An absorption line spectrum, with dark lines crossing the rainbow of the continuum, is
produced by a low-density hot gas.
The parallactic angle is the total shift observed over a six-month interval.
Because of their greater luminosity, RR Lyrae stars can be used at greater distances than
can long-period Cepheids.
Observations in the X-ray portion of the spectrum are routinely done from the surface
of the Earth.
Astronomers have discovered two black holes in the process of merging.
From the beginnings of life on Earth, it took less than a billion years for single-celled
organisms to evolve to multicellular organisms.
It is currently believed that superclusters lie on the surfaces of “bubbles” in space.
While Ganymede and Callisto are about the same size, the surface of Callisto is much
younger, with considerable tectonic reformation.
A typical solar flare lasts only a few days.
Neptune has a larger fraction of methane in its atmosphere than Uranus.
The granules in the photosphere are about as big as Texas, or around 1,000 km across.
The cosmological redshift is not really a velocity at all, but a measure of the expansion
of space-time.
Despite varying masses, all spiral galaxies look essentially the same.
The Miller-Urey experiment sought to recreate conditions in Earth’s early atmosphere.
A planet (or comet) will speed up as it approaches the Sun.
The Virgo Cluster of galaxies is smaller than the Local Group.
Changing the electric field will have no effect on the magnetic fields of a body.
The carbon in your DNA was fused in the first few minutes of the Big Bang.
In the cosmological principle, we can easily test cosmic homogeneity with the red shift
surveys, but isotropy cannot be so tested.
Greenhouse gases in our atmosphere trap just enough heat to keep the Earth’s oceans
liquid.
Io’s surface volcanism is driven by phase changes of sulfur and its compounds.
The masses of most spiral galaxies, like ours, are a few billion solar masses.
Two sets of rings around Jovian planets were found by Earth-based observers, while
two others were first imaged by the Voyagers.
The Zeeman effect reveals the presence of strong magnetic fields by the splitting of
spectral lines.
White dwarfs lie on the lower left portion of the H-R diagram.
According to Newton’s third law, when the Voyager probes passed Jupiter in 1979, they
exerted exactly the same force on Jupiter as the giant planet did on them.
Due to the first strong commercial radio stations, our radio presence has now extended
out to approximately 70 light years.
The Milky Way Galaxy is forming about ten stars per month.
Novae are more closely related to Type II than to Type I supernovae.
While gravity is always attractive, electromagnetic forces are always repulsive.
In the future, adaptive optics will greatly enhance the resolution of the Hubble Space
Telescope.
A blue star has a higher surface temperature than a red star.
The F-ring is held in place around Saturn by two shepherd moons.
Galactic collisions are believed to be commonplace.
Increasing the baseline will increase the parallax angle.
There are 3,600 arc seconds in a degree.
The two smallest planets, Mercury and Pluto, have no moons.
The Sun produces energy by fusing hydrogen into helium.
In most places on the seacoast, there are two high and two low tides a day.
A galaxy that was once a quasar is likely to
A) have burned all its fuel by now and be dark.
B) now be a dwarf irregular.
C) have a black hole at its nucleus.
D) still be a quasar.
E) be less than 5 billion years old.
The reason the jovian planets lost very little of their original atmosphere is due to their
A) rapid rotation.
B) strong magnetic fields.
C) ring systems.
D) large mass.
E) many moons.
Which of these stars would be the hottest?
A) A0
B) B0
C) G2
D) K9
E) M10
What natural barrier usually prevents two protons from combining?
A) dark energy
B) gravity
C) electromagnetic repulsion
D) the strong nuclear force
E) the weak nuclear force
The star Wolf 1061 has a parallax of 2.34 arc seconds, while the star Ross 652 has a
parallax of 1.70 arc seconds. What can you correctly conclude?
A) Both stars are outside the Milky Way galaxy.
B) Wolf 1061 must have a larger proper motion than Ross 652.
C) Ross 652 must have a larger proper motion than Wolf 1061.
