Astronomy Mid Term Review

What is retrograde motion?

• occasional west to east motion of the planets relative to the stars over many

  successive nights

• occasional east to west motion of the planets relative to the stars over many

  successive nights

• east to west motion of the Moon relative to the stars over many successive nights

As the planets orbit the Sun, they are never far from the ____ on the celestial sphere.

• ecliptic

• celestial equator

• horizon

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS1-1

One phenomenon that the geocentric models struggled to explain was ____.

• sunspots

• the rotation of Earth

• retrograde motion

• parallax

Tags

NGSS.HS-ESS1-4

Asians astronomers ________.

• kept detailed records of unusual celestial events

• devised ways to predict eclipses

• recorded the existence of sunspots

• all are correct

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS1-1

Kepler's Third, or harmonic, law states that the

• planets move fastest when they are closest to the Sun.

• semi-major axis of an orbit cubed equals the period squared.

• semi-major axis of an orbit is inversely proportional to the period.

Tags

NGSS.HS-ESS1-4

Copernicus' heliocentric model failed to work as well as it might fail to predict the positions of

planets because Copernicus insisted the orbits were

• circular

• elliptical

• hyperbolic

One of Tycho Brahe's major contributions to astronomy was to prove that _________ was

_________.

• a supernova (exploding star) ; much farther away than the planets

• a comet; outside Earth's atmosphere

• Both A; and B

In _________ models, the Sun is assumed as the center of the solar system.

• heliocentric

• geocentric

• epicyclic

Galileo was the first to observe the phases of _____.

• moon

• venus

• earth

• sun

Copernicus' model of the solar system, the planets orbited the _____ in ______ orbits.

• Sun; circular

• earth; circular

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS1-2