Deck 1: Here and Now

Question 1

Scientific notation is used in science because

A) it makes it easy to write big or small numbers.
B) all astronomical distances are expressed in metric units.
C) it makes conversions between units easy.
D) all of the above

Answer 1

it makes it easy to write big or small numbers.

Question 2

If the Earth were represented as a basketball (~10 in. in diameter) and the moon as a baseball (~3 in. in diameter) 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

Answer 2

100 ft

Question 3

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.

Answer 3

1 AU.

Question 4

How many centimeters are there in one kilometer?

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

Question 5

If the distance to the nearest star is 4.2 light-years, 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 6

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 7

If light takes 8 minutes to travel from the sun to Earth and over 4 hours to travel from the sun to the planet Neptune, what is the distance from the sun to Neptune?

A) 5 AU
B) 30 AU
C) 30 ly
D) 5 ly
E) 0.6 ly

Question 8

The sun is

A) a star which generates its own energy.
B) 1 AU from Earth.
C) visible by its own light emission.
D) all of the above.

Question 9

In the diagram below, what is the diameter of Mercury?

A) about 240 km
B) about 2400 km
C) about 24,000 km
D) about 240,000 km
E) about 2.4*10⁶ km

Question 10

The speed of light is 3.0*10⁵ km/s, and it takes 1.3 s for light to travel from the moon to Earth. From this information, what is the distance to the moon?

A) 390,000 km
B) 230,000 km
C) 3.9 km
D) 2.3 km
E) 4.3*10⁵ km

Question 11

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 12

If the distance from the sun to the Earth is represented by roughly 15 meters, then the distance from Earth to the moon on the same scale would be

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

Question 13

The diameter of a typical star (the sun) is approximately ____ times larger than the diameter of a typical planet (the Earth).

A) 10
B) 100
C) 1000
D) 10,000
E) 100,000

Question 14

It takes light 1.3 seconds to travel from the moon to Earth and 8 minutes to travel from the sun to Earth. Which of the following statements is true?

A) The sun is 6.2 times further from Earth than the moon.
B) The sun is 10 times further from Earth than the moon.
C) The sun is 0.16 times further Earth than the moon
D) The sun is 0.10 times further from Earth that the moon.
E) The sun is 370 times further from Earth than the moon.

Question 15

The Milky Way Galaxy is

A) a spiral galaxy.
B) part of a cluster of galaxies that contains a few dozen galaxies.
C) about 80,000 light years in diameter.
D) all of the above.

Question 16

Arrange the following distances in order from smallest to largest.

A) I, II, III, IV
B) IV, III, II, I
C) III, I, IV, II
D) II, I, IV, III
E) III, I, II, IV

Question 17

Earth has a radius of about 6400 km, the sun has a radius of about 7.0*10⁵ 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 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 18

A typical galaxy like our Milky Way galaxy contains

A) primarily planets.
B) gas only.
C) stars (some with planets), gas, and dust.
D) a single star and planets.
E) thousands of superclusters.

Question 19

Which sequence is correct when ordered by increasing size?

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

Question 20

In the diagram below, what is the diameter of Jupiter?

A) about 7.0*10⁴ km
B) about 7.0*10⁵ km
C) about 1.4*10⁴ km
D) about 1.4*10⁵ km
E) about 3.5*10⁶ km

Question 21

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

Question 22

The nearest star is 1 ly from the solar system.

Question 23

A kilometer contains 1 million meters.

Question 24

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

Question 25

Assume a 100-yard football field represents the 14-billion-year history of the universe with one end as the origin and the other end representing the present. The existence of human beings will extend from ____ to the present "goal line."

A) the 50-yard line
B) the 5-yard line
C) the one-yard line
D) the one-inch line

Question 26

The number 52,600,000,000 would be written in scientific notation as ____________________.

Question 27

A(n) ____________________ is the distance that light would travel in one year.

Question 28

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 29

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

Question 30

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 31

Which of these is NOT a common misconception?

A) A light year is a unit of time.
B) Stars look like disks when seen through a telescope
C) A galaxy is a star plus its planets.
D) All of the above are misconceptions.

Question 32

The sun is a star in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Question 33

Light takes about 8 minutes to travel from the sun to Earth and about 40 minutes to travel from the sun to Jupiter. Jupiter is about ____________________ AU from the sun

Question 34

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 35

Assume the size of the sun is represented by a baseball with the Earth is about 15 meters (150 million km or 8 light minutes) away. How far away, to scale, would the nearest stars to the sun be? Pick the closest answer.

A) about the distance between New York and Boston (330 km)
B) 100 meters away
C) about the distance across the United States from New York to Los Angeles (4300 km)
D) about the distance across 50 football fields (50 * 100 m)

Question 36

A(n) ____________________ is the largest known structure in the universe.

Question 37

The metric system is a decimal system.

Question 38

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

Question 39

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) 150 million km.

Question 40

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

Question 41

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

Question 42

"I live 20 minutes from Center City." How is this statement similar to giving astronomical distances in light-years?

Question 43

Why would the English system of units be more useful if a foot contained 10 inches?

Question 44

An astronomical unit is larger than a light-year.

Question 45

Draw a schematic (not to scale) diagram showing our solar system, nearby stars, and other stars making up our Milky Way Galaxy as dots. You do not have to draw 100 billion dots as stars!

Question 46

The numbers 9.81*10⁵ and 981,000 are equivalent.

Question 47

Why do we measure some distances in astronomy in light-years and some in astronomical units?

Question 48

From what you know about astronomical units and light-years, how would you define a light-minute?

Question 49

Considering that the sun is about 1/100 AU in diameter and a typical planet like Earth is 1/10,000 AU, discuss whether or not our Solar System is crowded or empty.

Question 50

Explain the difference between a light-year and the orbital period of Earth.

Question 51

Describe the difference between a solar system and a galaxy.

Question 52

Draw a schematic (not to scale) diagram showing the sun, the Earth circling around it, and the other seven planets with labels for each orbit.

Question 53

Assume a textbook shows a diagram of the solar system on, say, a standard notebook-sized sheet. The orbits of eight planets are sketched around the sun at the center. Disks on each orbit are large enough to show features like continents on Earth or the rings of Saturn. There is a similar-sized disk for the sun with some sunspots. Discuss what is wrong or right with this diagram.