Astronomy college course/Chasing Pluto

View the PBS-NOVA video here               ... Contributions subpage (attribution )


 *  Click to download a PDF (in multiple versions) for classroom use
 * Click for online viewing of this PDF (the second part of each version shows the answers)

{The trip by New Horizons from Earth to Pluto took almost a} - week - month - year + decade - century {The time to reach __________ was shortened from 9 days to 3 hours due to the speed of the rocket that delivered New Horizons} + the Moon - Mars - the asteroid belt - Jupiter {When the discovery of the "ninth planet" was made in 1930, the name Pluto was chosen after a cartoon that was a common childhood experience shared by most astronomers of the day} - true + false {The image to the right corresponds to} + - {The image to the right corresponds to} - + { These two images of Pluto represent:} - a land-based telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope + raw and processed images - New Horizons near Earth and mid-way to Pluto - New Horizons mid-way to Pluto and near Pluto - New Horizons and the Hubble Space Telescope {The atmosphere of Pluto} + emerges when the surface thaws as it approaches the Sun - emerges when the surface thaws due to tidal heating from the Moons - emerges when the surface thaws due to tidal heating from Jupiter - emerges when the surface thaws due to tidal heating from Neptune - is mostly oxygen {Energy for the New Horizons is provided by} - lithium batteries - fuel cells - solar power + nuclear power {As it approached Pluto, New Horizons was slightly larger than} + a grand piano - the Hubble Space Telescope - a 10 story building {The "Chasing Pluto" video showed a stellar occultation that was observed in order to learn something about Pluto's} - mass + atmosphere - size {The "Chasing Pluto" video showed a stellar occultation that was observed} - from the Keck Observatory in 1994 - from the 200 inch Hale Telescope in 1968 - from the Hubble Space Telescope in 1998 + from a cargo plane in 1988 {A stellar occultation occurs when a planet passes in front of a star} + true - false {A stellar occultation occurs when the north or south pole of a planet is aligned with a star} - true + false {Stellar occultation tells something about a planet because} - blocking the nearby stars allows a better view of the planet + the star acts as a light source for the detection of planetary spectral lines that are absorption lines - the star acts as a light source for the detection of planetary spectral lines that are emission lines - the orientation of the planet's rotation about its axis can be precisely determined {Silicon carbide was used to construct the telescope LORRI because this material is} - strong - light - not prone to warp at low temperature + all of these {The darker portions of Pluto are believe to be from "snowflakes" of} - silicates - water + hydrocarbons - nitrogen {"Pepssi", "Rex", "Swap", "Lorri", "Alice" and "Ralf" are} - named after friends of the cartoon charactor 'Pluto' + instruments on the New Horizon - asteroids discovered by New Horizon - the people responsible for calculating the orbit of New Horizon - Kuiper objects discovered by New Horizon {What was the concern about taking a telescope/camera to the cold environment near Pluto?} + the telescope might bend - the the mirror might crack - the plates might crack - the electronics might fail {As New Horizon's approaches Jupiter, it was essential that } + it approach Jupiter closely enough for Jupiter's gravity to pull New Horizons to a 20% higher speed - avoid hitting the moons of Jupiter - avoid going into the rings of Jupiter {While close to Jupiter, New Horizons the most spectacular image was of} - the great red spot - Jupiter's rings - a newly discovered moon + a live volcano {The Kuiper belt has been described as a ___________ made of ___________} - deep freeze ... rock and metal - mystery band ... rock and ice - mystery band ... rock and metal + deep freeze ... rock and ice {For most of its nine-year journey, it was asleep, but once a week, the New Horizon's spacecraft } - photographed EARTH - photographed PLUTO + called MOM - adjusted the ORBIT {Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto back in the 1930s} - privately funded the Lowell observatory + was self educated - had resigned from a position at Yale to focus his efforts on discovering "Planet X" {Clyde Tombaugh's reward for discovering Pluto was} - a Nobel prize + a college education - an invitation to teach at Yale {The blink comparator compared} - the atmosphere around an object with the object itself - the size of two different objects + the location of an object on two different days {A typical average radio station uses 50,000 watts to transmit a signal. The transmitter on New Horizons used } + 5 thousand times less power - 5 thousand times more power - 5 times less power - 5 times more power - almost the same amount of power {Mike Brown's search for another Pluto-like object eventually led to the discovery of Eris in 2005. What was the first clue that Eris was larger than Pluto?} - It was brighter in the sky than Pluto - it was surprisingly bright for an object moving that quickly + it was surprisingly bright for an object moving that slowly - it had a surprisingly large influence on Pluto's orbit {Pluto ceased to be called a planet in 2006, after the IAU defined a planet of our Sun as an object that is (1) in orbit around the Sun, (2) roughly spherical due to it's mass, and (3): } - lies in the same plane as the other nine planets + has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit. - has a nearly circular orbit - is larger than Earth's moon - is more massive than Mercury {The influence of Jupiter's gravity on Pluto is that Jupiter gradually pushes Pluto away } + true - false {The influence of Jupiter's gravity on Pluto is that Jupiter gradually brings Pluto closer} - true + false {Which was NOT listed as one of the three things commonly considered necessary for the formation of life?} + sunlight - water - energy - organic matter {As New Horizons approached Jupiter, it looked for new moons, and the ground crew was glad that} - the New Horizons discovered three new moons + there were no new moons because moons are debris generators - there were no new moons because moons are capable of capturing spacecraft