Exam
Name___________________________________
MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.
1) The time for the Moon to orbit Earth, relative to the stars is
A) 18 years, 11.3 days.
B) 23 hours, 56 minutes.
C) about 7 days.
D) 29.5 days.
E) 27.3 days.
1)
2) The 26,000 year cycle that changes the poles and equinoxes is called
A) a retrograde loop.
B) revolution.
C) the Earth's rotation.
D) regression.
E) precession.
2)
3) If Scorpius is now prominent in the summer sky, in 13,000 years it will be best seen
A) in the spring sky.
B) It will not be visible then at all. All of its stars will have vanished by then.
C) at the same season; the heavens do not change.
D) in the winter sky.
E) in the autumn.
3)
4) The synodic month is
A) the basis of the year we use in our modern calendar.
B) caused by both the Earth's and Moon's rotations.
C) 29.5 days.
D) about two days shorter than the sidereal month.
E) based on the Moon's position relative to the stars.
4)
5) In an annular eclipse,
A) the Sun is totally blocked by the Moon.
B) the Sun appears as a thin, bright ring.
C) the Sun is partially blocked by the Earth.
D) the Moon appears as a thin, bright ring.
E) the Moon is totally blocked by the Earth.
5)
6) The twelve constellations the solar system bodies move through are the
A) signs of the zodiac.
B) equatorial constellations.
C) galactic equator.
D) stages of heaven.
E) nodes of the ecliptic.
6)
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7) If the Moon appears half lit, and is almost overhead about 6:00 AM, its phase is
A) full.
B) waxing crescent.
C) waning crescent.
D) first quarter.
E) third quarter.
7)
8) Drawing on Eratosthenes' method, if two observers are due north and south of each other and are
separated by 400 km, what is the circumference of their spherical world if they see the same star on
their meridian at altitudes of 23 degrees and 47 degrees respectively, and at the exact same time?
A) 6,000 km
B) 2,000 km
C) 8,000 km
D) 12,000 km
E) 4,000 km
8)
9) According to Copernicus, retrograde motion for Venus must occur around
A) quadrature, when the planet is 90 degrees away from the Sun.
B) opposition, when the planet lies opposite the Sun in the sky.
C) inferior conjunction, when it passes between us and the Sun.
D) superior conjunction, when the planet is on the far side of the Sun.
E) greatest elongation, when the planet is farthest from the Sun.
9)
10) According to Copernicus, the retrograde motion for Mars must occur
A) at quadrature, when Mars lies exactly 90 degrees east or west of the Sun.
B) at greatest elongation, when Mars can get up to 47 degrees from the Sun.
C) at opposition, when the Earth overtakes Mars and passes between Mars and the Sun.
D) at inferior conjunction, when Mars laps the Earth and passes between us and the Sun.
E) at superior conjunction, when Mars lies on the far side of the Sun.
10)
11) How much stronger is the gravitational pull of the Sun on Earth, at 1 AU, than it is on Saturn at 10
AU?
A) 25
B) 250
C) 5
D) 100
E) 10
11)
12) A fatal flaw with Ptolemy's model is its inability to predict the observed phases of
A) the Moon in its monthly cycle.
B) Mars and Jupiter.
C) the Sun during an eclipse.
D) Mercury and Venus.
E) Jupiter and Saturn.
12)
13) Tycho Brahe's contribution to Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion were
A) his detailed and accurate observations of the planets' positions.
B) his observations of Jupiter's moons.
C) the correct explanation of lunar phases.
D) a precise lunar calendar.
E) a mathematical explanation of epicycles.
13)
14) Which of these was NOT seen telescopically by Galileo?
A) stellar parallax
B) sunspots
C) Four moons around Jupiter
D) craters and mare on the Moon
E) Venus' phase cycle
14)
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15) The force of gravity varies with the
A) product of the two masses.
B) inverse of the distance separating the two bodies.
C) inverse square of the distance separating the two bodies.
D) Both A and B are correct.
E) Both A and C are correct.
15)
16) Medium A blocks more of a certain wavelength of radiation than medium B. Medium A has a
higher
A) opacity.
B) albedo.
C) seeing.
D) transparency.
E) clarity.
16)
17) Which of these is emitted when an electron falls from a higher to lower orbital?
