ASTRONOMY 5 MIDTERM EXAM PART I FALL 2009

60 QUESTIONS – 50 POINTS: Part I of the midterm constitutes the “Take-Home” portion of the entire midterm exam. Additionally, this “Take-Home” portion is divided into two parts.

The first portion can be found in your MasteringAstronomy account and is labeled “Midterm – Online Portion”. The questions asked there are directed at the first chapter listed in your reading assignment for Week 9 of the course (see your General Schedule of Activities document) and is conducted in the same manner as done with your weekly homework exercises where each question is worth 0.5 point. Therefore, this portion of the midterm has 20 questions for a total possible of 10 points.

The second portion of the “Take-Home” midterm is given below with 40 questions for a total possible of 40 points (1 point per question). Clearly print the answers to these questions on the answer form provided. Return this answer form to the White Box by NOON, Friday, October 30. [Note: Spelling and units count on this exam!!!]

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Part II of the Midterm (worth 50 points) will be given in the week beginning October 26 in your scheduled 3^rd hour. Part II of the midterm will require a Scantron 882 form and #2 pencil. Midterm parts I and II are worth 100 points total!

1. See FIGURE ‘A’. What is the name of this telescope?

2. See FIGURE ‘B’. In the Renaissance times, he proposed this model of the solar system (name this person).

3. See FIGURE ‘C’. What type of spectra is depicted in the FIGURE?

4. See FIGURE ‘D’. This person in the FIGURE discovered moons around which planet (name the planet)?

5. See FIGURE ‘E’. Which solar system model, the heliocentric or the geocentric, did the person in the FIGURE not support?

6. See FIGURE ‘F’. If an astronaut’s mass at the surface of the Earth is 60 kg, what would her mass be on the surface of the object pictured in the FIGURE?

7. See FIGURE ‘G’. In this standard H-R diagram, 4 regions have been highlighted as likely regions where stars may be plotted. In which region (1, 2, 3, 4) will most of the stars fall?

8. In FIGURE ‘G’ again, which region(s) could reasonably contain M type stars?

9. See FIGURE ‘H’: What type of spectrum would this object (when heated up) emit?

10. See FIGURE ‘I’. What is the planetary configuration of the planet Mars?

11. See FIGURE ‘J’. In the FIGURE the planet goes around in a counterclockwise direction around the Sun. Give the letter of the point that represents aphelion.

12. See FIGURE ‘K’ What is the magnification power of this telescope?

13. What is the light gathering power of this telescope (FIGURE ‘K’) compared to the human eye (diameter of eye lens = 5 mm)?

14. Suppose you are riding in your car and approaching a red light. How fast would need to go in order to make the red light (l_rest = 650 nm) appear to turn into a green light (l_shift = 510 nm)? Give your answer in terms of km/sec.

15. An observer in Seattle, Washington, would observe the North Star at what altitude (nearest degree)?

16. Which of the following parts of the Sun has the lowest temperature: the photosphere, the chromosphere or the corona?

17. Due to the precession of the Earth, in which constellation will the Vernal Equinox occupy next?

18. What constellation will the Full Moon occupy in April?

19. Which star map (SC001 or SC002) contains stars never seen in Minneapolis, Minnesota?

20. Suppose you have a nickel and a penny. Is the ratio of sizes between these larger or smaller than between Earth and Venus?

21. The average distance from the Sun of a newly discovered celestial body is 64 AU. How long does it take to go around the Sun (in years)?

22. For an observer in Hilo, Hawaii, what constellation would the Sun appear to occupy on July 7?

23. Which constellation could Mercury or Jupiter never appear in: Pisces, Cygnus, Leo, or Gemini?

For the following five questions, match the descriptions on the left to the people on the right (put the letter corresponding to the person on the answer sheet; letters are not repeated):

24. First to use ellipses as orbits a) Aristotle

25. Ancient Greek who believed in a heliocentric universe b) Tycho

26. First to measure the size of the Earth to good accuracy c) Galileo

27. Invented the first reflecting telescope d) Aristarchus

28. Discovered the phases of Venus using a telescope e) Erastosthenes

f) Nicolaus Copernicus

g) Ptolemy

h) Johannes Kepler

i) Isaac Newton

Answer the following three questions (29-31) using the atomic energy diagram below:

29. Which transition(s) (A,B,C,D,E,F,G) require an emission of a photon?

30. Which transition releases the greatest amount of energy?

31. Which transition absorbs the longest wavelength photon?

32. An object is observed from Earth to have its spectral lines red-shifted. Is the object moving away from Earth or towards the Earth?

33. When Jupiter is farthest from the Earth this year, is it nearly in what planetary alignment?

34. Are the largest telescopes used by astronomers refractors or reflectors?

35. What is the second most common element in a typical star?

36. Suppose star A and star B are identical in stellar properties but lie at different distances from the Earth. If the brightness of star A is 5 magnitudes brighter that star B, how much further away is star B as compared to star A?

37. Which star is the brightest that could be seen in the night sky (from Rocklin)?

38. If the Sun were 10 parsecs from the Earth, would it be visible, without the use of a telescope, in a dark, nighttime sky?

39. If the net force upon on object is 20 Newtons in the eastward direction, can it have a non-zero acceleration?

40. If photon A has twice the energy as photon B, and photon B is blue (wavelength = 450 nm), what color or what wavelength regime is photon A?

FIGURES PAGE

A- B-

C- D-

E- F-
G- H-