AS101 Final Exam Test Bank
Module 1:
Question 1: Which of the following is largest?
A) Size of a typical galaxy
B) 1 Astronomical unit
C) Distance to the nearest star (other than our sun)
D) 1 light year
E) size of Pluto’s orbit
Question 2: On the Cosmic Calendar about when did the solar system begin to form?
Answer: Sometime around Labour Day – September 1
Question 3: Which of the following statements does not use the term light year in an
appropriate way?
Answer: It will take me light-years to complete this homework assignment.
Question 4: On the Cosmic Calendar (where the age of the universe in condensed into the
equivalent to one calendar year) most of recorded history takes up what portion of the “year”?
Answer: the last few seconds of the year
Question 5: Which of the following is furthest from the Sun?
A) a comet in the Kuiper belt
B) an asteroid in the asteroid belt
C) a comet in the Oort cloud
D) Pluto
E) Neptune
Question 6: What is an Astronomical Unit (AU)?
a) 1.5 x 108 kilometres (km).
b) 1.5 x 1011 metres
c) 150 million kilometres
d) The average distance between the Sun and the Earth.
e) All of the above
Question 7: Which of the following best describes the Milky Way Galaxy?
Answer: A spiral galaxy with a disk about 80,000 light-years in diameter and containing between
100 billion and 1 trillion stars
Question 8: Which of the following statements about the sizes of stars is most true?
Answer: Rigel, the bluish star representing the left foot of Orion, is considerably larger than the
Sun
,Question 9: The nearest star to the Sun (and us) is Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf in the Alpha
Centauri system. How far away from the Sun is Proxima Centauri?
Answer: 4.2 light years
Question 10: Which of the following is closest to the Sun?
a) Mercury
b) Earth
c) Saturn
d) Pluto
e) A comet in the Oort Cloud
Question 11: What is light year?
Answer: The distance light travels in one year
Question 12: On the Cosmic Calendar when did the big bang occur?
Answer: January 1
Question 13: The order of the planets beyond Earth, away from the Sun, is
Answer: Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto
Question 14: Which of the following statements about sidereal and solar days is not true?
Answer: The time it takes for the Moon to make one circuit of our sky is one solar day.
Question 15: Which of the following correctly describes the meridian in your sky?
Answer: a half-circle extending from your horizon due north, through your zenith, to your
horizon due south
Question 16: Which of the following statements about the ecliptic plane is not true?
Answer: It is the plane of the Moon's orbit around the Earth.
Question 17: What makes the North Star, Polaris, special?
Answer: It appears very near the north celestial pole.
Question 18: Which of the following statements about the Celestial Sphere is not true.
Answer: The Celestial Equator lies in the Ecliptic Plane
Question 19: The ecliptic is the apparent path of the Sun moving how?
Answer: eastward among the stars
Question 20: What is the ecliptic?
Answer: The Sun's apparent path along the celestial sphere
, Question 21: You are standing on the Earth's equator at midnight. Which way is Polaris, the
North star?
Answer: on the northern horizon
Question 22: Suppose you live on the Moon. How long is a day (i.e., from sunrise to sunrise)?
Answer: a lunar month
Question 23: Which of the following statements about the Moon is true?
Answer: The Moon's distance from the Earth varies during its orbit.
Question 24: We can't detect stellar parallax with naked-eye observations. Which of the
following would make parallax easier to observe?
Answer: increasing the size of the earths orbit
Question 25: Patterns of stars in constellations hardly change in appearance over times of even
a few thousand years. Why?
Answer: The stars in our sky actually move rapidly relative to us thousands of kilometres per
hour but are so far away that it takes a long time for this motion to make a noticeable change in
the patterns in the sky.
Question 26: Each cycle of the Earth’s precession takes about
Answer: 26,000 years
Question 27: What happens during the apparent retrograde motion of a planet?
Answer: The planet appears to move westward with respect to the stars over a period of many
nights.
Question 28: If the Moon was in its same orbital plane but twice as far from Earth, which of the
following would happen?
Answer: Total eclipses of the Sun would not happen.
Question 29: The tilt of the Earth’s axis causes the seasons because
Answer: the rays of light strike the ground more directly in summer
Question 30: On the vernal and autumnal equinoxes
a) every place on Earth has 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness
b) the Sun rises due east and sets due west
c) the Sun’s path is coincident with the celestial equator
d) all of A, B and C
Question 31: The number of days in a month is associated with
Answer: Lunar Phases
Module 1:
Question 1: Which of the following is largest?