A) a positron
B) another electron
C) a graviton
D) a photon
E) a neutrino
17)
18) In general, the spectral lines of molecules are
A) more complex than those of atoms.
B) nonexistent.
C) less complex than those of atoms.
D) only absorption lines.
E) the same as the atoms they contain.
18)
19) The speed of light in a vacuum is
A) 768 km/hour.
B) 300,000 km/sec.
C) h = E/c.
D) not given.
E) 186,000 miles per hour.
19)
20) In a hydrogen atom, a transition from the 2nd to the 1st excited state will produce
A) three different emission lines.
B) the bright red Balmer alpha emission line.
C) an ultraviolet spectral line.
D) a dark absorption line.
E) no emission line.
20)
21) If a source of light is approaching us at 3,000 km/sec, then all its waves are
A) blue shifted by 1%.
B) red shifted by 1%.
C) red shifted out of the visible into the infrared.
D) not affected, as c is constant regardless of the direction of motion.
E) blue shifted out of the visible spectrum into the ultraviolet.
21)
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22) The Sun's observed spectrum is
A) a continuum with emission lines.
B) a continuum with absorption lines.
C) a continuum with no lines, as shown by the rainbow.
D) only absorption lines on a black background.
E) only emission lines on a black background.
22)
23) What is the light-gathering power of an 8 inch telescope compared to a 4 inch telescope?
A) 16 times better
B) 8 times better
C) 32 times better
D) 2 times better
E) 4 times better
23)
24) In astronomy, an interferometer can be used to
A) improve the angular resolution of radio telescopes.
B) decrease the effects of light pollution in getting darker sky backgrounds.
C) speed up the processing of CCD images.
D) yield better seeing conditions with optical telescopes.
E) increase the sensitivity of infrared telescopes to longer wavelengths.
24)
25) What is true of radio telescopes?
A) They are the smallest, most compact telescopes.
B) They are most sensitive to the opacity of the ozone layer.
C) They have better angular resolution than a reflector.
D) They have poorer angular resolution than a refractor of the same size.
E) They can only be used above the atmosphere.
25)
26) The angular resolution of an 8 inch diameter telescope is ________ times greater than that of a 2
inch diameter telescope.
A) 16
B) 2
C) 4
D) 8
E) 9
26)
27) Green light has a shorter wavelength than orange light. In a 5 inch telescope, green light will
A) allow dimmer stars to be observed.
B) reduce the effects of atmospheric turbulence.
C) provide better angular resolution than orange light.
D) provide worse angular resolution than orange light.
E) come to the same exact focus as orange light.
27)
28) A major advantage of a Newtonian reflector over a refractor is
A) the central hole in the mirror is smaller.
B) the elimination of chromatic aberration.
C) there are only two lenses to grind.
D) its compact size.
E) the elimination of the secondary mirror.
28)
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29) What is true about solar system densities?
A) Planetary density increases with increasing distance from the Sun.
B) The denser planets lie closer to the Sun.
C) In differentiated bodies, the denser materials lie near their surfaces.
D) Saturn has the same density as water.
E) The asteroids all have about the same density.
29)
30) Long-period comets are believed to originally come from
A) the Oort cloud.
B) the asteroid belt.
C) the satellite system of Jupiter.
D) the interstellar medium.
E) the Kuiper belt.
30)
31) The first spacecraft to land on the surface of an asteroid was named
A) Stardust.
B) Giotto.
C) NEAR.
D) Dawn.
E) Galileo.
31)
32) A meteorite is
A) a chunk of space debris that has struck the ground.
B) a streak of light in the atmosphere.
C) a chunk of space debris orbiting the Earth.
D) an irregularly shaped body, mostly found orbiting between Mars and Jupiter.
E) an icy body with a long tail extending from it.
32)
33) The Manicouagan reservoir near Quebec is an example of
A) Earth's interaction with a comet's dust tail.
B) a micrometeorite impact.
C) cometary debris.
D) a large meteorite impact.
E) a volcanic event.
33)
34) Which of the following are the jovian planets?
A) Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune only
B) everything past Mars and the asteroid belt
C) only Jupiter
D) only Jupiter and Saturn
E) Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto
34)
35) We determine the structure of the Earth's core using
A) magnetic resonance imaging.
B) radar and sonar.
C) deep mine shafts.
D) seismic wave data.
E) satellite imaging.
