Astronomy (Study Guide)

Astronomy
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Astronomy
Contents
INSTRUCTIONS: ..................................................................................................................................... 5
I. HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY................................................................................................................. 6
A. NATURE OF SCIENCE (SMITH, G. 1999, BRIEF HISTORY)................................................................................. 6

B. HOW SCIENTISTS THINK AND WORK (SMITH, G. 1999, BRIEF HISTORY) .................................................. 6
II. CELESTIAL MECHANICS, INCLUDING GRAVITATION AND RELATIVITY ......................................... 9
A. GRAVITY IS A NATURAL FORCE OF ATTRACTION EXERTED BY A CELESTIAL BODY ............................ 9

B. B. RELATIVITY ................................................................................................................................................................ 9
C. NEWTON’S LAWS OF MOTION ................................................................................................................................ 9
D. QUANTUM MECHANICS ............................................................................................................................................ 9
III. CELESTIAL SYSTEMS (NATIONAL EARTH SCIENCE TEACHERS ASSOCIATION) ..........................10
A. EARTH AND THE SKY ............................................................................................................................................... 10

B. EARTH AND THE MOON ......................................................................................................................................... 10
C. TIME AND THE CALENDAR .................................................................................................................................... 10
D. PHASES OF THE MOON: ......................................................................................................................................... 11
E. LUNAR ECLIPSES OCCUR WHEN THE MOON IS FULL .................................................................................. 11
IV. ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENTS (WIKIPEDIA.COM) ....................................................................12
A. IMPORTANT INVENTIONS CONTRIBUTING TO MEASURING AND ANALYZING STARLIGHT........... 12

B. TYPES OF TELESCOPES ........................................................................................................................................... 12
C. THE ELECTROMAGNETIC (EM) SPECTRUM IS THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF RADIATION. ..................... 13
D. LIGHT YEAR: A UNIT OF LENGTH EQUAL TO ABOUT SIX TRILLION MILES. ........................................... 13
E. RED SHIFT: ................................................................................................................................................................... 13
F. BLUE SHIFT:................................................................................................................................................................. 13
G. DOPPLER EFFECT: ..................................................................................................................................................... 14
V. THE SOLAR SYSTEM ........................................................................................................................15
A. EVOLUTION................................................................................................................................................................. 15
B. CONTENTS .................................................................................................................................................................. 15
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Astronomy
VI. THE SUN AND STARS: NATURE AND EVOLUTION........................................................................18
A. THE SUN IS THE CLOSEST STAR TO EARTH AND IS THE SOLAR SYSTEM’S CENTRAL STAR. ........... 18
B. TYPES OF STARS (CAIN, F. 2009).......................................................................................................................... 18
C. BLACK HOLES: THEY FORM WHEN A LARGE STAR RUNS OUT OF FUEL ............................................... 19
D. QUASARS: .................................................................................................................................................................... 19
E. PULSARS: ..................................................................................................................................................................... 19
VII. OUR GALAXY: CONTENTS AND STRUCTURE...............................................................................20
A. MILKY WAY IS THE GALAXY THAT CONTAINS THE EARTH. ....................................................................... 20

B. NEBULA: ....................................................................................................................................................................... 20
VIII. THE UNIVERSE: CONTENTS, STRUCTURE, AND EVOLUTION ....................................................21
A. BIG BANG THEORY (WIKIPEDIA.COM) ............................................................................................................ 21

B. GALAXIES:.................................................................................................................................................................... 21
C. COSMOLOGY: THE STUDY OF THE OVERALL STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE (NESTA, N.D.). ........ 21
IX. DETERMINING ASTRONOMICAL DISTANCES ...............................................................................22
A. ASTRONOMICAL UNIT (A.U.):................................................................................................................................ 22

B. PARSEC (PC): ............................................................................................................................................................... 22
X. LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE ....................................................................................................................23
A. EXOPLANETS: PLANETS OUTSIDE OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. ..................................................................... 23

B. PANSPERMIA: ............................................................................................................................................................. 23
DANTES TEST PREP ASTRONOMY PRACTICE TEST ...........................................................................24
ANSWER KEY .......................................................................................................................................31
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................32
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Astronomy
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Astronomy
I. History of Astronomy
A. Nature of science (Smith, G. 1999, Brief History)
1. Astronomy is the oldest of the sciences. Different stellar patterns that
appear in the sky signal what season it is.
a. Virgo and the accompanying constellations signals spring
b. Orion rises to indicate time to harvest and to prepare for winter
2. Lunar phases are the 30-day orbital period of the moon, which is the
equivalence of the human menstrual cycle and led people to believe that
the heavens and moon were related to fertility.
3. After the predicting of the seasons, eclipse prediction may have been one of the
earliest astronomical activities.
4. Stonehenge, constructed between 3100-2000 BCE on England’s Salisbury Plain,
may have been a Stone Age astronomical site. Certainly, the alignment of the
"heelstone" with the rising Sun on Midsummer's Day (June 21, the Summer
Solstice) represents a true astronomical alignment, and many other Megalithic
sites have similar alignments.
5. Guest Stars are comets, novae and other transients that eastern observers,
notably the Chinese, kept careful track of, and they kept track of related
events in the skies, particularly the appearance of
a. Comet Halley: can be traced back to 2440 BCE and possibly as
early as 1059
b. Taurus: one of the most important Chinese records is that this star
was bright enough to be seen during the daytime for nearly a
month in the constellation dated back to July 1054.
c. Crab Nebula: believed to have come from a supernova explosion. The
date of the explosion helps with our understanding of the deaths of
massive stars. It was documented by Anasazi in Chaco Canyon and by
Native Americans, but it is absent from European records in the Middle
Ages.
B. How scientists think and work (Smith, G. 1999, Brief History)

