History of Astronomy and Space Travel

The name for the average sun-to-earth distance is

• A Year
• A Light Year
• An Astronomical Unit
• A Parsec

What did Galileo NOT see?

• Mountains on the earth's moon.
• Uranus's moons Titania and Oberon.
• Jupiter's 4 largest moons.
• The phases of Venus.

Which astronomer of antiquity first applied a telescope to astronomical observation?

• Ptolemy
• Galileo Galilei
• Tycho Brahe
• Copernicus

Ancient Greeks believed, the earth to be the centr of the universe. What do we call this model?

• Ptolemic System
• Geocentric Universe
• Heliocentric Universe
• Copernican Model

Ancient astronomers used 'epicycles' to explain...?

• Retrograde Motion
• Constellation Movement
• Moon's Phases
• Planetary Transits

Tycho Brahe's biggest contribution to astronomy was...?

• Accurate Observations of the stars and planets
• His telescopic observations
• Heliocentric Universe
• His Silver Nose

Astronomer Johannes Kepler...

• Published Almagest
• Invented the first Radio Telescope
• Suggested elliptical orbits for the planets
• Was made head astronomer for the Church

Tags

NGSS.HS-ESS1-4

What is the following diagram developed by Ptolemy attempting to explain?

• How the relative distance of the earth can be determined
• Heliocentric model
• Geocentric model with stellar parallax
• Geocentric model with the retrograde motion of Mars

What problems did early astronomers face when trying to justify a geocentric model?

• Retrograde motion of planets farther out than the Earth
• Bodies in the night sky moved from horizon to horizon making people think the Sun was the center
• No observations of bodies in the night sky were observable to make any logical conclusions about celestial orbits
• The lack of evidence for stellar parallax

The observation that everything moved across the night sky from east to west caused early astronomers to believe... ( choose one )

• Retrograde motion did not exist
• Stellar parallax did not exist
• The sun was the center of the solar system
• The earth was the center of the solar system