Study Guide for Astronomy (Chapters 1 to 22)

This is meant as a GUIDE ONLY. I reserve the right to ask questions outside of this guide.

The vast majority of questions in the Quizs, Exams, and the final will be based on this study guide.

If you want a paper copy of these additional chapters then see me.

This study guide is in a continuous process of revision.

Chapter 1: Our place in the Universe (pp. 1–20)

keywords: (pp. 4, 21–22 )
  1. star
  2. planet
  3. star system
  4. Solar System
  5. galaxy
  6. cluster of galaxies
  7. Universe
  8. light-year
  9. Milky Way
  10. Local group
  11. Expansion of Universe
  12. Big Bang
 
key ideas:
  1. Earth (and even our Sun) is a small dot in a vast expanse of open space
  2. Our Sun is a star
  3. Planets, moons, and host star(s) form star systems which in turn form galaxies which in turn form clusters of galaxies, which are organized on larger scales and fill up our Universe.
  4. Our star system is called the ‘Solar System’ and our galaxy is called the Milky Way.
  5. Light travels very fast but not instantaneously.
  6. A light year is a measure of distance and is how far light travels in a year.
  7. We see objects (not as they are now) but how they were when the light left them that we see today. Far away objects take more time for light to reach us and therefore we see them as they were deeper in the past. Examples: we see the Moon as it was rougly a second ago, the Sun as it was 9 minutes ago and the farthest galaxies as they were around 10–12 billion years ago.
  8. What is the difference between the Solar System, a galaxy, and the Universe?
  9. The lifetime of civilization is a blip in the age of the Universe.
  10. If the age of the Universe was scaled to a year human civilization has existed for few seconds.
  11. The Earth rotates (in other words spins) once per day.
  12. The Earth orbits the Sun once per year.
  13. The Sun orbits the center of our galaxy.
  14. Galaxies are attracted to one another due to gravity.
  15. Expansion of the Universe is driving distant galaxies apart.
  16. The Universe has been expanding since its birth 12–14 billion years ago with the Big Bang

Chapter 2: Discovering the Universe for yourself (pp. 26–52)

keywords: (p. 53)
  1. circumpolar,
  2. ecliptic,
  3. summer soltstice,
  4. winter soltice,
  5. vernal equinox,
  6. autumnal equinox,
  7. precession
  8. lunar month,
  9. lunar phases,
  10. eclipse,
  11. lunar eclipse,
  12. solar eclipse,
  13. penumbra,
  14. umbra,
  15. line of nodes,
  16. penumbral eclipse,
  17. partial lunar eclipse,
  18. total lunar eclipse,
  19. partial solar eclipse,
  20. total solar eclipse
  21. Annular eclipse,
  22. eclipse path,
  23. retograde motion.
 

Table 1: Summary of the motions of the objects in the sky

Object The reality How it appears on Earth
Stars (position) Stars are distant ‘suns’ randomly distributed in all directions Stars appear to be on a Celestial Sphere
Constellations A volume of space that includes stars that are in relatively the same direction from Earth but may be at very different distances from Earth Appears to be a flat area in sky with stars that appear to be close to one another.
Stars (movement) Earth rotates (West to East) once every 23 hours, 56 minutes. Stars appear to circle around Celestial poles (East to West) every 23 hours, 56 minutes
Sun (with
respect to
stars)		 Earth orbits the Sun once per year in a plane Sun appears to moves on Celestial Sphere on a circular path called the ecliptic once per year
Sun (average
daily motion)		 Earth rotates once in 23 hours, 56 minutes but needs an additional 4 minutes to ‘catch up to’ the Sun due to Earth moving in its orbit. Sun appears to move around Earth in slightly longer time (24 hours) than stars (23 hours, 56 minutes).
Moon (rotation) Moon rotates once per orbit 1:1 synchronous rotation Moon keeps same face pointing toward Earth
Moon (phases) Moon orbits Earth, with lit portion facing the Sun, such the Earth sees the lit portion from different angles over the orbit of the Moon Lit portion of Moon's shape and time of day (night) it is up varies over 29.5 day cycle
Planets (orbit) Planets orbit around the Sun in around the same plane as Earth orbits the Sun but at different speeds than Earth. Planets appear to take complicated paths on the Celestial Sphere that are always near the ecliptic
key ideas:
  1. T or F: Stars in constellations appear close to one another in the sky but can be at very different distances from Earth.
  2. How long does it take stars to appear to go around Earth? (Answer: 23 hours and 56 minutes)
  3. How many times per year do the stars appear to go around the Earth? (Answer 366)
  4. Which appears to move around the Earth faster the stars or the Sun? Why? (Answer: The Sun appears to take 4 minutes longer (on average) to ‘go around’ than the stars. Earth's orbit of the Sun causes the apparent position of the Sun in the sky to slowly change. On average the Earth must rotate an additional 4 minutes a day to catch up with the Sun.)
  5. The night sky viewed at the same time of night varies in a cycle over the course of a year. Why?
  6. T or F: People at different lattitudes on Earth see different stars.
  7. How many solar days make up a year? (Answer: 365)
  8. How are the seasons different in the Southern hemisphere than the Northern hemisphere of Earth?
  9. What causes the seasons? (Answer: The tilt of the Earth's rotation.)
  10. What is the phenomenon of the precession of Earth's rotation?
  11. How long is the precession cycle?
  12. What causes the phases of Moon?
  13. What are the phases of the Moon and in what order are they? (Answer: Waxing Crescent, First Quarter, Waxing Gibbous, Full, Waning Gibbous, Last Quarter, Waning Crescent, New)
  14. T or F: The Moon can only be seen during the night.
  15. T or F: Each phase of the Moon can only be seen during its own period of the day and/or night.
  16. What are the two parts of a shadow?
  17. What is the name of the darkest part of a shadow?
  18. What physically causes the lunar and solar eclipses?
  19. Why isn't there always one lunar and one solar eclipse per month?
  20. What 2 conditions are necessary for a lunar eclipse?
  21. What 2 conditions are necessary for a solar eclipse?
  22. What are the types of solar and lunar eclipses?
 

