Cosmic Scale & Historical Astronomy
In a calendar representation of the history of the universe, humans appear in this month.
What is December?
We can imagine the night sky as being projected onto this imaginary object, around the Earth.
What is the celestial sphere?
According to Kepler, planetary orbits have this shape:
What is an ellipse?
The band of the electromagnetic spectrum with the highest photon energy
What is gamma ray?
The age of the universe
What is 13.6 billion years?
The time it would take an observer on the surface of the Earth to find out that the Sun had stopped producing light.
What is 8 minutes?
The location directly above the observer
What is the Zenith?
Gravity is directly proportional to this aspect of an object.
What is the mass of the object?
The type of telescope most commonly used for modern observations.
What is a reflector?
The analog to longitude on the celestial sphere.
What is right ascension?
Hipparchus' detailed measurements of the stars allowed him to discover this process, where the "wobble" in the Earth's tilt leads to changes in the North Star every 26,000 years.
What is precession?
The combined effect of the Sun and Moon leads to these enhanced water levels
What are spring tides?
Description of the intensity of gravity with distance
inverse square law
The shift in spectral lines seen when the source of the lines is moving.
What is the Doppler effect?
The name for the extra circles required by Ptolemy to explain retrograde motion
What are epicycles?
An observation of the behavior of the planet Mars (among others) which is difficult to explain the geocentric model, but more straight forward under heliocentrism
What is retrograde motion?
This type of day refers to when the Earth reaches the same position again with a distant star.
What is sidereal?
What is Neptune?
The bands of light which best penetrate the Earth's atmosphere are radio and ______________.
What is visible light?
The type of line spectrum seen when an electron moves to a lower energy orbital
What is an emission spectrum?
The discoverer of Jupiter's largest 4 moons
What is Galileo Galilei
The distinctive figure-eight shape formed by the highest point of the Sun throughout the year.
What is the analemma?
What is the semi major axis of a planet which orbits the Sun in 4 years?
what is 8?
What is the inverse square law?
What is the angular separation of the Sun and Moon in the sky at a first quarter phase?
What is 90 degrees?