Space Science
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Course Introduction
Space Science is an interdisciplinary field that explores the fundamental processes and phenomena occurring in outer space, including the study of planets, stars, galaxies, and the broader universe. This course examines the physical and chemical properties of celestial bodies, the dynamics of cosmic events, the origin and evolution of the universe, and humanitys efforts to explore and understand space through observation, experimentation, and technological advancement. Students will gain insight into the tools and methods used by astronomers and space scientists, develop an appreciation for the vastness and complexity of the cosmos, and explore key topics such as space exploration, planetary systems, astrophysics, and the potential for life beyond Earth.
Recommended Textbook
Understanding Our Universe 2nd Edition by Stacy Palen
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Chapter 1: Thinking Like an Astronomer
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Q1) What is the Local Group?
Answer: The group of a dozen or so galaxies including the Milky Way that are within a few million light-years of each other.
Q2) The statement ''our universe is but one of a multitude of isolated universes'' is best characterized as a:
A) speculative but unscientific idea because it is not testable and therefore not falsifiable.
B) scientific fact.
C) physical law.
D) hypothesis that is currently being tested.
Answer: A
Q3) Describe the main steps involved in the scientific method.
Answer: First you make a hypothesis; then you make a prediction based on your hypothesis.Finally,you test your prediction through experimentation or observation,prove or disprove your original hypothesis,and revise your hypothesis if necessary.
Q4) Why might the universe be described as a sort of "time machine"?
Answer: The finite speed of light means that objects observed at larger distances are observed as they existed further in the past.
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Page 3
Chapter 2: Patterns in the Skymotions of Earth and the Moon
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is FALSE?
A) Everyone on Earth observes the same phase of the Moon on a given night.
B) The phases of the Moon cycle with a period of approximately 1 month.
C) In some phases, the Moon can be observed during the day.
D) The observed phase of the Moon changes obviously over the course of one night.
Answer: D
Q2) We observe different phases of the Moon because:
A) the Moon passes through different portions of the Earth's shadow during its orbit.
B) some parts of the Moon reflect and other parts absorb sunlight.
C) the orbital position of the Moon determines which portion and how much of the lunar surface is illuminated by sunlight.
D) the Moon emits light in some places and only reflects light in other places.
Answer: C
Q3) Why can a solar eclipse only occur during a new Moon?
Answer: Eclipses are caused by shadows.In order for the Moon to cast a shadow on the Earth,it must be located between the Earth and the Sun.This location configuration defines the new Moon phase.
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Page 4
Chapter 3: Laws of Motion
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which observations made by Galileo are inconsistent with the geocentric model of astronomy?
A) craters on the Moon
B) orbits of Jupiter's moons and phases of Venus
C) retrograde motion of Mars
D) sunspots
Answer: B
Q2) Two rocks (call them S and T)are a distance of 50 km from one another.Rock S has 20 times the mass of rock T.Which rock will move faster if the only force involved is their mutual gravitational attraction?
A) rock S
B) Both rocks will move at the same speed.
C) rock T
D) Not enough information is available to answer.
Answer: C
Q3) Name the two ways in which an object's motion (meaning its velocity)can experience a nonzero acceleration.
Answer: The object can have a nonzero acceleration if the speed of its velocity changes or if the direction of the velocity changes.
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Light and Telescopes
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Sample Questions
Q1) The angular resolution of a ground-based telescope is usually set by:
A) diffraction.
B) refraction.
C) the focal length.
D) atmospheric seeing.
Q2) How does the speed of light traveling through a medium (such as air or glass)compare to the speed of light in a vacuum?
A) It is the same as the speed of light in a vacuum.
B) It is always less than the speed of light in a vacuum.
C) It is always greater than the speed of light in a vacuum.
D) Sometimes it is greater than the speed of light in a vacuum, and sometimes it is less, depending on the medium.
Q3) Discuss two tools that modern astronomers use to explore the cosmos that are different from traditional optical telescopes,and give an example of how and why each is used.
