Super Quiz Quick Response Questions
1)
The different
types of light differ from each other how? Different wave frequencies
2)
What is the study
of the structure of the universe called? Cosmology
3)
All stars move in
circles around a point in the sky called a what? celestial pole
4)
What 2 stars are
closest to the north and south stars? Polaris-north. Octans-south
5)
Stars rise where
and set where? rise in east and set in west
6)
Planets move east
to west along the zodiac. This is called what? Retrograde motion
7)
Who was the 1st
Greek who developed a theory a system of 56 spheres, all with same center with
the inner sphere being Earth? Aristotle
8)
Who was the Greek
in 100 AD who said planets moved in small circles called epicycles? Ptolemy
9)
Who was the Polish
scientist who said the sun was in center of the universe? Nicolas Copernicus
10)
Who was the German
scientist who saw Mars moved in an ellipse, and concluded all planets have
elliptical orbits? Johannes Kepler
11)
What is the
nearest star to Earth and how far is it away? Proxima
Centauri, 4 light years away
12)
What is a set of
imaginary lines drawn on the celestial spheres- celestial coordinate system
13)
Longitude in the
sky is called what? right ascension.
14)
Latitude in the sky is what? Declination
15)
The brightest star
in a constellation is called what? alpha star
16)
The dist between
successive crests of a wave is called what? Wavelength
17)
What is the
smallest wavelength of light? Gamma rays
18)
Electromagnetic
radiation is made up of particles of energy called what? Photons
19)
What are the 3 techniques optical astronomers use? Spectroscopy, Interferometry, and advanced optics
Who
discovered in 1929 that the farther away a galaxy is, the faster it moves away.
..and the greater the red shift? Edwin Hubble
20)
What satellite, in
1997, mapped the sky in wavelengths of infrared? Two Micron All Sky Survey
(2Mass)
21)
Radio waves are
longer than what distance? 1 millimeter
22)
What is it called
when spectral lines shift toward the shorter wavelength side when the object is
approaching? Blue shift
23)
The Hubble Space
Telescope picks up what light waves? Ultraviolet
24)
What waves do not
pass through the Earth’s atmosphere? X-rays
25)
What satellite,
launched in 1999, picks up X-rays? Chandra X-Ray Observatory Satellite
26)
Where do gamma
rays form? In places where matter and antimatter are destroying each other by
collision.
27)
A star that is not
dense enough to collapse and form black holes is called a what? Neutron star
28)
The bands of
charged particles around the Earth are called what? Van Allen Belts
29)
These are
particles that arrive from space, and do not interact with things here on
Earth? Neutrinos
30)
What is the most
powerful neutrino detector called and where is it located? Super-Kamiokande, in a deep underground mine in
31)What is heavy water?
Nucleus of each H atom consists of a proton and neutron, not just 1 proton.
32)
What are the 3 types of neutrinos? 1) electron-neutrinos-
created by nuclear reactions in the sun. sometimes
missing 2) muon-neutrinos and 3) tau-neutrinos
33)
Isaac Newton mathematically proved Johannes Kepler’s
work in which book? Principia Mathematica (1687),
and he explained his laws of motion and gravity in the book.
34)
Who discovered Uranus in 1781? Brit William Herschel
35)
Who discovered
36) Who
discovered Pluto in 1930? US Clyde W Tombaugh found
Pluto w/ a telescope
37)
Who made a catalog for the identification of different galaxies? Messier
38)
German Hans Bethe said nuclear fusion powers the stars , in what he called the what? proton-proton
chain
39)
When did light elements form? Lighter elements formed minutes after the Big
Bang
40)
When did heavy elements form? Formed inside stars and supernova explosions
41)
In 1967, Brit Jocelyn Bell Burnell identified objects
emitting radio waves that arrive on Earth in regular pulses called what?
Pulsars
42)
In 1997, this satellite was launched to study Saturn? Cassini
43) This
is the point directly above the observer and the celestial sphere. Zenith
44)
These occur because the sun, earth and moon are aligned…shadows are casted b/c of this alignment. Eclipses
45) What
was Ptolemy’s book called that was the encyclopedia for astronomy until the
Renaissance? The
Mathematical Composition or the Algamest.
