Unit E Space Exploration: Section 3.0

Question 1

What are optical telescopes?

Answer 1

Things that gather and focus light from distant objects

Question 2

What are refracting telescopes?

Answer 2

Refracting telescopes use two lenses to gather and focus starlight. One lens at the end and one on the opposite end the eyepiece.

Question 3

What are reflecting telescopes?

Answer 3

They use mirrors instead of lenses to gather and focus the light from stars. At one end of a reflecting telescope is a large concave mirror, which is made from a glass-like material that is coated with a thin layer of metal. The metal, such as aluminum, is polished to a shiny finish so that it can reflect the faintest light it receives.

Question 4

What happens in a refracting telescope when the mirror is bigger than 1 meter?

Answer 4

It will collapse on itself

Question 5

How do technicians prevent mirrors from warping over themselves?

Answer 5

They make segmented mirrors that are made separately and put into pieces

Question 6

What is interferometry?

Answer 6

When scientists use more than one telescope to create a more detailed image.

Question 7

What is the problem with having telescopes on land?

Answer 7

astronomers are still at the mercy of the weather, Clouds, humidity, and even high winds can interfere

Question 8

What is the Hubble Space Telescope?

Answer 8

A reflecting telescope up in space that can be used to take good quality photos

Question 9

What is electromagnetic energy?

Answer 9

Forms of radiated energy that travel at the speed of light (300 000 km/s), although they have different wavelengths and frequencies than light

Question 10

What is wavelength?

Answer 10

A measurement of the distance from one point on a wave (such as the crest) to the same point on the next wave

Question 11

What is frequency?

Answer 11

Frequency is the number of waves that pass a single point in one second.

Question 12

As the frequency goes up what does the wavelength do?

Answer 12

Goes down

Question 13

What are the most common types of electromagnetic energy in order are there?

Answer 13

• TV/Radio
• Microwave
• Thermal Infrared
• Visible
• Ultraviolet
• X-ray
• Gamma rays

Question 14

What are the visible electromagnetic energys?

Answer 14

• TV/Radio
• Microwave
• Thermal Infrared

Question 15

What are the advantages of radio telescopes?

Answer 15

Radio waves are not affected by weather and can be detected during the day and at night. They are also not distorted by clouds, pollution, or the atmosphere.

Question 16

What is radio interferometry?

Answer 16

Several small radio telescopes can be combined to achieve greater resolving power than one large radio telescope can achieve

Question 17

How can the accuracy of telescopes in interferometry be increased?

Answer 17

By putting them into groups called arrays. The have the pattern of the letter Y

Question 18

What are space probes?

Answer 18

unmanned satellites or remote-controlled “landers” that put equipment on or close to planets where it would be too difficult or dangerous to send humans to.

Question 19

What is triangulation?

Answer 19

Finding out the distance from one point to another by using a scale diagram

Question 20

What is parallax?

Answer 20

The apparent shift in the position of a nearby object when the object is viewed from two different places.

Question 21

What is a spectrometer?

Answer 21

A device that is uses light to see which elements an object is made of.

Question 22

What is the Doppler effect?

Answer 22

The change in pitch of objects as they are in motion. When an object is near you the pitch seems higher because they are compressed. But when you are further away the sound sounds lower because they are more spread out