Astr 1010 - Study guides, Class notes & Summaries

Astronomy 1010 Final HW One of the most important earlier steps in understanding stars was to group them into classes called spectral types that could offer clues as to why they are different from one another. Shown here are spectra of some main-sequence stars. Before stars were very well understood, they were classified into an order that was based on the relative strength of hydrogen absorption lines, marked by arrows the image shown. Look at the spectra for stars of different spectral ...

If you lined up __________ Earths side-by-side, they would fit across the diameter of the Sun. The volume of the Sun is about ____________ times larger than the volume of the Earth. correct answers 109 / 1,300,000 Place the following chemical elements into the correct order of their abundance (frequency of occurrence) in the Sun carbon / helium / hydrogen / iron / neon / oxygen / sulfur correct answers Most abundant = hydrogen // helium // oxygen // carbon // neon // iron // sulfur = least fr...

Astronomy correct answers Patterns among the stars Sun correct answers - An ordinary, middle-aged star, more massive and luminous than some stars but less massive and luminous than others - Only extraordinary because of its importance to us within our solar system Solar System correct answers - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune - Also contains smaller bodies, such as dwarf planets, asteriods, and comets Milky Way Galaxy correct answers - A flattened col...

What is the Earth-Sun distance compared to the Earth-Moon distance? correct answers 400x What is the speed of light? correct answers 300,000 km/s What is a light-year? correct answers The distance light travels in one year How long does it take light to travel around the Earth? correct answers 1/7 of a second How long does it take light to travel from the Sun to Earth? correct answers 8 minutes How far are we from the nearest star? correct answers ~4 light years Radius of obser...

Implications of how the Solar System may have formed correct answers -All planets orbit the Sun in a roughly flat plane -The orbits of the outer planets (those most distant from the Sun) are spaced farther apart from one another than the orbits of the inner planets -All planets orbit the Sun in the same direction -The closest planets to the Sun are much smaller than the planets that are farther away what is the most likely scenario for the formation of the Solar System correct answers A cl...

If the Sun suddenly exploded, how soon after the explosion would we know about it? correct answers a little more than 8 minutes If a star exploded in the Andromeda Galaxy, how long would it take that information to reach Earth? correct answers 2.5 million years Explain how the word theory is used differently in the context of science than in common everyday language. correct answers -in common language, theory is a type of guess about how things work that is not based on facts or observati...

8 minutes correct answers HW Question: If the Sun suddenly exploded, how soon after the explosion would we know about it? two million years correct answers HW Question: If a star exploded in the Andromeda Galaxy, how long would it take that information to reach Earth? In everyday language, a theory is a guess about how something works. In science, a theory is a well-developed and tested idea about how nature works. correct answers HW Question: Explain how the word theory is used d...

Why is the sky blue? correct answers the air scatters blue light from the Sun What color is the sky on the Moon or the planet Mercury, where there is no air at all? correct answers black Why do the Sun and Moon look redder when they are closer to the horizon (that is, "why are sunsets red")? correct answers their light is passing through more air, so all the colors except for orange and red are scattered away from the direct line of sight to the Sun (or Moon) Why aren't the stars up ...

The Andromeda Galaxy is faintly visible to the naked eye. When you look at the Andromeda Galaxy, the retina of your eye is absorbing light that has traveled through space for ______ to reach you. correct answers about 2 ½ million years Suppose that someone in the Andromeda galaxy had a super-telescope through which they were looking at Earth right now. They would see Earth ______. correct answers as it was about 2 ½ million years ago The key discovery that led to the idea of the Big Bang...