Astro 100 Mini-Practice Exam (Midterm #1)

Multiple Choice Questions for Chapters 1 and 2

The Universe, Nature of Science, Daily and Yearly Motion of the Sky

Spring 2022

1. You are on a camping trip, far away from city lights. You look up into the dark night
sky, and see lots of stars, some brighter, some dimmer. All the stars you see with your
unaided eye are

a. in our solar system

b. equally close to the Sun

c. in the Milky Way Galaxy

d. outside the universe

e. just reflections of the Sun from a shiny surface beyond Pluto

2. Of these, which is the largest?

a. Earth

b. The Solar System

c. Jupiter

d. The Milky Way Galaxy

e. The Universe

3. Light travels 3 x 105 meters every second. That number in words is

a. 30 meters

b. 3,105 meters

c. 310 meters

d. 300,000 meters

e. none of the above

4. The laws of nature (as determined by scientists)

a. are constructed from many observations, hypotheses, and experiments

c. can never, ever change once they are written down in textbooks

d. are often written in the language of mathematics

e. more than one of the above

5. Which of the following is the Earth NOT located in?

a. the solar system

b. the Milky Way Galaxy

c. the Local Group of galaxies

d. The Virgo supercluster

e. you can’t fool me, we are located in all of the above

6. A star is 230 light years away. The light we see tonight from that star left it

a. one year ago

b. 2.3 years ago

c. 23 years ago

d. 230 years ago

e. the time depends on which part of the sky the star is in

7. The star that provides energy for life on Earth is

a. the Moon

b. the Sun

c. Alpha Centauri

d. the Milky Way star

e. Beyonce

8. The location of the Earth in the Milky Way Galaxy is

a. in the center of the Galaxy

b. on the edge of the Galaxy as far from the center as you can measure

c. a little less than 30,000 LY from the center

e. this is a trick question: the Earth is not located in the Milky Way Galaxy

9. How did Eratosthenes measure the size of the Earth?

a. by walking about one-quarter of the way around its circumference

b. by measuring the times of sunrise in each of the four seasons

c. by determining the parallax of the Moon and finding the size of its orbit

d. by measuring the height of the Sun in the sky on the same day in two cities at
different latitudes

e. by asking Aristotle who knew everything

10. The slow tipping of the Earth's axis in a circle with a period of about 26,000 years is
called:

a. precession

b. ecliptic motion

c. retrograde motion

d. deferential motion

e. revolution

11. What problem has precession caused for many of the schools of astrology?

a. Because of precession, the stars making up the constellation figures (like Leo
the Lion) have moved so far apart, they no longer look like their names

b. Because of precession, Mars no longer shows retrograde motion and so all the
horoscopes done using Mars turn out to be wrong

c. Because of precession, some of the planets that astrologers use to construct

d. Because of precession, the constellations are no longer lined up with the

e. You can’t fool me, precession has not affected anything about astrology

12. The scientist who first devised experimental tests to demonstrate the validity of the
heliocentric model of the solar system was
 a. Copernicus

b. Ptolemy

c. Galileo

d. Eratosthenes

e. Lippershey

13. In Copernicus’ day, people were worried about the idea that the celestial sphere
seemed to turn around us once a day because the Earth rotates. They argued that if
the Earth were to rotate so fast, it should fly apart. According to our textbook, what was
one response Copernicus had to this worry?

a. Copernicus said that the presence of a large Moon kept the Earth from flying
apart.

b. Copernicus argued that God would never allow a planet with people to be
exposed to that kind of danger

c. Copernicus said that the Earth also orbits the Sun, and the motion around the
Sun keeps the many parts of the Earth together

d. Copernicus argued that the idea that the much larger celestial sphere is
turning once a day (and the Earth is not) meant that the celestial sphere would
be torn apart even more

e. You can’t fool me, Copernicus never thought that the Earth was rotating

14. Every celestial object appears to go around the Earth once a day. In addition to this
motion, which celestial object has the fastest apparent motion in the sky?

a. Mars

b. the Sun

c. Venus

d. the Moon

e. the Big Dipper

15. The strip of the sky through which the Sun, the Moon, and the bright planets appear
to move in the course of a year is called:

a. the zodiac

b. the celestial equator

d. the horizon

e. the asteroid belt

16. The 88 sectors into which astronomers today divide the celestial sphere (the whole
sky) are called:

a. zodiacs

b. constellations

c. asterisms

d. epicycles

e. celestial states

17. Within a constellation, a smaller, recognizable pattern of stars is often called:

a. a Dipper

b. a zodiac

c. an asterism

d. an ecliptic

e. a cameo

18. Where on Earth do stars always circle the zenith (and never rise and set)?

a. at the equator

b. at the north pole

c. at the latitude of Washington D.C.

d. everywhere

e. nowhere

19. From horizon to opposite horizon, the sky takes up how much angular distance?

a. 90 degrees
 b. 180 degrees

c. 360 degrees

d. 100 degrees

e. you can't fool me, this number varies with latitude

20. A graduate student in geology who grew up in Florida (near the southernmost tip of
the United States) gets to accompany her research professor to the North Pole. What
will be different at the North Pole from the way she remembers the sky in Florida?

a. the celestial pole is overhead

b. the celestial equator is on the horizon

c. the way (and whether) the stars rise or set

d. all of the above would be different from the way it is in Florida

e. all of the above (a - c) would be the same as in Florida

21. In the Northern Hemisphere, the altitude (height in degrees above the horizon) of
the North Star is always roughly equal to the

a. longitude of the observer

b. latitude of the observer

c. altitude of the Sun

d. the tilt of the Earth's axis

e. the temperature at midnight

22. Someone who observes the sky every clear night in Boston for many years will
NEVER get to see:

a. the south circumpolar zone

b. the north celestial pole

c. the observer's zenith point

d. the north circumpolar zone

e. the Big Dipper

23. The south celestial pole and the north celestial pole lie in the sky directly above

a. the Earth's equator

c. the ecliptic

d. the Earth's axis

e. the town of Bayonne, New Jersey

24. On the celestial sphere, halfway between the celestial poles lies the

a. horizon

b. zenith for all observers

c. celestial equator

d. path of the Sun on any given day

e. celestial hungarian

25. From a city in the U.S., where in the sky would you look to see a star that is not
turning with the motion of the sky in the course of a night?

a. on your horizon

b. at your zenith

c. on the celestial equator

d. at the north celestial pole

e. you can't fool me, all stars appear to turn around the sky from locations in the
U.S.