35)
36) The region in which charged particles are trapped by our magnetic fields is the
A) Aurora.
B) exosphere.
C) Van Allen radiation belt.
D) ionosphere.
E) ozone layers.
36)
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37) In what part of our atmosphere do we live?
A) stratosphere
B) troposphere
C) exosphere
D) mesosphere
E) ionosphere
37)
38) The Moon's near side always faces Earth due to
A) Earth's magnetic field.
B) the Sun's gravity.
C) Earth's tidal force.
D) conservation of angular momentum in the solar nebula.
E) the solar wind.
38)
39) Which of the following layers of the Earth is unique among the terrestrial planets?
A) hydrosphere
B) crust
C) mantle
D) ionosphere
E) core
39)
40) After the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) crashed into the moon, its sister spacecraft LCROSS
detected an amount of water in the ejecta
A) less than is contained in desert sand on Earth.
B) comparable to fertile soil on Earth.
C) comparable to dried-up lake beds on Earth.
D) comparable to soggy ground on Earth.
E) Actually, no water was detected at all.
40)
41) How does Mercury's rotation relate to the Sun?
A) It always keeps one face tidally locked toward the Sun, as our Moon does with us.
B) Its year is much shorter, only 88 days, than its slow rotation of 243 days on its axis.
C) Its day is the same length as its year.
D) Its rotation rate is 2/3 as long as its year, due to tidal resonances.
E) It does not spin at all, being tidal stopped by the solar tides.
41)
42) Venus' rotation on its axis
A) is clockwise, unlike most other solar system objects.
B) prevents us from seeing all of its surface features.
C) is the fastest of the terrestrial planets.
D) shows it is tidally locked in its orbit around the Sun.
E) is highly tilted to its orbital plane, causing large seasonal changes.
42)
43) Much of the water on Mars
A) is locked in the seasonal ice cap.
B) is in the form of clouds.
C) is thought to be in a layer of permafrost just below the surface.
D) lies in shallow pools near the poles.
E) is found in deep pools near the equator.
43)
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44) Which of these gets so bright as to be seen in daylight at times?
A) Saturn
B) Mercury
C) Jupiter
D) Venus
E) Mars
44)
45) The name of the NASA mission(s) that landed on Mars in 1976 was
A) Magellan.
B) Venera 14.
C) Galileo.
D) Viking I and II.
E) Voyager.
45)
46) Studying the magnetospheres of the jovian planets has allowed us to measure their
A) interior rotation rates.
B) gravity.
C) orbital periods.
D) ring system diameters.
E) orbital radius.
46)
47) Cometary impacts with Jupiter
A) are extremely rare.
B) have been observed from Earth at least twice.
C) are spectacular but do not teach us much.
D) are impossible to observe from Earth.
E) would not be catastrophic if they happened on Earth.
47)
48) The planet whose pole was facing the Sun when Voyager 2 approached in 1986 was
A) Mars.
B) Uranus.
C) Neptune.
D) Jupiter.
E) Saturn.
48)
49) The magnetic field tilts of which two bodies are the most unusual?
A) Mercury and Earth
B) Saturn and Pluto
C) Mars and Saturn
D) Jupiter and Saturn
E) Uranus and Neptune
49)
50) Which two jovian planets have magnetic field tilts that are not along their rotation poles?
A) Saturn and Neptune
B) Jupiter and Uranus
C) Jupiter and Saturn
D) Uranus and Neptune
E) All jovian planets have magnetic fields close to their rotational axes.
50)
51) Which Jovian moon shows the most diverse terrain, suggesting a violent impact broke it into many
pieces, some of which reformed it as a jumbled puzzle?
A) Miranda
B) Ganymede
C) Triton
D) Enceladus
E) Io
51)
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52) Charon's orbit
A) is retrograde.
B) is perpendicular to Pluto's equator.
C) lies exactly in Pluto's orbital plane.
D) has not been determined yet.
E) is highly inclined to Pluto's orbital plane.
52)
53) Pluto's density is most similar to
A) the moons of the jovian planets.
B) the jovian planets.
C) Saturn, but not Jupiter, Uranus, or Neptune.
D) the terrestrial planets.
E) Mercury, but not Venus, Earth, or Mars.
53)
54) Which are the four Galilean moons of Jupiter?