A) Size of a typical galaxy
B) 1 Astronomical unit
C) Distance to the nearest star (other than our sun)
D) 1 light year
E) size of Pluto’s orbit
Question 2: On the Cosmic Calendar about when did the solar system begin to form?
Answer: Sometime around Labour Day – September 1
Question 3: Which of the following statements does not use the term light year in an
appropriate way?
Answer: It will take me light-years to complete this homework assignment.
Question 4: On the Cosmic Calendar (where the age of the universe in condensed into the
equivalent to one calendar year) most of recorded history takes up what portion of the “year”?
Answer: the last few seconds of the year
Question 5: Which of the following is furthest from the Sun?
A) a comet in the Kuiper belt
B) an asteroid in the asteroid belt
C) a comet in the Oort cloud
D) Pluto
E) Neptune
Question 6: What is an Astronomical Unit (AU)?
a) 1.5 x 108 kilometres (km).
b) 1.5 x 1011 metres
c) 150 million kilometres
d) The average distance between the Sun and the Earth.
e) All of the above
Question 7: Which of the following best describes the Milky Way Galaxy?
Answer: A spiral galaxy with a disk about 80,000 light-years in diameter and containing between
100 billion and 1 trillion stars
Question 8: Which of the following statements about the sizes of stars is most true?
Answer: Rigel, the bluish star representing the left foot of Orion, is considerably larger than the
Sun
,Question 9: The nearest star to the Sun (and us) is Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf in the Alpha
Centauri system. How far away from the Sun is Proxima Centauri?
Answer: 4.2 light years
Question 10: Which of the following is closest to the Sun?
a) Mercury
b) Earth
c) Saturn
d) Pluto
e) A comet in the Oort Cloud
Question 11: What is light year?
Answer: The distance light travels in one year
Question 12: On the Cosmic Calendar when did the big bang occur?
Answer: January 1
Question 13: The order of the planets beyond Earth, away from the Sun, is
Answer: Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto
Question 14: Which of the following statements about sidereal and solar days is not true?
Answer: The time it takes for the Moon to make one circuit of our sky is one solar day.
Question 15: Which of the following correctly describes the meridian in your sky?
Answer: a half-circle extending from your horizon due north, through your zenith, to your
horizon due south
Question 16: Which of the following statements about the ecliptic plane is not true?
Answer: It is the plane of the Moon's orbit around the Earth.
Question 17: What makes the North Star, Polaris, special?
Answer: It appears very near the north celestial pole.
Question 18: Which of the following statements about the Celestial Sphere is not true.
Answer: The Celestial Equator lies in the Ecliptic Plane
Question 19: The ecliptic is the apparent path of the Sun moving how?
Answer: eastward among the stars
Question 20: What is the ecliptic?
Answer: The Sun's apparent path along the celestial sphere
, Question 21: You are standing on the Earth's equator at midnight. Which way is Polaris, the
North star?
Answer: on the northern horizon
Question 22: Suppose you live on the Moon. How long is a day (i.e., from sunrise to sunrise)?
Answer: a lunar month
Question 23: Which of the following statements about the Moon is true?
Answer: The Moon's distance from the Earth varies during its orbit.
Question 24: We can't detect stellar parallax with naked-eye observations. Which of the
following would make parallax easier to observe?
Answer: increasing the size of the earths orbit
Question 25: Patterns of stars in constellations hardly change in appearance over times of even
a few thousand years. Why?
Answer: The stars in our sky actually move rapidly relative to us thousands of kilometres per
hour but are so far away that it takes a long time for this motion to make a noticeable change in
the patterns in the sky.
Question 26: Each cycle of the Earth’s precession takes about
Answer: 26,000 years
Question 27: What happens during the apparent retrograde motion of a planet?
Answer: The planet appears to move westward with respect to the stars over a period of many
nights.
Question 28: If the Moon was in its same orbital plane but twice as far from Earth, which of the
following would happen?
Answer: Total eclipses of the Sun would not happen.
Question 29: The tilt of the Earth’s axis causes the seasons because
Answer: the rays of light strike the ground more directly in summer
Question 30: On the vernal and autumnal equinoxes
a) every place on Earth has 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness
b) the Sun rises due east and sets due west
c) the Sun’s path is coincident with the celestial equator
d) all of A, B and C
Question 31: The number of days in a month is associated with
Answer: Lunar Phases
