Introduction To Astronomy MCQs
Introduction To Astronomy MCQs
Our team has conducted extensive research to compile a set of Introduction To Astronomy MCQs. We encourage you to test your Introduction To Astronomy knowledge by answering these 90+ multiple-choice questions provided below.
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1: A spinning neutron star has been observed at the center of a ________.
A. Protostar.
B. Supernova remnant
C. Planetary nebula.
D. Red supergiant.
2: According to hubble's law, as the distance to galaxies ________, the ________ increases.
A. Increases; apparent recessional velocity
B. The greater the distance to a galaxy, the greater is the galaxy's redshift.
C. The number of logs used.
D. Emit large amounts of energy at all wavelengths.
3: An angle of 1 arcsecond is _________.
A. About the width of your fist held at arm's length
B. About the width of a finger held at arm's length
C. Less than the thickness of a human hair held at arm's length
D. Slightly more than the width of a basketball held at arm's length
4: Because of the conservation of angular momentum, as a star collapses ________.
A. It must rotate faster
B. What is considered High mass
C. Best way to detect a Black hole:
D. When two galaxies collide they tend to
5: Carbon fusion occurs in high-mass stars but not in low-mass stars because _________.
A. Only high-mass stars do fusion by the CNO cycle
B. Carbon fusion can occur only in the stars known as carbon stars
C. The cores of low-mass stars never get hot enough for carbon fusion
D. The cores of low-mass stars never contain significant amounts of carbon
6: Collisions between galaxies typically unfold over a period of ______.
A. Hundreds of millions of years.
B. 1 billion solar masses
C. Globular galaxies
D. 100 billion
7: Essentially all the hydrogen nuclei that will ever exist in our universe were created __________.
A. Spacetime rapidly expanded during a brief period of inflation.
B. Most matter in the early universe was annihilated by antimatter.
C. By the time the universe was about 3 minutes old
D. Fainter and has most of its photons at longer wavelengths
8: If we say that a galaxy has a lookback time of 1 billion years, we mean that _________.
A. It is now 1 billion light-years away.
B. It was 1 billion light-years away when the light left the galaxy.
C. It is 400 million years old.
D. Its light traveled through space for 1 billion years to reach us.
9: Overall, jupiter's composition is most like that of ________.
A. The Sun
B. Europa
C. Titan
D. Methane
10: The unusually bright centers found in some galaxies are called ________.
A. Active galactic nuclei.
B. 1 billion solar masses
C. Globular galaxies
D. The cosmological horizon
11: A terrestrial world's lithosphere is ________.
A. A core layer of molten, convecting material and sufficiently rapid rotation
B. A layer of relatively strong, rigid rock, encompassing the crust and part of the mantle
C. A place where a seafloor plate is sliding under a continental plate
D. A global
12: If you suspect someone you know may attempt suicide, you should __________.
A. All of the above
B. Feelings of euphoria
C. Help them talk through their issues
D. A suicide cluster occurs when multiple people attempt suicide at one time.
13: Current understanding holds that a galaxy's type (spiral, elliptical, or irregular) ______.
A. X rays
B. Visible light
C. Infrared light
D. Radio waves
14: According to hubble's law, the larger galaxy's redshift, the greater its _____.
A. Ounger it is.
B. Closer it is to us.
C. Faster it's approaching us.
D. Farther it is from us
15: Based on this diagram, "red sequence" galaxies are __________ than "blue cloud" galaxies.
A. A cluster of galaxies
B. About the size of our solar system.
C. The presence of globular clusters in the halos of galaxies
D. Redder and more luminous
16: A typical white dwarf is ________.
A. As massive as the Sun but only about as large in size as the Earth.
B. An object with gravity so strong that not even light can escape
C. Supernovas of very massive stars in distant galaxies
D. Both involve explosions on the surface of stellar corpse.
17: All ____ galaxies are spiral galaxies that have small luminous nuclei.
A. The gravitational lens effect
B. Seyfert
C. Emit a very large amount of energy per second
D. Most; a few percent
E. Synchrotron radiation
18: The graph shows that galaxies with high speeds as measured from earth are __________.