A) Io, Ganymede, Callisto, and Titan
B) Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto
C) Io, Titan, Triton, and Charon
D) Europa, Titan, Ganymede, and Callisto
E) Europa, Ganymede, Io, and Triton
54)
55) A moon with a smooth, uncratered surface would imply
A) the moon lies within the planet's Roche Limit.
B) the surface is very young.
C) a strong magnetic field surrounds the moon.
D) meteorites have never struck the moon.
E) the surface is completely liquid.
55)
56) Sunspots are dark splotches on the Sun. Which statement is true?
A) They are associated with areas of very low magnetic fields.
B) They are solid bodies floating on the surface of the Sun.
C) They are extremely hot, but cooler than the surrounding areas of the Sun.
D) They are hotter than the surrounding areas of the Sun.
E) They are extremely cold objects, as cold as Pluto.
56)
57) As the Sun rotates, an individual sunspot can be tracked across its face. From eastern to western
limb, this takes about
A) a month.
B) 5.5 years.
C) 12 hours.
D) two weeks.
E) a week.
57)
58) What natural barrier usually prevents two protons from combining?
A) gravity
B) dark energy
C) electromagnetic repulsion
D) the strong nuclear force
E) the weak nuclear force
58)
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59) The speed of light is 3.00 × 108 m/s. If 2.00 kg of mass is converted to energy, how much energy will
be produced?
A) 9.00 × 1016 J
B) 6.00 × 108 J
C) 1.80 × 1017 J
D) 1.50 × 108 J
E) 6.00 × 104 J
59)
60) Which is the net result of the proton-proton chain?
A) 2 protons deuterium + a positron + an antineutrino + X-rays
B) 4 protons 1 helium 4 + a positron + a neutrino + gamma rays
C) 6 protons 2 helium 4 + 3 positrons + 3 neutrinos + gamma rays
D) 4 protons 1 helium 4 + 2 neutrinos + gamma rays
E) 4 protons 2 helium 2 + 2 positrons + ultraviolet radiation
60)
61) The star's color index is a quick way of determining its
A) density.
B) mass.
C) luminosity.
D) temperature.
E) composition.
61)
62) On the H-R diagram, the bright blue stars that dominate the naked-eye sky lie
A) at the top left.
B) in the middle of the main sequence.
C) at the lower left.
D) at the top right.
E) at the lower right.
62)
63) The full Moon's apparent magnitude is
A) +12.7.
B) +4.83.
63)
C) -1.4.
D) -12.5.
E) -26.2.
64) The Doppler shift is used to find
A) spectroscopic binaries.
B) visual binaries.
C) eclipsing binaries.
D) astrometric binaries.
E) photometric binaries.
64)
65) A cloud fragment too small to collapse into a main sequence star becomes a
A) planet of another star.
B) brown dwarf.
C) pulsar.
D) white dwarf.
E) T-Tauri object.
65)
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66) The single most important determinant of the temperature, density, radius, luminosity, and pace of
evolution of a protostar is its
A) spin.
B) chemical composition.
C) molecular composition.
D) magnetic field.
E) mass.
66)
67) What happens to light passing through even thin clouds of dust?
A) Even a little can completely block all light, such as the Horsehead Nebula.
B) The light that passes through them is blue shifted due to the cloud's approach.
C) Its motion causes all light to be red shifted as it passes through these clouds.
D) It dims and reddens the light of all more distant stars.
E) Its motion causes the light of stars beyond to twinkle.
67)
68) A newly formed protostar will radiate primarily at which wavelength?
A) ultraviolet
B) infrared
C) visible light
D) radio
E) X-ray
68)
69) A star (no matter what its mass) spends most of its life
A) as a protostar.
B) as a red giant or supergiant.
C) as a main-sequence star.
D) as a T-Tauri variable star.
E) as a planetary nebula.
69)
70) Can a star become a red giant more than once?
A) yes, before and after the helium flash
B) no, or we would see them as the majority of naked-eye stars
C) yes, before and after the Type II supernova event
D) no, the planetary nebula blows off all the outer shells completely
E) no, it will lose so much mass as to cross the Chandrasekhar Limit
70)
71) During the hydrogen shell burning phase
A) the star becomes less luminous.
B) the core is expanding.
C) the star grows more luminous.
D) hydrogen is burning in the central core.
E) helium is burning in the core.
