Space Physics True/False Questions

Day and night are caused by the Earth spinning on its axis.

The rising and setting of the Sun occur exactly in the east and west only during equinoxes.

The highest point of the Sun above the horizon occurs around 21 June in the northern hemisphere.

The Earth\’s axial tilt of 27° is responsible for the changing seasons.

In the northern hemisphere, spring and summer occur when the northern hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun.

The northern hemisphere has its longest day around 1st June.

The southern hemisphere has shorter days than nights during spring and summer.

At the equinoxes, night and day are equal in both hemispheres.

The Moon orbits the Earth once a month.

The Moon always has the same side facing the Earth.

The Moon produces its own light.

Phases of the Moon result from the varying illumination of its surface by the Sun.

The new Moon phase occurs when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun.

Like the Sun, the Moon appears to have a daily journey across the sky due to the Earth\’s rotation.

The orbits of the planets, dwarf planets, and comets in the Solar System are all circular.

Moons orbit the planets in the Solar System due to the gravitational attraction of the planet.

The density of the outer planets in the Solar System is high.

Ceres, the largest asteroid, is classified as a minor planet.

Comets consist mainly of water and methane.

The focus of an elliptical orbit is always at the center of the ellipse.

The Sun is classified as a dwarf star.

The Solar System formed from a rotating accretion disc about 4.5 billion years ago.

The age of the Earth is determined through the radioactive dating of minerals in rocks.

The strength of the gravitational field of a planet remains constant as one moves away from the planet\’s surface.

The age of the Solar System is estimated to be about 4.5 billion years.

The Sun is a second-generation star, meaning it formed from the remnants of a previous star\’s explosion.

Objects in the Solar System that do not have a spherical shape are classified as minor planets.

Mercury has a dense atmosphere composed mainly of carbon dioxide.

Venus has a day longer than its year.

Mars has no liquid water on its surface.

Mars experiences frequent high winds and dust storms.

Jupiter is the smallest planet in the Solar System.

Saturn\’s rings are primarily composed of rock and metal.

Uranus and Neptune have atmospheres consisting mainly of hydrogen and helium.

A comet\’s speed increases as it moves closer to the Sun and decreases as it moves away due to conservation of energy.

The Sun\’s gravitational field strength increases with distance from the Sun.

Venus is colder than Mars.

All the planets in the Solar System have orbits in the same plane.

Heavier chemical elements in the Sun and inner planets may have come from an exploding supernova.

The inner planets, such as Venus and Mercury, are composed mainly of hydrogen and helium.

The high temperature in the core required to sustain nuclear reactions in stable stars is maintained by gravitational forces.

All life on Earth depends on the energy provided by the Sun.

The Sun is the closest star to Earth.

The Sun is currently in an unstable phase.

The Sun mainly consists of hydrogen and helium.

The radiant energy emitted by the Sun is mostly in the X-ray region.

Nuclear reactions in stars like our Sun involve the conversion of helium into hydrogen.

All stars are hot and dense enough for nuclear fusion to occur.

The energy generated in the core of stars is confined to the core itself.

Stars vary in age, size, mass, surface temperature, colour, and brightness.

Stars that are white or blue are generally cooler than those that are red or yellow.

Colour and brightness of stars do not depend on surface temperature.

The Milky Way galaxy consists mainly of stars.

We are located at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

The Andromeda galaxy is not visible to the naked eye.

The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy.

The Milky Way can be seen on dark nights as a narrow band of light spread across the sky.

Galaxies do not move in space.

The night sky we see is current and shows what is happening there right now.

Galaxies travel alone, not in groups.

The light-year is used to measure time in astronomical events.

The Milky Way galaxy is not part of any cluster of galaxies.

Stars are formed when interstellar clouds of dust and gas collapse under the force of gravitational attraction.

Our Sun is a blue or white star.

The core of a red giant collapses outward under gravitational attraction.

When our Sun runs out of hydrogen, it will become a red giant.

High-mass stars use up their hydrogen more slowly than low-mass stars.

Nuclear fusion in high-mass stars can create elements heavier than iron.

A neutron star is less dense than a white dwarf.

We can directly observe black holes with telescopes.

Massive black holes have been identified at the center of spiral galaxies.

Molecular clouds must be both cold and dense to allow star formation.

Gravitational attraction in the protostar stage converts kinetic energy to potential energy.

Nuclear fusion begins in a star when the core reaches a specific temperature.

Stable stars are considered stable when inward gravitational force is balanced by outward radiation pressure.

High temperatures in a star’s core lead to outward radiation pressure.

Low-mass stars, up to 8 times the Sun\’s mass, eventually become white dwarfs.

Fusion reactions in a star progress from converting hydrogen to carbon.

Low-mass stars become red supergiants when their hydrogen is depleted.

Iron is the end point of fusion in stellar cores, as it requires more energy to fuse iron into heavier elements than it releases.

High-mass stars evolve into red supergiants immediately after the protostar stage.

If the remaining mass of a star’s core is between 1.4 to around 3 times the mass of the Sun, it becomes a neutron star.

Black holes are objects so dense that even light cannot escape their gravitational pull.

The Crab Nebula is an example of a planetary nebula.

The Universe is composed of billions of galaxies that all appear to be receding from Earth.

Cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) is thought to have been produced in the early stages of the formation of the Universe.

Hubble’s law relates the speed of recession of a distant galaxy to its distance away.

The Hubble constant represents the rate at which the Universe is contracting.

Hubble\’s law relates the speed of recession of galaxies to their brightness measurements.

The redshift in the light from distant galaxies provides evidence that the Universe is contracting.

The Doppler effect explains the change in pitch of sound from a moving source.

The Big Bang theory suggests that the Universe started about 14 billion years ago from one place with a huge explosion.

The density of matter in the Universe is estimated to be 100% visible.