universe is both isotropic and homogeneous.
Q5) Why is the primordial background radiation visible in all directions
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Chapter 15: The Origin of the Solar System
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which one of the following IS NOT a characteristic of terrestrial planets
A)low average density
B)orbits inside the asteroids
C)craters in old surfaces
D)small diameters
E)very few satellites
Q2) ____________ pushed gas and dust particles out of the solar nebula by the light from the Sun.
A)Radiation pressure
B)Outgassing
C)Condensation
D)Accretion
E)Differentiation
Q3) Solar wind: the flow of ionized hydrogen and other atoms away from the Sun's upper atmosphere. The strong surging wind from the young Sun may have helped push dust and gas out of the nebula.
Q4) In one sentence, write a scenario involving a meteor, meteorite, and meteoroid.
Q5) How does the solar nebula theory explain the present densities and chemical compositions of the planets
Page 17
Q6) Violent impacts of infalling particles release energy called ____________.
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Chapter 16: Earth and Moon: Bases for Comparative Planetology
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Sample Questions
Q1) Earth possesses few visible craters and the Moon possesses many. This is because
A)Earth formed later than the Moon and, therefore hasn't encountered as many meteoroids.
B)the Moon doesn't have an atmosphere that could burn up many of the meteorites before impacting.
C)erosion and plate tectonics have slowly removed evidence of past cratering on Earth.
D)Earth formed later than the Moon and, therefore hasn't encountered as many meteoroids; the Moon doesn't have an atmosphere that could burn up many of the meteorites before impacting; and erosion and plate tectonics have slowly removed evidence of past cratering on Earth.
E)the Moon doesn't have an atmosphere that could burn up many of the meteorites before impacting and erosion and plate tectonics have slowly removed evidence of past cratering on Earth.
Q2) Compared to Earth, wind and water erosion on our Moon is
A)more evident.
B)less evident.
C)the same.
D)not present.
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Chapter 17: Mercury, Venus, and Mars
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Sample Questions
Q1) How rapidly a planet loses its atmosphere depends on the planet's I.escape velocity (determined by mass and radius).
II.atmospheric composition.
III.temperature.
IV.rotation period.
A)I & II
B)III & IV
C)I, II, & III
D)II, III, & IV
E)I, II, III, & IV
Q2) As seen from Mars orbiters, ______________ and ______________ are cut, possibly by sudden floods or drainage that occur on a longer timescale.
Q3) The two moons of Mars are known as ____________________ and ____________________.
Q4) Discuss the evidence we have that the surface of Venus is marked by volcanism.
Q5) The size of the volcanoes on Mars indicate that Mars has a(n) ____________________ crust than Earth.
Q6) The terrestrial celestial object _________________ is most like Mercury.
Q7) Which terrestrial planet orbits the Sun in 88 Earth days
Page 19
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Chapter 18: The Outer Solar System
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which planet is shown in the image above that combines both visual and infrared data
A)Jupiter
B)Saturn
C)Uranus
D)Neptune
Q2) What evidence do we have that volcanism occurs on Io
Q3) Though Titan has a small mass , it is able to retain an atmosphere because it
A)is very cold.
B)is very hot
C)has an iron surface.
D)attracts gas from the solar wind.
Q4) The fresh, newly created surfaces of icy satellites of Jovian planets
A)appear dark in color with few impact craters.
B)appear dark in color with many impact craters.
C)appear very bright because fresh ice is very reflective.
D)generally show long bright grooves and a modest number of impact craters.
E)generally have small volcanoes that are active.
Q5) What is the significance of the colors of Uranus and Neptune
Q6) Why are the belts and zones on Saturn less distinct than those on Jupiter
Page 20
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Chapter 19: Meteorites, Asteroids, and Comets
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Sample Questions
Q1) Iron meteorites are rare to observe as meteoroids near Earth.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Long-period comets are believed to originate in the ____________.
Q3) A meteor shower is produced when
A)a large number of sporadic meteors are observed.
B)Earth passes through the asteroid belt.
C)massive particles are carried outward from the Sun by the solar wind and enter Earth's atmosphere.
D)Earth passes through the orbital path of a comet.
E)meteors cause condensation in the upper atmosphere that leads to early morning rains.
Q4) The above image shows a named ____________ that orbits a(n)
A)asteroid, planet
B)moon, planet
C)moon, asteroid
D)planet, star
Q5) What evidence do we have that some asteroids have surfaces modified by geological processes
Q6) ___-type asteroids are most common.
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Chapter 20: Astrobiology: Life on Other Worlds
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Sample Questions
Q1) As shown above, which contributes the most to the total noise in the region that may be likely for interstellar communication
A)noise from galaxy
B)noise from Earth's atmosphere
C)background radiation and/or noise from Earth's atmosphere
D)quantum mechanical noise
Q2) Astrobiology is the study of biological life on planets other than Earth.
A)True
B)False
Q3) If life is to develop on a planet, the planet must lie well outside its star's habitable zone, where water is in its icy form.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Using laser beams within the solar system to find distances to celestial objects is possible but the length of time needed could be exceeding long for real communication.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What are the three properties of living things that the chapter identifies
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