Name: Abby Telenko

Module 15 Lecture and Study Guide

1. What is the definition of the Universe?
All matter and energy
2. What are galaxies and how many are there?
Large groups of stars, nebulae, and other celestial objects. There are
hundreds of billions of galaxies.
3. What is a light year and what is the speed of light?
The distance it takes light to travel in one year, 186,000 miles per
second.
4. What are the 2 main components of stars?
Hydrogen and helium
5. How many stars are in a galaxy?
Hundreds of billions of stars
6. How do stars produce energy?
Nuclear fusion. This happens when two atoms of hydrogen combine
to form a helium atom and a lot of energy is released in the process.
7. What is a solar system and what are the objects it contains?
Consists of a star and all the celestial objects that orbit that star.
Those objects can include: planets, moons, comets and asteroids.
8. What is the name of our galaxy?
Milky Way galaxy
9. What is the definition of a planet?
A planet is defined as a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the
sun
10.Why are planets round?
Planets have sufficient mass for its self11.Give 3 examples of satellites.
Earth is a satellite of the sun
The sun is a satellite in the Milky Way
The moon is a satellite to the Earth
12.What did Copernicus discover?
Copernicus had figured out the motions of the planets made if they
moved around the Sun.
13.What was the relationship between Brahe and Kepler?
Kepler was Brahes assistant
14.Explain Keplers first law.
Planets move around the sun in ellipses.
15.Explain Keplers second law.
The line connecting the Sun to a planet sweeps equal areas in equal
time
16.What is the main point of Keplers third law?

The Law of Harmonies. To measure the distance of planets from

the sun
17.How does the moon stay in an orbit about the Earth?
The Earth must exert a pull on the Moon, and Newton named that
pulling force gravity
18.What is the difference between rotation and revolution?
Rotation is the spinning of Earth on its axis and the cause of night
and day. Revolution is the period of time it takes for the Earth to
orbit the sun.
19.What is a leap year and why does it occur?
The takes Earth 365.25 days to make one complete orbit. That leaves
one extra day every four years that we call leap day or year.
20.Why do we have seasons?
Earths axis rotation is tilted about 23.5 degrees, this is the reason
for the seasons
21.Explain precession.
This is the change in direction of the axis, but without any change in
the tilt.
22.Explain nutation. Does is affect the seasons?
Nutation is a wobbling around the precessional axis. This would very
slightly increase or decrease the amount of seasonal effects
23.Explain barycenter.
The point between two objects where they balance each other
24.What causes tides?
It is the gravity exerted on the Earth by the moon and to a lesser
extent, by the sun
25.Is the moon or Sun responsible for the tides?
The sun is only responsible for 46 percent of the gravitational pull
on the oceans
26.Why is there a bulge at the equator of the Earth?
The Earth is rotating on its axis