Chapter 3: The Science of Astronomy (pp. 57–84)

keywords:
  1. Ptolemy,
  2. geocentric model,
  3. Copernicus,
  4. heliocentric model,
  5. Tycho Brahe,
  6. parallax,
  7. Kepler,
  8. ellipse,
  9. Kepler's 3 Laws,
  10. Galileo Galilei,
  11. hypothesis,
  12. scientific method,
  13. theory.
 
key ideas (p. 85):
  1. What are the geocentric and the heliocentric models?
  2. What are the significant accomplishments of Ptolemy and Copernicus relative to astronomy?
  3. What were the sucesses and failures of the Ptolemaic model?
  4. What were the sucesses and failures of the Copernicus' model?
  5. In what way was Copernicus' model of the solar system better than Ptolemy's?
  6. What are the significant accomplishments of Ptolemy, Copernicus, Tycho, Kepler, and Galileo, relative to astronomy?
  7. Which scientist: discovered the moons of Jupiter?, discovered the phases of Venus?, shown that supernovae were far away events?, measured the position of the planets to the best that the human eye can see unaided?, devoloped the accurate theory of the motion of the planets?, shown that the orbits of planets are ellipses?, revived the heliocentric model?
  8. How was the heliocentric model proven to be correct?
  9. What is Kepler's first Law? Kepler's Second Law? Kepler's Third Law?
  10. T or F: The orbits of the planets are ellipses with the Sun in the center
  11. T or F: The orbits of the planets are ellipses with the Sun at one focus
  12. What is the difference between a circle and an ellipse?
  13. How does the speed of a planet when it is closes to the Sun compare to the speed when it is farthest from the Sun?
  14. Which orbits faster planets closer to the Sun or Planets further from the Sun?
  15. T or F: Galileo was one of the first scientist to look at the heavens with a telescope. (True)
  16. What is the difference between a theory and a hypothesis? (Answer: a theory is a hypothesis that has been proven with a lot of evidence.)
  17. Understand the scientific method.

Chapter 4: Making Sense of the Universe (pp. 117–139)

keywords:
  1. force,
  2. mass,
  3. Newton's Laws
  4. law of universal gravitation,
  5. orbital velocity,
  6. tidal force,
  7. neap tides,
  8. spring tides,
 
key ideas: (p. 140)
  1. What are Newton's three laws?
  2. T or F: Gravity is significantly weaker in space. (False)
  3. T or F: Objects in orbit around the Earth are in constant freefall around the Earth.
  4. Which scientist developed the theory of gravitation?, shown that the orbits of the planets follow naturally from the law of gravitation using laws of physics?, shown that tides were due to the nature of the law of gravity?
  5. According to Newton's Law of Universal gravitation how does the force of gravity change when the distance between two objects is doubled?, tripled?, halved?, etc...
  6. How does Newton's laws including his law of gravity relate to Kepler's three laws?
  7. Name 4 ways that Newton using his 3 laws and his law of gravity extended Kepler's 3 laws. (Answer: It applies to any object that orbits another not just planets around the Sun. The mass of any orbited object can be calculated from the orbit(s) of the objects that orbit it. Both the planets and the Sun orbit a common point called the center of mass. There are other unbound orbits beside the bound elliptical orbits.)
  8. What causes tides?
  9. How many high tides are there per day and why? (Answer: 2. The Moon causes tidal bulges on both the near side and far side of Earth (know why).)
  10. What are spring tides? neap tides?
  11. Do spring tides happen only during the spring?
  12. Approximately how many spring and neap tides are there per month?