1. Pythagoras of Somas (580- 500 BCE)
a. Most famous for his theorem. It was actually known to the early
Babylonians that he may of been the first to prove it.
b. Founded a school of natural philosophy and mysticism. The
Pythagoreans lived by a strict regimen including vegetarianism, silence
for the first 5 years of membership, and anonymity with respect to
personal accomplishments (so that it is difficult to know what to
ascribe to Pythagoras as opposed to his followers).
c. Pythagoras developments in astronomy built upon those of
Anaximander from whom, apparently, came the idea of perfect
circular motion.
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Astronomy
d. The Pythagoreans believed that the planets were attached to

crystalline spheres, one for each planet, which produced the Music
of the Spheres.
e. Pythagoras is also credited with recognizing that both the "morning
star" and the "evening star" are the planet Venus
2. Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
a. Student of Plato
b. Founded the Lyceum, a school of Natural Philosophy in Athens at
about 335 BCE.
c. In Aristotelian cosmology, the "imperfect" Earth was situated at the
center of the Universe (Solar System). It was composed of the four
elements: earth, air, water, and fire, each of which sought its natural
place in the Universe (e.g. earthen bodies fall to Earth, rain falls from the
sky, travelling through rivulets, to streams, to rivers and finally to the
sea).
d. Aristotle adopted Pythagoras' model of concentric spheres for the
planets but deduced that Earth must be immobile.
e. Aristotle's Natural Philosophy was embodied in the writings of St.
Thomas Aquinas and became the foundation of Church doctrine and
University instruction in medieval times.
3. Aristarchus of Samos (310-230 BCE)
a. Concluded that the Solar System must be heliocentric, following his
geometrical estimates of the relative sizes and distances of the Earth,
Moon and Sun.
b. His geometrical methods were perfectly correct, but the required
observations of the exact time of first and third quarter Moon and the
duration of lunar eclipse were beyond the instrumental capabilities of
his era.
c. He calculated that the Sun is about twenty times farther away than the
Moon, about 20 times larger than the Moon and ten times bigger than
Earth.
4. Eratosthenes of Cyrene (276-197 BCE)
a. A mathematician and geographer
b. Developed a map of the world
c. Developed a method for finding prime numbers called
Eratosthenes’ Sieve.
d. Estimated the circumference of the Earth through a method of
determining the direction to the Sun in Alexandria at noon on the
summer solstice and comparing this with the fact that the Sun is
overhead in Syene (Aswan), about 500 miles away.
5. Claudius Ptolemy (86-165 AD)
a. Mathematician, geographer, and astronomer
b. Developed the most sophisticated mathematical model of the
motions of the solar system based upon the geocentric (Earth-
Centered) model and the principle of perfect circular motion.
c. Major astronomical work The Almagest
6. Nikolas Kopernig (Copernicus, 1473-1543)
a. Physician, attorney, and church administrator
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Astronomy
b. Developed a heliocentric model of the solar system that retained the

perfect circular motion but placed the Sun at the center and placed the
proper order of the planets outward from the sun.
7. Tycho Brahe (1546-1601)
a. Danish astronomer
b. Known for his detailed observations using his own instrument
design before telescopes.
8. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
a. First “modern scientist”
b. Developed the concept of inertia that was later refined by Newton
c. The acceleration of gravity is independent of mass
d. Developed the first Theory of Relativity that was valid for
velocities much smaller than the speed of light
e. Discovered sunspots on the sun and craters and mountains on the
moon
f. Discovered the rings of Saturn
g. Discovered the phases of Venus
9. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
a. Developed three mathematical rules for the orbits of the planets
i. The orbits of the planets are ellipses, with the Sun at one
focus.
ii. The planets sweep out equal areas during equal times of the
orbit.
iii. The square of the orbital period is proportional to the cube of
the planet’s distance from the Sun.
10. Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
a. Developed the Laws of Motion
b. Invented the mathematical tool we know as Calculus
c. Published Principia Mathematica, in 1687
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Astronomy
II. Celestial Mechanics, Including Gravitation and

Relativity
A. Gravity is a natural force of attraction exerted by a celestial
body
Gravity is a natural force of attraction exerted by a celestial body such as Earth, upon
objects at or near its surface, tending to draw them toward the center of the body. The
natural force of attraction between any two massive bodies, which is directly
proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of
the distance between them. (American Heritage Dictionary, 2009)
B. B. Relativity
1. General theory of relativity is a gravitation theory developed by
Einstein between 1907 and 1915. It is the theory that free fall is
inertial motion, an object in free fall is falling because that is how
objects move when there is no force being exerted on them, instead
of this being due to the force of gravity as is the case in classical
mechanics.
2. Special theory of relativity, which requires that the laws of physics
shall be the same as seen by any two different observers in uniform
relative motion (Collins English dictionary, 2003).
C. Newton’s Laws of Motion

1. Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in
that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.
2. The relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration
a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force
are vectors (as indicated by their symbols being displayed in
slant bold font); in this law the direction of the force vector is
the same as the direction of the acceleration vector.
3. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction (The Solar
System)
D. Quantum Mechanics
Quantum Mechanics is a branch of physics dealing with physical phenomena where the
action is of the order of Planck constant (wikipedia.com).
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Astronomy
III. Celestial Systems (National Earth Science

Teachers Association)
A. Earth and the sky
1. Earth’s atmosphere is a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen and other gasses. It becomes
thinner until it gradually reaches space.
2. Earth has a magnetic field with north and south poles. The Earth’s magnetic field
reaches 36,000 miles into space. It is surrounded in a region called the
magnetosphere. The magnetosphere prevents most of the particles from the sun,
carried in solar wind, from hitting the Earth.
B. Earth and the Moon

1. The Moon is Earth’s one natural satellite, and it is more than one quarter the size of
Earth. Its gravity is one sixth of the Earth’s gravity.
2. The Moon has a rocky solid top layer and then a partially molten zone. It has no
magnetic field.
3. The moon has no atmosphere to trap the heat, and the temperatures on the moon
are from 100 degrees C at noon to -173 degrees C at night.
4. It looks bright, but it only reflects light from the sun.
C. Time and the calendar

1. Day: It should be the time taken for one passage of the sun across the meridian to its
next crossing. The Earth’s movement around the Sun is not circular, and this causes the
time indicated by a sundial to be different from that measured on a clock.
2. Week: established the seven-day period from the period linked to the Biblical story of
Creation. The days are named after the sun, moon, and the five known planets.
3. Month: based on the lunar cycle, which is approximately 29.53 days.
4. Year: based on the number of days in one revolution of the Earth around the Sun, which
is approximately 365.24 days.
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Astronomy
D. Phases of the Moon:

The phases of the Moon have their own name according to how much of the illuminated
moon can be seen from Earth and whether this part will grow or shrink.
Phases of the Moon (NESTA)
E. Lunar Eclipses occur when the Moon is full and in a perfectly

straight line with the Sun and Earth.
Then the Earth’s shadow will block the reflection of sunlight onto the Moon. The Earth has two
types of shadows: the Umbra, where no part of the Sun can be seen, and the Penumbra, where
part of the Sun can be seen. These two types of Earth’s shadows give us three types of Lunar
Eclipses.
1. Partial Eclipse: when part of the moon passes through the Umbra
2. Total Eclipse: When the whole moon passes through the Umbra
3. Penumbral Eclipse: when the moon passes through the Penumbra.
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Astronomy
IV. Astronomical Instruments (Wikipedia.com)

A. Important inventions contributing to measuring and analyzing
starlight
1. Telescope - appeared in 1608 and Hans Lippershey is the earliest known person to
have applied for a patent for it.
2. “Practical Reflector” – This design consists of a small flat diagonal mirror to reflect the
eyepiece mounted on the side of the telescope and was invented by Isaac Newton in
1668.
3. Achromatic Lens - greatly reduced color aberrations in objective lenses and
allowed for shorter and more functional telescopes, which first appeared in 1733 in a
telescope by Chester Moore Hall.
4. Paraboloidal Mirrors were made larger by John Hadley in 1721
5. Silvering glass mirrors - then the idea of aluminum coatings that lasted longer were
both introduced by Leon Foucalt in 1857
6. Radio telescopes - invented by Karl Guthe Jansky along with radio astronomy in 1931
B. Types of Telescopes
1. Refracting Telescopes: Kepler was the first person to introduce the advantages of a
telescope constructed of two convex lenses.
2. Long Focal length refractors: telescopes that had long focal lengths at about 150 feet.
These types of telescopes needed scaffolding or long masts and cranes to hold them
up.
3. Aerial telescopes: Instead of using the long tubes of long refracting telescopes, the
objective was mounted on a swiveling ball-joint on top of a pole, tree, or any
available tall structure and was aimed by means of string or connecting rod.
4. Reflecting telescopes: A telescope in which light from the object is gathered and
focused by a concave mirror, with the resulting image magnified by the eyepiece
(American Heritage Dictionary).
5. Achromatic Refracting telescopes: The design overcame the need for very long focal
lengths in refracting telescopes by using an objective made of two pieces of glass with
different dispersion, "crown" and "flint glass," to limit the effects of chromatic and
spherical aberration. Each side of each piece is ground and polished, and then the two
pieces are assembled together. Achromatic lenses are corrected to bring two
wavelengths (typically red and blue) into focus in the same plane.
6. Apochromatic refractors: Have objectives with very low dispersion materials. Instead of
just two wavelengths like Achromatic lenses it includes red, blue and green.
7. Radio Telescopes: uses a directional radio antenna and usually in the form of a dish. It
can detect and collect data on radio sources.
8. Infrared telescopes: uses infrared light to detect celestial objects, and it is a form of
radiation that is in the electromagnetic spectrum.
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Astronomy
9. Optical telescope: gathers and focuses light mainly from the visible part of the
electromagnetic spectrum for directly viewing a magnified image for making a
photograph or collecting data through electronic image sensors.
10. Ultra-violet telescopes: Resemble optical telescopes, but use magnesium or lithium
fluoride instead of the aluminum-coated mirrors.
11. X-ray telescopes: used above the earth’s atmosphere to see x-rays from space.
12. Gamma-ray telescope: used to detect Gamma rays from the cosmos by satellite because
Gamma Rays are absorbed high in earth’s atmosphere.
13. Interferometric telescope: used to measure the diameter of a star.
C. The electromagnetic (EM) spectrum is the different types of

