Astronomy: A Beginner's Guide to the Universe 7th Edition

How do bipolar jets relate to lobe radio galaxies? Answer: The dual lobes of radio emission lie above and below the disk of galaxies like Centaurus A, suggesting that strong magnetic fields, responsible for the synchrotron radiation, also focus these jets into streams of expanding, cooling gas that creates the

The ________ Space Telescope still gives us the highest resolution optical images. Answer: Hubble Answer: Hubble Answer: Hubble Why is the light from near a black hole red shifted? Answer: The gravity is great enough to decrease the energy of the escaping photons and thus increase their observed wavelength. Answer: The gravity is great

What are two differences observed between Type I and Type II supernovae? Answer: Type I supernovae have very little hydrogen and their light curve drops off gradually but steadily. A Type II supernova is hydrogen rich and its light curve has a distinctive plateau where the luminosity remains constant for

Mercury, Venus, and Earth have similar densities. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE The surface of Io looks most like the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean of Earth. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE In blackbody radiation, the energy is radiated uniformly in every region of the spectrum, so the radiating body appears black in

A neutron star ________ rapidly. Answer: rotates Answer: rotates Answer: rotates The distribution of stars in the Galactic Bulge reminds us of the distribution of objects in the solar system's ________ Belt beyond Neptune. Answer: Kuiper Answer: Kuiper Answer: Kuiper The complete spectral classification of our Sun is ________. Answer: G2V Answer: G2V Answer: G2V The Galactic Disk has

All Type II supernovae produce neutron stars when they collapse. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Our Sun will never become hot enough for carbon nuclei to fuse. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Venus' rotation period is longer than its period of revolution around the Sun. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE A carbon-detonation supernova starts out as

Generally, the densest parts of the interstellar medium are the ________. Answer: dark dust clouds. Answer: dark dust clouds. Answer: dark dust clouds. Weather always occurs in the lowest layer of the atmosphere, the ________. Answer: troposphere Answer: troposphere Answer: troposphere How does a star's luminosity relate to its radius and surface temperature? Answer: As either

The nova event is created by the helium flash. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Many astronomers now regard Pluto as just one of the largest of the thousands of Kuiper Belt bodies found beyond Neptune. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE The lunar mare are younger than any of the craters that sit in them.

Differential rotation is when a planet's equatorial and polar regions rotate at different rates. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE There is a superforce that separates into the electromagnetic, weak, and strong nuclear forces below a critical temperature. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Stars do not twinkle; the instability of the atmosphere causes this effect.

Why is the atmospheric pressure at the surface of Venus so much higher than Earth's? Answer: The atmosphere is much more massive than Earth's and extends to a much greater height above the surface. Answer: The atmosphere is much more massive than Earth's and extends to a much greater height above

Pluto has only a single moon, Charon. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Triton and Pluto both probably originated in the Kuiper Belt. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Without the strong nuclear force, the universe would be made only of hydrogen. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Methane drives the weather of Titan, for there it can be

Supergiant stars are burning different fuels in several shells around the core. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE If the value of H has not changed since the Big Bang, then H = 70 km/s/Mpc will give a Hubble Time of about 14 billion years. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE As with stars, binary galaxy pairs

The time interval of 365.242 days is defined as the ________. Answer: tropical year Answer: tropical year Answer: tropical year All ________ planets have rings around their equators Answer: jovian Answer: jovian Answer: jovian The most important greenhouse effect gas in our atmosphere is ________. Answer: carbon dioxide Answer: carbon dioxide Answer: carbon dioxide The most abundant molecule in

The rotation curve of the outer portions of the Galaxy revealed what about its mass? Answer: The outer portions were moving faster than Keplerian motion, so the mass distribution is not like our centrally-focused solar system, but most of the mass lies farther out in vast amounts of dark matter. Answer:

How can prolonged observations of pulsars yield their approximate age? Answer: Unless being fed mass from a companion, the pulsars must eventually slow down as their magnetic fields impart spin energy outward in the form of the observed pulses; if the rate they are slowing down is carefully studied, it

The closed universe is compared to the surface of a ________ in spacetime. Answer: sphere Answer: sphere Answer: sphere Explain how the central engine powers an active nucleus or quasar. Answer: Matter from an accretion disk spirals inward toward the event horizon of the supermassive black hole. This matter accelerates close to the

The 3 K background radiation is just the redshifted gamma wavelength radiation of the decoupling. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE All optical telescopes will bring the light from a star to a focus. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE As an artificial radio source, the spinning Earth would have a period of about a day.