71)
72) What made supernova 1987A so useful to study?
A) We saw direct evidence of nickel to iron decay in its light curve.
B) It occurred after new telescopes, such as Hubble, could observe it very closely.
C) In the Large Magellanic Cloud, we already knew its distance.
D) Its progenitor had been observed previously.
E) All of the above are correct.
72)
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73) Most pulsars are observed only as ________ sources.
A) radio
B) gamma-ray burster
C) visible lighthouse
D) X-ray
E) ultraviolet repeating
73)
74) If the Sun were replaced by a one-solar-mass black hole,
A) all terrestrial planets would fall in immediately.
B) life here would be unchanged.
C) we would immediately escape into deep space, driven out by its radiation.
D) our clocks would all stop.
E) we would still orbit it in a period of one year.
74)
75) If light from a distant star passes close to a massive body, the light beam will
A) change color to a shorter wavelength.
B) accelerate due to gravity.
C) continue moving in a straight line.
D) slow down.
E) bend towards the star due to gravity.
75)
76) What makes the Crab Nebula pulsar unusual among other pulsars?
A) Its period is much less regular than other pulsars.
B) It is the oldest known pulsar.
C) It is the fastest spinning known pulsar.
D) It is relatively bright in shorter wavelengths, like visible and X-rays.
E) It is a magnetar, with far more intense magnetic fields than any other.
76)
77) Which of these variable stars would be classified as a Cepheid?
A) an F giant with a period of 14 years
B) a G giant with a period of 14 hours
C) a K giant with a period of 14 days
D) an M supergiant with a period of 140 days
E) a B supergiant with a period of 0.14 days
77)
78) What two observations allow us to calculate mass of the portion of the Galaxy within the Sun's
orbit?
A) the Sun's age and period of the Galactic Year
B) the Sun's mass and its age
C) the Sun's mass and velocity in orbit of the Galactic Center
D) the Sun's composition and luminosity
E) the Sun's orbital velocity and its distance from the Galactic Center
78)
79) In our location in the Milky Way, the galactic disk is only about ________ ly thick.
A) 100
B) 100,000
C) 1,000
D) 10
79)
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E) 10,000
80) How massive are the largest known galaxies?
A) a few million solar masses
B) hundreds of trillions of solar masses
C) a hundred million solar masses
D) a few billion solar masses
E) a trillion solar masses
80)
81) Rotation curves for spiral galaxies show
A) they are slowing down.
B) most have dark halos.
C) rotation speed drops off further from the nucleus.
D) no relation to mass.
E) most of the mass lies in the nucleus.
81)
82) A galaxy that was once a quasar is likely to
A) still be a quasar.
B) now be a dwarf irregular.
C) be less than 5 billion years old.
D) have a black hole at its nucleus.
E) have burned all its fuel by now and be dark.
82)
83) The 3 K background radiation represents
A) the time of decoupling.
B) the formation of the first galaxies.
C) the Big Bang itself.
D) the outer edge of the universe.
E) formation of the first quasar.
83)
84) In the critical density universe now proposed, the ratio of dark energy to matter is about
A) 10 to 1.
B) 1 to 100.
C) 1 to 5.
D) 1 to 1.
E) 3 to 1.
84)
85) Concerning dark energy, we do know
A) its density remains constant over time, so it is not important in the early universe.
B) combined with dark matter, it will ultimately produce a closed universe.
C) that it makes up 90% of all the matter and energy in the whole universe.
D) that it is created when matter annihilates anti-matter.
E) that it was revealed with Type II supernovae distances in the late 1990s.
85)
86) If Taurus is now rising at sunset, which constellation will rise at sunset next month?
A) Scorpius
B) Gemini
C) Aries
D) Aquarius
E) Pisces
86)
87) The star Wolf 1061 has a parallax of 2.34 arc seconds, while the star Ross 652 has a parallax of 1.70
arc seconds. What can you correctly conclude?
A) Wolf 1061 is closer to Earth than Ross 652.
B) Both stars are outside the Milky Way galaxy.
C) Ross 652 is closer to Earth than Wolf 1061.
D) Wolf 1061 must have a larger proper motion than Ross 652.
E) Ross 652 must have a larger proper motion than Wolf 1061.
87)
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88) This diagram explains
88)
A) precession.
B) the difference between solar time and sidereal time.