Q4) Compare the light-gathering power of the human eye to that of a 10-inch telescope.
Q5) Explain two major advantages of CCDs over other imaging techniques.
Q6) Does the wavelength of a wave change when entering a refractive medium? Explain.
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Chapter 5: The Formation of Stars and Planets
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Q1) The Doppler shift can be used to determine the ________ of an object. A) energy
B) temperature
C) radial velocity
D) no radiation
Q2) Why might a newly discovered comet contain clues to the composition of the early solar nebula?
Q3) What happens to the gravitational energy of gas as it falls toward and eventually hits the accretion disk surrounding a protostar?
A) It is converted into thermal energy, heating the disk.
B) It is converted into light energy, giving off a flash of light upon impact.
C) It is converted into potential energy as the gas plows through the disk and comes out the other side.
D) It simply dissipates.
Q4) The increasing temperature of the core of a collapsing cloud of gas is due to: A) radiation.
B) collisions between gas molecules.
C) increased spin rate of the cloud.
D) fragmentation of the core.
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Chapter 6: Terrestrial Worlds in the Inner Solar System
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Q1) Which planet would you expect to have a larger molten core,a planet of Earth's size or a planet that had half the radius of Earth? Explain why.
Q2) Studies of the amount of cratering at different locations on the Moon indicate that:
A) the rate of cratering in the Solar System has changed dramatically over time.
B) the younger lunar surfaces are hundreds of billions of years younger than the oldest surfaces.
C) the Moon has never been geologically active at any point in its history.
D) most of the heavy cratering in the Solar System occurred before Earth formed.
Q3) Earth's innermost core is solid,not liquid,because:
A) the core temperature is too low to melt iron.
B) differentiation caused all of the heavy, solid material to sink to the bottom while Earth was forming.
C) all the liquid has moved up into the mantle via convection.
D) the pressure is too high for a liquid state.
Q4) How can a planet or moon that is inactive geologically have incidents of volcanism?
Q5) 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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Page 8
Chapter 7: Atmospheres of Venus, earth, and Mars
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Q1) Why does Venus have so little water compared to Earth?
Q2) Given its current location in the solar system,what characteristic would have to be changed to allow Mercury to retain an atmosphere?
Q3) From what aspect of the rotation of Earth does the Coriolis Effect arise?
A) Locations closer to the poles are moving at a larger speed than locations farther from the poles.
B) Locations closer to the poles are rotating faster than locations farther from the poles.
C) Locations closer to the poles are moving at a slower speed than locations farther from the poles.
D) The 23.5 degree tilt of Earth's rotation axis.
Q4) The Northern Lights are caused by:
A) decay of radiative materials in the atmosphere.
B) absorption and remission of solar UV light.
C) static electricity in the atmosphere.
D) energetic particles from the Sun interacting with Earth's atmosphere.
Q5) The first atmospheres of the terrestrial planets formed from hydrogen and helium.Why? What happened to this gas?
Q6) The global winds on Earth are the result of a combination of what three things?
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Chapter 8: The Giant Planets
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Sample Questions
Q1) Define cloud cannibalism.Where is it observed in the Solar System?
Q2) Why are all clouds on Jupiter not white,as on Earth?
A) They are made of methane.
B) They are made of carbon dioxide.
C) There are impurities in their ice crystals.
D) For the same reason that we see colors in rainbows on Earth.
Q3) Why would a planet's rings reflect 50 percent of the sunlight they receive?
A) They are made of ice.
B) They are made of silicate rock.
C) They are made of iron.
D) They are very old.
Q4) How has Jupiter retained a significant portion of its heat since it formed?
Q5) If you could find a large enough ocean,which one of these planets would float in it?
A) Uranus
B) Saturn
C) Neptune
D) Mars
Q6) Why do astronomers hypothesize that Saturn has such prominent rings,and does the observed total mass in the ring system support this theory?
Page 10
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Chapter 9: Small Bodies of the Solar System
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Q1) Why do long-period comets usually put on a much more visually spectacular display than short-period comets?