Describe the large-scale structure revealed by the redshift surveys. Answer: The superclusters are separated by huge, apparently empty voids that make up most of the volume of the cosmos. The galaxies lie in a frothy structure, as if made up of many cosmicbubbles, with the galaxies the matter film on

Contrast the speeds of sound and light in watching a flash of lightning, then listening for the thunder to follow. Answer: Light travels at 300,000 km/sec, so the flash of light is almost instantaneous from a few miles away; sound travels at about a fifth of a mile per second,

Will the Sun become a brown dwarf? Explain. Answer: No, our Sun is massive enough to stably fuse hydrogen into helium as a main-sequence star; brown dwarfs can never get that hot. Answer: No, our Sun is massive enough to stably fuse hydrogen into helium as a main-sequence star; brown dwarfs

Of what is the galactic halo composed? Answer: The globular clusters are most obvious component, but the halo also has many loose stars of Population II, escaped from their clusters, and a great deal of dark matter, whose true nature is still uncertain. Answer: The globular clusters are most obvious component,

List the three types of objects a star's core can collapse to, and give the mass limits for each. Answer: White dwarfs are up to 1.4 solar masses, neutron stars from 1.4 up to 3 solar masses, and black holes are over 3 solar masses and have no upper limit. Answer:

All nine planets in the solar system have been visited by spacecraft. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Like our Moon and most others, all four large Jovian satellites have one side constantly fixed toward Jupiter as they revolve and rotate. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE The Schwarzschild radius of a black hole is about

Why are type O, A, and M stars considered poor candidates to find a technological civilization? Answer: Considering the time it took life on Earth to arise, type O and A stars have too short a lifetime to give life a chance to evolve into higher forms. Type M stars

The proton storms in the solar wind travel at almost the speed of light. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE All four jovian planets are made primarily of hydrogen and oxygen. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE When plates collide, they fuse together and come to rest. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE The background hiss that Bell Labs

We believe binary stars to be the ________ likely to have an extraterrestrial civilization. Answer: least Answer: least Answer: least What do we mean by "life as we know it"? Answer: Our life is based on chains of carbon atoms with DNA, RNA, and proteins formed out of amino acids and nucleotides. Life as

Optically mapping the Milky Way is made very difficult because of ________ in the disk. Answer: dust Answer: dust Answer: dust If Sirius transits my local meridian tonight at 6:43 PM, when will it transit tomorrow? Answer: At 6:39 PM tomorrow night, as the Earth spins once in a sidereal day.[/cpmembership] Answer: At 6:39

A featureless spectrum, such as a rainbow, is said to be ________. Answer: continuous Answer: continuous Answer: continuous The terrestrial planets have mantles of ________ materials and iron rich cores. Answer: silicates or rocky Answer: silicates or rocky Answer: silicates or rocky Contrast the observed visible mass of the Galaxy with its suspected total. Explain the

The spherical distribution of the globular clusters in the Halo reminds us of the similar distribution of cometary nuclei in the ________ cloud. Answer: Oort Answer: Oort Answer: Oort In general, as a telescope's diameter increases, its angular resolution ________. Answer: increases or improves. Answer: increases or improves. Answer: increases or improves. In 1998 came the

Which type of reflector telescope would be the easiest to construct, and why? Answer: The prime focus reflector needs only a single optical surface, on the front of the main mirror. Answer: The prime focus reflector needs only a single optical surface, on the front of the main mirror. Answer: The prime

According to Kirchhoff's first law why do dense, hot bodies create the type of spectrum they do? Answer: Kirchhoff's first law states that a dense, hot medium emits light of all wavelengths, creating a continuous spectrum. Answer: Kirchhoff's first law states that a dense, hot medium emits light of all wavelengths,