radiation.
Radiation is energy that spreads out as it travels. The following is a list of the spectrum from
lowest energy to highest. (Mattson, B et al, 2010)
1. Radio: Emitted by stars and other gases in space. The same type of energy emitted from
a radio.
2. Microwaves: Used to learn about the structure of nearby galaxies and the Milky Way.
3. Infrared: Maps the dust between stars.
4. Visible: Visible to the human eye. Emitted by many things including fireflies, light bulbs
and stars.
5. Ultraviolet: Emitted by the sun, stars and other hot objects in space.
6. X-rays: Emitted by hot gases in the Universe.
7. Gamma-rays: Emitted by radioactive materials. The biggest gamma-ray producer is the
Universe.
D. Light Year: a unit of length equal to about six trillion miles.

As defined by the International Astronomical Union, a light year is the distance that light travels
in a vacuum (space that is empty of matter) in one Julian year, a unit of measurement of time
defined as exactly 365.25 days of 86,400 SI seconds each, totaling 31,557,600 seconds (IAU, n.d).
E. Red Shift:
The wavelength of the light is stretched, so the light is seen as shifted towards the red part of
the spectrum. When a galaxy is moving away from us its light is shifted to longer, redder
wavelengths (ESA, 2004).
F. Blue Shift:
A decrease in wavelength. When a galaxy is moving toward us, the light will have a blue shift
(ESA, 2004).
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Astronomy
G. Doppler Effect:
Christian Doppler came up with the idea in 1842. He concluded that sound waves would have
a higher frequency if the source were moving toward the observer and a lower frequency if the
source was moving away from the observer. In astronomy, Edwin Hubble found that the light
from distant galaxies was red shifted, and he determined through the Doppler Effect that the
universe was expanding (NESTA, n.d.).
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Astronomy
V. The Solar System

A. Evolution
The solar system is believed to have formed when a cloud of gas and dust in space was
disturbed, maybe by the explosion of a nearby star, or supernova. This explosion made
waves and squeezed the cloud, which collapsed and formed a solar nebula. This cloud
got hotter and denser and the disk of gas and dust surrounding it got thinner and
particles started to attach to it and form clumps, which eventually became the planets
or moons (NESTA, n.d.).
B. Contents
Our solar system is made up of the sun, eight planets, five dwarf planets, and their 174
known moons, asteroids, comets, dust and gas. Most of the bodies in solar system
travel around the Sun, which is the center of our solar system, in a counterclockwise
direction (NESTA, n.d.). Listed are the planets and one dwarf planet starting with the
closest to the sun.
1. Mercury: often called a morning star because it shines brightly in the early
morning and can be seen from Earth.
a. Its diameter is 3020 miles.
b. Second to Earth as the densest planet in our Solar System.
c. Has no atmosphere or moons
d. Can reach about 870° F and get as low as -300°F.
e. Takes 87.969 days to orbit the sun
f. 36 million miles away from the sun
g. 5% of earth’s mass and volume (kidsastronomy.com)
h.
1. Venus
a. The diameter is 7523 miles
b. 67 million miles from the sun
c. Average temperature 850°
d. Takes 224.701 days to orbit the sun
e. 81% of earths mass and 86% of earth’s volume
f. Has no moons
g. Rotates in the opposite direction than almost all other planets
2. Earth
a. The diameter is 7926 miles
b. Currently about 7 billion people on earth
c. Takes 365.3 days to orbit the sun
d. Mass is 6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg
And the volume is 1,097,509,500,000,000,000,000 cubic meters.
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Astronomy
e. 93 million miles from the sun.

f. Average temperature is 45° F
3. Mars
a. Has two moons
b. Takes 686.98 days to orbit the sun
c. 10% of earth’s mass and 15% of earth’s volume
d. Maximum temperature 98° F minimum temperature is -190° F
e. 142 million miles from the sun
f. Diameter is 4222 miles
4. Jupiter
a. Has 50 moons
b. Diameter is 88,846 miles
c. Takes 4332.59 days to orbit the sun
d. 317 times more than earth’s mass and 1318 times more in volume
f. -244° F average temperature
5. Saturn
a. Has 53 official moons and 9 provisional moons
c. Takes 10,759.2 days to orbit the sun
d. Mass is 95 times more than earth and 744 times more than earth in
volume
6. Uranus
a. Has 27 moons
c. Takes 30,684 days to orbit the sun
d. Mass is 14.6 times more than earth and 67 times more than earth
e. 1,784 million miles away from the sun
f. -300°F average temperature
7. Neptune
a. Has 13 moons
c. Takes 60, 190 days to orbit the sun
d. Mass is 17 times more than earth and 57 times more than earth in
volume
e. 2,794 million miles from the sun
f. -370°F average temperature
8. Pluto
a. Has 3 moons
c. Takes 90,465 days to orbit the sun
d. Mass is .02% of earth’s and 1% of earth’s volume
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Astronomy
e. Is 3,647 million miles from the sun