A. The more distant a galaxy, the faster it is moving away from us.
B. A type of luminous star that makes an excellent standard candle.
C. Moving away from Earth and are farther from Earth than galaxies with lower speeds
D. Its light traveled through space for 1 billion years to reach us
19: The main source of energy for a star as it grows in size to become a red giant is ______.
A. Protostar, main-sequence star, red giant, planetary nebula, white dwarf
B. Much less than half as long as the Sun
C. The core shrinks while the rest of the star expands.
D. Hydrogen fusion in a shell surrounding the central core
20: The processes responsible for virtually all surface geology are ________.
A. Impact cratering, volcanisms, tectonics, and erosion.
B. Seafloor crust is thinner, younger, and higher in density.
C. A greenhouse effect that keeps getting stronger until all of a planet's greenhouse gases are in its atmosphere
D. A layer of relatively strong, rigid rock, encompassing the crust and part of the mantle
21: The transit method allows us in principle to find planets around __________.
A. The astrometric technique of planet detection works best for
B. Their light is overwhelmed by the light from their star.
C. The amount and frequency of the star's motion are both higher.
D. Only a small fraction of stars that have planets
22: It is diffraction that limits the ________ of a telescope of a given objective diameter.
A. Resolution
B. Improve the angular resolution of radio telescopes
C. They have poorer angular resolution than a refractor
D. Increase their angular resolution and collect the very weak radio photons.
23: The cores of the terrestrial worlds are made mostly of metal because ______.
A. Metals sunk to the centers a long time ago when the interiors were molten throughout
B. The terrestrial worlds as a whole are made mostly of metal
C. The core contained lots of radioactive elements that decayed into metals
D. Over billions of years, convection gradually brought dense metals downward to the core
24: The velocities of seismic waves traveling from earthquake foci ________.
A. Are uniform throughout all layers of Earth
B. Decrease at a constant rate with depth
C. Increase at a constant rate with depth
D. Generally increase with depth, but occasionally make abrupt jumps
25: The light collecting area of a telescope is larger in telescopes which have a larger ____________.
A. Diameter
B. Light pollution
C. Reflecting
D. Focus
26: The surface features of ________ are known only through satellite radar mapping.
A. Jupiter
B. Mars
C. Venus
D. Mercury
27: To calculate the masses of stars in a binary system, we must measure their ________.
A. Spectral types and distance from Earth.
B. Absolute magnitudes and luminosities.
C. Luminosities and distance from Earth.
D. Orbital period and average orbital distance.
28: The largest geographic feature on the surface of planet earth is __________.
A. Pacific ocean
B. James Cook
C. Isostatic adjustment
D. None of these
29: A typical meteor is created by a particle about the size of a _________.
A. Pea
B. A large member of the Kuiper belt
C. Being a fragment from Comet Halley
D. Generally away from the Sun
E. Evidence of recent geological activity
30: Its massafter a supernova explosion, the remains of the stellar core ________.
A. May be either a neutron star or a black hole
B. Iron cannot release energy either by fission or fusion.
C. Its mass
D. All of this
31: Over time, the star-gas-star cycle leads the gas in the milky way to ________.
A. Have a lower abundance of heavy elements
B. Have a greater abundance of heavy elements
C. Become denser and hotter
D. Become denser and have a greater abundance of heavy elements
32: Spiral arms appear bright because ________.
A. They contain more hot young stars than other parts of the disk
B. The stars that formed first could orbit the center of the galaxy in any direction at any inclination.
C. It is by far the brightest source of visible light lying in the direction of the galactic center.
D. None of these
33: Stellar occultations are the most accurate way to measure the _________ of a solar system object.
A. Circumference
B. Radius
C. Density
D. Diameter
34: The james webb space telescope is designed primarily to observe __________.
A. Visible light
B. Light pollution
C. Ultraviolet light
D. Infrared light
35: We can study how galaxies evolve because ______.
A. Galaxies are transparent to visible light.
B. We are really smart astronomers.
C. We can watch as they interact in real time.
D. The farther away we look, the further back in time we see.
36: In essence, the kepler mission searched for extrasolar planets by ____________.
