Stars & Formations
Objects in the Sky
This & That
The Earth & Moon
Space Movies
100
Stars are formed from a cloud of dust and gas called this.
What is a nebula?
100
Which of the following statements is incorrect?
a. Neptune gets its blue color from clouds of frozen methane in its atmosphere.
b. Neptune was discovered as a result of mathematical forecasting before it was actually observed.
c. Because of Pluto’s elliptical orbit, it is sometimes closer to the Sun (and us) than Neptune is.
d. Neptune takes about 16 hours to rotate once (a Neptunian day), and about 65 Earth years to orbit the sun (a Neptunian year).
What is d? A Neptunian year is 165 Earth years.
100
T or F: Space photography helped reveal changes in the position and appearance of celestial objects.
What is true?
100
The number of hours in a day is a function of Earth’s _____________.
What is rotation?
100
Captain James T Kirk and the starship USS Enterprise.
What is Star Trek?
200
An extremely dense core that is all that remains of a once-large star after the Supernova phase.
What is a neutron star?
200
Which of the following statements regarding Uranus is incorrect-
a. Uranus rotates in a retrograde direction, opposite to the way Earth and most other planets turn.
b. Uranus contains faint rings that are visible from Earth.
c. Uranus has a hydrogen upper layer, which has helium mixed in.
d.Uranus is nearly coldest planet in the solar system.
What is b- rings aren’t visible from Earth
200
The beginning of the universe, the start of space, and even the initial start of time itself.
What is the Big Bang?
200
The prevailing theory supported by the scientific community which suggests that the moon formed when an object smashed into early Earth.
What is the giant impact theory?
200
It sucks when your crew leaves you for dead. Mark Watney, played by Matt Damon, survives by growing his own food, while desperately trying to contact ground control to let them know he's alive.
What is Mars?
300
The H-R (Hertzprung-Russell) Diagram sorts the stars according to these two criteria?
What are the temperature and the absolute magnitude? (Heat and brightness)
300
The circumstellar disc in the Solar System, occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies, that is located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter.
What is the asteroid belt?
300
The discovery of this phenomena, by radio astronomers Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias, put the Big Bang theory on solid ground, elevating it above rival explanations of the universe's origin such as the "steady state" idea. It also won Wilson and Penzias the 1978 Nobel Prize in physics.
What is cosmic microwave background?
300
Theory that the moon and Earth were both formed from the same cloud of gas and dust.
What is the accretion hypothesis?
300
Based on real events space movie, _________ tells the true story of three Black female mathematicians who worked at NASA in the 1960s.
What is Hidden Figures?
400
_________________ are all stable stars that still have enough hydrogen in their cores to steadily fuse hydrogen to helium.
What are main sequence stars?
400
A very large swarm of comets that surround the solar system, up to 100,000 AUs away.
What is the Oort Cloud?
400
T or F The International Astronomical Union defines a planet as an object that:
a. orbits a star
b. has sufficient mass to be round, or nearly round
c. is a satellite (moon) of another object
d. has removed debris and small objects from the area around its orbit
What is F- a planet is not a moon of another object.
400
T or F: During planetary accretion a) particles rotate in the same direction as the nebular disk, b) as gravity pulls the nebular disk inward, the disk spins faster, c) particles frequently collide with one another at rapid speeds.
What is T?
400
The true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner's son who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father's wishes.
What is October Sky?
500
The _____________ sequence of dim, small, and hot, stars lie in the lower left.
What are white dwarfs?
500
See conversion worksheet
See conversion worksheet
500
Displacement of the EM spectrum of an astronomical object toward longer (red) wavelengths.
What is redshift?
500
This made life on Earth possible.
What is water in three states—solid, liquid, and gas?
500
In the distant future, a small waste-collecting robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind.
What is WALL-E?