Frontiers in Astronomy Final Exam Part 1
UPDATED ACTUAL Exam Questions and
CORRECT Answers
What is the celestial sphere? - CORRECT ANSWER - The stars (including the sun) appear
to spin around the earth around every 24 hours (this is an illusion)
What is a star called that never rises or sets? - CORRECT ANSWER - Circumpolar
What causes day and night? - CORRECT ANSWER - Consequence of a star (our sun)
"spinning around us" every 24 hours
What causes the tides? - CORRECT ANSWER - Depends on the fact that gravity gets
weaker with distance
What two things cause the seasons? - CORRECT ANSWER - 1. The earth's axis of
rotation is tilted relative to the orbital plane (23 degrees)
2. The earth rotates around the sun once per year
Why do we see lunar phases? - CORRECT ANSWER - Depends on what part we see and
what part is lit up by the sun
Lunar vs Solar Eclipse - CORRECT ANSWER - The earth's shadow hits the moon (lunar)
or the moon's shadow hits the earth (solar)
What is retrograde motion? - CORRECT ANSWER - Planet goes through orbit and looks
like it goes backwards (optical illusion)
Different speeds of orbit causes this illusion (Ex. Mars has a slower orbit than Earth)
, Aristotle - CORRECT ANSWER - Sphere of the prime mover
Geocentric view
56 spheres - only perfect shape was a circle
Ptolemy - CORRECT ANSWER - Added more spheres to Aristotle's model; spheres on
spheres
Also geocentric view
Copernicus - CORRECT ANSWER - Heliocentric view
Important member of the church but couldn't publish findings until after his death
Model explained lots of things (retrograde motion) but did not work with navigation
Tycho Brahe - CORRECT ANSWER - Generated tables as to where objects were in the
sky
Found out that orbit of the sun was not circular: not a perfect circle
Kepler - CORRECT ANSWER - Showed that planets moved in ellipses
Galileo - CORRECT ANSWER - Made his own telescopes and lenses
Wrote book about new star forming, objects moving around Jupiter, Moon was not smooth, etc.
Was then imprisoned for the rest of his life because of his beliefs
Kepler's First Law - CORRECT ANSWER - Planets orbit in ellipses, having the sun as
one of the foci
Kepler's Second Law - CORRECT ANSWER - A radius vector joining any planet to the
sun sweeps out equal areas in equal lengths of time
UPDATED ACTUAL Exam Questions and
CORRECT Answers
What is the celestial sphere? - CORRECT ANSWER - The stars (including the sun) appear
to spin around the earth around every 24 hours (this is an illusion)
What is a star called that never rises or sets? - CORRECT ANSWER - Circumpolar
What causes day and night? - CORRECT ANSWER - Consequence of a star (our sun)
"spinning around us" every 24 hours
What causes the tides? - CORRECT ANSWER - Depends on the fact that gravity gets
weaker with distance
What two things cause the seasons? - CORRECT ANSWER - 1. The earth's axis of
rotation is tilted relative to the orbital plane (23 degrees)
2. The earth rotates around the sun once per year
Why do we see lunar phases? - CORRECT ANSWER - Depends on what part we see and
what part is lit up by the sun
Lunar vs Solar Eclipse - CORRECT ANSWER - The earth's shadow hits the moon (lunar)
or the moon's shadow hits the earth (solar)
What is retrograde motion? - CORRECT ANSWER - Planet goes through orbit and looks
like it goes backwards (optical illusion)
Different speeds of orbit causes this illusion (Ex. Mars has a slower orbit than Earth)
, Aristotle - CORRECT ANSWER - Sphere of the prime mover
Geocentric view
56 spheres - only perfect shape was a circle
Ptolemy - CORRECT ANSWER - Added more spheres to Aristotle's model; spheres on
spheres
Also geocentric view
Copernicus - CORRECT ANSWER - Heliocentric view
Important member of the church but couldn't publish findings until after his death
Model explained lots of things (retrograde motion) but did not work with navigation
Tycho Brahe - CORRECT ANSWER - Generated tables as to where objects were in the
sky
Found out that orbit of the sun was not circular: not a perfect circle
Kepler - CORRECT ANSWER - Showed that planets moved in ellipses
Galileo - CORRECT ANSWER - Made his own telescopes and lenses
Wrote book about new star forming, objects moving around Jupiter, Moon was not smooth, etc.
Was then imprisoned for the rest of his life because of his beliefs
Kepler's First Law - CORRECT ANSWER - Planets orbit in ellipses, having the sun as
one of the foci
Kepler's Second Law - CORRECT ANSWER - A radius vector joining any planet to the
sun sweeps out equal areas in equal lengths of time