g. Was once a regular planet, but it now considered a dwarf planet
9. Kuiper belt is a disc shaped region made of icy objects beyond the orbit of Neptune
(Nasa, n.d.).
10. Oort cloud is a cloud of objects that Dutch astronomer, Jan Oort, discovered that
certain comets come from (NASA, n.d.).
11. Comets are left over from the beginning of the solar system, about 4.6 billion
years ago. They are made of ice-coated, dark, organic material. They are said to
have brought water and organic compounds to earth (NASA, n.d.).
12. Asteroids are also left over from the beginning of solar system. They are made up
rocky fragments.
13. Meteors and Meteorites are pieces of material falling through Earth’s
atmosphere; they are heated to incandescence by the friction of the air.
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Astronomy
VI. The Sun and Stars: Nature and Evolution
A. The Sun is the closest star to Earth and is the solar system’s
central star.
At the core, the temperature is 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. It got its name from the ancient
Romans who named it “Sol,” which is translated to Sun in modern English. The Sun has different
regions and wavelengths.
Regions of the Sun (windowsoftheuniverse.com)
1. Photosphere (visible region)

2. Corona
3. Magnetic Field
4. Chromosphere
B. Types of Stars (Cain, F. 2009)

1. Protostar: It is the collection of gas that has collapsed down from a giant molecular
cloud before a star forms.
2. T Tauri Star: is the end of the protostar phase that is before it becomes a main
sequence star. T Tauri Stars are in this stage for more than a hundred million years when
the gravitational pressured holding the star together is the source of all its energy.
3. Main Sequence Star: majority of our stars, including our Sun, are main sequence
stars. They convert hydrogen into helium in their cores, releasing a tremendous amount
of energy.
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Astronomy
4. Red Giant Star: when a star has consumed its stock of hydrogen in its core, fusion stops
and the star no longer generates an outward pressure to counteract the inward pressure
pulling it together. A shell of hydrogen around the core ignites continuing the life of the
star, but this causes it to increase in size dramatically. Lasts a few hundred million years
and can be up to a 100 times larger than a main sequence star.
5. White Dwarf Star: When a star has completely run out of hydrogen fuel in its core and
lacks the mass to force higher elements into fusion reaction, it becomes a white dwarf
star. This phase lasts hundreds of billions of years.
6. Red Dwarf Star: The most common kind of star. They have a low mass and are cooler
than main sequence stars. They are able to keep the hydrogen fuel mixing into their
core and can conserve fuel a lot longer than other stars, which help the burn for up to
10 trillion years.
7. Neutron Stars: When a star dies in a catastrophic supernova explosion, the remaining
core is a neutron star.
8. Supergiant Stars: the largest star in the Universe, at dozens of times the mass of the sun.
Supergiants are consuming hydrogen fuel at an enormous rate and will consume all the
fuel in their cores within just a few million years.
C. Black Holes: they form when a large star runs out of fuel and can
no longer support its weight.
The pressure from the star’s massive layers of hydrogen press down, forcing the star to get
smaller. Works like a vacuum but uses the power of gravity to pull things toward it. There are
three parts to a black hole:
1. Outer event horizon: Outer layer, the gravity is not so strong
2. Inner event horizon: Middle layer, gravity is stronger and does not let go
3. Singularity: Center, gravity is the strongest (Lavender, G. 2012)
D. Quasars:
These objects are the very bright centers of some galaxies, where some sort of energetic action
is occurring, most likely due to the presence of a supermassive black hole at the center of that
galaxy (Simonetti J. n.d.)
E. Pulsars:
Is a rapidly spinning neutron star that had a mechanism to beam light, much like a lighthouse.
It is connected with very strong magnetic fields spinning with the star.
1. Crab Pulsar: the most famous pulsar can be found in the Crab Nebula. The Crab Nebula
is the shattered remnant of a massive star that died in a supernova explosion.
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Astronomy
VII. Our Galaxy: Contents and Structure

A. Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Earth.
It looks like a dim, milky, glowing band that arches across the night sky. We cannot make out
the individual stars through the naked eye. The distance from the center of the galaxy to the
sun is 26,000 light years. It contains about 200 billion stars, but most are not visible from earth
(Jeananda, C, 1996).
B. Nebula:
A cloud of gas and dust in outer space. They are very large and can span across many light years
(Lavender, G, 2012). There are different types of Nebulae:
1. Emission Nebulae:
a. emit their own light.
b. has young stars within their gas clouds and takes energy and heat from these
stars.
c. the ultraviolet radiation from these young stars supercharge the hydrogen in
the nebula gas cloud, causing it to glow brightly.
d. they are usually red or pink because of the ultraviolet radiation.
2. Reflection Nebulae
a. they are blue because they don’t emit their own light like an emission nebula;
they reflect light from the stars around them.
b. light passing by a particle of dust scatters only the blue color, which travels
around bouncing off of dust particles until it escapes and reaches our eyes.
c. also called a blue nebula.
3. Planetary Nebulae
a. formed when a dying sun star begins to shed its outer layers.
4. Bok Globule
a. different from other clouds of gas and dust because of its density.
b. there is a lot of dust and gas that blocks the light behind it.
20
Astronomy
VIII. The Universe: Contents, Structure, and Evolution

A. Big Bang Theory (Wikipedia.com)
The Universe was once an extremely hot and dense state that expanded rapidly. The rapid
expansion caused the universe to cool, and it is what we have presently. The current state has
been in existence for about 13.7 billion years. It was proposed by Georges Lemaitre, and the
phrase was coined by Fred Hoyle in 1949.
B. Galaxies:
there are billions of galaxies in the Universe. There are three types according to what shape they
are (Lavender, G. 2012):
1. Spiral: long twisting arms where stars are being formed.
2. Elliptical: stars are very old, and this galaxy does not actively create new stars. The stars
are also very close together making the center look like one giant star.
3. Irregular: all the galaxies that are not spiral or elliptical.
C. Cosmology: the study of the overall structure of the universe

