Course Introduction
Survey of Astronomy Test Questions
Survey of Astronomy introduces students to the fundamental concepts of astronomy, focusing on the structure and evolution of the universe. This course covers topics such as the solar system, stars, galaxies, cosmology, and the tools astronomers use to observe and analyze celestial phenomena. Emphasis is placed on understanding scientific methods, the motions of celestial bodies, the life cycles of stars, and current developments in space exploration, making it an accessible introduction for non-science majors and those seeking an overview of the field.
Recommended Textbook
Astronomy Journey to the Cosmic Frontier 6th Edition by John D Fix
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Journeys Start
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Sample Questions
Q1) The coordinate used in the terrestrial coordinate system to indicate angular distance north or south of the equator is
A)Altitude
B)Latitude
C)Longitude
D)Azimuth
Answer: B
Q2) What is the latitude at the equator of the Earth?
A)0 degrees
B)90 degrees
C)180 degrees
D)270 degrees
Answer: A
Q3) A finger,held at arm's length,fills an angle of about
A)50 degrees
B)10 degrees
C)2 degrees
D)One-tenth of a degree
Answer: C
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Page 3
Chapter 2: Patterns in the Sky
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Sun's path on the celestial sphere is the
A)Zenith
B)Equator
C)Meridian
D)Ecliptic
Answer: D
Q2) At approximately what time does the new Moon set?
A)Sunset
B)Sunrise
C)Noon
D)Midnight
Answer: A
Q3) When the Moon is at opposition,its phase is
A)Full
B)New
C)First quarter
D)Third quarter
Answer: A
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Page 4
Chapter 3: Ancient Astronomy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Precession can be detected by noting the
A)Changes in the celestial coordinates of stars over many years
B)Westward motion of the stars during a night
C)Motion of the Sun relative to that of the Earth
D)Motion of the planets during retrograde motion
Answer: A
Q2) An astronaut lands on an unknown planet.After walking a distance of 400 km toward the north pole of the planet,she notices that the pole star for that planet is 5 degrees higher in the sky.What is the circumference of the planet?
A)28,800 km
B)400 km
C)4600 km
D)7200 km
Answer: A
Q3) According to Pythagoras,what was the shape of the Earth?
A)Cylinder
B)Flat disk
C)Cube
D)Sphere
Answer: D
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Chapter 4: Renaissance Astronomy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following best describes Tycho's model of the solar system?
A)Sun orbits Earth,planets orbit Sun
B)Earth orbits Sun,planets orbit Earth
C)Sun and planets orbit Earth
D)Planets and Earth orbit Sun
Q2) Jupiter is about 5 AU from the Sun.What is its orbital period?
A)4 years
B)8 years
C)12 years
D)16 years
Q3) When does retrograde motion of Venus occur in the heliocentric model of the solar system?
A)When Venus passes the Earth
B)When the Earth and Venus are on opposite sides of the Sun
C)When the Earth is nearest the Sun
D)When the Sun and Venus are opposite each other in the sky
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Chapter 5: Gravity and Motion
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Sample Questions
Q1) The force of gravity between two objects has what dependence on the distance between the objects?
A)Force is directly proportional to the distance
B)Force is inversely proportional to the distance.
C)Force is proportional to the square of the distance.
D)Force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance.
Q2) The mass of an object _____________ from a planet or star.
A)increases with increasing distance
B)decreases inversely with increasing distance
C)stays the same with increasing distance
D)decreases inversely with the square of the distance
Q3) If the Earth were orbiting a ten solar mass star,at a distance of 1 astronomical unit,how would its orbital period be affected?
A)It would be unchanged
B)It would be about 1/3 of a year
C)It would be about 3 years
D)It would be about 1/10 of a year
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Chapter 6: Light and Telescopes
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Sample Questions
Q1) The same telescope is used to obtain an image using light of the following wavelengths.Which of the images will have the poorest angular resolution?
