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(Set-III)
102) Which of the following first hypothesized that the Earth orbited the sun?
(a) Alexander the Great
(b) Copernicus
(c) Socrates
(d) Tycho Brahe
Answer: (b)
Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance mathematician and astronomer who formulated a model of the
universe that placed the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe.
103) The LAST manned moon flight was made in what year?
(a) 1971 (b) 1972
(c) 1973 (d) 1974
Answer: (b)
The last manned landing Apollo 17 on the Moon to date, which took place on December 11, 1972, was
made by Commander Eugene Cernan and lunar module pilot Harrison Schmitt who was also the first
scientist on the Moon.
less severe (Thomas, 2002). Another consequence of precession is a shift in the celestial poles. 5000 years
ago the North Star was Thuban in the constellation Draco. Currently the North Star is Polaris in the
constellation Ursa Minor.
111) The comet known as Halley’s Comet has an average period of:
(a) 56 years
(b) 66 years
(c) 76 years
(d) 86 years
Answer: (c)
Halley’s Comet orbits the Sun every 76.0 years and has an orbital eccentricity of 0.97. Comet Halley was
visible in 1910 and again in 1986. Its next perihelion passage will be in early 2062.
113) The rocks that enter the earth’s atmosphere and blaze a trail all the way to the ground
and do not burn up completely are known as:
(a) meteorites
(b) meteors
(c) asteroids
(d) none of these
Answer: (a)
A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that
originates in outer space and survives its passage through the Earth’s atmosphere and impact with the
Earth’s surface
(b) Nitrogen
(c) Argon
(d) Carbon monoxide
Answer: (a)
The atmosphere of Mars is about 100 times thinner than Earth’s, and it is 95 percent carbon dioxide.
115) What is the motion called when a planet seems to be moving westward in the sky?
(a) Retrograde
(b) Parallax
(c) Opcentric
(d) Reverse parallax
Answer: (a)
Retrograde motion, in astronomy, describes the orbit of a celestial body that runs counter to the direction
of the spin of that body which it orbits. Apparent retrograde motion, in astronomy, is the apparent motion
of planets as observed from a particular vantage point.
116) In what year did Galileo first use an optical telescope to study the moon?
(a) 1492 (b) 1611
(c) 1212 (d) 1743
Answer: (b)
118) The Pythagoreans appear to have been the first to have taught that the Earth is:
(a) at the center of the Universe.
(b) spherical in shape.
(c) orbits around the sun.
(d) flat with sharp edges.
Answer: (b)
120) Of the following colors, which is bent least in passing through aprism?
(a) orange (b) violet
(c) green (d) red
Answer: (d)
121) In a reflecting telescope where in the tube is the objective mirror placed?
(a) the top to the tube
(b) the middle of the tube
(c) the bottom of the tube
(d) the side of the tube
Answer: (c)
122) What does it mean when someone says that comets have eccentric orbits? Does it mean
(a) they have open orbits
(b) they have nearly circular orbits
(c) their orbits are unpredictable
(d) the sun is far from the foci of their orbits
Answer: (d)
123) What causes the gas tail of a comet to always point away from the sun?
(a) solar wind
(b) air pressure
(c) centrifugal force
(d) gravity
Answer: (a)
125) Of the following, which is the only planet which CANNOT be seen with the unaided eye?
(a) Jupiter
(b) Mars
(c) Neptune
(d) Saturn
Answer: (c)
The ice giant Neptune was the first planet located through mathematical predictions rather than through
regular observations of the sky. Nearly 4.5 billion kilometers (2.8 billion miles) from the Sun, Neptune
orbits the Sun once every 165 years. It is invisible to the naked eye because of its extreme distance from
Earth. In 2011 Neptune completed its first orbit since its discovery in 1846.
129) The Crab Nebula consists of the remnants of a supernova which was observed by:
(a) Brahe in 1572.
(b) Kepler and Galileo in 1604.
(c) the Chinese in 1054 A.D.
(d) several ancient civilizations in 236 B.C.
Answer: (c)
The Crab Nebula, the result of a supernova noted by Earth-bound chroniclers in 1054 A.D., is filled with
mysterious filaments that are are not only tremendously complex, but appear to have less mass than
expelled in the original supernova and a higher speed than expected from a free explosion. The Crab
Nebula spans about 10 light-years. In the nebula’s very center lies a pulsar: a neutron star as massive as
the Sun but with only the size of a small town. The Crab Pulsar rotates about 30 times each second.
131) On the celestial sphere, the annual path of the Sun is called
(a) the eclipse path.
(b) ecliptic.
(c) diurnal.
(d) solstice.
