Astronomy: Chapter 1

Question 1

Discuss our local neighbors of Earth, including approximate size of our objects and the names of the nearest.

Answer 1

Planet: Earth
Size: 8,000 miles
Neighbors: Venus and Mars
Distance to them: 35,000,000 miles.

Question 2

Discuss our nearest star. its size, neighbors and distance.

Answer 2

Star: Sun
Size: 850,000 Miles
Neighbors: Alpha Centauri and Bamaids
Distance: 4 and 5 LY

Question 3

Discuss our nearest spiral arm, its size, neighbors and distance.

Answer 3

Spiral Arm: Orian Arm
Size: ?
Neighbors: Perseus/Sagittarius
Distance: 50LY

Question 4

Discuss our nearest galaxy, its size, neighbors, and distance.

Answer 4

Galaxy: Milky way
size: 100,000 LY
Neighbors: Andromeda Galaxy
Distance: 2 million LY

Question 5

Discuss our nearest cluster, its size, neighbors, and distance.

Answer 5

Cluster: Local Group
Size: 4,000,000 Ly
Neighbor: Virgo
Distance: 62,000,000 LY

Question 6

Discuss our nearest super cluster, its size, neighbors, and distance.

Answer 6

Super cluster: Virgo
Size: 100,000,000 LY
neighbors: N/A
Distance: N/a

Question 7

What is the size of our Universe?

Answer 7

13.7 Bly

Question 8

Light Year

Answer 8

The Distance the light travels in one year.

light travels at 186,000 miles per second.

The distance it travels over a year is 5.88 trillion miles.

Question 9

Astronomical Unit

Answer 9

• Average distance from earth to the sun
• 93,000,000 miles
  1. 5 X 10 ^8 kilometers

Question 10

How do astronomers describe distances

Answer 10

• Scientific notation
• astronomical Unit (AU) Distance from earth to sun.
  Light Year (Ly) Distance light can travel in one year.

Question 11

Describe how science works. How does this differ from philosophy?

Answer 11

• Philosophers: take everything in account for possibilities. they refuse to accept limits on what it is they can consider.
• Religion: looks at questions that are dismissed by science and try to provide explanations about the unknown to satisfy the general populations emotional needs.
• SCIENCE CAN BE VERIFIED