A)Blue
B)Yellow
C)Red
D)Infrared
Q2) Which of the following is true about the frequency and wavelength of electromagnetic waves?
A)The product of frequency and wavelength is the same for all such waves
B)As frequency increases,wavelength increases
C)Frequency is constant for all wavelengths
D)Frequency and wavelength are independent of each other
Q3) Which of the following is not likely to be an attribute of a good observing site?
A)Dark sky
B)Atmospheric stability
C)Low elevation
D)Low humidity
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8
Chapter 7: Overview of the Solar System
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Sample Questions
Q1) Suppose there are 1000 grams of an isotope that has a half-life of 10 minutes.How much of the isotope will be left after 40 minutes?
A)250 grams
B)0 grams
C)125 grams
D)62.5 grams
Q2) The astronomical unit is a unit used to describe
A)Masses
B)Periods of revolution
C)Distances
D)Acclerations
Q3) How does the brightness of an object vary with distance from the object?
A)It remains constant with varying distance
B)It varies as the inverse of distance
C)It decreases as the square of distance
D)It decreases as the cube of distance
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9
Chapter 8: The Earth
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Sample Questions
Q1) As a result of the Coriolis effect,a missile fired northward toward the equator will seem to be deflected
A)Too far to the north
B)Too far to the south
C)Toward the west
D)Toward the east
Q2) The Earth's mantle is in what state?
A)solid
B)liquid
C)gas
D)plasma
Q3) What is the primary reason that aurorae are more likely to be seen in Canada and Alaska than in Iowa?
A)The particles that produce aurorae strike the atmosphere only near the poles
B)There are fewer hours of nighttime each year in Iowa than in Canada
C)Aurorae can only be seen above the Arctic Circle
D)Aurorae are sunlight reflected from snow,which is more common in Canada
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Chapter 9: The Moon
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why are rocks from lunar uplands (terrae)older that those from the lunar maria?
A)The maria solidified more recently than the terrae
B)The older maria material is buried beneath debris
C)The Moon formed from two objects with different ages
D)The older rocks were blasted into the terrae by meteoroids
Q2) If the Moon did not rotate on its own axis,we would observe
A)Both sides of the Moon
B)Trick question-it doesn't rotate
C)Only one side of the Moon
D)A lack of tides on the Earth
E)Only solar tides
Q3) At what phase of the Moon can a lunar eclipse occur?
A)First quarter
B)New
C)Gibbous
D)Full
E)Third quarter
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Chapter 10: Mercury and Venus
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Q1) Why does Venus appear featureless when viewed through a telescope?
A)It has a very thick cloud layer
B)It has permanent dust storms
C)Its atmosphere is so hot that shimmering distorts its image
D)Its surface reflects sunlight so well that it seems featureless
Q2) Which planet is most like Venus in size and mass?
A)Earth
B)Mars
C)Mercury
D)Neptune
Q3) The atmosphere on Mercury
A)Is mostly carbon monoxide
B)Is very thin compared to Earth's
C)Contains trace amounts of oxygen
D)Is so opaque that we cannot see the surface
Q4) Why does Venus absorb less energy from the Sun than Earth?
A)Earth's atmosphere is thicker than the atmosphere of Venus.
B)More solar radiation strikes the Earth,relative to Venus.
C)The slow rotation rate of Venus prevents absorption of sunlight.
D)The thick clouds of Venus reflect most of the incoming solar energy.
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Mars
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Sample Questions
Q1) Our view of the surface of Mars is sometimes blocked by
A)Thick ice clouds
B)Dust storms
C)Dust clouds produced by volcanic eruptions
D)Smoke from widespread fires
Q2) Much of the material in the polar caps of Mars is frozen
A)Methane
B)Quartz
C)Ammonia
D)Carbon dioxide
Q3) In which of the following forms can water NOT exist on Mars today?
