Name: ______Date: ______
Astronomy Classwork
Directions:Use Unit 5, in your Earth Science text and the web to answer the following questions. You may work in groups but each student is to turn in the assignment. (due no later than Friday, April 12 )
1.How can stars that are invisible to the eye appear on photographs?
2.Use the knowledge of escape speed to explain why black holes are said to be "black."
3.Explain why there is no shift in spectral lines of a star moving at right angles to the line of sight.
4.Planets shine by reflected sunlight. How can planets be brighter than stars?
5.Could we see the sun if it were 32.6 light-years from earth?
6.What is a planetary nebula?
7.Phobos revolves around Mars from west to east faster than Mars rotates on its axis from west to east. In what direction does Phobos rise and set?
8.Under what circumstances will a binary star produce a nova?
9.If you lived on the moon instead of Earth, how often would the sun rise?
10.What time is it in our time zone when the new date is beginning at the International Date Line?
11.How would increasing the tilt of Earth's axis change the length of daylight and nighttime throughout the year?
12.Name the colors that combine to make white light and which color has the longest wavelength?
13. What is spectroscopy and why is it so important to astronomers?
14. What is a continuous spectrum? What is an absorption spectrum?
15.Why do we different stars in summer and winter?
16.If one complete hemisphere of the Moon is always lit by the Sun, why do we see different phases of the Moon?
17.Why does only one hemisphere of the Moon always face the Earth?
18.Why aren't there lunar and solar eclipses every month?
19.What was a flaw in the Copernican model of the solar system?
20.Describe the motion of atoms at 00 Kelvin.
21.What is the difference between a refractor and reflector telescope?
22.Why does the Hubble Telescope have better resolution than Hale Telescope?
23.Define an A.U.?
24.Why are jovian planets so much larger than the terrestrial planets?
25.Explain the difference between a meteor, a meteoroid, and a meteorite.
26.Briefly describe the theory of the Moon's origin currently favored by many astronomers.
27.List the joviana and terrestrial planets in order from furthest to the closest to the Sun.
28. Name and briefly describe the main regions of the Sun.
29.What is the cause of sunspots, flares, and prominences?
30.What fuels the Sun's enormous energy output?
31.How is stellar parallax used to measure the distances to stars?
32.What makes an ordinary star become a red giant?
33.What is the difference between absolute and apparent brightness?
34.How do astronomers measure star temperatures?
35.What information is needed to plot a star on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram?
36.What is a main sequence star and what basic property of a star determines where it lies on the main sequence?
37.How is interstellar matter distributed through space?
38.How does cosmological redshift relate to the expansion of the universe?
39.Why aren't all neutron stars seen as pulsars?
40.What are Cepheid variables used for in astronomy?
41.What evidence is there for dark matter in the Galaxy?
42.List the types of galaxies.
43.Define a quasar and explain its importance.
44.What is generally meant by "life, as we know it"?
45.How and why does a day measured by the Sun differ from a day measured by the stars?
46.State Kepler's three laws of motion?
47.Why does the Sun rise in the east and set in the West?
48.Does the Moon rise in the east and set in the west? Why?
49.Do stars rise in the east and set in the west? Why?
50. State one of the modifications made by Newton to Kepler's laws.
51.Explain why a comet's tail is always pointed in a certain direction when traveling around the Sun?
52.Why do meteorites contain information about the early solar system and yet Earth does not?
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