What three classes of stars are most likely to house life like ours? Why? Answer: F, G, and K are all similar enough to our Sun to have long life spans on the main sequence,and also hot enough to have fairly wide "habitable zones." Answer: F, G, and K are all

Jupiter and the Sun have almost the same composition and density; why isn't Jupiter also a star? Answer: Jupiter does not have enough mass to generate the 10 million degree central core temperature to sustain the proton-proton chain necessary to become a star.[/cpmembership] Answer: Jupiter does not have enough mass to

The scarps on Mercury are extremely similar to the cratered lunar highlands in appearance. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE The particles in Saturn's E ring probably come from volcanic eruptions on Enceladus. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Like the RR Lyrae stars, Cepheids are all similar in luminosity, hence their use in measuring stellar

An absorption line spectrum, with dark lines crossing the rainbow of the continuum, is produced by a low-density hot gas. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE The parallactic angle is the total shift observed over a six-month interval. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Because of their greater luminosity, RR Lyrae stars can be used at

Why was the separation of the superforce into three forces so important? Answer: The pressure release created the inflationary epoch, when the universe expanded by a factor of 1050 times, solving the horizon problem. Answer: The pressure release created the inflationary epoch, when the universe expanded by a factor of 1050

The ________ tides have a large change from high to low, near new and full moons. Answer: spring Answer: spring Answer: spring Contrast the rotation rates of the jovian planets with the terrestrial planets. Answer: All four jovian planets have a much faster rotation rate than any of the Terrestrial planets. Answer: All four

The spectral lines of a star indicate ionized helium is prominent, yet the star appears orange in color. Explain the problem with this and offer an explanation. Answer: Ionized helium is found only in O type stars, which should be blue-white in color; if the star appears orange, it must

Contrast image formation in reflectors and refractors. Answer: Reflectors use a curved mirror to reflect the light back to a focus, while refractors use a convex lens to bend the transmitted light to a focus. Answer: Reflectors use a curved mirror to reflect the light back to a focus, while refractors

If its density suggests its core is similar to ours, why does Venus lack a magnetic field? Answer: Venus' rotation is too slow to drive the dynamo effect that creates the magnetic field Earth has. Answer: Venus' rotation is too slow to drive the dynamo effect that creates the magnetic field

Due to our ozone layer, ultraviolet astronomy must be done from space. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Only high-energy gamma rays can escape the event horizon of a black hole. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Mercury's magnetic field is generated by the same dynamo effect as Earth's. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Neutrinos can move faster

Harvard woman astronomer ________ discovered the period-luminosity relation. Answer: Henrietta Leavitt Answer: Henrietta Leavitt Answer: Henrietta Leavitt Mars appears red due to ________ on its surface. Answer: rust, or iron oxide Answer: rust, or iron oxide Answer: rust, or iron oxide If two observatories on opposite sides of the Earth were to measure the position of

Describe the reasoning leading to the idea that the number of technological civilizations in the galaxy is equal to the average lifetime of a technological civilization. Answer: We know the rate of star formation, about 10 stars per year. Based on observations, we make a reasonable guess that there is one

Most millisecond pulsars are found in ________ star clusters. Answer: globular Answer: globular Answer: globular The primordial nucleosynthesis was sped up by the abundance of ________ in the universe once the temperature dropped below a billion K. Answer: deuterium Answer: deuterium Answer: deuterium Water is one of the most common substances in the universe, and vital

The universe has been expanding at the same rate since its formation. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Although sunspots are cooler areas in the photosphere, when they increase in number that tells us the Sun is becoming more active. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Earth-like planets have been observed outside our solar system orbiting

Fusion depends upon the ________ nuclear force getting the protons to stick together. Answer: strong Answer: strong Answer: strong How can the age of a star cluster be found from its H-R diagram? Answer: The older the cluster is, the farther down the main sequence the turn-off point to the giant stage will

An electron has a ________ electric charge. Answer: negative Answer: negative Answer: negative From a distance of 1 AU, the gravity of a three-solar-mass star is ________ the gravity of a lower-limit stellar black hole. Answer: the same as Answer: the same as Answer: the same as The Moon's spin-orbit resonance shows it is ________ with