(NESTA, n.d.).
21
Astronomy
IX. Determining Astronomical Distances

A. Astronomical Unit (A.U.):
used for distances within our solar system. 1 AU is equal to the average distance between
the Earth and the Sun.
B. Parsec (pc):
the distance unit that is convenient for measuring distances to stars by triangulation.
Used for stars, galaxies and mostly everything else. 1pc is equal to 3.26 light years, which is
the distance to the nearest star.
1. kiloparsecs (kpc): used for distances within our galaxy or other galaxies 1 kpc is equal
to 1,000 pc.
2. megaparsecs (mpc): used for distances between galaxies and cosmology. 1 Mpc is
equal to 1 million pc.
3. The exception to these is when one is studying smaller objects, such as a star or a planet;
then we might use kilometers. For dust grains, we might use microns (1/1,000,000 of a
meter) (Keohane, J. 2005).
22
Astronomy
X. Life in the Universe

A. Exoplanets: planets outside of our solar system.
The star and its planet orbit around each other. The planets move in a wide orbit, while the
star just appears to wobble slightly. Scientists measure the Doppler shift of the light coming
from the star, and they can detect these Exoplanets.
B. Panspermia:
the hypothesis that life exists throughout the Universe distributed by meteoroids, asteroids
and planetoids. The hypothesis is that life can survive the effects of space and become
trapped in debris that is ejected into space after collisions between planets that harbor life
and small solar system bodies (Wikipedia.com).
23
Astronomy
Dantes Test Prep Astronomy Practice Test

1. What does Orion indicate when it rises?
a. Time to prepare for winter
b. Six more weeks of winter
c. Arrival of spring
d. An eclipse
2. What do Virgo and the accompanying constellations signal?

a. Time to prepare for winter
b. Six more weeks of winter
c. Arrival of spring
d. An eclipse
3. How long is a lunar phase?

a. 60 days
b. 45 days
c. 30 days
d. 1 day
4. Who is credited with recognizing the morning and evening star as Venus?
a. Pythagoras
b. Aristotle
c. Galileo
d. Aristarchus
5. According to Aristotelian cosmology, where is the “imperfect” earth situated?

a. The north corner
b. The center of the Universe
c. The south corner
d. None of the above
6. Erastosthenes of Cyrene developed a map of the _____?

a. The solar system
b. The stars
c. The sun’s orbit
d. The world
7. What is Claudius Ptolemy major astronomical work?

a. The Almagest
b. Principia Mathematica
c. Theory of relativity
d. Three mathematical rules for the orbits of the planets
24
Astronomy
8. Which occupation did Nikolas Kopernig not have?

a. Physician
b. Attorney
c. Church Administrator
d. Astronomer
9. What is Tycho Brahe known for?

a. Discovered the rings of Saturn
b. Discovered the rings of Venus
c. Wrote the Almagest
d. Detailed observations using his own instrument
10. Who discovered the Rings of Saturn and Venus?

a. Claudius Ptolemy
b. Tycho Brahe
c. Galileo Galilei
d. Nikolas Kopernig
11. Isaac Newton is credited with _____?

a. The Laws of Motion
b. Inventing Calculus
c. Publishing Principia Mathematica
d. All of the above
12. _____ is the natural force of attraction exerted by a celestial body, such as earth, upon objects
at or near its surface, tending to draw them toward the center of the body.
a. Gravity
b. Theory of Relativity
c. Special theory of Relativity
d. Quantum Mechanics
13. Which is not one of Newton’s Laws of Motion?

a. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction
b. Free fall is inertial motion
c. Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion
unless an external force is applied to it.
d. All are Newton’s Laws of Motion
14. The days of the week are named after _____?

a. Five known planets at the time
b. The sun
c. The moon
d. All of the above
25
Astronomy
15. A calendar month is based on ______?

a. The Earth’s cycle
b. The Sun’s cycle
c. The Lunar cycle
d. A biblical story
16. The phases of the moon are named according to _______?

a. How much of illuminated Moon can be seen from Earth
b. Where the moon is located
c. The time of year
d. None of the above
17. A Lunar Eclipse occurs when _____?

a. The Moon reflects the Sun
b. The Moon is full and in a perfectly straight line with the Sun, and Earth
c. The Moon blocks the reflection of the Sun
d. None of the Above
18. Which of the following is not a type of Lunar Eclipse?

a. Full Eclipse
b. Partial Eclipse
c. Total Eclipse
d. Penumbral Eclipse
19. A(n) _____ is used to greatly reduce color aberrations in objective lenses and allowed for
shorter and more functional telescopes.
a. Achromatic lens
b. Practical reflector
c. Paraboloidal mirror
d. Silvering glass mirror
20. Which telescope has the objective mounted on a swiveling ball joint on top of a pole, tree, or
any available tall structure?
a. Refracting telescope
b. Long Focal length refractor
c. Aerial telescope
d. Radio telescope
21. Which telescope gathers and focuses light mainly from the visible part of the electromagnetic
spectrum?
a. Refracting telescope
b. Aerial telescope
c. Radio telescope
d. Optical telescope
26
Astronomy
22. Which telescope is used to measure the diameter of a star?

