Space Science
Pre-Test Questions
Course Introduction
Space Science is an interdisciplinary field that explores the properties, phenomena, and processes of outer space and celestial bodies beyond Earth's atmosphere. The course covers foundational concepts in astronomy, astrophysics, and planetary science, examining topics such as the formation and evolution of stars and galaxies, the solar system, cosmic radiation, and space exploration technologies. Students will gain an understanding of the scientific methods used to study space, including remote sensing, spectroscopy, and space missions, as well as the impact of space science on technology, society, and our understanding of the universe.
Recommended Textbook
Discovering the Essential Universe 6th Edition by Neil F. Comins
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15 Chapters
4447 Verified Questions
4447 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: Discovering the Night Sky
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370 Verified Questions
370 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The apparent annual path of the Sun on the celestial sphere is called the:
A) celestial equator.
B) ecliptic.
C) Tropic of Capricorn.
D) solar orbit.
Answer: B
Q2) The diameter of the hydrogen atom,0.000,000,000,11 m,can be written in shorthand notation as:
A) 1.1 × 10- m.
B) 1.1 × 10-¹ m.
C) 1.1 × 10- m.
D) 1.1 × 10-¹¹ m.
Answer: B
Q3) The MOST recent correction to the calendar to keep the yearly date in tune with the seasons (resulting in the present calendar)was instituted by:
A) Galileo.
B) Pope Gregory XIII.
C) Julius Caesar.
D) Sir Isaac Newton.
Answer: B
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Chapter 2: Gravitation and the Waltz of the Planets
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344 Verified Questions
344 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to the scientific method,a hypothesis that is proposed to explain a particular physical phenomenon is considered to be wrong if:
A) leading scientists in the world believe that it is wrong.
B) it disagrees with the accepted theory at the time of the proposal.
C) it appears to defy logic and logical reasoning.
D) it is in conflict with the results of just one reliable and repeatable observation.
Answer: D
Q2) Which of the following statements MOST closely expresses the principle of "Occam's razor" as it applies to theoretical explanations of physical phenomena?
A) The theory with the longest history is the most likely explanation.
B) The theory requiring the least number of assumptions is the most likely explanation.
C) The newest theory is most likely to be the correct one.
D) The theory requiring the largest number of assumptions is the most likely explanation. Answer: B
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Chapter 3: Light and Telescopes
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Sample Questions
Q1) A particular reflecting telescope has a primary mirror 0.4 m in diameter and 4.0-m focal length and an eyepiece lens 1.0 cm in diameter and 2.0-cm focal length.What is the magnifying power of this telescope?
A) 20 times
B) 200 times
C) 40 times
D) 400 times
Answer: B
Q2) A refracting telescope is the type that uses,as its MAIN optical element,a:
A) lens.
B) prism of glass.
C) combination of many small plane mirrors.
D) mirror.
Answer: A
Q3) Twinkling is an observational problem when making observations from:
A) the Hubble Space Telescope.
B) a telescope equipped with active optics.
C) a telescope equipped with adaptive optics.
D) the Solar Dynamic Observatory, an orbiting solar observatory.
Answer: B
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Chapter 4: Formation of the Solar System and Other
Planetary Systems
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115 Verified Questions
115 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) A gas and dust cloud that is unstable and will collapse is characterized by all the factors EXCEPT ONE.Which is the exception?
A) low temperature
B) rapid internal motion
C) low pressure
D) high density
Q2) Compared with the orbital distance of Earth from the Sun,the equivalent orbital distances for the outer planets are _____ times greater.
A) between 2 and 20
B) more than 10
C) between 2 and 5
D) more than 5
Q3) Where in the universe are heavy elements with masses greater than that of helium being produced at this time?
A) in the central cores of stars
B) in the surface layers of stars
C) at the event horizons of massive black holes
D) in the dark clouds of dust and gas
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Chapter 5: Exoplanets
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Sample Questions
Q1) In searches for planets orbiting stars other than the Sun,what is the astrometric method?
A) searching for tiny "bumps" on images of a star, due to the light from a planet located close to the star
B) searching for tiny displacements of the infrared image of a star compared with its optical image, caused by the presence of planets that are cool and thus emitting primarily in the infrared
C) searching for tiny wobbles in the position of a star, due to the gravitational pull of a planet orbiting around it
D) searching for tiny wobbles in the positions of absorption lines in a star's spectrum, caused by radial-velocity variations of the star as the result of a planet orbiting around it
Q2) Exoplanets were first observed in:
A) 1810.
