PES 105 General Astronomy I – Final Exam Study Guide
The final will be comprehensive.
About 3/4 will be questions drawn from previous exams (Chapters 1-10).
The remaining 1/4 will be from Chapter 11 and the lectures about the sun
Chapter 11 – The Sun
How many Earths would fit across the face of the sun?
What elements are involved in the fusion process inside the sun?
How hot and what color is the sun’s surface?
What element is the sun mostly made of?
What are the convection zones and radiative zones?
On which part of the sun are sunspots found?
About how large are the granules on the photosphere? About how long are the spikules in the chromosphere?
When can we see the corona with the naked eye?
What causes sunspots?
About how hot and dense is the sun’s core?
What are of solar flares, or Coronal Mass Ejections, and what causes them?
What is the term for the balance between gravity and radiation pressure within the sun?
Which particles from nuclear fusion can easily fly through light-years of lead?
Sunspots almost always appear in pairs.
About how long is the short period solar cycle of sunspots?
What was the period of low sunspot count from 1645 to 1715 (coinciding with abnormally cold winters in the U.S.
and Europe) called?
What causes the high temperatures in the corona?
What is the term for the total energy output of the sun (or any star)?
What is the ultimate fate of the sun when its fuel runs out?
R. Gist