a. Ultra violet telescope
b. Interferometric telescope
c. X-ray telescope
d. Gamma ray telescope
23. _____ is the different types of radiation.

a. Electromagnetic spectrum
b. Infrared
c. Gamma ray
d. Ultra violet
24. _____ is the unit of length equal to about six trillion miles.
a. Light year
b. Parsec
c. Julian year
d. Megaparsec
25. When a galaxy is moving away from us, its light will have a _____.
a. Doppler effect
b. Red shift
c. Blue shift
d. Gamma
26. When a galaxy is moving toward us, its light will have a _____.
a. Doppler effect
b. Red shift
c. Blue shift
d. Gamma
27. Edwin Hubble used _____ to determine that the universe was expanding.
a. Doppler Effect
b. Evolution
c. Blue shift
d. Red shift
28. How many planets are there in our solar system?

a. 9
b. 8
c. 7
d. 5
27
Astronomy
29. How many dwarf planets are there in our solar system?
a. 9
b. 8
c. 7
d. 5
30. What is the center of our solar system?

a. Earth
b. Moon
c. Sun
d. None of these
31. Which planet is often called a morning star?

a. Mercury
b. Venus
c. Mars
d. Neptune
32. Which planet is second closest to the sun?

a. Mercury
b. Venus
c. Mars
d. Neptune
33. Which planet has 27 moons?

a. Mars
b. Jupiter
c. Saturn
d. Uranus
34. _____ is now redefined as a dwarf planet.

a. Mars
b. Jupiter
c. Saturn
d. Pluto
35. _____ is a disc shaped region made of icy objects beyond the orbit of Neptune.
a. Kuiper belt
b. Oort cloud
c. Comet
d. Asteroid
28
Astronomy
36. Discovered by a Dutch astronomer that certain comets come from.

a. Kuiper belt
b. Oort cloud
c. Comet
d. Asteroid
37. _____ are made of ice-coated dark material.

a. Kuiper belt
b. Oort cloud
c. Comet
d. Asteroid
38. _____ are made up of rocky fragments.

a. Kuiper belt
b. Oort cloud
c. Comet
d. Asteroid
39. _____ are heated to incandescence by the friction of the air.

a. Comets
b. Asteroids
c. Stars
d. Meteors and Meteorites
40. Which of the following is not a region of the sun?

a. Photosphere
b. Corona
c. Chromosphere
d. All are regions of the sun
41. Which star is the end of the protostar phase?

a. Prostar
b. T Tauri Star
c. Main Sequence
d. Red Giant Star
42. What type of star is our sun?

a. Main sequence
b. Red Giant
c. Protostar
d. Red Dwarf
29
Astronomy
43. What type of star is most common?

a. Main Sequence
b. Red Giant
c. Protostar
d. Red Dwarf
44. _____ form when a large star runs out of fuel and can no longer support its own weight.
a. Neutron Star
b. Black hole
c. Quasars
d. Pulsars
45. _____ is the galaxy that contains Earth.

a. Milky way
b. Crap Pulsar
c. Crab Nebula
d. None of these
46. What types of nebula emit their own light?

a. Reflection
b. Emission
c. Bok Globule
d. Planetary
47. Which is not a type of galaxy?

a. Spiral
b. Elliptical
c. Irregular
d. Elongated
48. _____ is equal to the average distance between the Earth and Sun.
a. Parsec
b. Kiloparsec
c. Astronomical unit
d. Megaparsec
49. _____ is the distance unit that is convenient for measuring distances to stars by triangulation.
a. Astronomical Unit
b. Parsec
c. Kiloparsec
d. Megaparsec
50. _____ are planets outside of our solar system.

a. External Planets
b. Exoplanets
c. Outer Planets
d. Differential Planets
30
Astronomy
Answer Key
1. A) Time to prepare for winter 26. C) Blue Shift
2. C) Arrival of Spring 27. A) Doppler Effect
3. C) 30 days 28. B) 8
4. A) Pythagoras 29. D) 5
5. B) The center of the Universe 30. C) Sun
6. D) The world 31. A) Mercury
7. A) The Almagest 32. B) Venus
8. D) Astronomer 33. D) Uranus
9. D) Detailed observations using his own 34. D) Pluto

instruments
35. A) Kuiper belt
10. C) Galileo Galilei
36. B) Oort Cloud
11. D) All of the Above
37. C) Comet
12. A) Gravity
38. D) Asteroid
13. B) Free fall is inertial motion
39. D) Meteors and Meteorites
14. D) All of the above
40. D) All are regions of the Sun
15. C) The Lunar Cycle
41. B) T Tauri Star
16. A) How much of illuminated moon can be
42. A) Main Sequence
seen from Earth
43. D) Red Dwarf
17. B) The Moon is full and in a perfectly
straight line with the Sun, and Earth 44. B) Black Holes
18. A) Full Eclipse 45. A) Milky Way
19. A) Achromatic Lens 46. B) Emission
20. C) Aerial Telescope 47. D) Elongated
21. D) Optical Telescope 48. C) Astronomical Unit
22. B) Interferometric Telescope 49. B) Parsec
23. A) Electromagnetic Spectrum 50. B) Exoplanets
24. A) Light Year
25. B) Red Shift
31
Astronomy
References
Astronomy 161; The Solar System. (n.d.). Retrieved on February 28, 2012 from
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/index.html
Cain, F. (2009). Types of Stars. Retrieved on March 15, 2012

http://www.universetoday.com/24299/types-of-stars/
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged (2003). HarperCollins Publishers

