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Q 1/47
Score 0
A high eccentricity (e ≈ 0.21) orbit belongs to which of these planets?
30
Earth
Neptune
Venus
Mercury
Q 2/47
Score 0
If Earth’s axial tilt increased from 23.5° to 40°, summers in mid-latitude Texas would become…
30
identical to winters in Antarctica
dramatically hotter with longer daylight
cooler and shorter
unchanged because tilt does not affect temperature
47 questions
Q.
A high eccentricity (e ≈ 0.21) orbit belongs to which of these planets?
1
30 sec
Q.
If Earth’s axial tilt increased from 23.5° to 40°, summers in mid-latitude Texas would become…
2
30 sec
Q.
During a waning gibbous Moon, you should expect moonset to occur roughly at:
3
30 sec
Q.
The fact that we always see the same lunar hemisphere is best explained by…
4
30 sec
Q.
Why are powerful spring tides observed only at new and full Moon phases?
5
30 sec
Q.
A partial lunar eclipse can only occur when the Moon is in which phase?
6
30 sec
Q.
Which factor primarily sets the angle of incidence of sunlight at a given latitude?
7
30 sec
Q.
At the June solstice, communities north of the Arctic Circle experience…
8
30 sec
Q.
According to nebular theory, a collapsing protostellar cloud flattens into a disk chiefly because…
9
30 sec
Q.
All eight major planets orbit the Sun in nearly the same plane and direction because…
10
30 sec
Q.
Venusian surface geology is difficult to study in visible light primarily due to…
11
30 sec
Q.
Earth’s persistent volcanism and plate tectonics are largely a consequence of its…
12
30 sec
Q.
Which gas makes up roughly 74 % of the Sun’s mass?
13
30 sec
Q.
Big-Bang nucleosynthesis ended within minutes after the event because the universe…
14
30 sec
Q.
The Sun generates its prodigious luminosity chiefly via…
15
30 sec
Q.
Which short-lived phenomenon on the solar surface can trigger severe geomagnetic storms at Earth within one to three days?
16
30 sec
Q.
Gas clouds 25,000 ly from the Milky Way’s center orbit nearly as fast as those 8,000 ly out. This “flat” rotation curve implies…
17
30 sec
Q.
Which observation in the late 1990s provided the first strong direct evidence that cosmic expansion is accelerating?
18
30 sec
Q.
Compared with other Local-Group members, the Milky Way is best described as…
19
30 sec
Q.
Why don’t planets, moons, or even the Milky Way itself expand along with the universe?
20
30 sec
Q.
Spiral arms often appear bluish because their light is dominated by…
21
30 sec
Q.
In measuring the Milky Way’s enclosed mass inside the Sun’s orbit, astronomers combine the Sun’s orbital speed with its orbital radius using…
22
30 sec
Q.
The 11-year solar cycle tracks a periodic flip in the Sun’s…
23
30 sec
Q.
Sputnik 1’s 1957 launch signified that humanity had achieved…
24
30 sec
Q.
Compared with a refracting telescope, a reflecting telescope of the same aperture is usually preferred because it…
25
30 sec
Q.
The most direct evidence that dark energy dominates the present-day universe came from observations that distant Type Ia supernovae were…
26
30 sec
Q.
When a star like the Sun exhausts hydrogen in its core, it next becomes a red giant because…
27
30 sec
Q.
The transit method of exoplanet detection measures tiny, periodic dips in a star’s…
28
30 sec
Q.
Kepler’s Second Law (“equal areas in equal times”) implies that a planet moves fastest when it is…
29
30 sec
Q.
A waxing crescent Moon sets roughly at…
30
30 sec
Q.
Which wavelength band penetrates Earth’s atmosphere well enough that ground-based telescopes routinely observe it?
31
30 sec
Q.
Jupiter’s strong auroras and intense radiation belts are primarily powered by…
32
30 sec
Q.
A planetary nebula represents the evolutionary stage in which a star…
33
30 sec
Q.
Why does Mercury experience the largest day–night temperature swing of any terrestrial planet?
34
30 sec
Q.
The heliocentric model replaced the geocentric model chiefly because it…
35
30 sec
Q.
When an interstellar cloud’s internal pressure can no longer resist self-gravity, the cloud will…
36
30 sec
Q.
A sudden spike in the Sun’s X-ray emission that lasts minutes and accelerates charged particles outward is classified as…
37
30 sec
Q.
Which structural component of the Milky Way contains the youngest stars on average?
38
30 sec
Q.
Minerals in Martian sediment that can only precipitate under liquid water conditions were confirmed by which robotic mission?
39
30 sec
Q.
A planet several times Earth’s mass inside its star’s habitable zone might retain thick hydrogen atmospheres that act as strong greenhouse blankets, suggesting…
40
30 sec
Q.
Trying to stargaze with a small telescope near downtown Dallas is difficult chiefly because…
41
30 sec
Q.
Among Solar-System moons, which icy world with a subsurface ocean is currently a prime target in the search for extraterrestrial life?
42
30 sec
Q.
A black hole is best described as…
43
30 sec
Q.
Which pair of credentials is mandatory for NASA astronaut candidates?
44
30 sec
Q.
One hallmark of a coronal hole on the Sun is that it…
45
30 sec
Q.
The term habitable zone around a star refers to orbital distances where…
46
30 sec
Q.
Which scenario would be the clearest example of space weather affecting modern technology?
