30 Quiz Questions on Astronomy

Astronomy Quiz 1 (chaps 1 & 2) Name________________

1.What unit of measurement do Astronomers use to measure distances specifically within solar systems?

2. What force is holding us down on the surface of the earth?______

3. How old is the universe now believed to be? _______

4. What force holds a constellation together? _________

5. When we say that the Earths spin axis precesses, like a toy gyroscope does. What does that mean for the “north Star”?

6. A light year is a measure of what? __________

7. Earth spins on it axis once in _________hours and revolves around the sun in _______days

8. How many major planets does our solar system have ? ___________

9. In all our present spaceships we ride inside a metal body, but for spaceship Earth we ride on ____________________

10. What causes Earth to have seasons?

11. How does a solar eclipse come about?

12. Why did Pluto get demoted - give 3 reasons ?

13. Standing on the south pole and watching the stars throughout a night - what patterns in the sky would they trace out ?

14. Standing on the equator and watching the stars throughout a night - what patterns in the sky would they trace out ?

15. Why is it, that it only seems, like the sun rises in the East, and moves across the sky to the west ?

16. Why isn't each full moon an eclipse?

17. What measuring technique do we use know the age of the materials making up the Earth? ______________

18. If you can spot the Andromeda galaxy in your telescope tonite , how long ago are you now seeing it?

19. What makes a star shine?

20. Planetary retrograde motion(fig 2.32) proved what, about the model of an Earth centered solar system?