PSU Astro 1 Latest Exam 2025

PSU Astro 1 Latest Exam 2025 How much more light does a 12 meter telescope collect than a 6 meter telescope? - -4 times more In the spectroscopy game, what did you do to produce emission lines in the spectrum? - -excite the gas in the box What type of light does not get through earth's atmosphere? - -x-ray Is light a particle or a wave? - -both If a telescope in space is only 1/4 the diameter of a telescope on earth, which of the following is true? - -the space telescope has a higher magnification than the larger telescope on the ground Lower-energy radiation has - -longer wavelengths From earth, which constellation might you find the planet saturn? - -taurus Two weeks after the 3rd quarter moon is the - -first quarter moon For a star close to the north star, how long does it take to move in a circle the whole way around the north star? - -24 hours An electron in a sodium atom absorbs a photon of light and moves to the next highest energy level, what will happen? - -the electron will eventually emit a photon with the same energy as the one it absorbed How many constellations are not zodiac constellations? - -75 or 76 A star is a hot dense gas surrounded by a cooler, low density atmosphere. What type of spectrum will a star create? - -absorption spectrum What did newton's law of universal gravitation tell us about how gravity works? - -the force of gravity from the sun will be stronger on a larger mass object How often is the sun in front of a zodiac constellation? - -always As compared to a cool star, a hotter star emits: - -shorter wavelength, higher frequency blue color Astronomy Astronomy What happens when the electrons in atoms of a particular chemical element jump from higher to lower energy levels? - -bright lines appear in the spectrum at particular energy levels How much of the total surface area of the moon is illuminated by sunlight during the full moon phase? - -one half Which type of radiation has the lowest energy? - -infrared and radio radiation Which of the following is false? - -the energy of a photon increases in proportion to the wavelength of the radiation Compared to blue light, red light has: - -longer wavelength, smaller frequency, smaller energy Which of the following is false (part 2) - -room temperature is about 30000 degrees kelvin which is in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum The surface gravity on mars is 40% of the surface gravity on earth, this means: - -you can jump higher on mars than on earth Two planets have the same mass, but planet b has 3x more than planet a, how do their surface gravities compare? - -planet b has 1/3 the surface gravity of planet a In what was does a 5 meter telescope outperform a 1 meter telescope? - -its images are 25x brighter than a 1 meter Since the area of a circle is pi times its radius squared, if you double the width of a telescope's circular mirror: - -it's light gathering power is multiplied by a factor of 4 Of the following types of radiation, which has the highest frequency? - -x-rays The electrons in a cloud of hydrogen gas are making the transition from excited, high energy states to the ground, lowest energy state. What does the spectrum of this gas look like? - -it will consist of a few bright emission lines at very specific wavelengths Which of the following is false (part 3) - -the north pole is tilted away from the sun during the northern hemisphere summer If i apply the exact same force to a pebble and a boulder, what will happen? - -the pebble will move faster When is the waning gibbous moon the highest in the sky? - -about 3am What time of the year is it dark all day and night at the south pole of earth? - -june Astronomy Astronomy What is a continuous spectrum? - -light at all wavelengths Constellations close to the north pole of earth - -move in a circle around the north star, polaris, over the course of a night When does the new moon set? - -sunset What objects shadow falls on the moon during a lunar eclipse? - -the earth In the spectroscopy game, what did you do to produce a continuous spectrum with a bluer color? - -lowered the temperature of the lamp Which of the following solar system objects has the weakest gravity? - -the moon The rotation of the earth is: - -titled about 23 degrees relative to the axis of the earth's orbit around the sun When are the nights longest compared to the days? - -december 21st in both hemispheres Something glowing in visible light probably has a temperature of __ kelvins - -a few thousand Even the largest ground-based telescopes have resolution restrictions imposed by: - atmospheric blurring of images The moon has about 1/100th of the mass of the earth and 1/4 the radius. What is the surface gravity of the moon compared to earth? - -16/100 Which would have the longest day and the shortest year? - -a planet that rotated slowly on its axis and orbited the sun rapidly A moon orbits its planet in exactly the same plane as the planet orbits its star. How often does the planet experience a solar eclipse? - -once every orbit of its moon (its month) The angular resolution of a telescope is important because - -it allows us to separate two nearby light sources What time is the waning crescent moon directly overhead? - -9am A new planet orbits its star faster than the earth orbits the sun and it rotates more slowly that the earth rotates which of the following is true? - -the new planet has a shorter year than earth and a longer day than earth Astronomy A star has a surface temperature of 50000k. In which region of the electromagnetic spectrum does the peak brightness occur? - -ultraviolet Stars that are in the same constellation: - -are likely to be at very different distances from us Two planets have the same radius. If planet a is 5x more massive than planet b, how does gravity differ on the surface of the planets? - -gravity is 5x stronger on planet a Astronomy