Chapter 5: Light and Matter (pp. 146–168)

keywords:
  1. transverse wave
  2. spectrum,
  3. diffraction grating,
  4. frequency
  5. wavelength,
  6. electromagnetic wave,
  7. electromagnetic spectrum,
  8. photon,
  9. continuous spectrum,
  10. absorption line spectrum,
  11. emmission line spectrum,
  12. thermal radiation,
  13. thermal radiation spectrum,
  14. Doppler shift,
  15. blueshift,
  16. redshift,
 
key ideas: (pp. 169–170)
  1. What is a spectrum?
  2. Is light a wave, a particle, or both?
  3. What is the value of the speed of light (in either mi/s, m/s, or km/s)?
  4. How does the frequency of light relate to its wavelength? (Answer: smaller wavelengths means larger frequencies and vice versa.)
  5. What are the 7 major categories of light in the full electromagnetic spectrum? (Answer: Gamma rays, X-rays, Ultraviolet, Visible, Infrared, Microwaves, Radiowaves)
  6. What is a diffraction grating?
  7. What is a photon?
  8. How is the energy of light related to its wavelength?
  9. Name 4 physical properties of astronomical objects that the spectrum of light allows us to measure? (Answer: Chemical composition, temperature, speed toward (or away) from us, and minimum rotation rate)
  10. What type of objects produce continuous spectrum? What type of objects produces line spectrums?
  11. How are the spectral lines used to determine the chemical make-up of a diffuse cloud of gas? (Answer: By using the fact that each chemical produces emits and absorbs its own unique set of spectral lines (a spectral 'fingerprint').)
  12. What property of an object can be determined from the the spectral lines it emits or absorbs?
  13. Do all objects glow with thermal radiation or just extremely hot ones?
  14. What is thermal radiation and what property of the object does the thermal radiation spectrum allow us to measure?
  15. When an object's temperature is raised, what happens to the wavelength of the light emitted and the total power emitted by the object?
  16. What is Doppler shift?
  17. In what way the movement of an object toward (or away) from us shift its color?
  18. How does the rotation of an object affect its spectral lines?

Chapter 6: Telescopes (pp. 175–195)

keywords:
  1. focus,
  2. image,
  3. CCD,
  4. light-collecting area,
  5. angular resolution,
  6. reflecting telescope,
  7. refracting telescope,
  8. Cassegrain focus,
  9. Newtonian focus,
  10. Coude focus,
  11. imaging,
  12. spectroscopy,
  13. timing,
  14. spectrograph,
  15. light curves,
  16. light pollution,
  17. twinkling
  18. adaptive optics,
  19. interferometry,
  20. optical window,
  21. radio window,
  22. radio telescope,
  23. infrared telescope,
  24. ultraviolet telescope,
  25. X-ray telescope,
  26. gamma ray telescope.
 
key ideas:
  1. How does the eye form an image?
  2. How do scientist record images?
  3. What is a CCD?
  4. What are the two most important properties of a telescope?
  5. How is the angular resolution of a telescope limited by its size?
  6. For the same size telescope which provides a better resolution light with smaller wavelength or that for longer wavelength?
  7. What are the two main reasons that wider diameter objective mirrors are better than smaller ones?
  8. What are the two basic designs of telescopes?
  9. Which is much better for scientific purposes: a refracting telescope or a reflecting telescope? why?
  10. What are the three basic categories of things that Astronomers use telescopes for? (Answer: imaging, spectroscopy, and timing.)
  11. What is a spectrograph?
  12. What is a light curve?
  13. What are the three major ways that Earth's atmosphere negatively affects ground based astronomy. (Answer: it absorbs all but light with frequencies near the visible and radio portions of the spectrum, light pollution, and twinkling.)
  14. What is the process that is used to correct atmospheric disturbance (twinkling) called?
  15. What are the two regions in the spectrum of light for which the Earth's atmosphere is tranparent?
  16. Why are telescopes placed in space?
  17. What is the process called in which two or more telescopes separated by a baseline distance are combined to reduce the diffraction limit?

Chapter 7: Our Planetary System (pp. 200–222)

keywords:
  1. Sun
  2. Mercury
  3. Venus
  4. Earth
  5. Mars
  6. Jupiter
  7. Saturn
  8. Uranus
  9. Neptune
  10. asteroid,
  11. asteroid belt,
  12. comets
  13. Kuiper Belt
  14. Oort Cloud
  15. terrestrial planet
  16. Jovian planet,
  17. icy world,
  18. flyby,
  19. orbiter,
  20. lander,
  21. sample return.
 
 
key ideas: (p. 222)
  1. What are the eight planets and their order from the Sun out?
  2. What are the two major planet types and what distinguishes them apart?
  3. What are the three major classes of Solar System worlds? (terrestrial, Jovian, and icy)
  4. Which planets are terrestrial and which Jovian?
  5. What are the two categories of other small vagabond stuff that orbits our Sun?
  6. What major features of our Solar System must be explained by any model for its formation? (p. 215) (Answer: Patterns of motion, 2 types of planets, Asteroids and Comets, Exceptions to rules)
  7. What are the four major patterns of motion among large bodies in our Solar System? (p. 215) (Answer: Orbits are nearly circular in the same plane, All planets orbit in same direction, most planets (and the Sun) rotate in same direction, moons have similar properties.)
  8. What are the four types of robotic missions to other planets (moons)?