C) the solar day's relation to the Moon.
D) the reason for the solstices.
E) the sidereal day's relation to the seasons.
89) Galileo found the rotation period of the Sun was approximately
A) a month.
B) a day.
C) three months.
D) a year.
E) a week.
89)
90) Kepler's first law worked, where Copernicus' original heliocentric model failed, because Kepler
described the orbits as
A) much larger than Copernicus had envisioned.
B) elliptical, not circular.
C) complex, with epicycles to account for retrograde motions.
D) being on equants instead of epicycles.
E) around the Sun, not the Earth.
90)
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91) If the distance between two asteroids is doubled, the gravitational force they exert on each other
will
A) be one fourth as great.
B) also be doubled.
C) be four times greater.
D) will be 1/16 as great.
E) be half as great.
91)
92) Which of these is the same for all forms of electromagnetic (E-M) radiation in a vacuum?
A) photon energy
B) amplitude
C) speed
D) frequency
E) wavelength
92)
93) The radiation our eyes are most sensitive to is the color
A) violet at 7,000 Angstroms.
B) red at 6563 Angstroms.
C) black at 227 nm.
D) yellow-green at about 550 nm.
E) blue at 4,321 nm.
93)
94) Compared to a 5 inch prime focus reflector, a 5 inch Newtonian reflector will
A) be easier to build.
B) have a larger hole in the center of its mirror.
C) have more light gathering power.
D) have more chromatic aberration.
E) have the same light gathering power.
94)
95) What problem does adaptive optics correct?
A) the opacity of the Earth's atmosphere to some wavelengths of light
B) chromatic aberration due to use of only a single lens objective
C) defects in the optics of the telescope, such as the original Hubble mirror
D) the light pollution of urban areas
E) turbulence in the Earth's atmosphere that creates twinkling
95)
96) Which of the following have an icy composition?
A) meteorites and most asteroids
B) comets
C) meteoroids
D) most asteroids
E) the surface of Mars
96)
97) The number of confirmed extrasolar planets
A) is zero; there are observations thought to be of extrasolar planets but none has yet been
confirmed.
B) is about 600, and is not expected to rise very much.
C) is about 800, and is rising slowly, as observations are quite difficult.
D) was about 800 at the time of publication but is rising rapidly due to new observations by the
Kepler spacecraft.
E) has been decreasing as some observations thought to be planets have been disproven.
97)
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98) Which of these gases is least abundant in our atmosphere?
A) hydrogen
B) carbon dioxide
C) oxygen
D) nitrogen
E) argon
98)
99) What is true of spring tides?
A) The Moon's phase will be first quarter.
B) There would be one high and one low tide each day.
C) The difference between low and high tides would be greatest.
D) The third quarter moon would be high overhead at dawn.
E) The difference between low and high tides would be smallest.
99)
100) What is true of Mars?
A) Definite microfossils have been found.
B) A pool of water was discovered by the Mars Rover.
C) Its magnetic field is stronger than Earth's
D) Its atmosphere is mostly water vapor.
E) Iron oxide on the surface is responsible for its reddish color.
100)
101) The deepest depression found on the surface of Mars is the
A) Caloris basin.
B) Valles Marineris rift.
C) Mare Crisium.
D) Hellas Basin.
E) Mariana Trench.
101)
102) Which planet had the Great Dark Spot in 1989, but had lost it by 1995?
A) Uranus
B) Saturn
C) Mars
D) Jupiter
E) Neptune
102)
103) At which planet can the pole remain in darkness for 42 years, then have 42 years of constant
daylight?
A) Neptune
B) Saturn
C) Pluto
D) Jupiter
E) Uranus
103)
104) If Saturn takes about 30 years to orbit the Sun, and its rings were seen edge-on in 1995, when did
they next appear most open at solstice?
A) 2010
B) 2005
C) 2002
D) 1998
E) 2007
104)
105) If Uranus takes 84 years to orbit the Sun, and Voyager 2 found its rings wide open at solstice in 1989,
when will or did they next appear edge on, as seen from Earth?
A) 2025
B) 1995
C) 2003
D) 2010
E) They can never appear edge on, due to Uranus' 98 degree axial tilt.
105)
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106) Given that a large sunspot, about 100× smaller than the Sun, is about the same size as our planet,
how many Earths could fit inside the Sun's vast volume?