International Astronomical Union. (n.d.). The IAU and astronomical units. Retrieved on March 12, 2012
from http://www.iau.org/public/measuring/
Dunbar, B. (2008). Crab Nebula. Retrieved on March 15, 2012 from

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_567.html
European Space Agency. (2004). Red Shift. Retrieved on March 12, 2012 from
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM8AAR1VED_index_0.html
Jeananda, C. (1998). Our Solar System. Retrieved on March 16, 2012 from
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/solarsystem/where.shtml
Keohane, J. (2005). Ask an astrophysicist. Retrieved March 17, 2012 from

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/980226c.html
Lavender, G. (2012). Black Holes. Retrieved on March 15, 2012 from

http://www.kidsastronomy.com/black_holeB.htm
Lavender, G. (2012). Galaxies. Retrieved on March 17, 2012 from

Lavender, G. (2012). Nebula. Retrieved on March 15, 2012 from

Mattson, Dr. B., Lochner, J., Gibb, M., Newman, P. (2010). Electromagnetic Spectrum. Retrieved on
March 12, 2012 from http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/emspectrum.html.
National Earth Science Teachers Association. (n.d.) Windows to the Universe. Retrieved on February 29,
2012 from http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/moons_and_rings.html
Quantum Mechanics. (n.d.). Retrieved on February 28, 2012 from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics
32
Astronomy
Refracting Telescope (2012). Retrieved on March 12, 2012 from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refracting_telescope
Simonetti, J. (n.d.) Frequently Asked Questions About Quasars. Retrieved on March, 15, 2012 from
http://www.phys.vt.edu/~jhs/faq/quasars.html#q1
Smith, G. (1999). A Brief history of Astronomy. Retrieved on February 18, 2012 from
http://cass.ucsd.edu/archive/public/tutorial/History.html
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. (2009) Houghton Mifflin Company.
32

Astronomy (Study Guide)

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Astronomy

** The purpose of this study guide is to familiarize yourself with the

A. NATURE OF SCIENCE (SMITH, G. 1999, BRIEF HISTORY)................................................................................. 6

A. GRAVITY IS A NATURAL FORCE OF ATTRACTION EXERTED BY A CELESTIAL BODY ............................ 9

A. EARTH AND THE SKY ............................................................................................................................................... 10

A. IMPORTANT INVENTIONS CONTRIBUTING TO MEASURING AND ANALYZING STARLIGHT........... 12

VI. THE SUN AND STARS: NATURE AND EVOLUTION........................................................................18

A. MILKY WAY IS THE GALAXY THAT CONTAINS THE EARTH. ....................................................................... 20

A. BIG BANG THEORY (WIKIPEDIA.COM) ............................................................................................................ 21

A. ASTRONOMICAL UNIT (A.U.):................................................................................................................................ 22

A. EXOPLANETS: PLANETS OUTSIDE OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. ..................................................................... 23

ANSWER KEY .......................................................................................................................................31

◉ Attend class to ensure your money-back guarantee.

We look forward to helping you achieve your academic goals!

© 2015 DantesTestPrep, LLC.

B. How scientists think and work (Smith, G. 1999, Brief History)

d. The Pythagoreans believed that the planets were attached to

b. Developed a heliocentric model of the solar system that retained the

II. Celestial Mechanics, Including Gravitation and

C. Newton’s Laws of Motion

III. Celestial Systems (National Earth Science

B. Earth and the Moon

C. Time and the calendar

D. Phases of the Moon:

Phases of the Moon (NESTA)

E. Lunar Eclipses occur when the Moon is full and in a perfectly

IV. Astronomical Instruments (Wikipedia.com)

C. The electromagnetic (EM) spectrum is the different types of

D. Light Year: a unit of length equal to about six trillion miles.

V. The Solar System

e. 93 million miles from the sun.

e. Is 3,647 million miles from the sun

VI. The Sun and Stars: Nature and Evolution

Regions of the Sun (windowsoftheuniverse.com)

1. Photosphere (visible region)

B. Types of Stars (Cain, F. 2009)

VII. Our Galaxy: Contents and Structure

VIII. The Universe: Contents, Structure, and Evolution

C. Cosmology: the study of the overall structure of the universe

IX. Determining Astronomical Distances

X. Life in the Universe

Dantes Test Prep Astronomy Practice Test

2. What do Virgo and the accompanying constellations signal?

3. How long is a lunar phase?

5. According to Aristotelian cosmology, where is the “imperfect” earth situated?

6. Erastosthenes of Cyrene developed a map of the _____?

7. What is Claudius Ptolemy major astronomical work?

8. Which occupation did Nikolas Kopernig not have?

9. What is Tycho Brahe known for?

10. Who discovered the Rings of Saturn and Venus?

11. Isaac Newton is credited with _____?

13. Which is not one of Newton’s Laws of Motion?

14. The days of the week are named after _____?

15. A calendar month is based on ______?

16. The phases of the moon are named according to _______?

17. A Lunar Eclipse occurs when _____?

18. Which of the following is not a type of Lunar Eclipse?

22. Which telescope is used to measure the diameter of a star?

23. _____ is the different types of radiation.

28. How many planets are there in our solar system?