The 3 K background radiation is just the redshifted gamma wavelength radiation of the
decoupling.
All optical telescopes will bring the light from a star to a focus.
As an artificial radio source, the spinning Earth would have a period of about a day.
The ozone layer lies above the troposphere and below the mesosphere.
Eighteen days past new moon, the Moon’s phase is waning gibbous.
A Martian meteorite has revealed carbonate rocks and microfossils.
If the value of H is doubled, it would also double the age of the universe.
The thickness of the Galaxy near the Sun is about 1000 light years.
The absorption lines we find in quasar redshifts that arise from intervening gas clouds
show even larger redshifts than the quasar spectra, due to dust absorption.
The Tully-Fisher relation allows us to determine the distance to the most distant
galaxies.
All neutron stars seen from Earth are pulsars.
We have found Titan’s surface to have perfect living conditions for Earthlike life.
While Voyagers were probes that flew past in a few days, Galileo and Cassini are
orbiters, designed to study Jupiter and Saturn over prolonged periods of time.
Probably the next satellite to get turned into ring debris will be Neptune’s backward
moon, Triton.
A gravitationally bound universe, with omega greater than 1.0, will expand forever.
The broader the spectral line, the higher the pressure of the gas that is creating it.
Uranus was discovered
A) by Galileo.
B) thousands of years ago.
C) with a radio telescope.
D) after examining perturbations in Neptune’s orbit.
E) less than 250 years ago.
Compared to the size of the Sun, stars of all types range from
A) 0.1 to 10 solar radii.
B) 0.5 to 50 solar radii.
C) 0.01 to 1,000 solar radii.
D) 0.08 to 8,000 solar radii.
E) 0.001 to 50,000 solar radii.
The grooves and ridges on Ganymede are thought to
A) be due to crustal tectonics motion (plate tectonics)
B) have formed within the last thousand years.
C) have grown considerably larger since the Voyager spacecraft discovered them.
D) be part of an ongoing volcanic process.
E) be due to the moon’s rapid rotation.
The outward pressure of hot gas in the Sun
A) is balanced by the inward gravitational pressure.
B) is increasing the Sun’s diameter.
C) is cooling the photosphere.
D) is responsible for variations in the sunspot cycle.
E) weakens the magnetic field.
A solar eclipse can only happen during a
A) new moon.
B) solstice.
C) first quarter moon.
D) full moon.
E) perihelion passage of the Sun.
Which is used observationally to determine the age of a star cluster?
A) the total number of main-sequence stars
B) the ratio of giants to supergiants
C) the luminosity of the main-sequence turn-off point
D) the number of white dwarfs
E) the amount of dust that lies around the cluster
The solar winds blow outward from
A) sunspots.
B) flares.
C) the entire photosphere.
D) coronal holes.
E) the Sun’s poles only.
Jupiter’s magnetic field is produced in its rapidly spinning mantle of ________.
The ________ tides occur when there is little tidal variation, near first and third quarter
moons.
How would most planetary scientists classify Pluto? Why was this not done when it was
found in 1930, misleading generations of elementary school children?
The combined ________ of the Local Group binds them together.
The galaxies that reveal their motion through the intergalactic medium are called
________.
Explain how the telescopic discoveries of Galileo could be used in support of
Copernicus.
Why does the surface of Triton appear so young?
Which plates are causing the formation of the Andes mountains in western South
America? Describe their motions.
While we know of thousands of quasars, it is likely none of them still exist today;
explain.
Compared to Jupiter, Saturn’s east-west zonal (band) flow is ________.
Why can radio waves get through the dust clouds, but light is blocked?
According to Hubble’s Law, the larger a galaxy’s redshift, the greater its ________.
Does the universe have an edge or a center?
The atmospheres of both Titan and Triton are mainly ________.
Why does a reflection nebula look blue?
The NEAR spacecraft actually landed on the asteroid ________ in February 2001.
How is the Mars Rover mission different from the Global Surveyor mapping mission?
Using binary galaxies to find their masses assumes that, like double stars, their orbits
obey ________ laws of Planetary Motion.
Why do some radio galaxies appear to have lobes while some do not?