Download Saint Mary`s College ASTRONOMY EXAM -

Saint Mary's College
ASTRONOMY EXAM -- #1
STUDY GUIDE
01. What causes the daily rising in the east and setting in the west of the
sun,moon, planets and stars?
02. What is the local meridian? The Prime Meridian? Cardinal Points?
03. What is the altitude of Polaris as seen from SMC in Moraga?
04. Which direction does the zenith lie in?
05. What is the ecliptic? Zodiacal Constellations?
06. When is the Vernal Equinox?
How does it occur?
07. What is the the summer solstice?
describing it? How?
Would the Meridian Plinth be useful in
08. How is the date of Easter is determined?
09. What is a light year?
10. If Dr. ObiRon were to point his awesome laserpointer to the nearest
star, how long would it take the light to get there?
11. What is an Astronomical Unit?
12. How does an eclipse of the Sun occur?
Of the Moon?
13. According to Kepler's Second Law, when is an object in an elliptical
orbit around the Sun is travelling fastest or slowest?
14. What kind of model of the solar system was devised by Claudius
Ptolemy? Copernicus?
15.
What did Galileo's early observations of the sky with his newlyconstructed telescope include?
16.
What are the constellations?
17. How are names of the brightest star in a constellation called? (Stellar
Nomenclature)
18. The "Queen's Chamber" in the great pyramid of Cheops at Giza is said to
point to what location?
19. Along with rotating on its axis and revolving about the sun, what else
does the the Earth do?
20. How would you eliminate the seasons on earth?
21. Why do we see different stars in the summer than we do in the winter?
22. Why is the shape of the Big Dipper as seen from earth gradually
changing?
23. The apparent enlargement of the rising Moon is caused by what
phenomenon?
24. What is the word ``planet" is derived from?
25. What are acceptable orbital paths for a body gravitationally bound to
the Sun?
26. What proportion does the Sun have of the solar system's properties?
(Size, Mass, etc.)
27. List the solar system's members according to their
distance from the sun? Keywords: Segregation & Chemical Differentiation.
28. Arrange the members of the solar system according to their mass?
29. Which planets have the greatest and least mean density, size , mass, and
distance from the Sun, respectively?
30. Once the basic planet building process was complete in the solar system,
what happened to left-over planetesimals? Hint: What do planetary surfaces
look like and what do they have in common?
31. What do you call the process by which heavier materials sank into
the centers of terrestrial planets while lighter material rose to the
surface early in the history of these planets?
32. Which processes play a role in the development of a planet?
33. Which planet has a surface that most resembles the surface of our moon?
34. What is the Titius-Bode law of planetary distances and how does it
relate to the harmony we see in the world?
35. What characterized the early phases of planetary formation into
protoplanets? (hint: what do planetary surfaces have in common?)
36. Where does most of our knowledge of the structure of the earth's
interior come from?
37. Why is the surface of Venus is hotter than we might have expected?
38. What important factors determine a planet's ability to hold an
atmosphere?
39. What are the main characteristic of terrestrial
planets?
40. How are planetary atmospheres formed?
41. What are the polar caps on Mars made of?
42. What is Jupiter's Great Red Spot?
43. What are the
characteristics of the outer, or Jovian planets?
44. Which moons in the solar system do we know have an atmosphere?
45. Why is
Uranus so peculiar?
46. What are the ``spokes'' observed in the rings of Saturn?
47. What do Iron meteorites provide evidence of?
48.
What is the Kuiper Belt? What kind of objects are found there?
49. What is the Oort cloud?
50.
What are meteor showers?
What causes them?