Deck 1: Here and Now

Question 1

If light takes 8 minutes to reach Earth from the sun and 250 minutes to reach the planet Neptune,what is the approximate distance from the sun to Neptune? Pick the closest-to-correct answer.

A) 5 AU
B) 30 AU
C) 30 ly
D) 5 ly
E) 500 ly

Answer 1

30 AU

Question 2

Scientific notation is used in science because

A) it makes it easy to write large or small numbers.
B) all astronomical distances are expressed in metric units.
C) it makes conversions between units easy.
D) all of the above.
E) none of the above.

Answer 2

it makes it easy to write large or small numbers.

Question 3

If the size of the Sun is represented by a baseball with the Earth is about 15 meters away,how far away,to scale,would the nearest stars to the Sun be?

A) About the distance between New York and Boston.
B) 100 meters away
C) About the distance across the United States.
D) About the distance across 50 football fields.

Answer 3

About the distance across the United States.

Question 4

Earth has a radius of about 6400 km,the sun has a radius of about 7.0*5 km,and a rubber ball has a radius of 6.4 cm.If you were to construct a scale model of the solar system using the rubber ball to represent the earth,what is the radius of a ball needed to represent the sun in your model?

A) 7.0*10⁵ cm
B) 7.0 cm
C) 700 cm
D) 70 cm
E) 7000 cm

Question 5

How many centimeters are there in one kilometer?

A) 100
B) 1000
C) 10,000
D) 100,000
E) 1*10⁶

Question 6

Which of the following is the largest?

A) the diameter of Earth
B) the diameter of the moon
C) the diameter of the sun
D) the diameter of Jupiter
E) the distance from Earth to the sun

Question 7

The sun is

A) a star.
B) 1 AU from Earth.
C) more than 100 times the diameter of Earth.
D) all of the above.
E) none of the above.

Question 8

The Milky Way Galaxy

A) contains about 100 stars.
B) is the largest known object in the universe.
C) is about 75,000 light-years in diameter.
D) is located about 2.2 million light years from the sun.
E) Only a and c are correct.

Question 9

Which arrangement is in order of increasing size,left to right?

A) planet,galaxy,star,solar system
B) planet,star,galaxy,solar system
C) planet,star,solar system,galaxy
D) solar system,galaxy,star,planet

Question 10

If the light takes 8 minutes to reach Earth from the sun and the nearest star is 4.7 ly from the sun,what is the distance from the sun to the nearest star in astronomical units?

A) 37.6 AU
B) 1.7 AU
C) 214 AU
D) 310,000 AU
E) 1.5*10¹¹ AU

Question 11

The radius of the moon's orbit is about ____ times larger than the radius of Earth.

A) 0.6
B) 6
C) 60
D) 600
E) 6000

Question 12

The average distance from Earth to the sun is

A) 1 ly
B) 1 million km
C) 1 million miles
D) 1 billion km
E) 1 AU

Question 13

If the nearest star is 4.2 light-years away,then

A) the star is 4.2 million AU away.
B) the light we see left the star 4.2 years ago.
C) the star must have formed 4.2 billion years ago.
D) the star must be very young.
E) the star must be very old.

Question 14

If the Milky Way Galaxy contains 100 billion stars and only one star in 100 has an Earth-like planet,how many stars in the Milky Way Galaxy have Earth-like planets?

A) 1
B) 1000
C) 1,000,000
D) 1,000,000,000 = one billion
E) 100 billion

Question 15

In science fiction movies,it is common to use a space craft to travel across the Milky Way Galaxy or to assert that we have been visited by alien space craft from the other side of the Milky Way Galaxy.If one has a space craft that can travel at the speed of light,to an observer on the earth,how long will it take to go from one edge of the Milky Way Galaxy to the other and return?

A) 4.6 years
B) 9.2 years
C) 1000 years
D) 15,000 years
E) 150,000 years

Question 16

The Milky Way Galaxy

A) contains about 100 billion stars.
B) is about 100 light-years in diameter.
C) is the largest known object in the universe.
D) a,b,and c are correct.
E) Only a and c are correct.