A) one million
B) 1,000
C) 10,000
D) 100,000
E) 100
106)
107) The solution to the solar neutrino problem was
A) the corona is opaque to much of the neutrino radiation.
B) the Sun's core is cooling down, producing less neutrinos that expected.
C) 2/3 of the neutrinos transform into a new type during the 8 minute trip to Earth.
D) the Earth's ozone layer absorbs 2/3 of the neutrinos in transit.
E) our solar energy equations were just wrong, and needed much reworking.
107)
108) A star near the lower right of the H-R diagram is likely to be
A) blue, with high luminosity.
B) red, with low luminosity.
C) hot, bright, and very large.
D) yellow, with luminosity similar to our Sun's.
E) red, with high luminosity.
108)
109) The gas density in an emission nebula is typically about how many particles per cc?
A) hundred
B) hundred thousand
C) thousand
D) million
E) dozen
109)
110) When the outer envelope of a red giant escapes, the remaining carbon core is called a
A) planetary nebula.
B) brown dwarf.
C) black dwarf.
D) black hole.
E) white dwarf.
110)
111) Which statement about gamma ray bursters is not correct?
A) Millisecond flickering implies they are tiny in size.
B) In seconds, they radiate enormous amounts of energy.
C) They are scaled up X-ray bursters, with more massive objects involved.
D) The beams may be bi-polar ejections from the hypernova formation of black holes.
E) They seem to be coming from far beyond our own Milky Way.
111)
112) Which statement about Population II is false?
A) At almost five billion years old, our Sun must belong to this older Population.
B) The globular clusters are their most obvious groupings.
C) They are made of almost nothing but hydrogen and helium.
D) Their orbits around the Galaxy resemble those of comets.
E) They formed first as the Galaxy formed.
112)
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113) The height of the quasar epoch was
A) before the formation of galaxies.
B) when there was still sufficient mass to fuel the supermassive black holes at their center.
C) 5 billion years ago.
D) before mass had a chance to accumulate at the nucleus.
E) less than 1 billion years ago.
113)
114) The tiny ripples in the background radiation COBE found are due to
A) a gravitational redshift caused by growing dark clumps.
B) different velocities of the edge of the universe.
C) reddening by interstellar dust clouds in our galaxy.
D) bubble-like nature of space.
E) variations in the speed of different wavelengths of light.
114)
115) What will occur when the full moon is on the ecliptic?
A) a partial solar eclipse
B) an annular lunar eclipse
C) a total lunar eclipse
D) a total solar eclipse
E) a partial lunar eclipse if the Moon is at perigee
115)
116) A circular orbit would have an eccentricity of
A) 0.
B) exactly 1.0.
C) infinity.
D) between 0.5 and 1.
E) between 0 and 0.5.
116)
117) If the rest wavelength of a certain line is 600 nm, but we observe it at 594 nm, then
A) the source is getting 1% hotter as we watch.
B) the source is spinning very rapidly, at 1% of the speed of light.
C) the source is approaching us at 0.1 % of the speed of light.
D) the source is approaching us at 1 % of the speed of light.
E) the source is receding from us at 10% of the speed of light.
117)
118) Which of the following is currently supplying high resolution X-ray images from space?
A) Chandra
B) COBE
C) Einstein
D) HEAO-2
E) ROSAT
118)
119) Which of the following is not icy in composition?
A) asteroids
B) Kuiper Belt Objects
C) the polar cap of Mars
D) most jovian satellites
E) comet nuclei
119)
120) The average rate of erosion on the Moon is far less than on Earth because
A) the Moon's magnetic field protects it from the solar wind better than ours does.
B) the Moon lacks wind, water, and an atmosphere.
C) the Moon is much younger than the Earth.
D) the Moon's mare long ago dried up, so there is no more wave erosion there.
E) the crust of the Moon is much denser than the Earth's crust.
120)
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121) The main constituent of the Martian atmosphere is
A) methane.
B) nitrogen.
C) carbon dioxide.
D) hydrogen.
E) helium.
121)
122) Essentially, the Great Red Spot is
A) always located within 10 degrees of Jupiter's north pole.
B) composed primarily of iron oxide.
C) traveling north and south across Jupiter's face.
D) Neptune's largest atmospheric feature.
E) a large cyclonic storm (hurricane).