A)Lakes
B)Atmospheric ice crystals
C)Underground ice deposits
D)Atmospheric gas
Q4) What evidence do we have that plate tectonic activity has occurred on Mars?
A)Parallel strips of magnetized rock
B)Dry river beds
C)Large volcanoes
D)Several continent-sized highland regions separated by lower regions
Page 13
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Chapter 12: Jupiter and Saturn
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Sample Questions
Q1) How do we know that the Red Spot of Jupiter is not a hurricane-like storm?
A)Its winds are too gentle
B)It rotates in the wrong direction
C)No lightning has been detected within it
D)It has been observed to cross the equator of Jupiter
Q2) The most massive planet is
A)Earth
B)Jupiter
C)Saturn
D)Venus
Q3) How do we know that the light-colored regions in the atmosphere of Jupiter are generally cooler than the dark-colored regions?
A)They reflect more light than the dark regions
B)They rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere
C)They emit less infrared radiation than the dark regions
D)They are observed to lie lower in the atmosphere
Q4) What two chemical elements make up most of Jupiter's mass?
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Page 14
Chapter 13: The Outer Solar System
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following best describes the appearance of the rings of Uranus?
A)Several thin rings,widely separated
B)Many wide rings with small gaps
C)Only a single,very broad ring
D)Two thin,inner rings and a broad,outer ring
Q2) Which of the following statements is a good description of the appearance of Neptune in the Voyager images
A)Deep blue color with a few prominent cloud features
B)Many conspicuous zones and belts in its cloud layer
C)Nearly featureless greenish ball
D)Distinctly nonspherical in shape
Q3) It is thought that what percentage of Trans-Neptunian objects were lost due to collisions with planets or from ejection in the early solar system?
A)25
B)50
C)75
D)99.9
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Chapter 14: Satellites
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Sample Questions
Q1) Except for Titan,the other satellites of Saturn seem to be made primarily of
A)Metal
B)Rock
C)Ice
D)Hydrogen and helium
Q2) How do we know that the surface of Io was formed very recently?
A)It has no impact craters
B)It is still hot from radioactive decays
C)No rocks have yet had a chance to form
D)Io is larger than it would be if it were very old
Q3) Why did the Cassini spacecraft use infrared detectors to obtain images of Titan?
A)Titan is too cold to emit visible light
B)Titan is too bright in the visible part of the spectrum
C)High clouds emit brightly in the infrared
D)Infrared from the surface can escape through the atmosphere
Q4) The satellites of Saturn are made up mostly of
A)Ice
B)Rock
C)Metal
D)Gas
Page 16
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Chapter 15: Small Solar System Bodies
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following best describes the material that makes up the nucleus of a comet?
A)Rocky
B)Gaseous
C)Dirty ice
D)Metallic crystals
Q2) Until recently why were most meteorite finds irons?
A)Most objects that fall to Earth are irons
B)Irons are recognizable as meteorites long after they fall
C)Most searches for meteorites have used magnets
D)Irons remain very hot long after they fall
Q3) Most of the asteroids are located between the orbits of
A)Venus and Earth
B)Earth and Mars
C)Mars and Jupiter
D)Jupiter and Saturn
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Chapter 16: Basic Properties of Stars
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Sample Questions
Q1) The spectral class of a star is a measure of the star's
A)Chemical composition
B)Temperature
C)Radial velocity
D)Rate of rotation
Q2) Star A is twice as hot as star B.The two stars have the same radius.How does the luminosity of star A compare to that of star B?
A)A and B have the same luminosity
B)A is twice as luminous
C)A is 4 times as luminous
D)A is 16 times as luminous
Q3) A star is observed to have extremely strong lines of hydrogen,very weak neutral helium,and weak neutral metals.The spectral type of such a star is closest to A)O5
B)B2
C)A0
D)K5
E)M8
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18
Chapter 17: The Sun
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Sample Questions
Q1) The temperature at the surface (photosphere)of the Sun is about
A)1000 K
B)5000 K
C)10,000 K
D)50,000 K
E)1,000,000 K
Q2) For which of the following reasons did the first solar neutrino experiments surprise astronomers?