Chapter 8: Formation of the Solar System (pp. 227–242)

keywords: (p. 181)
  1. nebular theory,
  2. solar nebula,
  3. galactic Recycling,
  4. frost line,
  5. accretion,
  6. heavy bombardment,
  7. radiometric dating.
 
key ideas: (p. 243)
  1. What major features of our Solar System must be explained by any model for its formation? (p. 215) (Answer: Patterns of motion, 2 types of planets, Asteroids and Comets, Exceptions to rules)
  2. How was the solar system formed?
  3. What is the nebula theory?
  4. What 2 elements make up the majority of the universe?
  5. What 3 things happen to a nebula as it contracts due to gravity? (heating, spinning, and flattening)
  6. Why are there 2 major types of planets? (3 major types of worlds)?
  7. What are the 4 types of materials that make up the planet forming disk? (Hydrogen and Helium gas, Hydrogen compounds, rock, and metal)
  8. What is the frost line and what is its importance to the formation of the solar system?
  9. Why are the inner planets more dense than the outer planets?
  10. How did the terrestrial planets form?
  11. What ended the era of planet formation?
  12. How was the majority of the ‘large’ solid objects cleared from the Solar System? (Gravity of Jupiter and other planets slingshotted them out of the Solar System or to hit the Sun and planets.)
  13. T or F: Asteroids and comets are left over debris from the formation of the Solar System.
  14. What are the three known ways that moons can form? (accretion from a disk around a planet, capture, and giant impact)
  15. How were the large moons of Jupiter created (or obtained)? (accretion from a disk)
  16. How were Jupiter many tiny moons created (or obtained)? (capture)
  17. How was the Earth's Moon created (or obtained)? (A giant impact formed a disk of material that accreted to form the Moon.)
  18. Name at least 2 exceptions to the rules that may have occured due to giant impacts. (Answer: Earth having a large moon, tilting orbits of planets, Pluto's moon Charon, Mercury's high metal content.)
  19. How old is the Solar System?
  20. What method do scientists use to determine the age of the Solar System.

Chapter 9

keywords: (p. 206)
  1. core,
  2. mantle,
  3. crust,
  4. differentiation,
  5. lithosphere
  6. convection,
  7. conduction,
  8. radiation,
  9. impact cratering,
  10. volcanism,
  11. tectonics,
  12. erosion
  13. volcanic plains,
  14. shield volcanoes,
  15. stratovolcanoes,
  16. geological age,
  17. lunar maria,
  18. greenhouse effect,
  19. plate tectonics,
  20. sea floor spreading,
  21. subduction zone.
 

Some planetary data to memorize (p. 214)

planet orbit
size
(AU)		 planet
size
(×Earth)		 type of planet atmos-
phere?		 Unique features
Mercury 0.4 0.4 terrestrial
(rocky)		 no 3:2 synchronous orbit,
day side very hot,
night side very cold.
Venus 0.7 0.95 terrestrial
(rocky)		 thick hottest planet,
retrograde rotation,
thick acidic atmosphere,
runaway greenhouse effect,
Earth's future.
Earth 1 1 terrestrial
(rocky)		 yes has life,
liquid water oceans,
plate tectonics,
oxygen in atmosphere
Mars 1.5 0.5 terrestrial
(rocky)		 thin most similar surface to Earth,
Huge extinct volcanos,
Huge Canyon,
polar ice caps.
Jupiter 5 11 Jovian
(H, He gases)		 yes most massive planet,
has four large moons.
Saturn 10 9 Jovian
(H, He gases)		 yes least dense planet,
has bright rings,
Titan orbits it.
Uranus 19 4(4.0) Jovian
(H, He gases)		 yes spin tilted on side,
slightly retrograde rotation.
Neptune 30 4(3.9) Jovian
(H, He gases)		 yes most dense Jovian planet,
Triton orbits it.
key ideas: (p. 206-7)
  1. What are the three layers that form the interior of terrestrial worlds (in terms of density) and of what are they made?
  2. How does pressure and temperature vary as you move deeper into the interior of a planet?
  3. What are the sources of a terrestrial world's internal heat? (Answer: accretion, differentiation and contraction, and radioactive decay.)
  4. What are the three main methods that heat is transfered from hot to cold
  5. What method of heat transfer dominates for each layer of Earth's interior (and exterior) as it escapes from its interior.
  6. Where does the Earth's surface get its heat from? (Answer: mostly from the Sun with some from Earth's interior)
  7. T or F: The Earth's mantle is made mostly of liquid (molten) rock.
  8. What process creates planetary magnetic fields? (Convection of a conducting fluid.)
  9. What region of the Earth creates its magnetic field and how?
  10. What three things are needed for a planet to have a magnetic field? (Conducting fluid in interior, Convection of that fluid, a moderate amount of rotation.)
  11. What causes impact craters and what does it tell us about the object they are on?
  12. What does the existance of a magnetic field reveal about the interior of an object?
  13. What four general processes shape the surface of terrestrial worlds? (impact cratering, volcanism, tectonics, and erosion)
  14. What are the three types of volcanic features (volcanoes)? (volcanic plains, shield volcanos, stratovolcanos)
  15. What is tectonics? (The changing of a terrestrial worlds surface because of stretching and compression and other forces on the lithosphere due to convection in the mantle.)
  16. What three properties of a terrestrial world cause it to have the geology it has? (size, distance from the Sun, rotation)
  17. How does size affect the geology of a terrestrial world?
  18. Why are small worlds dead worlds? (smaller worlds loose heat faster, smaller worlds can't hold onto an atmosphere.)
  19. How does distance from the Sun affect the geology of a terrestrial world?
  20. How does rotation affect the geology of a terrestrial world?
  21. What is meant by the geological age of a planet or moon? (The age of the geological features (not the age of the planet nor of the rock).)
  22. What feature allows us to determine the geological age of a terrestrial world? (The crowdedness of impact craters.)
  23. What type of processes can cover over impact craters?
  24. Why does the Moon have significantly more craters than Earth?
  25. What are the large darker regions on the Moon called?
  26. How were the Moon's lunar maria formed?
  27. How is Mercury's surface similar to the Moon's? (Dominated by cratering with volcanic plains.)
  28. How is Mercury's surface different than the Moon's? (Smaller lava plains, and giant cliffs called scarps.)
  29. What are the dominant geological features on Mars? (Impact cratering, huge extinct shield volcanoes, Valles Marineris, polar ice caps, ancient water erosion features.)
  30. T or F: Mars has liquid water on its surface today. (F)
  31. T or F: Mars had liquid water on its surface in its (ancient) history. (T)
  32. What is the greenhouse effect and how does it effect Earth's, Venus', and Mars' temperatures?
  33. What are the dominant geological features of Venus? (few craters (that are uniformly spread), lots of presumably active volcanoes, mountains and cracks formed by tectonics, little erosion)
  34. T or F: The entire surface of Venus has approximately the same geological age. (T)
  35. T or F: Venus has plate tectonics. (False: Venus has tectonics but not in the form of separate plates.)
  36. What are the dominant geological features of Earth? (Few craters, active volcanoes, plate tectonics (sea floor spreading, Oceanic trenches, continental motion, rift valleys), massive erosion, Oceans, polar ice caps)

