Astronomy Test 1

Front 1

Thales of Miletus

Back 1

Invented science in about 500 B.C.
The scientific method came from his philosophy of skepticism.
He is credited for the first mathematical proof.
- Students of his; Pythagoras of Samos

Front 2

Pythagoras of Samos

Back 2

Settled in Italy
-Founded the world's first university
-invented his own religion, and believed enlightenment could be achieved only by the study of astronomy, math, geometry and music. His cosmology, all is number, failed to account for the irrational length of the diagonal of a unit square. After this failure, he and his followers turned to mysticism. His influence is still felt today.

Front 3

Library of Alexandria

Back 3

The knowledge gained by classical civilization was held in a great library in Alexandria.
-It lasted for 700 years and was home to Eratosthanes (who measured the earth), Ptolemy, Euclid, and Hypatia (the last librarian who was murdered by followers of Cyril). Religious zealots burned the library in about 400 AD.

Front 4

Ptolemy of Alexandria

Back 4

designed a system of planetary motion based on epicycles to explain retrograde motion. He published his theory in Syntaxis (= System). The book was later renamed Almagest (= The Majestic).

Front 5

Johannes Kepler

Back 5

- first modern astronomer.
- After teaming with Tycho Brahe (the gold nosed fellow) he formulated his three laws of planetary motion:

Front 6

Three laws of planetary motion

Back 6

1. Planets orbit in an ellipse with the Sun at one focus.
2. Planets sweep out equal areas in equal times.
3. T2 is proportional to r3.
* The third law was published in Harmonices Mundi which seems to have been carried to England by John Donne.

Front 7

Isaac Newton

Back 7

Wrote "Principia", is the greatest contribution to human knowledge ever made by one person.
-Newton invented calculus and used it to solve the Kepler problem (he found the mathematical nature of the force that makes the solar system go).

Front 8

Lunar Maria

(Moon)

Back 8

-Galileo discovered and named the lunar maria (= seas, the dark relatively crater free areas of the moon) and highlands (the bright heavily cratered areas).
-The maria are younger than the highlands and made of basalt.

Front 9

Lunar Highlands

(Moon)

Back 9

- The highlands are primarily impact breccia.
- The primordial moon seems to have been made of anorthosite.

Front 10

Why does the moon always display the same side or face towards earth?

Back 10

The moon keeps the same face to the earth because it is spin-orbit coupled as a result of tidal friction in its core.

Front 11

Why does the maria exist?

Back 11

The core is offset from the center making the crust on the near side thinner than the far side. Large impacts can crack through the crust allowing lava to flood low lying areas making the maria. On the far side the crust is too thick, thus there are no maria on the far side.

Front 12

Data from the moon:

Back 12

1. Moon and Earth have different mineralization.
2. Moon has no magnetic field
3. moon has basalt very similar to Pacific Basin basalt.

Front 13

How was the moon created?

Back 13

The only theory that can explain these is collision theory – a collision in the early solar system between Earth and a Mars sized object that led to the formation of the moon.

Front 14

Who and when did the first person walk on the moon?

Back 14

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed and walked on the moon in July, 1969.

Front 15

Constellation

Back 15

Grouping of stars, culturally defined and completely arbitrary.
*Made of crap

Front 16

Orion

Back 16

Rising Kite
Great Hunter
*Appears August-May East to west

Front 17

Constellations of the zodiac

Back 17

The sun used to be in front of the zodiac constellation in accordance with the month.
*But due to the changing of the earths axis that has slowly changed over time.

Front 18

Planet

Back 18

In Greek simply means wanderer.
Named after what early astronomers thought of planetary motion.
Planets move a little bit every night.

Front 19

How were days of the week named?

Back 19

-Named after planets that were originally observed by the Greeks.
Sun - Sunday
Moon- Monday (moonday)
Mercury - Tuesday (Norse word for Mercury)
Jupiter - Woton (Norse) Wotonsday, Wednesday
Mars - Thursday (Norse)
Venus - Friday (Norse)
Saturn - Saturday

Front 20

Vernal Equinox
Autumnal Equinox

Back 20

Day and Night are equal
Vernal - about 21 March (extremely important for planting crops)
Autumnal - 21 Sept

Front 21

Summer Solstice

Back 21

Sun reaches it's maximum path across the sky at the Tropic of cancer.
About 21 June

Front 22

Winter solstice

Back 22

Sun reaches it's lowest point at the Tropic of Capricorn.
About 21 December.
*Shortest day of the year.