A. Monitoring stars for slight dimming that might occur as unseen planets pass in front of them
B. The size of the Doppler shift that we detect depends on the tilt of a planet's orbit.
C. A planet that is Jupiter-like in size but orbits very close to its star
D. None of these
37: Most pulsars are observed only as ________ sources.
A. Infrared
B. X-ray
C. Radio
D. Ultraviolet
38: Parallax measurements of the distances to the nearest stars use _____ as a baseline.
A. Top right
B. Earth's orbit
C. Moon's orbit
D. Earth's axis
39: The energy balance that contributes to the solar thermostat is a balance between __________.
A. The energy generated by fusion and the product of (mass lost through fusion) x c2
B. The energy reaching the Sun's photosphere and the energy radiated from the photosphere into space
C. The energy released in the core by fusion and the energy radiated from the Sun's surface into space
D. None of these
40: Radio telescopes would not represent a good choice for astronomical study of ________.
A. Ordinary stars
B. We don't know
C. In x rays.
D. In space
41: Radio telescopes measure the galaxys distribution of _____.
A. Whether a star is moving toward or away from earth
B. Refracting
C. Hydrogen from which stars are formed
D. Convection and radiation
E. Cooler than the rest of the surface
42: Craters on the surface of the moon are caused by the impact of _______________.
A. The sun
B. Meteoroids
C. The Earth
D. Water
43: Any place where groundwater naturally flows out of earths surface is termed a(n) ________.
A. The animation shows that any location on Earth
B. Passes through both tidal bulges
C. The places where the tides are smallest
D. Nonr of this
44: The energy in the atmospheres of most of the jovian planets comes ___________,
A. Almost entirely from their interiors
B. Almost entirely from the Sun
C. Both the Sun and their interiors, in roughly equal proportions
D. Tidal heating
45: Compared to the underlying photosphere and chromosphere, the corona is _____ in temperature.
A. Much larger
B. Much brighter
C. A prominence
D. Much hotter
46: Visible light from a distant star can be spread into a spectrum by using a glass prism or ______.
A. A diffraction grating.
B. Adaptive optics.
C. A telescope.
D. A flat glass mirror.
47: A ____ has a few million light sensitive diodes in an array typically about a half-inch square.
A. Photometer
B. Charge-coupled device
C. Spectrograph
48: The great contribution of nicholas copernicus was to ________.
A. Discover the laws of planetary motion
B. Discover the law of gravity
C. Create a detailed model of our solar system with the Sun rather than Earth at the center
D. Prove that the Earth is not the center of the universe
49: Degenearcy pressure arises when ________.
A. Subatomic particles are packed as tightly as the laws of quantum mechanics allow
B. The merger of two black holes
C. Electron dengeneracy pressure
D. All of this
50: A main-sequence star twice as massive as the sun would last __________.
A. As a main sequence star
B. Much less than half as long as the Sun
C. In hydrostatic equilibrium
D. Hydrogen burning shell expands
51: According to current evidence, pluto is best explained as ______.
A. Generally away from the Sun.
B. A large member of the Kuiper belt.
C. He largest of Pluto's three known moons.
D. Comets always have tails.
52: Among discovered meteorites, we have found some with all the following origins except _________.
A. Being a fragment from the surface of the Moon
B. Being a fragment of a shattered asteroid
C. Being a fragment from the surface of Mars
D. Being a fragment from Comet Halley
53: Comets falling into the inner solar system from the ____ are called long-period comets.
A. Annual event
B. Streaked
C. Oort cloud
D. Orbital path
54: Gaps in the asteroid belt (often called kirkwood gaps) are caused by ______.
A. Tidal forces from Jupiter
B. Orbital resonances with Jupiter
C. Tidal forces from the Sun
D. The competing gravitational tugs of Mars and Jupiter
55: If the 1908 tunguska impact had instead struck a city, it likely would have ________.
A. The presence of surface or subsurface liquid water
B. Ice floats and provides insulation to the water below
C. One-twenty-fifth
D. Killed much of the city's population
56: Most asteroids inhabit the asteroid belt between the planets ________.
