Astronomy Midterm

True or False: Parallax is the apparent change in location of an object due to the motion of the observer

TRUE

The Almagest is:

a collection of the science and mathematics of the Greeks

A(n) _________ is a circle whose center is located in the center of another circle.

epicycle

Ptolemy's model of the Universe

contained epicycles

____ introduced the concept of the eccentrics and epicycle to planetary motion about Earth, created a star catalog, and is generally credited with the development of trigonometry.

Hipparchus

Which of the following people did not accept a heliocentric model of the universe?

Tycho

The book "De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium

first described the Copernican theory.

The Ptolemaic model of the universe was heliocentric.

FALSE

The Copernican system was no more accurate than the Ptolemaic system in predicting the positions of the planets because

the Copernican system included uniform circular motion.

Brahe's universe was the same as the Copernican universe except that

Earth did not move

Tycho Brahe's greatest contribution to astronomy was

his years of careful observations of the planets.

A ____ is a commonly accepted set of scientific ideas and assumptions.

paradigm

Galileo's observations of the gibbous phase of Venus proved

that Venus orbits the sun.

Galileo's telescopic discoveries of mountains on the moon and spots on the sun were controversial because they suggested that the sun and moon

are not perfect.

Galileo's telescopic discovery of moons orbiting Jupiter was important because it showed that

The universe could contain centers of motion other than Earth.
And Earth might move along an orbit and not leave the moon behind.

A ____ is a system of rules and principles that can be applied to a wide variety of circumstances but may not be universally accepted.

theory

Which of the following was not based on uniform circular motion?

Rudolphine Tables

Halley's Comet has an orbital period of 76 years. What is the average distance of Halley's Comet from the sun?

18 AU

In pre-Copernican astronomy, it was almost universally believed that

the Earth was at the center of the universe.

An apparent westward motion of a planet in the sky compared to the background stars (as viewed from the Earth) when observed on successive nights is referred to as

retrograde motion

Galileo wrote the Almagest.

FALSE

The purpose of using epicycles and deferents to explain the motion of the planets in the night sky was to account for

retrograde motion.

Which of the following objects cannot transit (i.e. pass in front of) the Sun as seen from Jupiter?

Saturn

he greatest inaccuracy in Copernicus' model of the solar system was that the planets

traveled in circular orbits with uniform motion.

Which of the following planets can be seen as a crescent phase from Earth?

Mercury and Venus