46) Who
was the Greek astronomer in 100 BC that 1st recorded the positions of the stars in
the sky but we know little of his life? Hipparchus
47)
In this man’s book, he stated that the Sun was the center of the universe, and
earth has triple motion around this center. He also explained retrograde
motions, and settled the order of planets. Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus Orbium
Coelestium
48) What
and where did Galileo 1st teach? Math in
49)
Who and when invented the 1st telescope? 1609: Hans Lipperhey
50) What
pope to Galileo clash with? Pope Urban VIII
51)
Who finally exonerated Galileo after publishing his book Concerning the 2 Chief World System-Ptolemaic
and Copernican, 350 years later? Pope John Paul II
52) A
star’s parallax is its what? Movement
53)
In order to find out a star’s parallax you need a distance between 2 points
called a ? baseline
54) Who
was the 1st man to produce measurements on the movement of stars? Freidrich Bessel
55) Hubble
noted that the period of a Cepheid variable is proportional to its what? absolute intensity of a star.
56) The
Mount Wilson Observatory was constructed by who, and
how big is the mirror on the telescope? George Ellery Hale,
and 100 inch
57) Hubble
began photographing what? Spiral nebulae
58) What
galaxy did Hubble study the most and how many variable stars were in this
galaxy? M31 Andromeda Galaxy, 6
59) Hubble
found that the Andromeda Galaxy was how far away? 930.000 light years away
60) In
the forming of the solar system, dust and debris collided and stuck together
forming what? Planetismals
61) Meteorites
come from where? Asteroids
62)
What is the period called for a planet to align with the earth in a specific
configuration and to repeat the configuration? Synodic
period
63) This
is the point where the worst viewing occurs from Earth: least favorable
opposition
64) What
are the large, grey regions on moon called? Mare
65)
Because Mercury is near the sun where temps are high, which causes gases to
have high velocities, and would bounce away from the planet’s gravitational
pull, Mercury has no what? Atmosphere
66) Venus
has what 2 chemicals in its atmosphere that cause it
to have an extreme greenhouse effect? Carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid
67) What
causes Mars to have its red color? oxidized iron in
soil.
68) What
is the largest moon in the solar system called and who’s
orbit is it in? Ganymede, Jupiter
69) What
2 elements are in Jupiter’s atmosphere? H and He
70) What
is the 1st moon to show an atmosphere, and who’s
orbit is it in? Titam, Saturn
71) What
is the mathematical formula used to predict distances to the planets from the
sun? Bode’s law
72)
Where does the asteroid belt lie in our solar system? B/t Mars and Jupiter
73)
What are the 3 types of meteorites and how are they different from each other?
1) Stony meteorites-look like common rock, 95 % of meteors are
this. Come from exterior parts of meteor 2) Stony iron meteorites- contain a
mix of rock and iron. Come from a layer inside and outside of asteroid 3) Iron
meteorites-mostly iron, Ni. Originated at centers of meteors
due to cooling patterns on the meteor.
74) Comets
go around the sun how many times? Once
75)
What is formed by dust being pushed away by the light of the sun? Comet trail
76) What
are the 3 layers of the Sun? Photosphere, Chromosphere,
77) Regions
of the sun with a lower temp than the rest of the sun are called? Sunspots
78) The
cycle of a sunspot is how long? 11 years
79) When energy is passed on to objects that are
in direct contact with the energy source, this is called what? Conduction
80) Hydrostatic
support from a star is created from a balance of gravity trying to collapse a
star and what? Pressure arising from the hot gasses
81) This
is a measure of the transparency of a gas: opacity
82) The
Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram maps which 2 things of a star? luminosity and color (temp)
83) What
is formed when Helium begins binding to make Carbon? Red giant
84)
If a star’s core has no more pressure to counteract gravity, it will do what?
Collapse and explode
85) The
Lifetime of a star is proportional to fM/L where f is
the fraction of the total mass of the star, M, and L is the avg. what? luminosity.