A. Earth and Mars
B. Jupiter and Saturn
C. Neptune and Pluto
D. Mars and Jupiter.
57: On the graphs shown, you can identify an ice age by looking for __________.
A. A trough (bottom of a dip) on the temperature graph
B. It reaches Earth's surface, where some is reflected and some is absorbed.
C. The clouds reflect much of it back to space, though some still reaches the surface.
D. It is returned upward in the form of infrared light.
58: That earth ____ , evidence that earth differentiated.
A. Rotates slowly
B. Has an average density that is lower than the density of the crust
C. Has a magnetic field
D. Has a surface that is 75% water
E. All of these
59: The ________ magnitude of a star depends directly upon its luminosity and distance.
A. Absolute
B. Bolometric
C. Visual
D. Apparent
60: The frequency of sunspots and related solar activity is ________.
A. An 11 year cycle
B. Hydrogen nuclei to helium nuclei
C. Distinction of the various rings of Saturn
D. Nuclear fusion
61: The leading hypothesis for venus's lack of a global magnetic field is its ________.
A. A metamorphic rock
B. Internal heat
C. Have weaker gravities
D. Slow rotation
62: The light-gathering power of a 4-meter telescope is __________ than that of a 2-meter telescope.
A. 8 times larger
B. 4 times larger
C. 16 times smaller
D. None of these
63: The martian "blueberries" are ________.
A. Pebble-sized spheres containing the mineral hematite
B. It suggests either some type of volcanic activity or life.
C. A meteorite found on Earth that appears to have come from Mars
D. Any liquid water on the surface would quickly freeze or evaporate
64: The radio source ________ is located in a place consistent with the center of our galaxy.
A. 50 kpc
B. 1:100
C. Sgr A*
D. Cepheids
65: When we say that the sun is a ball of plasma, we mean that ________.
A. The Sun consists of gas in which many or most of the atoms are ionized (missing electrons).
B. The fundamental nuclear reaction occurring in the core of the sun is
C. The source of energy that keeps the sun shinning today is
D. None of these
66: The length of daylight on the moon is about ________.
A. 24 hours
B. Two weeks.
C. 48 hours
D. One month
67: The orbits of ____ lie closer to the sun than does earth's orbit.
A. Mercury and Mars
B. Mars and Venus
C. Mercury and Venus
D. Jupiter and Mercury.
68: The imaginary boundary between the earth and sky is called the _________.
A. Horizon.
B. Autumnal equinox
C. Winter solstice
D. Vernal equinox
69: The sun will exhaust its nuclear fuel in about ________.
A. 5000 AD
B. 50 billion years
C. 5 million years
D. 5 billion years
70: Mars has two moons that are most similar in character to ________.
A. Much larger
B. Uranus
C. Small asteroids
D. It is made mostly of rock and ice.
71: Measuring the amount of deuterium in the universe allows us to set a limit on _________.
A. The current age of the universe
B. The density of ordinary (baryonic) matter the universe
C. The acceleration of the universe
D. The total amount of mass in the universe
72: The name given to the shape of a sagging rope supported at its ends is a __________.
A. Surface area
B. Both the same
C. Catenary
D. Neutral layer
73: When we say that liquid water is unstable on mars today, we mean that ________.
A. Any liquid water on the surface would quickly either freeze or evaporate.
B. The moon's average density
C. Abundant liquid water on its surface
D. A moist greenhouse e!ect
74: Most irregular galaxies are thought to have formed _____.
A. From collisions between other galaxies.
B. Red giant
C. Orbits a star, gravity makes spherical, clears orbits of other objects
D. None of these
75: The flattened circular part of the galaxy is called the galactic _________.
A. Disk.
B. Ecliptic
C. Winter solstice
D. Twinkling
76: The sun illuminates ________________________ of the moon at all times.
A. All
B. One-fourth
C. Different amounts of the Moon depending on the lunar phases
D. One-half
77: Titan shares all of the following geological features with earth except ________.
A. Because of its small size
B. Volcanoes erupting with molten rock
C. The only moon to have its own atmosphere
D. Io is closer to Jupiter
78: The greenhouse effect on venus is due to ________ in its atmosphere.