Chapter 10: Planetary Atmospheres (pp. 288–321)

keywords:
  1. atmosphere,
  2. atmospheric pressure,
  3. magnetosphere,
  4. greenhouse effect,
  5. greenhouse gases,
  6. troposphere,
  7. stratosphere,
  8. thermosphere,
  9. exosphere,
  10. runaway greenhouse effect,
  11. stable greenhouse effect,
  12. carbon dioxide cycle,
  13. ice ages
  14. global warming.
 
key ideas: (pp. 225-6)
  1. What is an atmosphere?
  2. What causes atmospheric pressure?
  3. What are five ways that atmospheres affect planets? (Pressure can allow liquids to exist, absorbs energetic radiation and small meteoroids, wind and weather, helps create protective magnetosphere (if planet has magnetic field), and green house effect)
  4. How are the various types of electromagnetic radiation affected by an atmosphere? (X-rays absorbed by all molecules ionizing upper atmosphere, Ultraviolet absorbed by particular molecules (ozone important on Earth), visible passes through with some scattering, infrared absorbed by greenhouse gases)
  5. What are the four layers of the Earth's Atmosphere?
  6. In which of the four layers does weather occur?
  7. What is the ozone layer and how does it benefit us?
  8. Which layer of the atmosphere contains the ozone layer?
  9. Why is Earth the only terrestrial planet in our solar system with a stratosphere? (because it has oxygen needed to create the ozone layer)
  10. What layer of the atmosphere absorbs most of the x-rays from the Sun?
  11. How do we benefit from the magnetosphere?
  12. What 2 processes work together to cause weather? (uneven (solar for terrestrial worlds) heating of worlds and Coriolis force (due to rotation))
  13. What factors cause long-term climate change? (Solar brightning (and variability), changes in axis tilt, changes in reflectivity, changes in greenhouse gases)
  14. Why does the Moon and Mercury have no significant atmosphere? (Small worlds have too weak of gravity to hold onto a hot atmosphere.)
  15. Explain in brief the atmospheric history of Mars, Venus, Earth.
  16. What is the runaway greenhouse effect and how does it work? Give one example where it occurs.
  17. What is the Carbon dioxide cycle and how does it work? Give one example where it occurs.
  18. T or F The average global temperature of Earth is currently rising probably due to human production of greenhouse gases

Chapter 11: Jovian Planet Systems (pp. 329–354)