B) 1931.
C) 1992.
D) 2012.
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Chapter 6: The Terrestrial Planets and Their Moons
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Sample Questions
Q1) The albedo of a piece of black velvet is about:
A) minus one.
B) zero.
C) one.
D) two.
Q2) What is the basic structure of Earth's interior?
A) solid iron inner core, molten iron outer core, rocky mantle, lighter rocky crust
B) molten iron inner core, molten rocky outer core, solid rocky mantle, lighter rocky crust
C) molten iron core, molten rocky mantle, solid rocky crust
D) molten iron inner core, solid iron outer core, rocky mantle, lighter rocky crust
Q3) A radar mapping satellite orbited which planet in the early 1990s?
A) Mars
B) Venus
C) Moon
D) Mercury
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8
Chapter 7: The Outer Planets and Their Moons
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366 Verified Questions
366 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) How do the moons of Jupiter behave when considered in terms of the relationship between the period P and radius a of their orbits around the planet?
A) Jupiter's moons follow the Keplerian relationship P² = ka³, where k is a constant that is different from that in the relation governing planetary motion around the Sun.
B) Jupiter's moons do not obey the Keplerian relationship P² = ka³ because their motion about Jupiter is affected by Jupiter's motion about the Sun.
C) Jupiter's moons obey the Keplerian relationship P² = ka³, where k is the same as that for planetary motion around the Sun because it is a universal constant.
D) Jupiter's moons do not obey the Keplerian relationship P² = ka³ because they orbit Jupiter, not the Sun.
Q2) There is a torus of material around Jupiter surrounding the orbit of Io.This torus consists of:
A) large chunks of material that never formed into a ring.
B) charged particles ejected from Io's geysers.
C) fine dust particles, like the rings.
D) charged particles ejected from Jupiter's aurorae.
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Chapter 8: Vagabonds of the Solar System
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Sample Questions
Q1) Stony- iron meteorites are believed to:
A) have been ejected by volcanoes on Mars.
B) originate from differentiated asteroids (in which iron sank to the center).
C) be pieces of primordial solar system material, unaltered since the solar system formed.
D) originate from undifferentiated asteroids (same composition throughout).
Q2) What is unusual about the asteroid Mathilde,which was studied and photographed by the NEAR spacecraft (Figure 8-18a,Comins,Discovering the Essential Universe,6th ed.)?
A) Mathilde is not much denser than water.
B) Almost no craters are visible anywhere on Mathilde''s surface.
C) Mathilde''s surface is very bright, possibly a result of fresh material thrown out by impacts.
D) Mathilde has a much higher mass for its volume than any other known asteroid.
Q3) In order of abundance,from most abundant to least abundant,the occurrence of meteorite impacts ("falls")is believed to be:
A) stony, iron, stony- iron.
B) stony- iron, iron, stony.
C) iron, stony- iron, stony.
D) stony, stony- iron, iron.
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Page 10
Chapter 9: The Sun: Our Extraordinary Ordinary Star
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Sample Questions
Q1) The temperature of the Sun throughout its radius and including its atmosphere: A) is almost constant from the center to the surface but falls abruptly above the visible surface.
B) decreases outward from the center but then increases again in the atmosphere. C) decreases smoothly outward from the center, gradually merging at the "top" of the atmosphere into the cold of the interplanetary medium.
D) increases and decreases several times between the center and the surface, then decreases through the atmosphere.
Q2) The Sun sends charged particles toward Earth,where they contribute to the aurora.Each of the following events contributes substantially to this outflow of particles EXCEPT ONE.Which is the exception?
A) coronal mass injections
B) sunspots
C) solar flares
D) filaments
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Chapter 10: Characterizing Stars
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261 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Looking at the clock face on a distant steeple,the clock subtends an angle of 275 arcseconds.How far away is it?
A) 275 feet
B) 275 meters
C) 1/275 km
D) The distance cannot be computed from the given information.
Q2) A simple relationship exists between mass and luminosity for:
A) all stars.
B) main-sequence stars only.
C) giant stars and main-sequence stars.
D) main-sequence stars and brown dwarfs.
Q3) You are observing a binary system with two stars of masses M and M .You determine a,the semimajor axis (also the average distance between the stars)and P,the period of their motion.Using this information in Kepler's third law,you can calculate:
A) M or M but not both.
