Astronomy Exam Questions With Complete Solutions.

Astronomy Exam Questions With Complete Solutions. 1) What causes the apparent retrograde motion of the planets? a. When planets are farther from the sun they move slower than when they are nearer the sun; it is during this slower period that they appear to move backwards. b. The other planets never really appear to move backward; the background stars shift due to the Earth's revolution around the Sun c. As the Earth passes another planet, the other planet appears to move backwards with respect to the background stars, but the planet's motion does not really change d. Apparent retrograde motion is an illusion created by turbulence in the earth's atmosphere e. As the Earth passes another planet its gravitational pull slows down the other planet so that it appears to be traveling backward. C 2) Where on Earth can you observe all the stars in the sky over an entire year? a. Tropic of Cancer b. North Pole c. Equator d. Arctic Circle e. Everyone on earth can see the whole celestial sphere of the course of a year. C 3) A Point on the Earth's equator moves 1000 mph. A woman jumps straight up and lands at the same spot. Aristotle claims this shows the Earth is not moving, but Newton would explain a. Gravitational force decreases as distance squared b. An object in motion remains in motion c. Force equals mass time acceleration d. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction e. Aristotle is right B 4) Why is it summer in the Northern Hemisphere when it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere? a. The Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun and receives more direct sunlight b. The Northern Hemisphere is "on top" of Earth and there fore receives more sunlight. c. the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun and receives more indirect sunlight. d. The Northern Hemisphere is closer to the Sun than Southern Hemisphere A 5) Aristotle concluded that the Earth was spherical from the curvature of its shadow on the a. Moon during a lunar eclipse b. Earth during a solar eclipse c. Sun during a solar eclipse d. Earth during a lunar eclipse e. moon during a solar eclipse A 6) A star's position is shown 4 times in the figure below, starting at 6 pm. At what time will the star be located high in the northeastern sky? a. 10:00 am b. 2:00 am c. 8:00 am d. 9:00 pm e. 2:00 pm B 7) In order to measure the size of the Earth, based on the difference in direction to the sun from two different sites in Egypt, Eratosthenes First had to know that the a. stars do not show any parallax b. Earth is spherical c. Sun is much bigger than the Moon d. Sun is much closer to use than the stars are e. Moon moves around the Earth B 8) Using a telescope, Galileo discovered which of the following? a. retrograde motion b. the phases of Venus c. the planet Uranus d. stellar parallax e. All of the above B 9) Kepler's Third Law states that the square of the orbital period of a planet is proportional to a. the reciprocal of its orbital semimajor axis b. its mass squared c. its orbital semimajor axis d. its orbital semimajor axis cubed e. its density squared D