keywords:
  1. metallic hydrogen,
  2. tidal heating,
  3. Galilean satellites,
 
key ideas: (pp. 354–5)
  1. How do the Jovian planets differ from the terrestrial planets?
  2. Of what elements are Jupiter and Saturn primarily made?
  3. How do the composition of Jupiter and Saturn differ from Uranus and Neptune?
  4. How are Jupiter and Saturn similar to the Sun.
  5. T or F: Jupiter and Saturn have about the same material composition as the Sun.
  6. How is Jupiter similar to and different from star? (Answer: it has the same composition as a star but doesn't have near enough mass to become hot like a star.)
  7. What are the main layers of Jupiter and Saturn?
  8. What are the main layers of Uranus and Neptune?
  9. What are Jupiter's and Saturn's three cloud layers?
  10. Of what are the clouds of Neptune and Uranus made?
  11. What layer of Jupiter and Saturn creates their magnetic fields?
  12. What layer Uranus' and Neptune's creates their magnetic fields?
  13. Why is Saturn's magnetic field weaker than Jupiter's? (Answer: its weaker gravity creates less pressure which creates less metallic hydrogen)
  14. Why are Saturn's clouds not as distinct as Jupiter's? (Answer: Saturns cloud layers are deeper in the atmosphere than Jupiter's)
  15. What are the light and dark bands on Jupiter and Saturn called?
  16. What are zones and belts?
  17. Why are the icy moons of the outer planets more geologically active than terrestrial worlds (Mercury and the Moon) that are the same size? (Answer: It is much easier to melt ice to form ice volcanoes and tidal heating for some of the moons.)
  18. What are the names of the 4 moons of Jupiter (Galilean satellites) and their order from innermost to outermost?
  19. What makes each of the 4 moons of Jupiter (Galilean satellite) unique?
  20. How are the orbits of Io, Europa and Ganymede related?
  21. Why do Io and Europa violate the small worlds equal dead worlds mantra?
  22. What is the most volcanic object in the solar system?
  23. Which satellite's surface is dominated by system of cracks on water ice with a global ocean underneath?
  24. Why is Europa's surface so young with few craters?
  25. T or F: Ganymede and Callisto may have liquid water under surface as well as Europa.
  26. Callisto is not chemically differentiated.
  27. Which moon is the only one to have a thick atmosphere?
  28. What is the name of Saturns largest Moon?
  29. How is Neptune's Moon Triton different from the other 6 planet sized moons? (Answer: It has a retrograde orbit)
  30. How was Triton most likely formed? (It was a Kuiper belt object that was captured by Neptune's gravity.)

Chapter 12: Remnants of Rock and Ice (pp 359–380)

keywords:
  1. asteroid,
  2. asteroid belt,
  3. comet,
  4. Kuiper belt,
  5. Oort Cloud,
  6. meteor,
  7. meteorite.
 
key ideas (p. 380):
  1. What is the origin of the asteroid belt?
  2. Are asteroids the remnants of a destoyed planet?(Answer: NO! Jupiter kept any planet from forming there)
  3. What is the asteroid belt and where is it?
  4. T or F: There is less total mass in the asteroid belt then the mass of Earth's Moon. (Answer: True)
  5. Which of the following best describes the average distance between asteroids: the size of a football stadium, the size of Weatherford, the distance from Weatherford to Tulsa, the size of the Earth, or larger than the Earth-Moon distance?
  6. What are the differences between comets and asteroids?
  7. Where are the Kuiper belts and the Oort cloud approximately?
  8. Why and when do comets produce tails?
  9. What is the difference between a meteor, meteorite, and asteroid (meteoroid)?
  10. True or False: Earth has be hit by objects 10 km in size in it past.
  11. True or False: Earth will eventually be hit again by a 10 km size object.

Chapter 13: Other Planetary Systems (pp 384–406)

keywords:
  1. astrometric technique,
  2. Doppler technique,
  3. Gravitational lens
  4. transit technique,
  5. transit.
 
key ideas (p. 405–6):
  1. Why is it so difficult to directly detect extrasolar planets?
  2. What technique has found the majority of extrasolar planets?
  3. About how many extrasolar planets have been found to date. (A little over 400.)
  4. What are the possible techniques used to detect extrasolar planets?
  5. T or F: The majority of extrasolar planets have been discovered by measuring the wobble due to the planets tug on its host star. (True)
  6. What is astrometrics? (Answer: the precise measurement of the location and movement of stars in the sky.)
  7. What is the astrometric technique and how does it work?
  8. How are gravitational lense used to find planets? (Answer: Far away planets aligned just right with a far away star bend light slightly causing the far away stars light to appear brighter).
  9. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the astrometric technique (advantage: measures entire orbit. disadvantage: vast majority of stars are too far to measure effect, yet)?
  10. What is the doppler technique and how does it work?
  11. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the doppler technique (advantage: relatively easy to do and can be used on a fair amount of close by stars. disadvantage: it only measure orbit toward and away from us so only give minimum masses)?
  12. What is the transit technique and how does it work?
  13. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the transit technique (advantage: relatively easy to do and can be used on stars that are relatively distant. disadvantage: only works on the small fraction of planets whose orbits are aligned so that they transit their star, gives no information about mass of the planet)?
  14. How are the extrasolar planets found so far different then the planets in our solar system?
  15. T or F: Many of the extrasolar planets found so far have masses greater than Jupiter and orbit closer to their star than Mercury orbits the Sun. (True)

