Astronomy Final Actual Exam Questions and CORRECT Answers
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Course
Astronomy
Institution
Astronomy
Astronomy Final Actual Exam Questions
and CORRECT Answers
When it comes to our place in the solar system today, which model do we accept?
a) heliocentric
b) Ptolemaic
c) geocentric
d) Aristotelean - CORRECT ANSWER- a
Astronomy Final Actual Exam Questions
and CORRECT Answers
When it comes to our place in the solar system today, which model do we accept?
a) heliocentric
b) Ptolemaic
c) geocentric
d) Aristotelean - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔a
According to the geocentric view, everything in the heavens had to go around the Earth,
which was the center of the universe. What objects did Galileo discover with his telescope
that clearly didn't go around the Earth?
a) ring around the Sun
b) moons around the planet Jupiter
c) Pluto
d) the Earth's Moon
e) stars in the Milky Way that just kept going in a straight line - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔b
According to Kepler's third law, there is a relationship between the time a planet takes to
revolve around the Sun and its
a) eccentricity
b) astrological sign
c) distance from the Sun
d) period of rotation
e) size - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔c
In what fundamental way did the work of Galileo differ from his predecessors who had
thought about the sky?
a) Galileo consulted many authorities before coming to scientific conclusions, instead of
working on his own
,b) Galileo translated the works of the ancient Greek astronomers, and relied on their
wonderful abilities to think through difficult problems
c) Galileo used instruments and experiments to show him what nature was doing, instead of
relying on pure logic
d) Galileo relied on the revelations of the Bible to tell him what was happening in the sky
e) Galileo believed that the Earth was the center of the solar system, and everything revolved
around it - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔c
When a planet, in its orbit, is closer to the Sun, it:
a) spins faster on its axis
b) moves faster than average
c) feels less gravitational pull than average
d) moves slower than average
e) reflects less sunlight than average - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔b
In Ptolemy's system the planets orbit the Earth and not the Sun. How did the system explain
the retrograde motion of planets like Mars?
a) the planets were not moving along the ecliptic but all over the celestial sphere
b) the planets moved in very elongated ellipses, and their speed in orbit changed radically
over the course of a year
c) the Sun moved among the planets, and pulled them out of their circular orbits
d) the planets moved on a small circle whose center, in turn, circled a point near the Earth
e) you can't fool me, Ptolemy's system did not include ANY explanation of retrograde motion
- CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔d
Which of these examples of ancient astronomy practises NOT correct?
a) Ancient Egyptians used a 365-day calendar year
b) Ancient Chinese astronomers observed many transient events like comets and supernova
(death of stars)
c) The Mayans designed a calendar based on the planet Venus
d) The Polynesians used the stars for long-distance sea navigation, to colonize new islands
,e) The Stonehenge rock structure was used for tracking motions of the Sun and Moon as far
back as 3800 BCE - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔e
When NASA and a group of astronomers sent up a spacecraft designed to find planets
orbiting other stars, they named it after Kepler. Why was this an appropriate name?
a) Kepler was the first person to suggest how to launch rockets into space
b) Kepler used his telescope to find the first planet orbiting another star
c) Kepler figured out the rules of planetary motion, which planets in our solar system and
planets elsewhere must obey
d) Kepler was the first person to express the law of universal gravity in mathematical terms
e) Kepler designed the first telescope ever built - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔c
Which of the following is NOT an argument for showing that the Earth must be round:
a)during an eclipse of the Moon, the shadow of the Earth is always seen to be round
b) when ships travel a large distance away, we see their hulls disappear first and their masts
disappear last
c) the height of the North Star changes as we travel to different latitudes
d) photographs of the Earth from space always show a round body
e) the Sun is seen blocking different constellations in the course of a year - CORRECT
ANSWER- ✔✔e
We now know that the orbit of a stable planet around a star like the Sun is always in the shape
of
a) a circle
b) an ellipse
c) a parabola
d) none of these; orbits are always random in shape
e) a straight line - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔b
The asteroid belt is
, a) a new fashion accessory being sold by NASA to raise funds for future missions
b) a region of icy chunks of material beyond the orbit of Pluto
c) a zone where rocky chunks orbit between Mars and Jupiter
d) is a region around the Earth from which meteors (shooting stars) are observed to drop
e) a series of orbital zones around the Moon, from which fragments drop down to form
craters - CORRECT ANSWER- ✔✔c
Which of the following statements about the force of gravity is FALSE?
its strength is inversely proportional to the mass: the more mass, the less gravity
it is a universal force, which acts everywhere in space
the force never becomes zero
its strength decreases as the square of the distance
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