Terminology
What value represents the brightness of a star as viewed from Earth?
Apparent Magnitude
How many planets were known to ancient astronomers?
Five
What star is located at the north celestial pole?
Polaris
What is the visible part of the sun?
Photosphere
What is the central portion of a comet called?
Nucleus
What is the smallest type of structure formed by a group of galaxies?
Cluster
Which of Neptune's satellites experiences the coldest known temperatures in the solar system?
Triton
What type of star is cool, small, & dim?
Red Dwarf
What is the outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere?
Corona
What astronomical distance measurement is based directly on the speed of light?
Light year
What is a chunk of space debris that has reached the earth's surface?
Meteorite
Which planet travels most rapidly through it's orbit?
Mercury
Which of the following stars is part of the Summer Triangle?
a) Antares, b) Altair, c) Algol, d) Aldebaran
b) Altair
The phase in which the moon has a bulging shape and is growing larger:
Waxing gibbous
Spiral and irregular galaxies commonly contain large clouds of gas and dust called ______________.
Nebulae
What was the first object to be classified as an asteroid?
Ceres
Which of Jupiter's moons is the most volcanically active body in the solar system?
Io
What is a rapidly rotating Neutron star that emits directional beams of radio waves?
Pulsar
What evidence suggests that the sun is spinning?
Movement of sunspots
What is a loose, asymmetrical clump that contains tens, hundreds, or thousands of stars?
Open Cluster
A star like object believed to have been made up of a large black hole surrounded by a glowing ring of gas:
Quasar
The only planet to be discovered mathematically before it was seen:
Neptune
What is the brightest summer star?
Vega
What type of partial eclipse occurs when the moon is too small to cover the sun entirely, leaving a ring of light around the moon?
Annular (solar eclipse)
Why can the sun's transition region only be studied using space-based solar observations?
It releases UV radiation