- Study guides, Class notes & Summaries

at what location on the earth would the south celestial pole be located on your horizon? Ansequator the meridian passes through all of the following points on the celestial sphere except Ansthe east point on the horizon the distance which is the largest of the following (light year, inch, AU, parsec, km) is the Ansparsec much of the difficulty in studying celestial bodies arises from the large Ansdistances between them over the course of a year, the sun draws out a li...

standard form Ans1300000 Scientific Notation Ans1.3x10^6 Why is light the cosmic speed limit? AnsLight is the fastest possible speed and always travels at the same speed. 1 LY = 1 EY Does the wavelength of light affect its travel speed? Ansno, light always travels at the same speed unless affected by traveling through different mediums. All electromagnetic waves travel at the same speed. What is a Light Year? How long? Ans1 LY = 1 EY, the distance light travels in one...

When light passes through a prism of glass Ansrefraction changes the directions of different colors or wavelengths of light. Thomas Young's experiment on the nature of light Ansdemonstrated the wave nature of light by passing light through two slits and obtaining a pattern of bright and dark bands on a screen that he correctly interpreted as interference between the two light beams. What did James Clerk Maxwell's investigations of the nature of light prove? Anslight cou...

Why do red dwarfs have long stellar lifetimes? AnsThey have low rates of fusion and low luminosities The highest mass star known - at an unstable, tremendous 300 solar masses - is: AnsR136A1 A "low mass" star might have a mass comparable to: Ans1860× the mass of all of our Solar System's planets combined (2.5× the mass of the Sun) Degenerate matter is: AnsHigh density matter propped up by pressure exerted by extremely high velocity subatomic particles, like ...

The point in the sky directly above your head at any given time is called the Anszenith The celestial sphere turns once around each day because Ansthe celestial sphere does not move, is the earth that turns around once each day The south celestial pole and the north celestial pole lie in the sky directly above the Ansnorth and south poles Halfway between the celestial poles lies the AnsThe celestial equator In the Northern Hemisphere, the altitude (height in degrees...

What is the most important reason that astronomers have learned more about our planetary system in the last 30-40 years than all of history before then. AnsWe have been able to send spacecraft to gather information about planets and moons up close. The planet closest to the Sun in the solar system is: AnsMercury Which planet in the solar system has not been examined by spacecraft instruments that have either flown by or orbited them? Ans In the far future, a visiting touri...

8.59 x 10^6 to scientific notation Ans8590000 6.35 x 10^9 to scientific notation Ans Which of the following SI units could be used to measure the ambient temperature? AnsKelvin Convert m to gm 9,780,000,000 m Ans9,780,000,000 x 1 Gm/1,000,000,000 = 9.78Gm When can we say that a number is written in scientific notation? Answhen a number between 1 and 10 is multiplied by a power of 10 Which of the following coordinate system is observer centered? AnsHorizontal...

The Electromagnetic Spectrum AnsVisible light is the particular type of electromagnetic radiation --- to which our eyes happen to be sensitive. There is invisible EM radiation, which goes undetected by our eyes. Ansradio, infrared, ultraviolet, x rays and gamma rays The only characteristic distinguishing one from another is.. Answavelength or frequency. Where do these radiations travel through? AnsAll these radiation travel with the speed of light All these radiatio...

The picture below shows the Hubble Telescope's view of the 4-billion light-year distant Abell 370 cluster (many of the fuzzy, yellowish blobs are light from large elliptical galaxies or the nuclear bulges of spiral galaxies). Throughout the picture, you may notice streaks of light (two of such which are highlighted in yellow boxes in the photograph). What are those semi-circular arcs and streaks of light? AnsThe light of even more distant background galaxies bent and distorted by ...

The helium flash: AnsIs the sudden onset of helium nuclear fusion in the core of a red giant How does the presence of "helium ash" affect a star like the Sun? AnsIt cannot be fused any further without drastic internal changes, forcing fusion to occur in a shell outside of the core Over the next few billion years, the Sun's luminosity will increase steadily as its core is depleted of hydrogen. Taking samples of the Sun's luminosity at different ages (with its curre...