Question | Answer |
Mars's two moons are Deimos and ...? | Phobos |
What is the largest moon in the solar system? | Ganymede |
A Hertzsprung-Russell diagram is a two-dimensional graph that compares stars by their temperature and | brightness |
The Summer Triangle is formed of the stars Deneb, Vegas, and | Altair |
During what phase of the ,own is the entire sunlit side visible? | full moon |
The orbits of the planets are symmetrical ovals called | ellipses |
Frozen chunks of ice and dust that orbit the sun are called | comets |
The explosion of a star is called a | supernova |
The convection cells that cover the sun's visible surface are called | granules |
What are the flamelike columns of gas that continually erupt from the lowest layer of the sun's atmosphere? | spicules |
What is the visible portion of the sun? | photosphere |
What galaxy shape is the Milky Way? | barrel spiral |
What unit of measurement is approximately equal to the distance between the sun and the earth? | astronomical unit |
Be able to identify the following constellations. | Cassiopeia, Taurus, Ursa Major, Orion, Cygnus |
What word describes Venus's backward rotation on its axis? | retrograde |
What is the name for the period of time that the moon takes to orbit the earth? | lunar month |
What is the imaginary sphere with Earth at the center and the heavenly bodies on its inner surface? | celestial sphere |
What is the imaginary "band" in the sky in which the sun, mom, and planets travel? | zodiac |
What are the names of the two planets between which the asteroid belt is located? | Mars and Jupiter |
What is an object that orbits another object called? | satellite |
What word describes a star that is always above the horizon to an observer at a particular location called? | circumpolar |
What group of small, icy objects orbit the sun outside the orbit of the outermost planet? | Kipper belt |
The observed brightness that a star would have to an observer located 10 parsecs away is the. magnitude. | absolute |
What is the cloud of gas and dust that surrounds the center of a comet? | coma |
Who developed the law of the universal gravitation? | Isaac Newton |
What is a rapidly rotating star that emits directional beams of radio waves? | pulsar |
What Latin word is used to refer to the lunar "seas"? | mares |
Which scientific law states the relationship between a planet's period and average distance from the sun? | third law of planetary motion |
What is the apparent change in the position of an object caused by an actual change in the position of the observer? | parallax |
What is the largest galaxy in the Local Group? | Andromeda galaxy |
Which category of stars includes the sun? | main sequence |
With which planet do the Trojan asteroids share an orbit? | Jupiter |
What is an object so massive and dense that even light can escape its galaxy? | black hole |
the largest planet in our solar system | Jupiter |
known for its ring system | Saturn |
the outermost planet in our solar system | Neptune |
the fastest-moving planet | Mercury |
sometimes called the "morning star" and "evening star" | Venus |
gas giant that seems to lie on its side | Uranus |
notable feature is Olympus Mons | Mars |
A planet's closest approach to the sun is | perihelion |
The idea that the earth is the center of the universe and that the sun, planets, and stars all revolve around the earth is the | heliocentric view |
A small rock from space that is burning up as it passes through Earth's atmosphere is an | asteroid |
A large cloud of gas and dust in space is called a | nebula |
The phenomenon in which the moon passes between the sun and the earth is a | solar eclipse |
The study of God's creation beyond the atmosphere is | astrology |
A small group of stars that is used to form a picture or represent an object is an | asterism |
Vega | Lyra |
Sirius | Canis Major |
Spica | Virgo |
Aldebaran | Taurus |
Castor | Gemini |
Polaris | Ursa Minor |
Betelgeuse | Orion |
Regulus | Leo |
binary star | system in which two stars are bound together by gravity; these two stars circle each other in the same way that the moon revolves around the earth |
open cluster | loose, asymmetrical clumps contains tens to hundreds, and occasionally thousands, of stars |
globular clusters | tightly clumped spherical groups of thousands or millions of stars that travel outside the boundaries of the Milky Way in unusual orbits around the galaxy's center |