Astronomy 2004-05

DFarnsworth

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  1. How long does it take light to reach the earth from the sun?
  2. Your answer:
    8 seconds
    18 seconds
    8 minutes
    18 minutes


  3. What is the system closest to the earth?
  4. Your answer:
    Tau Ceti
    Alpha Centauri
    Orion
    Alpha Leo


  5. What is the brightest star in the night sky?
  6. Your answer:
    Antares
    Rigel
    Sirius
    Vega


  7. What kind of variable star changes in brightness caused by the shrinking and swelling of the star?
  8. Your answer:
    cepheid
    white dwarf
    main sequence
    giant


  9. What type of star is typically the size of the earth?
  10. Your answer:
    black dwarf
    giant
    main sequence
    white dwarf


  11. What is a devise that separates light into different colors, or wavelengths?
  12. Your answer:
    anemometer
    barometer
    parallax
    spectrometer


  13. What color stars are the coolest?
  14. Your answer:
    blue
    yellow
    orange
    red


  15. What color stars are the hottest?
  16. Your answer:
    blue
    yellow
    orange
    red


  17. What is another name for the north star?
  18. Your answer:
    Orion
    Sirius
    Polaris
    Vega


  19. What are the two types of motion associated with stars?
  20. Your answer:
    actual/apparent
    moderate/motionless
    actual/motionless
    moderate/apparent


  21. What do astronomers analyze to determine the composition and surface temperature of a star?
  22. Your answer:
    the size of the star
    the shape of the star
    the distance from the earth to the star
    the spectrum of the star


  23. How do astronomers measure the distance to stars that are less than 1,000 light years from the earth?
  24. Your answer:
    telescopes
    temperature
    parallax
    doppler effect


  25. What space telescope has seen farther into space than any other telescope?
  26. Your answer:
    Eagle
    Hubble
    Newtonian
    Galilean


  27. Where do stars form?
  28. Your answer:
    in nebulas
    in clusters
    by planets
    near moons


  29. What type of star has the longest life?
  30. Your answer:
    protostars
    main sequence
    giants
    white dwarfs


  31. What type of star is probably not yet in existence because it is thought that the universe is too young to have produced them yet?
  32. Your answer:
    protostars
    white dwarfs
    black dwarfs
    supergiants


  33. What can appear up to a million times brighter than the sun and then in just a few days begin to fade back to its normal brightness?
  34. Your answer:
    main sequence
    white dwarf
    nova
    supernova


  35. What did Chinese astronomers see in the year 1054 in the sky that was so bright they could see it during the day for three weeks?
  36. Your answer:
    a black hole
    a supernova
    a main sequence star
    a new moon


  37. What kind of star would weigh 100 million tons on earth with only a spoonful of its matter?
  38. Your answer:
    cepheid star
    neutron star
    main sequence star
    a supergiant


  39. What kinds of stars are always visible in the night sky?
  40. Your answer:
    circumpolar
    apparent
    cepheid
    actual


  41. What is the process that generates energy in the core of a main sequence star?
  42. Your answer:
    fusion of carbon to hydrogen
    fusion of helium to hydrogen
    fusion of hydrogen to helium
    fusion of oxygen to argon


  43. What does a main sequence star convert hydrogen into?
  44. Your answer:
    carbon
    helium
    oxygen
    argon


  45. How many times bigger than the sun are giant?
  46. Your answer:
    10
    50
    75
    100


  47. How many times bigger than the sun are supergiant?
  48. Your answer:
    10
    50
    75
    100


  49. What type of star shines for billions of years before it is completely cooled?
  50. Your answer:
    black dwarfs
    main sequence
    supergiants
    white dwarfs


  51. What form of fusion occurs in a giant star?
  52. Your answer:
    helium to carbon
    helium to argon
    helium to hydrogen
    helium to oxygen


  53. What does a white dwarf become when it no longer emits energy?
  54. Your answer:
    black dwarf
    giant
    super giant
    black hole


  55. What causes a nova explosion?
  56. Your answer:
    accumulation of gas on a white dwarf
    excessive dust on a main sequence star
    too much debris around a planet
    high temperatures


  57. Why can only very large stars form black holes?
  58. Your answer:
    because they are the hottest stars
    only very large stars collapse with enough force to crush their cores
    black holes need lots of room
    because very large stars have a short life span


  59. Who predicted the existence of black holes in 1907?
  60. Your answer:
    Stephan Hawking
    Carl Sagan
    Johannes Kepler
    Karl Swartzchild


  61. What kind of nebulae absorb the light of more distant stars behind them?
  62. Your answer:
    light
    dark
    irregular
    coarse


  63. What is the name of the galaxy the earth belongs to called?
  64. Your answer:
    Milky Way
    Alpha Centauri
    Beta Scorpii
    Orion


  65. What type of galaxy contains millions of young stars, gas and dust?
  66. Your answer:
    spiral
    irregular
    globular
    elliptical


  67. What type of galaxy has no young stars and contains very little dust and gas?
  68. Your answer:
    spiral
    irregular
    globular
    elliptical


  69. What type of galaxy has no particular shape and the stars are unevenly distributed throughout the galaxy?
  70. Your answer:
    spiral
    irregular
    globular
    elliptical


  71. How many recognized constellations are there?
  72. Your answer:
    22
    44
    66
    88


  73. What is the name given to the brightest star within each constellation?
  74. Your answer:
    stellar
    gamma
    beta
    alpha


  75. What is the name given to the second brightest star within each constellation?
  76. Your answer:
    alpha
    beta
    gamma
    stellar


  77. What would the brightest star in the constellation Leo be called?
  78. Your answer:
    Alpha Leo
    Beta Leo
    Gamma Leo
    Stellar Leo


  79. What other name does the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius, (Alpha Scorpii) have?
  80. Your answer:
    Antares
    Centauri
    Rigel
    Vega


  81. What type of galaxy does the earth belong to?
  82. Your answer:
    globular
    spiral
    irregular
    elliptical


  83. What types of star clusters contain the most stars and are distributed around the central core of the galaxy?
  84. Your answer:
    spiral
    globular
    open
    irregular


  85. What types of star clusters have a spherical shape?
  86. Your answer:
    spiral
    globular
    open
    irregular


  87. What starlike objects give off radio waves and X rays that can be detected from earth?
  88. Your answer:
    pulsar
    asteroid
    nova
    quasar


  89. What type of star is our sun?
  90. Your answer:
    giant
    main sequence
    super giant
    white dwarf


  91. Why are black holes difficult to locate?
  92. Your answer:
    they do not give off light
    they are too far away
    they are hidden in asteroid fields
    they are always on the dark sides of planets


  93. What increases in a star as its temperature increases?
  94. Your answer:
    brightness
    size
    distance from the earth
    gas production


  95. Why do the patterns of the stars appear to shift westward slightly from night to night?
  96. Your answer:
    because of the revolution of the earth around the sun
    because the stars are constantly moving
    because of gravity
    because of the rotation of the earth on its axis


  97. What is the most common element found in the majority of stars?
  98. Your answer:
    hydrogen
    helium
    argon
    oxygen


  99. Why do stars appear to move in circular paths around Polaris?
  100. Your answer:
    because of the revolution of the earth around the sun
    because the stars are constantly moving
    because of gravity
    because of the rotation of the earth on its axis



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