Chapter 14: Our Star (pp. 478–496)

keywords:
  1. fussion,
  2. luminosity,
  3. core (of Sun)
  4. radiative zone,
  5. convective zone,
  6. photosphere,
  7. chromosphere,
  8. corona,
  9. coronal mass ejection,
  10. helioseismology,
  11. neutrino,
  12. solar wind,
  13. sunspot,
  14. sunspot cycle,
 
key ideas: (p. 497)
  1. How big is the Sun compared to Earth and Jupiter?
  2. How does its density compare to Earth and Jupiter?
  3. Of what two elements is the Sun primarily made (Answer: Hydrogen and Helium)?
  4. What process produces the Sun's energy?
  5. Where does thermonuclear fusion take place in the Sun?
  6. How does density, temperature, and pressure vary with depth into the Sun?
  7. What are the three main layers of the Sun's interior?
  8. T or F: Light in the interior of the Sun takes a long tortuous journey such that it moves outward very slowly. (Answer: True)
  9. What are the 3 layers of the Sun's atmosphere?
  10. What is the layer of the Sun's atmosphere that we see?
  11. What is the layer of the Sun's atmosphere that produces the most ultraviolet?
  12. What layer of the Sun's atmosphere is the hottest layer?
  13. What makes each of the layers of the Sun's atmosphere unique?
  14. In what way(s) does the Sun's magnetic field affect its surface? (Answer: It heats the outer layers of the atmosphere, it causes the surface to be violently active, and it causes the Sunspot cycle.)
  15. Why is the Corona much hotter than the photosphere?
  16. What are sunspots and how do they relate to magnetic field?
  17. How many years is the Sunspot cycle?
  18. What causes the sunspot cycle?

Chapter 15: Surveying the Stars (pp. 502–520)

keywords:
  1. brightness,
  2. luminosity,
  3. magnitude scale,
  4. spectral classes,
  5. OBAFGKM,
  6. parallax,
  7. binary,
  8. H-R diagram,
  9. luminosity classes,
  10. super giant,
  11. giant,
  12. main sequence,
  13. white dwarf.
  14. mass-luminosity relationship,
  15. globular cluster,
  16. open cluster.
 
key ideas: (pp. 521)
  1. What method is used to measure the distance to the nearest stars?
  2. How is parallax used to measure distance to nearest stars?
  3. What is the difference between brightness and luminosity?
  4. How do we measure stellar luminosities?
  5. How does brightness relate to luminocity and distance?
  6. Which is dimmest a magnitude -1, 0, or 1 object?
  7. What is the highest magnitude that the human eye can see unaided? (Answer somewhere around 5 or 6.)
  8. How do we measure stellar temperatures?
  9. What property of a stars spectrum allows it to be separated into different spectral classes? (Answer: their spectral lines.)
  10. What are the 7 spectral classes from hottest to coldest?
  11. How does the spectral class relate to temperature?
  12. How do we measure stellar masses?
  13. What is the Hertzprung-Russel diagrem?
  14. What two main stellar properties are plotted on the H-R diagram?
  15. What are the four main grouping of 'stars' found on the H-R diagram? (Main sequence, Super Giants, Giants, White Dwarfs)
  16. How do we measure stellar diameters?
  17. True or False: The size of a star can be determined from its position on the H-R diagram. (True)
  18. Which part of the H-R diagram do stars spend the majority of their lives at?
  19. What are the 5 luminosity classes of stars?
  20. To what types of stars do each of the luminosity classes correspond? (For example I is a supergiant)
  21. What is the spectral class of the Sun? (Answer: G2)
  22. What is the luminosity class of the Sun? (Answer V)
  23. How are the masses of binary stars determined?
  24. What is the relationship between mass and luminosity of stars? (Answer: more massive stars are more luminous)
  25. Which star is more massive an O star or an M star? On the main sequence, which is more Luminous? On the main sequence, which has a higher temperature?
  26. What is the difference between a globular cluster and an open cluster?
  27. How do we determine the ages of clusters.

Chapter 16: Star birth (pp. 527–543)

keywords:
  1. giant molecular cloud,
  2. nebula
 
key ideas: (pp. 547)
  1. What is a nebula?
  2. Where do stars form?
  3. True or False: Molecular Clouds have similar densities to clouds on Earth. (False. The density of the molecular clouds, though much greater than the typical density of gas between stars, would be considered a rather strong vacuum on Earth.)
  4. What 2 competing process determine if a molecular cloud collapses to start star formation? (Answer: The temperature of the cloud causes outward pressure which hinders star formation. Higher densities of the cloud promotes star formation.)
  5. From what type of nebula do stars form? (Answer: cold and dense nebula.)
  6. What is the source of protostars heat? (Answer: gravitational contraction.)
  7. How does the length of time it takes to form a protostar vary with the mass of the final star? (Answer: Lower mass stars take longer to form.)
  8. A protostar becomes a star only with the start of what particular process?
  9. True or False: A protostar often ejects large amounts of material along bipolar outflows even as it accretes matter. (Answer: True.)
  10. What are molecular clouds (MC) and where in our galaxy are they typically found?
  11. What are four ways that a star formation region can be triggered in a MC? (Answer: passing through arms of galaxy, supernova, collision of two clouds, and stellar winds from nearby young star (cluster))
  12. What is the smallest mass that can form a star and why? (Answer: only objects having mass greater than 8% of the Sun's mass have enough gravity to fuse Hydrogen in the core and become a star.)
  13. What is the largest mass that a star can form as and why? (Answer: Stars cannot have masses greater than around 150 times the mass of the Sun without blowing off the outer layers of the star.)
  14. Which is more common low mass stars or high mass stars? (Answer: Low mass stars are far more common.)

