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40 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Why do astronomers prefer the equitorial coordinate system?
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A star's position will not depend on the observer's position.
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The imaginary circle on the celestial sphere directly above Earth's equator is known as the
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celestial equator
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What do we call the apparent yearly path of the Sun across the sky
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ecliptic
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What northern hemisphere season begins with the vernal equinox?
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spring
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Why is the celestial sphere a "sphere"
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because the Earth is a sphere
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How many Moons would it take to line them up in the sky, edges just barely touching, and reach from the horizon to the zenith?
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180
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Where would the meridian be if the Earth rotated on it's axis counterclockwise (instead of clockwise, like it does now), making the Sun rise in the west and set in the east?
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The meridian would be in the same place it is now
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The point on the celestial sphere just above the Earth's south pole is
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the South Celestial Pole
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If you start at the north pole and move toward the equator, star motion would
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change from being parallel to the horizon, to moving more and more at angle to the horizon, to finally moving perpendicular to the horizon
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Two thousand years ago, the star that was closest to the North Celestial Pole was:
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Kochab
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Why do astronomers prefer the equitorial coordinate system?
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a star's position will not depend on the observer's position
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Copernicus believed in the heliiocentric model of the universe because
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it looked more elegant
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"Inertia" is a summary of Newton's
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First Law
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What northern hemiphere season begins with the vernal equinox?
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spring
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What do we call the apparent yearly path of the Sun across the sky?
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ecliptic
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Newton's Second Law tells us that
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it will take more people to push a truck than push a small car
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Which planet has the shortest period, the Earth at 1 astronimical unit (AU) from the sun, or Jupiter at a distance of 5 AU's
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Earth
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The force of gravity between two objects will
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depend on the distance between them
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What shapes are the orbits of planets
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slightly elliptical
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Galileo's work with the Moon was just the beginning of his study of astronomy. What other observation of his led to the understanding that Earth is just one planet among many?
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gibbous phase of Venus
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If we compensate for distance, the brightness of a star is called
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absolute magnitude
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According to Joe Shuster, what is it anout humans that makes death an important aspect of the advancement of science?
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Humans irrationally refuse to let go of old, discredited ideas
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If Star A has an appatent magnitude of 4 and Star B has an apparent magnitude of 5, then...
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Star A is 2.5 times brighter than Star B
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Electromagnetic energy can be observed as
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both particles and waves at the same time
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When we look at the full Moon over the course of one night we can see about 50% of it's surface. How can we see up to 59% of the Moon's surface?
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Observe the Moon over a long period of time
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The correct order of the different forms of electro-magnetic energy, from long wavelength to short wavelength is...
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radio, infared, blue visible light, X-rays, gamma rays
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If Star A has an apparent magnitude of -1 and Star B has an apparent magnitude of 1, this tells us ...
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nothing about their luminosities because we don't have enough information
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Why is the Moon stuck in synchronous rotation?
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The Earth's gravity slowed-down the Moon's rotation rate
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Star A has an apparent magnitude of 3. Star B has an apparent magnitude of -1. From this we can tell
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nothing about the relative distance to these stars
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The most important factor in the evolution of a star is...
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the mass of the star
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In astronomy, the average distance between the Earth and the Sun is known as a(n)
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astronomical unit (AU)
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an advantage of reflector telescopes is
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they can be made very big
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An advantage of refractor telescope is...
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they are rugged
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If the Sun were the size of a mini-basketball (6.5 inches in diameter) at HPU, at this same scale the next closest star would be
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out in the Pacific Ocean
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Unlike optical telescopes, radio telescopes can see...
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objects that are cooler
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to see smaller details, we should use a telescope that gathers...
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smaller wavelengths
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Where is our solar system in the Milky Way Galaxy?
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more than half of the way from the center
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What makes stars twinkle?
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movement in Earth's atmosphere
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About 5,000 years ago, our pole star was...
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Thuban
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our "pole star" changes slowly over time because...
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our planet wobbles like a spinning top
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