Front 23

Easter
Why does it move?

Back 23

The first Sunday following the first full moon following the vernal equinox.

Front 24

Retrograde Motion

Back 24

Backward motion of planets

Front 25

Hippocratus of Cos

Back 25

Came up the idea of the body containing four fluids.
- red
- green
- yellow
- black

Front 26

Theodorus

Back 26

Invented central heat
- the ruler
- the lock and key
- invented a way to dig a tunnel

Front 27

Eratosthenes of Alexandria

Back 27

Measured the circumference of the earth using the sun and shadows. Proved that it is round.
- Invented a way to find prime numbers.

Front 28

Pythagoreus of Somas

Back 28

Learned from Thales
Came up with Pythagorean theorem and proved it
Invented his own religion.
(Meta psychosis, Vegetarian, no beans, no wine, no sliced bread, no aughing in public)
- Many of his ideas came from Buddhism
Developed the western musical scale

Front 29

Quadrivism

Back 29

Four fold way, must know these to become enlightened.
- Math
- Geometry
- Music
- Astronomy

Front 30

Platonic Solids

Back 30

Originally only four that were thought to represent the four elements. (earth, wind, fire, water)
Regular polygon

Front 31

Fifth Element

Back 31

The element of which the perfect world was thought to be made of. The perfect was thought to be in space or the heavens.

Front 32

Alexander the Great

Back 32

Originally from Maredon (North of Greece)
Wanted to conquer the world.
Died at 32 y/o after conquering much of the middle east.
-Founded Alexandria from the group
- Made the library of Alexandria
- Each ship at the port would be boarded for scrolls, where they were copied and copies were given back
*Smartest person found was the librarian

Front 33

Hypatia

Back 33

400 A.D.
Female
Last librarian prior to library fire

Front 34

Cyril of Alexandria

Back 34

Bishop
Despised Hypatia and distrusted her as a scientist.
Skinner her alive and burned the library to the ground.
*Dark ages began the day the Library of Alexandria burned to the ground. (All but a small building were burned down)

Front 35

Aristotle

Back 35

Student of plato
-Believed the Greeks are superior and outsiders were not allowed.
- Tried to answer why the moon has phases and attempted to prove that earth was the center of the universe. Must be because of these-
1. No wind
2. Stuff would fly off the earth
3. No stellar parallax

Front 36

Ptolemy of Alexandria

Back 36

Astrologer of the king- Hands were tied by the Aristotle's teachings.
-Discovered an epicycle.
-measured the location of planets
- Wrote the book "Syntaxis" (the system)

Front 37

400 A.D.

Back 37

Dark ages began after Library of Alexandria burned.
No Progress in sciences for about 1000 years.
Then the Renaissance began.

Front 38

Renaissance

Back 38

*Rediscovery
- Davinci
- Galileo
- Keplar
- Newton

Front 39

Copernicus

Back 39

translated books from arabic found during the crusades about the way the planets move.

Front 40

Johannes Keplar

Back 40

Austrian born just after the separation in the church (catholics and lutherans).
- Mother sold drugs (tea out of belladonna plant)
- Achieves a degree in theology.
- Teaches high school astrology.
- Perfect equilateral triangle between the orbits of Saturn and Jupiter.
- Found the circular orbit of Mars.

