Choose one answer for each question
How old is the universe?
6,000 years old
380,000 years old
13.8 billion years old
13.8 million years old
A parsec is:
Longer than a light year
The distance between the Earth and the Sun
Approximately 3x10^24 cm
None of the above
The distance to the center of the Galaxy from the Solar Systen is about 8 kpc. If someone there right now looked at Earth with an amazingly powerful telescope, what would they see humans doing?
Looking back with telescopes of their own!
Building pyramids
living as hunter-gatherers and making great cave paintings
Humans werem't around yet
How much would you weigh if both the Earth's mass and radius increased by a factor of 2?
Twice as much
Half as much
4 times as much
1/4 as much
The same
Consider a comet with an extremely eccentric orbit around the Sun, such that at perihelion it is very close to the Sun and at aphelion it is beyond the orbit of Mars, with a semimajor axis of ~1 AU. To complete one orbit around the Sun, the comet will take:
Less than 1 year
More than 1 year
About 1 year
Not enough information
The shape of an orbit is determined by:
The kinetic energy
The angular momentum
The total energy
The kinetic energy AND the angular momentum
The angular momentum AND the total energy
None of these
In order for a lunar eclipse to occur, the Moon must be in what phase?
Full
New
First or third quarter
Any phase
Caltech's latitude is 34 degrees North. Which declination of stars (of those below) is NOT visible to us at any time of the year?
34 degrees
-34 degrees
90 degrees
-75 degrees
Which is longer, a synodic day or a sidereal day?
Synodic day
Sidereal day
Both are equal
Not enough information
3 answers