86) These
are explosions that release tons of energy from the star? Solar flares
87) These
are winds created by the temp difference in different parts of the star and
they help blow away top outer layers of stars: stellar winds
88) What
is a star system with 2 stars? Binary system
89) These
occur when the stars are so close to each other they can transfer matter to
each other and change the way the stars looks and evolves: Close binaries
90) If
the mass of white dwarf becomes < 1.4 ,x’s
the mass of the sun, it has reached what? Chandrasekhar limit
91) A
Type II supernova will occur when? When a massive star explodes
92) In
what nebula can you find the youngest and most active pulsar known to man? Crab
Nebula
93)
The boundary around a Black Hole is called ? event horizon
94) To
search for black holes, scientists look for these,
systems where a star orbits closely around an invisible companion star-usually
a black hole or neutron star: X-ray binary system
95) How
do black holes grow? Matter falls in them
96)
What types of black holes are found in the centers of galaxies? Supermassive black holes
97)
What types of black holes are formed from massive stars collapsing? Stellar
black holes
98) Dark
spaces in space are called what? Dark matter
99) What
is a galaxy
experiencing a period of intense star forming activity.? Starburst galaxy
100)
Starburst galaxies can create these, superbubbles so
hot and energetic that it expands out to the galaxy? Superwinds
101)
The Milky Way Galaxy has these 4 characteristics: hao,
bulge, nucleus, and disk
102)
Where are the oldest stars found in the Milky way? The
halo region
103)
What is the biggest, mysterious component of the Milky
Way? Dark matter
104)
What are the 3 types of galaxies? Spiral, irregular,
elliptical
105)
The formation of a galaxy starts with a what? Protogalaxy
106)
What is the force that governs how stars and gas move
on circular orbits, and is created by tidal forces of protogalaxies?
Angular momentum
107)
How long ago did the Big Bang explosion occur? 12-14
billion years ago
108)
Who won the Nobel prize for detecting Cosmic Microwave
Background Radiation? Penzias and Wilson
109)
What are small stars that do not emit light because
they have a little hydrogen, and have been nicknamed MACHOs
(Massive Compact Halo Objects)? Brown dwarfs
110)
Cepheid variables rotate between what 2 states? Compact and Expanded
111)
What state is a Cepheid variable in when the helium in
a layer of it atmosphere is singly ionized? Compact state
112)
The apparent path of the sun and planets through the
celestial sphere is called the what? Ecliptic
113)
The word “galaxy” comes from a Greek word, which
means? Milky circle
114)
Galileo defended a model of the solar system that was 1st proposed
by who? Nicholas Copernicus
115)
Triton,
116)
Interior heat and radiation from nuclear reactions near the center of a star
occur during which stellar phase? Man sequence
117)
From present astronomy data, what can one conclude
will be the final evolutionary state of the sun? Red supergiant
118)
Most comets are thought to orbit at a distance of
approximately how far from Earth? 1 ˝ light yrs
119)
When a planet orbits the sun, the time required for a
planet ti complete 1 orbit is referred to as?
Sidereal period
120)
Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar
system, is located on what planet? Mars
121)
The “Stuff of life,” protons, neutron, and electrons are referred to by
astronomers as what? Baryonic matter
122)
What describes the phase of the moon during a lunar
eclipse? Full moon
123)
The largest asteroid known today was discovered in
1801 by Piazzi, using Bode’s
law, is what? Ceres
124)
What is “pink noise?” Density variations in protogalaxies
125)
The largest galaxies in the universe are generally
what? Elliptical
126)
What holds galaxies together? Dark matter
127)
Give an example of a low mass star. Our sun
128)
What planet supports a moon that is almost as large as
the planet itself? Pluto
129)
What does Chris Impey cite
as a “dramatic confirmation of the power of
130)
What telescope did Hubble use the most? The 100 inch
131)
What young star has a disk around it? Beta Pictoris
132)
What could be used to estimate the current expansion
rate of the universe? Hubble constant