A. CO2
B. Nitrogen
C. Iron
D. H2so4
79: ________ meteorites are thought to be analogous in composition to earth's core.
A. Iron
B. Stony
C. Ammonical
D. Calcareous
80: A __________ becomes a __________ when repeated testing of its predictions does not disprove it.
A. Hypothesis; scientific method
B. Theory; scientific revolution
C. Phenomenon; theory
D. Hypothesis; theory
81: A blackbody curve relates the wavelength of emitted light to _____.
A. Infrared radiation
B. Intensity
C. Visible light
D. None of the above
82: A small group of atoms does not collapse into a clump because ________ quickly disperses them.
A. Gravitation
B. Heat
C. Mass
D. None of the above
83: Stars in the local sky that never cross below the horizon during the year are called ________.
A. Bright
B. Seasonal
C. Circumpolar
D. Celestial
84: The ____ of a telescope is a measure of its ability to increase brightness.
A. Light-gathering power
B. Magnifying power
C. Refracting telescope
D. Resolving power
85: The _____ is a vast, spherical array of long period comet nuclei far beyond the orbit of neptune.
A. Meteorite
B. Oort Cloud
C. Kuiper
D. Coma
86: The sun lies _______ the disk of our milky way galaxy.
A. At the center of
B. About half of the way out in
C. About one-tenth of the way out in
D. In the halo above
E. None of the above
87: Tycho failed to detect ______ for the nova of 1572 indicating it was ______.
A. Paradigm
B. Parallax; beyond the orbit of Earth's moon
C. Were not perfect spheres
D. Travel in circular orbits with Uniform motion.
88: When we refer to the solar thermostat, we are referring to the idea that __________.
A. The Sun generates energy through nuclear fusion in its core
B. The Sun's core temperature naturally stays stable
C. Nuclear fusion makes the Sun hot
D. None of these
89: Antenna size of tvs and cell phones is related to the size of the _________ used by the technology.
A. Wave
B. Objects
C. Radio
D. Telephone
90: A comets plasma tail always points directly away from the sun because __________.
A. Of pressure exerted by the fast-moving charged particles in the solar wind
B. Objects in the astroid belt and Kuiper belt orbit the sun in nearly the same plane as the planets
C. It is a little less than half the diameter of our moon
D. Your meteorite is a fragment from the core of the large astroid that shattered in a collision
91: Neptune can be divided into a total of ______________ different layers.
A. Three
B. One
C. Two
D. Four
92: Water makes a good coolant because it has a ____
A. High specific heat
B. Low specific heat
C. High boiling point
D. Low freezing point
93: In an open and grassy pine savannah, fires _____.
A. Prevent the growth of grasses
B. Prevent the development of a hardwood forest
C. Prevent the growth of trees
D. Leave the soil barren and without life
94: The energy that stirs the circulation in jupiter's atmosphere comes from _____.
A. The planet's interior
B. Jupiter's mass is greater than all the other planet masses combined.
C. Saturn's cooler temperatures allow for the formation of a hazy layer of ammonia clouds that surrounds the planet.
D. They contain large quantities of light elements, such as hydrogen and helium
95: The fact that mercury has no atmosphere is evidence that it _____.
A. Reflects almost all of the sunlight that strikes it.
B. Is composed almost entirely of gases.
C. Is much farther from the sun than it appears.
D. Reflects a small percentage of the sunlight that strikes it.
96: Periodic variations in earth's orbit that can cause natural climate changes are called _________.
A. Wilson cycles
B. Mohorovicíc cycles
C. Geospatial periodicity
D. Milankovitch cycles
97: The structure of a comet is considered to be like a large, ____, or a mass of frozen ice and rock.
A. Solid planet
B. Cratered moon
C. Dirty snowball
D. None of the above
98: Copernicus proposed a heliocentric model for the solar system primarily because ________.
A. It was much simpler than the Ptolemaic model
B. It explained the phases of Venus
C. It enabled him to explain retrograde motion
D. It allowed him to replace epicycles with ellipses
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