Exam 21: Our Solar System and Beyond

An astronomer would determine an ecliptic plane's location on the celestial sphere by

A light-year equals the

The zodiac is the set of _________ constellations that lie along Earth's _________ plane.

An image produced by a spectroscope will

A(n) _________ represents the distance that an imaginary star would have to be from Earth for its parallax to be exactly 1 arc-second if you were to move from an observation point in the center of the Sun to the center of Earth.

Imagine an astronomer who has just used a spectroscope to measure the emission lines of radiation from a distant galaxy. When she looks at the emission lines of hydrogen, she notes that all of the lines measured are shifted from their expected positions toward the red end of the spectrum. Is the galaxy moving toward the astronomer or away from her?

Which of the following would an astronomer use for measuring the distance between objects in our solar system?

With _________ height above Earth's suface, the horizon appears _________ and the visible area of Earth increases.

Astronomers examine the relationship between _________ and distance to figure out how far a star is from Earth when the star is more than 500 light-years away.

Compare the ancient geocentric model of the solar system with the present-day heliocentric model.

Using the Doppler effect, astronomers can

A(n) _________ is a closed path in space that one object takes around another object, whereas a(n) _________ is a complete orbit of one object around another object.

Identify the two solstice and two equinox positions for Earth's orbit in the diagram below.

The North Star, referred to as _________, earned its name because it is positioned directly above the _________ pole.

Ancient observers could identify a specific location in the night sky by

Based on Kepler's first and second laws, Earth moves _________ in its orbit when it is at _________.

Astronomers describe the _________ as all of space and all the celestial bodies within it.

Spectral lines can act like a _________ to help astronomers identify the chemical _________ of the electromagnetic radiation characteristics of a star.

What happens during a lunar eclipse in relation to the alignment of the Sun, the moon, and Earth?

Planets move from east to west across Earth's sky. This movement is called _________ motion.