B) M /M .
C) M + M .
D) both M and M .
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Chapter 11: The Lives of the Stars From Birth Through Middle Age
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322 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) A brown dwarf is a(n):
A) object intermediate between a planet and a star, with not enough mass to begin nuclear reactions in its core.
B) general name for an object similar to the planet Jupiter.
C) star whose blackbody spectrum peaks in the brown region of the visible spectrum.
D) star of less than about 1.5 solar masses at the very end of its life, after it has cooled to near invisibility.
Q2) The present estimate of the age of the universe is about 14 billion years.How long will a half-solar-mass star spend on the main sequence,compared with the present age of the universe? (See Table 11-2,Comins,Discovering the Essential Universe,6th ed.)
A) about three times the age of the universe
B) more than ten times the age of the universe
C) less than 1/10 of the age of the universe
D) about 1/2 of the age of the universe
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Chapter 12: The Deaths and Remnants of Stars
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395 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) How does a gravitational field affect the passage of time?
A) Gravity has no effect on the passage of time.
B) Clocks in a gravitational field run slower than clocks farther from the center of the field when viewed by an observer who is also farther from the center of the field.
C) Gravity makes time stop.
D) Clocks in a gravitational field run faster than clocks farther from the center of the field when viewed by an observer who is also farther from the center of the field.
Q2) A light wave is emitted from the accretion disk surrounding a black hole and moves toward the hole and away from an observer.This observer will see:
A) the beam of light moving faster than c as it accelerates toward the hole.
B) the beam of light slow down and stop as it reaches the event horizon.
C) that the wavelength of the light is gravitationally blueshifted and Doppler redshifted, and the two effects just cancel as the light reaches the event horizon.
D) that the wavelength of the light is gravitationally blueshifted as it falls toward the event horizon.
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Chapter 13: The Galaxies
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465 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) BL Lacertae objects appear to be:
A) giant irregular galaxies with neither spiral arms nor the smooth shape of elliptical galaxies.
B) elliptical galaxies with bright, starlike nuclei.
C) spiral galaxies with bright, starlike nuclei.
D) active galaxies, most of whose energy is emitted by two widely spaced radio lobes.
Q2) Elliptical galaxies look far less impressive than spiral galaxies because:
A) they contain far fewer stars.
B) there are none within our Local Group, so the only elliptical galaxies we see are at very large distances from us.
C) they contain no gas and dust clouds or young, hot stars.
D) they are always smaller.
Q3) The Milky Way Galaxy is a(n):
A) member of a small cluster of galaxies.
B) member of a large, irregular cluster of thousands of galaxies.
C) isolated galaxy, not a member of any cluster.
D) member of a large, regular cluster of thousands of galaxies.
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Page 15
Chapter 14: Cosmology
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Sample Questions
Q1) The weak force:
A) acted only during the Big Bang and has no known role in the universe at the present time.
B) holds the quarks together inside a proton or neutron.
C) attracts the electrons to the nucleus, holding the atom together.
D) acts during certain kinds of radioactive decay.
Q2) What makes gravity the main force determining the large-scale structure of the universe?
A) Gravity is the strongest of the four fundamental forces.
B) Gravity is the only force that has an infinite range.
C) While the electromagnetic force of a charged particle has an infinite range, it is usually screened (and limited) by the existence of charges of the opposite sign. Ordinary matter has only one sign and therefore does not screen other gravitational forces.
D) The gravitational force, while short-ranged, is the only force that affects all particles: photons, quarks, changed particles, uncharged particles.
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Chapter 15: Astrobiology
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Sample Questions
Q1) In which very harsh environment has life NOT been found on Earth?
A) deep inside Earth's crust
B) in a lake locked far under the Antarctic ice pack
C) in the hot water within geothermal vents on the ocean floor
D) Life has been found in even the harshest environments on Earth.
Q2) Why was the discovery of pulsars initially misinterpreted as evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe?
A) It was not thought possible for a "natural" radio source to produce the rapid and extremely regular radio pulses detected from space.
B) Radio telescopes occasionally detected the same sequence of five musical notes, which were then whistled or hummed regularly by all the people associated with these telescopes (D, E, C, lower C, and G on a piano).
C) Pulses arriving from several nearby star systems showed Doppler shifts of frequency apparently caused by orbital motion of their source around the central stars, as if coming from planets.
D) The rate of pulses detected from space appeared to contain primitive coding similar to a crude Morse code.
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