D) Ross 652 is closer to Earth than Wolf 1061.
E) Wolf 1061 is closer to Earth than Ross 652.
The major players in the discovery of the cosmic microwave background were at
A) Cal Tech and Mt. Palomar.
B) Jet Propulsion Lab and MIT.
C) Bell Labs and Princeton.
D) Kitt Peak and the University of Arizona.
E) Keck telescopes and the University of Hawaii.
At what phase would you expect to find extremely high and low tides?
A) new moon
B) first and third quarter
C) full moon
D) both new and full moons
E) Moon phases do not impact the tides.
At the center of our Galaxy lies
A) an intensely bright visible superstar.
B) a black hole of millions of solar masses.
C) a huge emission nebula.
D) the largest of all globular clusters.
E) a quasar.
In active galaxies, their central engines may be temporarily fed by
A) a sudden surge of star formation.
B) a series of supernovae around the core.
C) the sudden collapse of the core into a supermassive black hole.
D) a close encounter with a neighbor galaxy.
E) the fusion of helium into carbon in their cores.
The first attempt to map the Galaxy via star counts was done by
A) Galileo in 1612.
B) William Herschel in the late eighteenth century.
C) Edward Barnard with long exposure photos about 1900.
D) Harlow Shapley with the RR Lyrae variables in 1920.
E) Edwin Hubble with the new 100″ Mt. Wilson telescope in the 1930s.
What is meant by the “habitable zone”?
A) the zone in which water can be a liquid around the center of the Galaxy
B) the region around each star in which terrestrial planets could have liquid water on
their surfaces
C) the zone in which terrestrial-sized planets could form around each star
D) the region in dense atmospheres like Jupiter’s in which water droplets could form
E) the regions near the poles of Mercury in which liquid water might exist
The Murchison meteorite contained
A) living cells.
B) DNA.
C) 12 amino acids.
D) bacteria.
E) RNA.
Studies from ________ led to the discovery of “dark energy.”
A) Cepheid variables in the Virgo Cluster
B) Type II supernovae in the Large Magellanic Cloud
C) the gravitational lensing by MACHOs
D) the COBE microwave ripples
E) Type I supernovae at very large red shifts
Mapping the intracluster gas is best done with
A) the Arecibo radio dish.
B) the HST with hydrogen alpha light.
C) the Chandra X-ray Observatory in space.
D) the Keck telescope in the infrared.
E) the COBE satellite in microwaves.
As the solar nebula contracts, it
A) flattens out into the ecliptic plane around the Sun’s poles.
B) spins faster due to conservation of angular momentum.
C) cools due to condensation.
D) loses angular momentum.
E) reverses its direction of rotation.
Mercury presents the same side to the Sun
A) every other orbit.
B) all the time, just like our Moon.
C) every 12 hours.
D) every third orbit.
E) twice every orbit.
From the Sun, the distance to the Galactic Center is about
A) 8,000 light years.
B) 8 kpc.
C) 100,000 light years.
D) 225 million light years.
E) 100 billion parsecs.
During the T-Tauri phase of a protostar, it
A) begins a period of reduced activity.
B) expands dramatically.
C) lies on the main sequence.
D) may develop very strong winds.
E) changes its spin direction.
With a Hubble constant of 70 km/sec/Mpc, the critical density would be
A) 1.4 g/cc.
B) 4 x 10-36 g/cc.
C) 9 x 10-27 kg/m3.
D) 6.23 x 10-23 g/mole.
E) 3 x 10-31 g/cc.
Which of these moons has the densest atmosphere?
A) Io
B) Europa
C) Callisto
D) Titan
E) Triton
Why is the energy source for active nuclei like Seyferts thought to be compact?
A) The sources appear to be single stars in photos.
B) Their energy appears to be non-stellar synchrotron radiation.
C) The light can vary over short time intervals.
D) We know the masses of the black holes that lurk there, and can find their radii.
E) They are all strong radio sources, with assigned frequencies by their sizes.