Chapter 17: Star Stuff (pp. 549–566)

  1. core hydrogen fussion,
  2. shell hydrogen fussion,
  3. core helium fussion,
  4. shell helium fussion,
  5. Helium flash,
  6. Giant Star,
  7. Red Giant Branch,
  8. carbon star,
  9. planetary nebula,
  10. white dwarf,
  11. supergiant,
  12. supernova,
 
key ideas: (pp. 567–8)
  1. About how long does the highest mass star live?
  2. About how long does the lowest mass star live?
  3. How does the lifetime of a star vary with its mass? What star lives longer a high mass O type star or a low mass M type star?
  4. What type of fussion causes a star to become a red giant (for the first time?)
  5. What happens to a star when its core runs out of fuel? (Answer: gravity causes it to contract and HEAT up until the 'ashes' themselves are able to fuse.)
  6. What happens to a stars OUTER LAYERS when its core runs out of fuel and shell fussion begins?
  7. By about how much can a stars diameter expand by during the red giant phase of Hydrogen Shell fussion? (100 times)
  8. T or F: Turning on a fuel in core cools the star's core by causing core to expand. (Answer: T)
  9. What happens to a stars OUTER LAYERS when Helium core fussion is first turned on? (Answer: it shrinks and heats up)
  10. What type of fussion occurs for each of the 3 giant phases of the life of a low mass star? (Answers in order: Hydrogen shell Fussion, Helium Core fussion, Helium shell fussion (unstable))
  11. What is the difference between how Helium core fussion turned on in more massive stars compared to less massive stars?
  12. When a low mass star dies what 2 things does it leave behind?
  13. What are planetary nebula?
  14. What exactly is a white dwarf and why are they so hot to begin with?
  15. What is the difference between how a low mass star dies and how a high mass stars die? (Answer: a large mass star dies with an explosive death, while the low mass star dies by gently shedding its outer layers.)
  16. How does a high mass star die?
  17. Just before a high mass star explodes of what is its core made mostly? (Answer: iron)
  18. How does a supernova explode when it is caused by a massive core collapse?
  19. What two things does a supernova (other than type Ia) leave behind. (Answer: a supernova remnant and either a neutron star or a black hole.)

Chapter 18: The Bizarre Stellar Graveyard (pp. 587–603)

keywords: (pp. 603–4)
  1. white dwarf
  2. neutron star
  3. pulsar
  4. black hole
  5. event horizon
 
key ideas: (pp. 603–604)
  1. About how big across are neutron stars? (Answer: about 20 km or so across, the size of a moderate sized city)
  2. About what mass are nuetron stars? (1.4 to 3 times the mass of our Sun)
  3. Why are there not any nuetron stars with less mass then 1.4 solar masses? (answer any less mass and the it would form a white dwarf instead.)
  4. Why are there not any nuetron stars with masses greater then 3 solar masses? (A more massive nuetron star would collapse into a black hole.)
  5. True or False: just a thimbleful of a neutron star would weight 100 million tons if brought to the Earth's surface.
  6. Name at least three things that make the environment of a neutron star extreme. (Answer: extremely high density, gravity, magnetic fields, rotation rate, and escape velocity of 1/2 of the speed of light.)
  7. True or False: the escape velocity of a neutron star is around 1/2 of the speed of light such that molecules and objects that hit a neutron star will be accelerated to that speed.
  8. True or False: Neutron stars can produce intense beams of radiation from their magnetic North and South poles
  9. True or False: Neutron stars are not made entirely of neutrons but includes a sprinkling of protons and electrons in its interior and a crust made of nuclei.
  10. True or False: All pulsars are nuetron stars but not all nuetron stars are pulsars.
  11. What is the relationship between a neutron star and a pulsar?
  12. What is an event horizon?
  13. True or False: Black holes have enough mass in a small enough volume that its gravity is so large that not even light is fast enough to escape
  14. True or False: A black hole is much harder to hit then a star of the same mass due to its much smaller size.

Here ends the material covered in Dr. Stein's Fall 2007 Astronomy Class

The rest of the study guide has not been revised yet and is subject to massive change

Chapter 24 (pp. 531-553)

keywords: (p. 550)
  1. black hole
  2. general relativity
  3. length contraction
  4. special relativity
  5. time dilation
 
key ideas: (pp. 550-551)
  1. True or False: neutron stars are the most dense objects in the universe.
  2. What is the main postulate of relativity from which all others are based? (Answer: the speed of light is the same for all observers no matter how fast they are moving.)
  3. Which of the following is true about what a stationary observer would measure a fast moving object? The fast moving object would be shorter. The fast moving object's clocks would run slower. The fast moving objects inertia would be larger. Events that happen simutaneously for the stationary observer would not be simultaneous for the moving object. All of the above.
  4. True or False: It is impossible for any object to go faster than the speed of light.
  5. How is time affected for an stationary observer watching a fast moving object? How is the size of the object affected? How is the inertia of the object affected?
  6. True or False: Events that happen at the same time for one observer don't necessarily happen at the same time for a fast moving observer of the same events.
  7. True or False: General relativity predicts that light is affected by gravity.
  8. True or False: light is affected by gravity and the path of light is bent by the gravity of the Sun as light passes it.