Q2) In 1994,dozens of fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with:
A) Jupiter.
B) Earth.
C) the Moon.
D) Saturn.
Q3) The darkest asteroids are:
A) M-type.
B) S-type.
C) C-type.
D) Q-type.
Q4) Why is Io,a moon that is smaller and farther from the Sun than our own Moon,still geologically active?
Q5) The one orbital characteristic both short- and long-period comets share is:
A) mostly prograde orbits.
B) orbits with completely random tilts.
C) orbital periods longer than that of any planet.
D) highly eccentric orbits.
Q6) Why is the asteroid Ceres classified as a dwarf planet?
Page 11
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Chapter 10: Measuring the Stars
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Sample Questions
Q1) In a binary star system that contains stars with 10 M¤ and 5 M¤,the velocity of the 10 M¤ star will be ________ times the velocity of the 5 M¤ star.
A) 0.2
B) 0.5
C) 1
D) 2
Q2) When an electron moves from a higher energy level in an atom to a lower energy level:
A) the atom is ionized.
B) a continuous spectrum is emitted.
C) a photon is emitted.
D) a photon is absorbed.
Q3) If a star's distance is 100 pc,what is its parallax?
A) 0.01 arcsec
B) 0.05 arcsec
C) 0.1 arcsec
D) 0.5 arcsec
Q4) What is the spectral type of stars that have the strongest hydrogen absorption lines? Why do stars that are hotter than these have weaker hydrogen lines?
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Chapter 11: Our Star: the Sun
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Q1) The majority of the Sun's energy comes from:
A) gravitational contraction.
B) its rapid rotation.
C) hydrogen fusion.
D) helium burning.
Q2) Hydrostatic equilibrium is a balance between:
A) heat and rotation.
B) core temperature and surface temperature.
C) pressure and gravity.
D) radiation and heat.
Q3) Sunspots appear dark because:
A) they have lower densities.
B) they have lower rotation rates.
C) they have lower temperatures.
D) they are storm systems like those on the giant planets.
Q4) The Maunder Minimum was a 60-year period when:
A) debris thrown up in a comet collision blanketed out the Sun.
B) almost no sunspots occurred on the Sun.
C) the Voyager 2 spacecraft traversed the heliopause.
D) no dust storms occurred on Mars.
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Chapter 12: Evolution of Low-Mass Stars
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Q1) A Type Ia supernova has a luminosity of approximately:
A) 10,000 L¤.
B) 10 million L¤.
C) 10 billion L¤.
D) 10 trillion L¤.
Q2) Why does helium burning in the core of a giant star not cause the star to become more luminous?
Q3) What is the current composition of the Sun's core?
A) 100 percent hydrogen
B) 65 percent hydrogen; 35 percent helium
C) 50 percent hydrogen; 50 percent helium
D) 35 percent hydrogen; 65 percent helium
Q4) The Sun will likely stop being a main-sequence star in:
A) 5,000 years.
B) 5 million years.
C) 500 million years.
D) 5 billion years.
Q5) How many times longer does a 1.0-M¤ main-sequence star live compared to a 2.1-M¤ main-sequence star?
Page 14
Q6) Describe the triple-alpha process of nuclear fusion.
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Chapter 13: Evolution of High-Mass Stars
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Q1) Which of the following is NOT true about Cygnus X-1?
A) It is a binary star.
B) It contains a black hole.
C) It is a source of X-rays.
D) It is a neutron star.
Q2) While traveling the galaxy in a spacecraft,you and a colleague set out to investigate the 10 -M¤ black hole at the center of our galaxy.Your colleague hops aboard an escape pod and drops into a circular orbit around the black hole,maintaining a distance of 1 AU,while you remain much farther away in the spacecraft but from which you can easily monitor your colleague.After doing some experiments to measure the strength of gravity,your colleague signals the results back to you using a green laser.What would you see?