A)Compared with predictions,too few solar neutrinos were detected
B)Compared with predictions,far too many solar neutrinos were detected
C)The wrong kind of solar neutrinos were detected
D)Solar neutrinos were detected only at night
Q3) Why do sunspots appear dark?
A)They emit no light
B)They are transparent and let us see deeper,darker layers
C)They are cooler than their surroundings
D)They are shadows
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Chapter 18: The Formation of Stars and Planets
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Q1) Which of the following is not easily accounted for in current versions of the nebular theory of the origin of the solar system?
A)The Sun's equator lies nearly in the ecliptic
B)Planet-satellite systems resemble the solar system
C)The rotation of Venus
D)The planets orbit the Sun in the same direction
Q2) What process is responsible for the formation of a new star?
A)The collision of one or more stars
B)The collapse of part of a cloud of interstellar material
C)The gathering of material around a black hole
D)The collision of massive planets in interstellar space
Q3) Which of the following is a serious objection to catastrophic theories of the origin of the solar system?
A)Collisions between stars are rare events
B)The planets are much younger than the Sun
C)Material pulled from the Sun would have been too hot to form planets
D)A separate collision would have been needed to form each planet
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Chapter 19: The Evolution of Stars
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Q1) When a superwind strips away the outer layers of a star,the resulting shell of expanding gas becomes visible as
A)A planetary nebula
B)An HII region
C)A reflection nebula
D)A dark nebula
Q2) The most important factor affecting a star's main-sequence lifetime is
A)Radius
B)Mass
C)Chemical composition
D)Surface temperature
Q3) A planetary nebula is produced by
A)A supernova explosion
B)The dust left over when a cluster of stars forms
C)The gradual loss of its outer layers by a dying star
D)A nova explosion
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Chapter 20: White Dwarfs, neutron Stars, and Black Holes
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Sample Questions
Q1) Compared to low mass white dwarfs,massive white dwarfs are
A)Smaller and less dense
B)Smaller and denser
C)Larger and denser
D)Larger and less dense
Q2) Electrons moving in a magnetic field produce radiation by the process of
A)Synchrotron radiation
B)Black body emission
C)Bright line emission
D)Electron scattering
Q3) Which of the following is an essential part of Einstein's explanation of gravity?
A)Matter causes curvature of space
B)The gravity of a moving object varies with time
C)Gravitational forces exist only over a limited distance
D)Anti-matter has negative gravity
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22
Chapter 21: Binary Star Systems
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Q1) A pulsar will be produced if a neutron star is___________ .
A)in isolation,with no binary star companion.
B)in the proximity of an evaporating binary companion.
C)formed,regardless of the external conditions.
D)more than one of the above
Q2) Mass exchange in close binary systems can produce
A)X-ray emission from an accretion disk
B)The formation of planets
C)T-Tauri stars
D)Dark markings like sunspots
Q3) Gas shed by the companion of a neutron star or black hole normally
A)Flows out of the binary system
B)Falls directly onto the neutron star or black hole
C)Flows into an accretion disk
D)Collects above the poles of the neutron star or black hole
Q4) A light curve is a plot showing
A)Luminosity versus spectral type
B)Brightness versus time
C)Radial velocity versus magnitude
D)Mass versus luminosity
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Chapter 22: The Milky Way
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Sample Questions
Q1) The galaxy has become enriched in heavy elements since it formed.What is responsible for the enrichment?
A)Nuclear reactions in interstellar clouds
B)The infall of heavy elements from intergalactic space
C)The transformation of cosmic rays into heavy elements
D)Nuclear reactions in stars,followed by stellar mass loss
Q2) The distance of the Sun from the galactic center is considered to be around what value?