122)
123) Pluto is most similar to
A) Miranda.
B) Mercury.
C) our Moon.
D) Europa.
E) Triton.
123)
124) The outward pressure of hot gas in the Sun
A) is responsible for variations in the sunspot cycle.
B) is cooling the photosphere.
C) is increasing the Sun's diameter.
D) weakens the magnetic field.
E) is balanced by the inward gravitational pressure.
124)
125) A star has a parallax of 0.01 arc seconds. Its distance is
A) 10 parsecs
B) 100 parsecs.
C) 0.01 parsecs.
D) 1 parsec.
E) 0.1 parsecs.
125)
126) What is the primary visible color of an emission nebula?
A) blue due to ionized helium atoms
B) red due to the H line of hydrogen
C) black, because of dust
D) blue from the scattering of light off the tiny molecules
E) red because of reddening by dust
126)
127) When a star's inward gravity and outward pressure are balanced, the star is said to be
A) in rotational equilibrium.
B) in gravitational collapse.
C) in hydrostatic equilibrium.
D) in thermal expansion.
E) a stage 2 protostar.
127)
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128) As a spaceship's velocity gets closer to the speed of light with respect to an external observer, that
observer will report that
A) its length will increase and its clock will run more slowly.
B) its length will increase and its clock will run faster.
C) its length will decrease and its clock will run more slowly.
D) its length will decrease and its clock will run faster.
E) None of these will happen.
128)
129) Galactic disks appear blue because
A) they contain only blue reflection nebulae.
B) they contain no G, K, or M dwarfs.
C) dark matter gravitationally shifts all wavelengths towards the blue.
D) dust obscures the longer, red, wavelengths.
E) O and B blue giants are much brighter than G, K, or M dwarfs.
129)
130) Redshift surveys give us
A) a better value of the speed of light.
B) a more accurate census of the Local Group.
C) an idea of how turbulent the intergalactic gas is.
D) a 3-D layout of galaxies in space.
E) the total mass of the universe.
130)
131) The expansion rate of the universe is
A) different in different directions.
B) constant.
C) increasing.
D) independent of time.
E) decreasing.
131)
132) When the Moon is directly opposite the Sun in the sky, its phase is
A) waxing or waning crescent.
B) full.
C) new.
D) waxing or waning gibbous.
E) first or third quarter.
132)
133) Which of these observations of Galileo refuted Ptolemy's epicycles?
A) the visibility of many more stars with the telescope
B) the revolution of Jupiter's moons around it
C) the craters on the Moon
D) the complete cycle of Venus' phases
E) the rotation of sunspots across the Sun's surface
133)
134) If a wave's frequency doubles and its speed stays constant, its wavelength
A) is unchanged, as c is constant.
B) is now 4× longer.
C) is halved.
D) becomes 16× longer.
E) is also doubled.
134)
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135) One advantage of the Hubble Space telescope over ground based ones is that
A) it can better focus X-ray images.
B) it is larger than any Earth-based telescopes.
C) in orbit, it can operate close to its diffraction limit at visible wavelengths.
D) it can make better observations of the ozone layer.
E) its adaptive optics controls atmospheric blurring better.
135)
136) Planetary transits of exoplanets are rare because
A) the Earth's atmosphere interferes with our observations of transits.
B) most stars are too bright for us to detect a planetary transit.
C) our telescopes are not powerful enough to detect them.
D) most extrasolar systems are not seen edge-on.
E) most exoplanets are smaller than Pluto.
136)
137) What is true of the lunar highlands?
A) They are the oldest part of the lunar surface.
B) They are younger than the darker mare.
C) They are less heavily cratered than the mare.
D) They are the darker regions of the Moon seen with the naked eye.
E) They are found on the Moon's northern hemisphere.
137)
138) The scarps on Mercury were probably caused by
A) volcanism.
B) the crust cooling and shrinking.
C) a tidal bulge.
D) tectonic activity.
E) meteorite bombardment.
138)
139) In terms of axial tilt, which of the jovian planets shows us the largest inclination?
A) Pluto
B) Jupiter
C) Saturn
D) Neptune
140) The surface of Europa is most like the Earth's
A) Arctic Ocean.
B) Himalayan peaks.
C) South Pole.
D) deserts.
E) tundra.
E) Uranus
139)
140)
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