The Crab Nebula and its pulsar were produced by a ________ supernova.
The flattest of all galaxies belong to class
A) S0.
B) E7.
C) SBb.
D) Sc.
E) Irr II.
What are the characteristics of an open cluster of stars?
A) mostly found above and below the galactic plane
B) old age and millions of members
C) a few hundred, mostly main-sequence stars
D) All stars are much more massive than our Sun.
E) All stars are about the same age and luminosity.
In the H-R diagram, what are the two most important types of data plotted?
A) absolute and apparent magnitudes
B) apparent magnitudes and temperatures
C) luminosities and masses
D) sizes and temperatures
E) spectral classes and absolute magnitudes
The Big Bang formed
A) only hydrogen.
B) only helium.
C) hydrogen and helium, but very little else.
D) all elements up to iron.
E) all elements found in nature now.
Compared to optical telescopes, radio telescopes are built large because
A) they’re less expensive to make than optical telescopes.
B) radio waves have very long wavelengths.
C) atmospheric turbulence is more of a problem.
D) radio sources are harder to find.
E) radio waves are absorbed by the atmosphere.
An object more massive than the Sun, but roughly the size of a city, is a
A) black dwarf.
B) white dwarf.
C) brown dwarf.
D) neutron star.
E) red dwarf.
The pregalactic blobs had masses similar to
A) the Earth.
B) the Sun.
C) dwarf galaxies.
D) open clusters of stars.
E) the Milky Way.
Density waves may explain
A) the lack of blue stars in the halo.
B) the random orbits of halo stars.
C) the density of red stars in the bulge.
D) the spiral arm structure of the Galaxy.
E) the large number of open clusters in the halo.
While observing the Sun, you note a large number of sunspots. What can you conclude?
A) The Sun is less luminous than usual.
B) This is a period of low solar activity.
C) Earth’s climate will be unusually cold.
D) The Sun’s rotation is slower than average.
E) There are likely to be an above average number of flares and prominences.
Objects in the Kuiper belt
A) are in random orbits at all inclinations to the ecliptic.
B) lie beyond the orbit of Neptune, and close to the ecliptic.
C) are the sources of long-period comets.
D) are dense, like the iron meteorites.
E) lie beyond the orbit of Neptune and perpendicular to the ecliptic.
The first spacecraft to land on the surface of an asteroid was named
A) Stardust.
B) Giotto.
C) Galileo.
D) NEAR.
E) Dawn.
What is true of giant and dwarf elliptical galaxies?
A) There are more giants than dwarfs.
B) The dwarfs contain more total mass than the giants.
C) The giants contain more total mass than the dwarfs.
D) They contain more dust than spirals.
E) The giants are mostly blue, the dwarfs are mostly red.
Meteoric material dates the formation of the solar system at about ________ billion
years.
What is the smallest of the Galilean moons? Why is it then the brightest?
The ________ star clusters are younger, and their stars richer in heavier elements
released in supernova events.
No one can hear you scream (or fire a weapon) in space, regardless of the Hollywood
special effects. Explain why.
In general, Globular clusters are ________ and ________ than open clusters.
Globular cluster stars are ________ in heavy elements than those in open clusters.
What is the primary source of erosion on the Moon? Why does change there take so
long?
The only planet with no atmosphere of consequence is ________.
Why are some solar eclipses total, and others annular?
The Moon lacks an atmosphere because its surface gravity is only ________ the Earth’s.
Why do the spectra of stars differ, if they are all chiefly hydrogen and helium?
If Venus’ clouds block much of the sunlight before it reaches the surface, why is the
planet so hot?
Why were Type I supernovae so critical in discovering dark energy?
What is the temperature of the gas in the dark dust clouds, and why is this important to
molecule formation?
What surface region of the Moon is oldest? How do we know this?
Explain the appearance of the Sun’s spectrum, as noted by Fraunhofer.
What evidence is there linking the Crab nebula to a supernova?