Answer: (b)
The ecliptic is an imaginary line on the sky that marks the annual path of the sun. It is the projection of
Earth’s orbit onto the celestial sphere.
132) The angular distance between a planet and the Sun, as viewed from the Earth, is called
(a) angle of inclination.
(b) elongation.
(c) latitude.
(d) opposition.
Answer: (b)
Elongation is the angular distance between the sun, and another object such a moon or a planet as seen
from earth. There are several special names for these angular distances. The different names of these
angles depend on the status, inferior or superior, of the planet. The planets closer to the sun than the
earth are called inferior planets. The planets farther away from the sun than earth are called superior
planets.
Elongation is measured from earth as the angle between the sun and the planet. Sometimes the apparent
relative position of a planet in relation to the sun is called the aspect, or configuration, of a planet.
mass and density also results in a surface gravity of 9.8 m/s². This is also used as a the standard (one g)
when measuring the surface gravity of other planets.
135) Why do we see lunar eclipses much more often than solar eclipses?
(a) Lunar eclipses occur more often than solar eclipses.
(b) Lunar eclipses last longer than solar eclipses.
(c) The lunar eclipse is visible to much more of the Earth than a solar eclipse.
(d) The moon is closer to the Earth than the sun.
Answer: (c)
Lunar and solar eclipses occur with about equal frequency. Lunar eclipses are more widely visible because
Earth casts a much larger shadow on the Moon during a lunar eclipse than the Moon casts on Earth during
a solar eclipse. As a result, we are more likely to see a lunar eclipse than a solar eclipse.
139) A coordinate system based on the ecliptic system is especially useful for the studies of
(a) Planets
(b) Stars
(c) The Milky Way
(d) Galaxies
Answer: (a)
140) The mean distance of the earth from the sun in astronomical units is:
(a) 3.7 (b) 10
(c) 1 (d) 101
Answer: (c)
In astronomy, an astronomical unit is defined as the average distance from the Sun to the Earth, or about
150 million kilometers (93 million miles). You can abbreviate astronomical unit as AU.
Since the distances in astronomy are so vast, astronomers use this measurement to bring the size of
numbers down.
For example, Earth is 1 au from the Sun, and Mars is 1.523 AU. That’s much easier than saying that Mars is
227,939,000 km away from the Sun.
142) What is the most distant object in the sky that the human eye can see without optical
instruments?
143) Which civilization developed and implemented the first solar calendar?
(a) Babylonian
(b) Greek
(c) Egyptian
(d) Aztec
Answer: (c)
A solar calendar is a calendar whose dates indicate the position of the earth on its revolution around the
sun and is based on the seasonal year of approximately 365 1/4 days, the time it takes the Earth to
revolve once around the Sun. The Egyptians appear to have been the first to develop a solar calendar,
using as a fixed point the annual sunrise reappearance of the Dog Star — Sirius, or Sothis — in the eastern
sky, which coincided with the annual flooding of the Nile River. They constructed a calendar of 365 days,
consisting of 12 months of 30 days each, with 5 days added at the year’s end. The Egyptians’ failure to
account for the extra fraction of a day, however, caused their calendar to drift gradually into error.
145) The same side of the moon always faces the Earth because:
(a) the moon is not rotating about its axis.
(b) the moon’s motion was fixed at its creation by the laws of inertia.
(c) tidal forces keep the moon’s rotation and orbiting motion in sync with each other.
(d) the moon’s magnetic poles keep aligned with the Earth’s magnetic field.
Answer: (b)
147) On a clear, dark, moonless night, approximately how many stars can be seen with the
naked eye?
(a) 300 (b) 1,000
(c) 3,000 (d) 10,000
Answer: (c)
On any clear dark moonless night a person can see about 3000 stars of our galaxy without the aid of a
telescope
148) The study of the origin and evolution of the universe is known as:
(a) Tomography
(b) cystoscopy
(c) cryology
(d) cosmology
Answer: (d)
Cosmology is the branch of astronomy involving the origin and evolution of the universe, from the Big
Bang to today and on into the future. According to NASA, the definition of cosmology is “the scientific
study of the large scale properties of the universe as a whole.”
Answer: (a)
Johannes Kepler, working with data painstakingly collected by Tycho Brahe without the aid of a telescope,
developed three laws which described the motion of the planets across the sky.
1. The Law of Orbits: All planets move in elliptical orbits, with the sun at one focus.
2. The Law of Areas: A line that connects a planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times.
3. The Law of Periods: The square of the period of any planet is proportional to the cube of the semimajor
axis of its orbit.
Kepler’s laws were derived for orbits around the sun, but they apply to satellite orbits as well.