Earth is nearly twice as large as Venus. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE The density of white dwarf stars is about a million times that of the Sun. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Venus' surface temperature cools off at night, much like Mercury's does. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Interest in life on Mars has died

Compare and contrast stars on the upper left and lower right of the main sequence. Answer: Stars on the upper left are type O and B. They are hotter, more massive and luminous, havelarger radii, are blue-white or white, and have relatively short lifetimes. The hottest, type O, have lines

The majority of dark matter is normal protons and neutrons. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE All modern large optical telescopes are refractors. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Radio astronomy can only be done from up in space, due to our ionosphere. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Comets are not actually members of the solar system, but

State the cosmological principle. Answer: The universe is both homogeneous and isotropic on the grand scale. Answer: The universe is both homogeneous and isotropic on the grand scale. Answer: The universe is both homogeneous and isotropic on the grand scale. The ________ is the spherical outgassing as a comet nucleus is heated by

The pulses from a pulsar are most likely coming from localized areas near the magnetic poles. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE At the solstices, the Sun's declination will be 23.5 degrees from the equator. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Galaxies are moving away from us and into the vast, empty space of the outer

What satellite revealed the most about cosmology, and why was it so effective? Answer: COBE is the "Cosmic Observer of the Background Energy", and focused on the structure of the microwave cosmic background; its discovery of ripples in 1992 showed how the seeds of galaxies were sown in the early

Supermassive galaxies are found at the core of rich galaxy clusters. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE An infinite universe is a basic assumption of the cosmological principle. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE There is new evidence that water has flowed as mud on Mars in recent times. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Titan's surface has been

How is dust usually observed around young protostars in stages 4-6? Answer: As the nebula contracts, it forms a dusty disk around the protostar's equator; often these areseen in profile with HST images around the protostars. Answer: As the nebula contracts, it forms a dusty disk around the protostar's equator; often

Why might the Cassini-Huygens probe to Titan be considered disappointing to exobiologists? Answer: Titan has a nitrogen atmosphere shrouded with dense hydrocarbon rich clouds, with lakes of liquid hydrocarbons, not unlike the Miller-Urey experiment. So it was thought to be a prime candidate for life as we know it. However,

The helium flash requires a core temperature of ________ K to create carbon. Answer: 100 million Answer: 100 million Answer: 100 million How are sunspots in the northern and southern hemispheres different? Answer: Sunspots always come in pairs, with one being a north pole and the other a south pole. Onesunspot leads the

Hydrogen lines are weak in M class stars because they have much less of it than do A class stars. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE The spectral lines of each element are distinctive to that element, whether we are looking at emission or absorption lines. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE If a star has

If a new wave arrives on shore every two seconds, then its frequency is 2 Hz. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Our Sun will fade in luminosity as its supply of hydrogen drops in a billion years. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Galileo's observations of the entire phase cycle of Venus proved that Ptolemy's

There are ground-based telescopes much larger than Hubble, yet the HST still reveals the faintest objects yet seen. Explain. Answer: In space, HST can operate close to its diffraction limit without the losses due to atmospheric turbulence. This allows it to produce sharper images of fainter objects. Answer: In space, HST

What evidence did probes to Mars find that makes it a prime candidate for life? Answer: Water ice at the poles, photographic evidence of past flowing and standing water, and the rover Opportunity found its landing site was once drenched with water. Answer: Water ice at the poles, photographic evidence of

Changes in the predicted motion of Uranus led to the search for an eighth planet. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Solar mass stars eventually become hot enough for carbon nuclei to fuse together. Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE Answer: FALSE The "Great Wall" is the structure in the Large Magellanic Cloud near where Supernova 1987A occurred.

In the Bohr model of the atom, an electron can only exist in specific, well-defined energy levels. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Like Titan, Triton has a nitrogen atmosphere. Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Answer: TRUE Paradoxically, while the core of the red giant is contracting and heating up, its radiation pressure causes its photosphere to

How do sound and light waves differ? Answer: Sound waves travel much slower, and need a physical medium, such as air, to be transmitted. Light travels best in the vacuum of space. Answer: Sound waves travel much slower, and need a physical medium, such as air, to be transmitted. Light travels