A) the signals, because he or she is orbiting well outside the event horizon
B) the signals, but shifted to a much redder wavelength because he or she is very close to the event horizon
C) nothing, because your colleague has crossed the event horizon
D) nothing, because no light can escape the gravitational pull of a black hole no matter how close the signal is to it
Q3) Why do large,high-mass main-sequence stars never become red giants?
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Chapter 14: Measuring Galaxies
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Q1) The most likely dark matter candidate seems to be:
A) black holes
B) planets
C) neutron stars
D) neutrino-like particles
Q2) Besides shape,what characteristic clearly separates elliptical galaxies from spiral galaxies?
A) size
B) shape
C) age
D) color
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) Does Hubble's law imply that our galaxy is sitting at the center of the universe? Explain.
Q5) What were the positions taken by Heber Curtis and Harlow Shapley in their "Great Debate," and how were both of them partially correct?
Page 16
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Chapter 15: Our Galaxy: the Milky Way
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Q1) The Milky Way Galaxy is a(n)________ galaxy.
A) irregular
B) elliptical
C) barred spiral
D) lenticular
Q2) Sagittarius A*,the radio source located at the center of our galaxy,is believed to be a:
A) massive star cluster.
B) supernova remnant.
C) quasar.
D) supermassive black hole.
Q3) Observations of Doppler shifts toward the center of the galaxy show on one side hydrogen clouds are blueshifted while on the other side hydrogen clouds are redshifted.This is the pattern of the rotation velocity of a: A) cube.
B) disk.
C) sphere.
D) Cannot determine shape from information given.
Q4) How do we know that globular cluster stars were not the first stars that formed in our galaxy?
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Chapter 16: The Evolution of the Universe
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Q1) Why is the fact that the cosmic microwave background radiation is very smooth considered a problem?
A) A universe as smooth as predicted by the cosmic microwave background radiation should not have formed as many galaxies as have been observed.
B) A universe as smooth as predicted by the cosmic microwave background radiation should have collapsed by now.
C) A universe as smooth as predicted by the cosmic microwave background radiation should be expanding much faster than we are now.
D) A universe as smooth as predicted by the cosmic microwave background radiation should never have occurred occur because quantum mechanical fluctuations would have been imprinted on it.
Q2) The inverse of the value of H is a:
A) time.
B) mass.
C) density.
D) size.
Q3) What will happen to the expansion of the universe in the future if (a)W > 1,(b)W = 1,and (c) W < 1?
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Chapter 17: Formation of Structure
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Q1) Our Milky Way Galaxy is a member of:
A) the Local Group.
B) the Virgo Cluster.
C) the Virgo Supercluster.
D) all of the above
Q2) In order from first to last,the specific eras in the universe's history are known as the:
A) Primordial, Stelliferous, Degenerate, and Dark eras.
B) Stelliferous, Black Hole, and Entropy eras.
C) Primordial, Stelliferous, Black Hole, and Entropy eras.
D) Primordial, Stelliferous, Degenerate, Black Hole, and Dark eras.
Q3) How do astronomers explain the role of mergers in the formation of elliptical galaxies?
Q4) Which era corresponds to the final stage of the universe?
A) Dark Era
B) Degenerate Era
C) Stelliferous Era
D) Primordial Era
Q5) What is the evidence that galaxies form via hierarchical merging?
Q6) Evaluate some of the difficulties in modeling the evolution of galaxies.
Page 19
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Chapter 18: Life in the Universe
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Q1) 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
Q2) The Drake equation is used to predict the number of:
A) civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy.
B) Earth-like planets in the Milky Way Galaxy.
C) planets in the Milky Way Galaxy.
D) planets with life in the Milky Way Galaxy.
Q3) Why is a very hot star not a good candidate to find life?
A) The star is too hot.
B) Hot stars are only found in the disk of the galaxy, which is not conducive to life.
C) Its lifetime is too short for life to evolve.
D) The elements that are around hot stars do not lead to evolution.
Q4) What is SETI,what is its main objective,and how does it plan to achieve its objective?
Q5) What are the four main chemicals that make up all living organisms on Earth?
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