Mini Test

Question 1

Kepler’s first law basically just says a planet’s orbit is an ____ with the sun at a ______

Answer 1

ellipse, focal point

Question 2

what charge was Galileo tried by the Catholic church for?

Answer 2

Hersey

Question 3

what was Hubble’s big moment of discovery that changed astronomy?

Answer 3

that Andromeda was its own galaxy indicating that there were many more galaxies other than us

Question 4

why didn’t Einstein like lemaitres big bang theory?

Answer 4

Einstein believed in eternal universe

Question 5

newton is the “father” of what 2 major academic studies?

Answer 5

physics and calculus

Question 6

why did ancient man start taking interest in astronomy?

Answer 6

to tell time and season

Question 7

if the focal points of an ellipse get further from the center, what happens to eccentricity?

Answer 7

it gets closer to 1; more oval/flat

Question 8

How did Copernicus try to refine Ptolemy’s explanation for the retrograde “loops” of planets?

Answer 8

parallex

Question 9

Moving from perihelion towards aphelion, would a planet be speeding up or slowing down?

Answer 9

slowing down

Question 10

Are the eccentricities of the planets generally closer to 0 or closer to 1?

Answer 10

0

Question 11

Who was the first human to ever see the moon up close and to see the moons of Jupiter?

Answer 11

galileo

Question 12

Who developed the first working mathematical model for gravity that made good predictions of motion?

Answer 12

newton

Question 13

Who came up with the solar system view that was accepted for over a millennium even though it was wrong?

Answer 13

ptolemy

Question 14

Whose personality clashed with Brahe’s to the point that he could not finish his equations until after Brahe had passed away and he was able to “acquire” Brahe’s data?

Answer 14

kepler

Question 15

Who contributed to this history of astronomy by creating an early catalogue of stars and naming many of the stars (with the names we still use today)?

Answer 15

brahe

Question 16

Who proposed that matter was able to curve “space-time” to create the orbits that we currently observe for the planets?

Answer 16

einstein

Question 17

Brahe discovered a supernova in the constellation Cassiopeia. What controversial idea was he able to prove through this discovery?

Answer 17

that stars and everything beyond could be made or moved or born

Question 18

Who was the primary defender of the heliocentric theory of Copernicus?

Answer 18

galileo

Question 19

Who was the first to seriously purpose that the universe created from a singularity in a “big bang”?

Answer 19

lemaitre

Question 20

Who was the first to embrace the idea that the planets, stars, etc. all worked together in a “system”?

Answer 20

aristotle

Question 21

Why was there conflict between Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke?

Answer 21

accused each other of stealing each others work

Question 22

What experiment by Arthur Edington confirmed that Einstein’s relativity might actually be right?

Answer 22

he witnessed a total solar eclipse and saw stars in front of the moon

Question 23

What orbiting bodies tend to have the highest eccentriciy in our solar systen

Answer 23

comets

Question 24

How were the “ancients” able to tell the difference between stars and planets?

Answer 24

only the planets had retrograde motion

Question 25

how do you use keplers 3rd law to figure out the length of time for a planet to go around the sun?

Answer 25

P^2=a^3

Question 26

What major breakthrough in the study of astronomy began around the beginning of the 1960'S?

Answer 26

we started sending people and robots to space

Question 27

Where and what is Stonehenge?

Answer 27

ancient stone calendars in england

Question 28

What was the first planet to actually be "discovered"?

Answer 28

uranus

Question 29

Why does Saturn appear to move more slowly across the sky than Mars over a long period of time?

Answer 29

because mars is closer than saturn

Question 30

Why did humans start looking up and studying the sky in the first place?

Answer 30

to tell time and season

Question 31

How do Newton's explanation of gravity and Einstein's explanation gravity differ from each other?

Answer 31

newton - explained as a force between 2 objects einstein - explained as a curve in space itself

Question 32

When using Kepler's 2nd law to "sweep out" an area over time, why does the wedge shape that is nearer to the sun look different from the wedge shape furthest from the sun?

Answer 32

the time was the same but they were different distances so it gets faster towards time sun

Question 33

Why did Lemaitre have a hard time finding support for his theory at first?

Answer 33

his religion, he was a priest

Question 34

What important contribution did the ancient Egyptians and Greeks leave us?

Answer 34

size and shape of earth

Question 35

At what time of year is the earth at perihelion?

Answer 35

january

Question 36

The "perihelion" distance plus the "aphelion" distance matches what other measurement?

Answer 36

major axis

Question 37

Eccentricity equaled "c divided by a". What is c, and what is a?

Answer 37

c - focal point to center a - semi major axis

Question 38

The difference between Aristotle's model and Ptolemy's is that Ptolemy accounted for what?

Answer 38

retrograde motion

Question 39

Other than his planetary model, what other major contribution to Ptolemy contribute to astronomy?

Answer 39

named majority of constellations

Question 40

The apparent motion of the planets due to our own motion is known as _____

Answer 40

parallex

Question 41

"the ancients"

Answer 41

- Eratosthenes: determined size/shape of earth - Learned how to tell time using the sky - Named the “wandering” stars the “planets”

Question 42

aristotle

Answer 42

- Developed the first model of a “solar system” - Consisted of spherical shells for each body

Question 43

ptolemy

Answer 43

- His model explained the motion of planets through “epicycles” which stood for 1,500 yrs. - Named the northern constellations

Question 44

Arabic and Chinese astronomers

Answer 44

- Named the stars and recorded events such as eclipses, comets, and supernovae - Begun to challenge geocentric models

Question 45

copernicus

Answer 45

- Developed the first real heliocentric model - Explained retrograde motion with parallax

Question 46

brahe

Answer 46

- Compiled a massive amount of data on the positions of stars and planets over years - Improved parallax measurements

Question 47

kepler

Answer 47

- Developed three laws of planetary motion - Proved that planets orbit in ellipses

Question 48

galileo

Answer 48

- First to use refracting telescope for astronomy - Discovered moons of Jupiter and rings of Saturn - Tried by the church for defending Copernicus

Question 49

newton

Answer 49

- Used the reflecting telescope for astronomy - Explained gravity mathematically - Laid down the laws of physics in “The Principia”

Question 50

einstein

Answer 50

- Explained gravity through “space-time” - Developed general and special relativity

Question 51

hubble

Answer 51

- Learned the universe was much bigger than was originally thought and that it is expanding - Found expansion is accelerating

Question 52

lamaitre

Answer 52

- Priest who proposed that the universe had a moment of “creation”; that it is not eternal - Peers referred to his ideas as “The Big Bang”

Question 53

space exploration

Answer 53

- Launching people, telescopes, probes and rovers has exponentially increased our knowledge of the universe

Question 54

history of astronomy in order

Answer 54

1. the ancients 2. aristotle 3. ptolemy 4. Arabic and Chinese astronomers 5. copernicus 6. brahe 7. kepler 8. galileo 9. newton 10. einstein 11. hubble 12. lamaitre 13. space exploration