Question 17

Suppose we wish to travel to the nearest star using a super space ship capable of traveling at 1*10¹⁰ km/yr.We have nothing even close to this space ship yet.How long will it take us to get to the nearest star which is about 4*10¹³ km away from us?

A) 4 years
B) 400 years
C) 4000 years
D) 4 billion years

Question 18

A solar system contains

A) primarily planets.
B) large amounts of gas and dust but very few stars.
C) large amounts of gas,dust,and stars.
D) a single star and planets.
E) thousands of superclusters.

Question 19

What does the size of the image of a star in a photograph tell us about the star?

A) the diameter of the star
B) the brightness of the star
C) the mass of the star
D) the temperature of the star
E) the distance to the star

Question 20

A galaxy contains

A) primarily planets.
B) large amounts of gas and dust but very few stars.
C) large amounts of gas,dust,and stars.
D) a single star and planets.
E) thousands of superclusters.

Question 21

Most of us humans live inside which one of the following?

A) star
B) planet
C) galaxy

Question 22

Earth has a radius of about 6400 km,the sun has a radius of about 7.0*10⁵ km.Assume Earth to be a typical planet and the sun to be a typical star.If you were to attempt to use a telescope to observe an Earth type planet circling the nearest star,one AU from that star,which would be easier to see with the telescope,the star or the planet?

A) Both would be equally hard to observe.
B) the star
C) the planet
D) Both would be easily observed.

Question 23

A kilometer contains 1 million meters.

Question 24

A supercluster refers to a large group of stars within the Milky Way.

Question 25

A light-year is the distance light travels in one year.

Question 26

If we say that an object is 1,000 light-years away we see it

A) as it looked 1,000 years ago.
B) as it would appear to our ancestors 1,000 years ago.
C) as it looked 1,000 light-years ago.
D) as it is right now,but it appears 1,000 times dimmer.

Question 27

How is a planet different than a star?

A) Planets are larger than stars.
B) Planets reflect light while stars produce their own light.
C) Stars move faster in the sky than planets.
D) Planets are brighter than stars.

Question 28

Mars is farther from the Sun than the Earth.

Question 29

Almost all of us humans live on the surface of which one of the following?

A) galaxy
B) planet
C) star
D) solar system

Question 30

A kilometer is a longer measure of distance than a mile.

Question 31

Our solar system has __________at its center.

A) billions of stars
B) one planet
C) billions of planets
D) one star

Question 32

The metric system is a decimal system.

Question 33

If the Earth were represented as a basketball (~10 in)and the Moon as a baseball (~3 in)then,to order of magnitude,what size would best represent the diameter of the Sun?

A) 10 ft
B) 100 ft
C) 1000 ft
D) 10000 ft

Question 34

The Local Group contains the sun and only about two dozen other stars.

Question 35

The average distance from Earth to the sun is 1 AU.

Question 36

The sun is a star in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Question 37

Which arrangement is correct in increasing order of mass left to right?

A) planet,star,galaxy
B) star,planet,galaxy
C) galaxy,star,planet
D) planet,galaxy,star
E) star,galaxy,planet

Question 38

Which sequence is correct when ordered by increasing size?

A) Earth,Solar System,Milky Way,galaxy clusters
B) Solar System,Earth,galaxy clusters,Milky Way
C) Earth,Milky Way,Solar System,galaxy clusters
D) Galaxy clusters,Solar System,Milky Way,Earth

Question 39

If the distance from the Sun to the Earth is represent by roughly 15 meters,then the distance from the Earth to the Moon on the same scale would be

A) about 30 meters.
B) about 10 meters.
C) about 1 meter.
D) smaller than your hand.

Question 40

The nearest star is 1 ly from the solar system.

Question 41

A(n)____________________ is a collection of billions of stars.

Question 42

The average distance from Earth to the sun is one ____________________.

Question 43

A(n)____________________ composed of galaxies and clusters of galaxies is the largest known structure in the universe.

Question 44

The ____________________ contains a large amount of gas and dust and about 100 billion stars,and our sun is one of those stars.