Front 41

Tycho Brahi

Back 41

owned 10% of everything in Denmark.
- Measured the location of the planets with 3' of arc (which is the size of Mars)
- Could not figure out the orbit of the planets.
- Thought the earth was the center of the universe.
-

Front 42

Keplar's law of planetary motion

Back 42

1)Planet's orbit an ellipse with the sun at the focus
2)Planets sweep out equal areas in equal times
3)T^2 proportional to R^3
T=period (1 yr) R=distance from the sun

Front 43

Sir Isaac Newton

Back 43

#1 scientist
- Born Dec 25, 1642 in grandmother's house
- Raised by grandmother
- Goes to Trinity college to study Theology
- Earned PhD in Natural Philosophy at age 23
- Hired as Lucasian Professor of Math at Cambridge

Front 44

Sir Isaac Newton accomplishments

Back 44

- invents calculus
- discovers universal law of gravitation
- discovers 3 laws of motion
- invents reflecting telescope
- optics
- lots of math

Front 45

Universal law of gravitation

Back 45

Calculated by Newton
- Newton, after coaxing by Halley, took 18 months to publish the universal law of gravitation. *Halley paid to have it published. "Mathematical Principal of Natural Philosophy"

Front 46

Alan Shepard

Back 46

First American in space
Mercury Mission 1962
Traveled up 100 miles and downrange 300 miles

Front 47

John Glenn

Back 47

First American to orbit earth

Front 48

Ed White
Gus Grissom

Back 48

Died during testing of Apollo 13.
Oxygen enriched environment caught fire.

Front 49

Von Braun

Back 49

German engineer
Built Redstone Rocket in Huntsville, AL

Front 50

Saturn V

Back 50

First rocket sent into outer space
38 story high rocket
Built in Huntsville and hauled to Cape Canaveral

Front 51

How many original selectees for the apollo mission?

Back 51

7, all were test pilots
1. Alan Shepard,
2. Gus Grissom,
3. John Glenn,
4. Scott Carpenter,
5. Wally Schirra,
6. Gordon Cooper
7. Deke Slayton.

Front 52

First Men to go to the moon?

Back 52

Neil Armstrong
Buzz Aldrin

Front 53

First Apollo mission to the moon?

Back 53

Apollo 11 - 1969
While orbiting the moon computer was inaccurate to distance to surface .
Armstrong had to land by hand.

Front 54

Blue Moon

Back 54

Second full moon in a single month. Happens at least once a year

Front 55

Luna

Back 55

Greek for moon

Front 56

What causes tidal force?

Back 56

Gravity causes tides.
Forces exerted on the earth is directed towards the center of the moon.
These forces are directed towards the center of the moon which cause the water to be pushed down towards the equators.

Front 57

Two types of tides

Back 57

Spring tides - happen during the full moon or new moon, tides are giant or full.

Neap tides - happen during the quarter moons creating smaller tides. (neap, neap, neap)

Front 58

What causes weightlessness in space?

Back 58

The moon is falling around the earth at a speed of 17,500 mph.
All objects in free fall are weightless because they are in free fall.
Astronauts are weightless because they are in a constant free fall.

Front 59

KT Boundary

Back 59

Dividing line in the soil.
Full of iridium(one of the most rare elements on earth)
Meteors loaded with irridium

Front 60

Chixilub Crater

Back 60

100 miles in diameter
Rocks dated at 60 MYA same as age as KT boundary
Meteor hit earth at 70,000mph
90% of everything living thing burned up
Earth was moonlight dark for 6 months
Killed 70% of everything

Front 61

Three types of rock

Back 61

Sedimentary (sandstone, limestone, shale ...)
Metamorphic (marble, onyx, ...)
Igneous (basalt, granite, ...)

Front 62

Sedimentary

Back 62

Built from water, runoff, wind
*no sedimentary rock on the moon

Front 63

metamorphic

Back 63

Originally sedimentary but buried again under intense pressure and heat, eventually becomes metamorphic

Front 64

Igneous

Back 64

extrusive - solidified rapidly, under water or air.
- takes minutes or hours- no crystals form (basalt)

intrusive - solidified slowly, underground (takes millions of years) forms crystals, granite

Front 65

maria (few craters)

Back 65

of the moon is almost entirely vesiculated basalt.
This showed the moon had lava on the surface along all the dark areas, all surface cooled.

Front 66

Highlands (many craters)

Back 66

Apollo 16 went to find lava rock.
Breccia, rock shattered, rock then comes back together and solidifies into a new rock.
Lunar Breccia is an impact breccia.
*No volcanoes on the moon.

Front 67

Anorthosite

Back 67

Rock that the moon is made of.
Al2O3 - aluminum oxide composes all areas of the moon other than the moon.
Very bright rock which causes the moon to be so bright.