Term
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Definition
| Belt shapes region of the sky surrounding the ecliptic passes through twelve constellations |
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Definition
| Line we see that runs around the celestial sphere, traced by the sun as it moves through the constellations. |
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Definition
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Term
| Difference between mass and weight |
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Definition
Mass is how much space an object takes
Weight is how much gravity an object is pulling down on that object |
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Term
| What causes the interior of the Earth to be hot? |
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Definition
Four reasons:
1)Remnants from the impact when the earth was forming
2)Earth was hot and the heavy elements sunk to the core, takes longer too cool
3)Compression due to gravity
4)Decay of radioactive elemnts |
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Term
| The area off the coast of Japan is |
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Definition
| the ring of fire, major earthquake area, subduction zone |
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Term
| Plate motion along the San Andreas fault |
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Definition
| Land west of the fault moves northwest while the east moves southwest. They grind against each other. |
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Term
| Reason why the idea of continental drift was rejected |
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Definition
1) it had been shown that floating masses would collect at the equator and stay there
2) masses floating freely in a fluid substratum like icebergs in the ocean should be in isostatic equilibrium, and its not .
3) problem of why some parts of the earths surface should have solidified while other parts were still fluid. |
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Term
| Formation process and cause of smoothness of lunar maria |
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Definition
| Volcano rose to the surface causing the smoothness of the maria |
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Term
| Effect of the ocean tides on the Earth's rotation |
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Definition
| Tides create forces that slow the earths rotation and move the moon farther away-tidal braking |
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Term
| Principal cycles of the Moon's orbit |
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Definition
| New, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full, waning gibbous, third quarter, waning crescent, new |
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Term
| Why do lunar eclipses last longer than solar eclipses? |
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Definition
| The moon is smaller then the earth |
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Term
| Reason why the terrestrial planets are rocky |
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Definition
| They are too close to the sun and the lighter elements (gas) evaporated |
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Term
| Why do eclipses not occur each month? |
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Definition
| The moons orbit is tilted 5dagrees with respect to ecliptic plane, so it dosnt fall exactly on the path of the sun every month |
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Term
| Cratered surfaces are evidence of … |
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Definition
| Bombardment of smaller objects like meteors/meteorites |
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Term
| Four major techniques used to detect extrasolar planets |
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Definition
| Radial velocity, pulsar timing, transit method, gravitational microlensing, direct imaging.choose 4 |
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Term
| Composition of the clouds of Venus |
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Definition
| Venus – covered with deep sulfuric acid clouds in a dense CO2 atmosphere, |
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Term
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Definition
| Inferior conjunction is when Venus passes directly between the Earth and Sun, which happens 5 times in every 8 years, or about once every 1.6 years. |
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Term
| Why is the Martian sky pink? |
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Definition
| Because of all the dust storms. |
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Term
| Cause of the high surface temperature on Mercury |
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Definition
| Mercurys proximity to the sun and its lack of atmosphere. |
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Term
| Why did it take Messenger four years to get to Mercury? |
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Definition
| it had to use other planets gravitational forces as a slinghsot to get to its destination |
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Term
| Difference of the interiors of Uranus and Neptune from that of Jupiter |
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Definition
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Term
| Jovian planets in order of increasing atmospheric activity |
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Definition
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Term
| Evidence for a subsurface liquid ocean on Europa |
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Definition
| The apparent youth and smoothness of the surface have led to the hypothesis that a water ocean exists beneath it |
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Term
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Definition
| is the distance within which a celestial body, held together only by its own gravity, will disintegrate due to a second celestial body's tidal forces exceeding the first body's gravitational self-attraction |
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Term
| Problem computing circumference from angle of shadow |
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Definition
| (angle(°) )/(360°)= distance/circumference |
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Term
| What are right ascension and declination? |
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Definition
| RA = longitude, DEC = latitude |
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Term
| Two phenomena which prove that the Earth moves |
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Definition
| Stellar parallax and the aberration of starlight |
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Term
| Why is the inner core of Earth solid? |
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Definition
| Higher temperature and especially higher pressure at the center (crystallized iron and some nickel) |
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Term
| Directions of vibration and propagations in S waves and P waves |
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Definition
| S-waves: vibration is perpendicular to the direction of propagation, P-waves: vibration is parallel |
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Term
| Problem on distance, velocity, and time with seismic waves |
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Definition
| t = d/v d = distance, v = velocity, t = time |
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Term
| Composition of the plates on Earth’s surface |
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Definition
| Composition of the plates on Earth’s surface |
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Term
| Problem with the twin formation theory of the formation of the Moon |
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Definition
| It does not explain the density difference |
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Term
| Advantage of the transit method |
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Definition
| It can determine a planet’s diameter, and thus, can also calculate its density |
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Term
| characteristics of inner and outer planets |
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Definition
| It can determine a planet’s diameter, and thus, can also calculate its density |
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Term
| Why is there no planet in the asteroid zone? |
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Definition
| Jupiter’s gravity disrupted the accretion process |
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Term
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Definition
| an empirical numerical rule which correctly predicts the relative distance of most of the planets. Start with 0, 3, then double each preceding number (6, 12, etc.), add 4 to each number, and divide the result by 10. |
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Term
