Byu Astronomy | Lesson 2

Front 1

True or False: Most of the names of the brightest stars are of Arabic origin.

Back 1

True; Most of the names of the brightest stars are of Arabic origin. Go back and reread the section on the Dark Ages.

Front 2

Aphelion is the point in a planetary orbit at which the planet is...?

Back 2

Farthest from the sun.

Front 3

What was the greatest contribution of Tycho Brahe to astronomy?

Back 3

He amassed a large number of precise measurements of stellar and planetary positions in the sky.

Front 4

Refer to the figure. Suppose Mercury takes twenty–one days to move from position P to position Q, and eighteen days to move from position R to position S. What do you know about the areas A and B?

Back 4

A is bigger than B

Front 5

What is position 1 called?

Back 5

Inferior conjunction

Front 6

True or False: When Saturn is at opposition we cannot see it because it is hiding behind the Sun.

Back 6

False; Opposition means the planet and the Sun are on opposite sides of Earth. Thus, we could see Saturn high in the sky at midnight, when it is at opposition.

Front 7

Nicholas Copernicus was the first modern astronomer to believe in....?

Back 7

A heliocentric universe.

Front 8

Johannes Kepler theorized that...?

Back 8

That planets do not move at uniform speeds throughout their orbits

Front 9

Galileo Galilei was the first astronomer to...?

Back 9

Use a telescope.

Front 10

Tycho Brahe tried to...?

Back 10

Prove heliocentric universe was wrong.

Front 11

Eratosthenes calculated...?

Back 11

The circumference of the Earth.

Front 12

Aristotle created the theory of...?

Back 12

The universe with two types of motion: towards away from and around.

Front 13

Ptolemy invented...?

Back 13

Epicycles to explain retrograde motion.

Front 14

Aristarchus believed...?

Back 14

That the Sun was at the center of the universe.

Front 15

Which of the following is not one of the major astronomical discoveries made by Galileo?
A.Jupiter is orbited by moons.
B. The shape of a planet's orbit is an ellipse.
C. The Moon has mountains, valleys, and craters.
D. Venus goes through phases.
E. The Sun has spots and rotates.

Back 15

B. The shape of a planet's orbit is an ellipse.

Front 16

True or False: Planets do not orbit the Sun in perfectly circular orbits.

Back 16

True; As Kepler pointed out, planetary orbits are actually ellipses, not circles.

Front 17

True or False: The synodic period is the amount of time for a planet to move from one configuration to the next identical configuration.

Back 17

True; Recall that the synodic period is based on Earth–bound observation, and the sidereal period is based on an outside perspective.

Front 18

True or False: All early astronomers before Copernicus believed that the world was flat.

Back 18

False; Recall that ancient Greek astronomers, such as Aristotle and Eratosthenes, believed the earth was a sphere.

Front 19

True or False: Epicycles are smaller spheres attached to the larger deferents.

Back 19

True; Ptolemy invented epicycles to explain retrograde motion. Epicycles are smaller spheres attached to the larger deferents.

Front 20

What is this constellation?

Back 20

Canis Major.

Front 21

Who proposed the idea that gravity could actually bend light?

Back 21

Albert Einstein

Front 22

True or False: People of ancient Greece believed the world was shaped like a sphere.

Back 22

True; Aristotle concluded that Earth must be a sphere. Eratosthenes measured the circumference of Earth.

Front 23

What is the bright star shown in this constellation?

Back 23

Sirius.

Hint 23

(Constellation: Canis Major)

Front 24

True or False: Planets in orbits closer to the Sun move faster than planets in orbits further away.

Back 24

True; Remember Kepler's Second Law: the area swept out by a planet will be equal for equal times. One result of this is that the closer planets are to the Sun, the faster they move in their orbits.