A)2.5 kpc
B)5.2 kpc
C)8.5 kpc
D)9.3 kpc
Q3) How did Harlow Shapley discover that our Sun is not at the center of the galaxy?
A)By detecting radio radiation from the galactic center
B)By measuring the orbital speed of the Sun around the galactic center
C)By determining the distribution of globular clusters
D)By comparing our galaxy with the Andromeda galaxy
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24
Chapter 23: Galaxies
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Sample Questions
Q1) Physically,the Hubble constant is a measure of the A)Luminosity of a galaxy
B)Strength of hydrogen lines in galaxies
C)Relation between temperature and age of a galaxy
D)Age of the universe
Q2) Which of the following is the best analogy for Hubble's law of recession of the galaxies?
A)Raisins carried apart by dough in a rising loaf of raisin bread
B)Fragments of an exploding bomb
C)Leaves blown from a tree by the wind
D)An ocean current carrying a sailboat against the wind
Q3) Which of the following would be least useful in determining distances to other galaxies?
A)Parallax
B)Cepheid variables
C)The sizes of HII regions
D)The brightness of a supernova
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Chapter 24: Quasars and Other Active Galaxies
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Q1) Quasars were originally discovered as
A)Strong radio sources identified with star-like images on photographs
B)Variable sources of light
C)Bright galaxies,and only later found to be radio sources
D)The only type of radio source within our galaxy
Q2) For a typical luminous radio galaxy,most of the radio emission comes primarily from A)The core of the galaxy
B)Spiral arms.
C)Globular clusters.
D)Two large regions far from the center of the galaxy
Q3) The radio emission from radio galaxies and quasars is due to
A)Thermal emission
B)21 cm radiation from hydrogen atoms.
C)Star formation regions.
D)Synchrotron radiation
Q4) It is thought that most large galaxies probably have black holes at their centers.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 25: Galaxy Clusters and the Structure of the Universe
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Q1) How does the distance to the Virgo Cluster compare with the size of the Local Group?
A)The Local Group is larger than the distance to the Virgo Cluster
B)The distance to the Virgo Cluster is larger than the size of the Local Group
C)The two are the same
D)The distance to the Virgo Cluster is entirely unknown
Q2) Which of the following statements about galaxies is true?
A)Most galaxies are well isolated from other galaxies
B)Most galaxies occur in isolated pairs
C)Galaxies are found both in small groups and large clusters
D)Galaxies are uniformly distributed throughout the universe
Q3) Which of the following types of galaxies make up the majority of the members of the local group?
A)Elliptical
B)Spiral
C)Barred spiral
D)Irregular
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Chapter 26: Cosmology
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Q1) Why is the cosmic background radiation found primarily in the radio part of the spectrum?
A)The visible part of it was absorbed by intergalactic dust
B)It was emitted by cool,intergalactic clouds
C)It is primarily synchrotron radiation
D)It is highly redshifted
Q2) What important event happened about 300,000 years after the universe began to expand?
A)Helium was produced
B)The first stars formed
C)The universe became ionized for the first time
D)The universe became transparent
Q3) In which part of the spectrum is the cosmic background radiation brightest?
A)Radio
B)X-ray
C)Ultraviolet
D)Visible
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28
Chapter 27: Life in the Universe
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Q1) How are pulsar planets detected?
A)By looking for variations in the light output of the planet.
B)By observing the pulsar planet as tidal forces tear it apart.
C)By looking for shifts in the period of the planets orbit.
D)By observing variations between pulses.
Q2) About what percentage of the planets discovered outside our solar system are giant planets,orbiting close to their parent star?
A)33
B)15
C)55
D)70
Q3) The Drake Equation contains several terms that are known to a high degree of accuracy.
A)True
B)False
Q4) SETI stands for
A)Signal Enhancement Through Interferometry
B)Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
C)Satellite Examination of Technological Images
D)Studies of Europa's Tidal Icefields
Page 29
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