| planets with plate tectonics |
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Definition
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Term
| What were the canals on Mars as seen by Percival Lowell? |
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Definition
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Term
| Uses of radar for studying Venus |
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Definition
| Distance, rotation period, surface features—on Titan, also surface elevation |
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Term
| How does the Cassini mission penetrate the haze of Titan? |
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Definition
| Radar (bright surface = rough, dark surface = smooth) |
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Term
| Location of the ring systems of the giant planets |
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Definition
| Planet ? rings ? satellites |
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Term
| Why is the space near Jupiter a dangerous environment? |
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Definition
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Term
| Calculation of the Roche limit |
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Definition
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Term
| Temperature at a distance of one of the Jovian planets |
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Definition
| Inverse square law: T2/T1 = v(d1/d2) |
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Term
| Name of a piece of rock from space which lands on Earth |
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Definition
| Meteoroid (in space), meteor (in sky), meteorite (on Earth) |
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Term
| Dependence of kinetic energy of an asteroid on diameter and speed |
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Definition
| KE = 1/2 mv2, m = d3 ? KE = d3v2 |
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Term
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Definition
| Earth goes through the comet’s orbit while going around the Sun |
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Term
| Wien’s law problem on a logarithmic scale |
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Definition
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Term
| Doppler shifts in supernova spectra |
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Definition
| Red shift due to expansion of universe, also blue shift due to mass approaching us at a great velocity (we don’t see the red shift) |
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Term
| Problem to determine main sequence lifetime from mass and luminosity |
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Definition
| t = M/L * 1010 year (M and L are in solar units) |
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Term
| Range of masses of stars which will eventually become white dwarfs |
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Definition
| Minimum of .4 solar masses, maximum of 8 solar masses |
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Term
| Meaning of hydrostatic equilibrium |
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Definition
| Balance between forces of gravity and pressure |
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Term
| Why is our line of sight to the globular clusters clear? |
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Definition
| Many contain RR Lyrae stars, which are pulsating stars, globular clusters can be seen from great distances. Unlike open clusters, in which the stars eventually escape and the cluster dissolves, globular clusters pull the stars into a denser ball, there is not as much dust obscuring the view, and the larger number of stars in these clusters creates a stronger gravity, which pulls them in closer. Globular clusters outline the halo and bulge. |
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Term
| What maintains the spiral structure of the Milky Way? |
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Definition
| Density-wave theory: waves of stars and gas sweep around the galactic disk, we see it as a spiral arm, very wave-like. Some stars have greater gravitational force, which pulls in other stars temporarily and creates a “clump,” where stars can collide and form new stars. SSF Theory: self-propogating star formation, at a random point in the disk of a galaxy, a gas cloud collapses and turns into stars. The stars heat the gas around them, explode as supernovas, generate disturbances that make the surrounding gas clouds collapse and turn into stars. This keeps triggering more gas clouds to collapse and form additional stars, so star formation spreads across the galaxy’s disk, forms a spiral due to the difference in rotation rate between the inner and outer parts of the disk. |
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Term
| What maintains the spiral structure of the Milky Way? |
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Definition
| Density-wave theory: waves of stars and gas sweep around the galactic disk, we see it as a spiral arm, very wave-like. Some stars have greater gravitational force, which pulls in other stars temporarily and creates a “clump,” where stars can collide and form new stars. SSF Theory: self-propogating star formation, at a random point in the disk of a galaxy, a gas cloud collapses and turns into stars. The stars heat the gas around them, explode as supernovas, generate disturbances that make the surrounding gas clouds collapse and turn into stars. This keeps triggering more gas clouds to collapse and form additional stars, so star formation spreads across the galaxy’s disk, forms a spiral due to the difference in rotation rate between the inner and outer parts of the disk. |
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Term
| Problem to determine the mass of the central object by Kepler’s Third Law |
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Definition
| m + M = a3/p2 , m = mass , of smaller object , M = mass of larger object (sometimes not used), a = distance between objects (also semi-major axis), p = years to complete one orbit |
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Term
| The three main types of galaxies |
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Definition
| Spiral (barred and S0), elliptical, and irregular |
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Term
| What is the power source for active galaxies? |
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Definition
| Accretion disks around immense black holes, galaxy centers = black holes of at least 1 million solar masses |
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Term
| Evidence for dark matter in clusters of galaxies |
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Definition
| Evidence comes from observations of the motion of galaxies within clusters; galaxies in clusters orbit too rapidly for their luminous mass. Also, evidence comes from the hot gas they contain—this infers a strong inward gravitational pull on the gas to keep it contained |
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Term
| Celestial objects which can be directly imaged |
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Definition
| Objects whose redshift (z) is less than 1.645 |
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Term
| Celestial objects which cannot be directly images |
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Definition
| Objects whose redshift (z) is greater than 1.645 |
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Term
| Temperature of matter which emitted the cosmic background radiation, and reason it appears to have a temperature of 2.73 K today |
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Definition
| Temperature = approx. 3000 K. Initially, it had much shorter wavelengths, but those wavelengths have been stretched out over billions of years by the stretching of space associated with the expansion of the universe. 2.73 K is due to a redshift effect because of the expansion of the universe, rather than a cooling effect. |
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Term
| How we know that the expansion rate of the universe is accelerating |
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Definition
| The rate of expansion has been increasing. Dark energy is used to account for this expansion rate. Normal/dark matter would act to slow the expansion rate. With the universe’s thinning density over time, it means that the accelerating effect of the repulsive dark energy component dominates the decelerating effect of the attractive gravitational force. |
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Term
| The four distances used in cosmology |
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Definition
| Luminosity distance, Now distance, Light-travel-time distance, and Angular-size distance |
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Term
| Objects which can be used to test the angular-size vs. red shift relation at high redshift |
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Definition
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