1. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) orbits the earth at a speed of 7.

6 km/s and
has an orbital time period of 5700 seconds.
a) Calculate the radius of the HST's orbit from the center of the Earth.
b) The Earth has a radius of 6400 km. Calculate the distance from the HST to
the Earth's surface.

2. A rocket launched from the Earth's surface has to escape from the Earth's
gravitational pull. Explain why it might be easier to launch a rocket from the
surface of Mars.
Answer
Mars has a lower mass than the Earth, and therefore lower gravitational field
strength(g). This means it takes less energy to launch the rocket into space.

3. Explain the difference between the orbit of a comet and of a planet.

Answer
Both comets and planets orbit the Sun. However, planets have an approximately
circular orbit, whereas comets have a highly elliptical orbit.

4. The Sun is currently a main sequence star, in the middle of its evolutionary path.
Describe the next two stages in the evolution of stars like the Sun.
Answer
• The sun will eventually increase in size, and cool to become a red giant.
• After that, it will shrink to a much smaller size, and heat up to become a
white dwarf.

5. Very large main sequence stars will eventually run out of hydrogen in the star's
core. Describe the next stages in a life cycle of a star.
Answer
A very large main sequence star will eventually increase in size to become a
red supergiant. It then explodes. This is called a supernova.
The star remnant then collapses to form a neutron star, or if it is a huge remnant
to form a black hole.

6. Light from a distant galaxy is redshifted.

(i) Explain what is meant by redshift.
(ii) State the quantity that the redshift of a galaxy is used to calculate.
Answer
(i) •Redshift occurs when galaxies are moving away from Earth.
•The wavelength (of light from distant galaxies) increases.
 (ii) speed / velocity (that galaxy is moving away from Earth)

7. Which quantity can be determined using the brightness of a supernova in a

distant galaxy?
A the speed at which the galaxy is moving away from the Earth
B the distance of the galaxy from the Earth
C the Hubble constant
D the age of the Universe

8. In 1964, CMB radiation was discovered.

a) State what is meant by CMB radiation.
b) Explain why CMB radiation supports the Big Bang theory for the origins of
the universe.
Answer
a) CMB radiation is cosmic (from space) microwave background (all around
us) radiation.
b) This radiation is predicted from the big bang theory: Any radiation
produced in the big bang should now be red-shifted to microwave radiation, but
should be observable in all directions.

9. Describe and explain what can be deduced from cosmic microwave

background radiation (CMBR).
Answer
• Microwave radiation is observed at all points in space around the Earth
• Radiation was produced when the Universe was formed
• This radiation has expanded into the microwave region of the
electromagnetic spectrum this is evidence that the Universe has expanded

10. A galaxy is moving away from the Earth with a speed of 33 000 km / s. The
value of the Hubble constant is 2.2 ×10–18 per second. Calculate the
distance from the galaxy to the Earth. Give your answer in light-years.

11. Look at the photograph of the Moon in figure.

a) Which phase of the Moon is this?
b) How many days are there from one full Moon to the next?
a) waxing gibbous
b) 27.5 days

12. The Moon is approximately 390 000 km from the Earth.

Calculate the time it takes for light to travel from the Moon to the Earth.

13. How long will it take for light from the Sun to reach:
a) Mercury, which is approximately 60 000 000 km from the Sun.
b) Neptune, which is approximately 4 500 000 000 km from the Sun.

14. It takes sunlight 43 minutes to reach Jupiter. Calculate the distance from
Jupiter to the Sun.

15. Calculate how many kilometers a light-year is equivalent to.

16. a) Name the force which causes planets to orbit the Sun.
b) What shape are planetary orbits?
c) How is the orbit of a comet different to the orbit of a planet?
d) Describe the energy changes in a comet as it orbits the Sun.
Answer
a) gravity
b) elliptical
c) more highly elliptical
d) Approaching the Sun the comet speeds up, gaining kinetic energy and
losing gravitational potential energy. Nearest the Sun it has maximum kinetic
energy. This decreases at it moves away from the Sun. At its furthest point it
 has maximum gravitational potential energy. The total energy remains the
same.

17. The diagram shows how people 1000 years ago thought the Solar System
looked.

a) State one way in which this model is different from what we now
know about the Solar System.
b) State one way in which this model is similar to what we now know
about the Solar System.
c) State one way in which the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars are
similar.
d) State one way in which Jupiter, Saturn are different to the planets in
part c.
e) Mars is 228 million km from the Sun. Calculate the time it takes for
light to travel from the Sun to Mars. The speed of light is 3x108 m/s.
Answer
a) In this model the Earth is central and there are six planets; now we know that
the Sun is central and there are eight planets.
b) The order of the planets other than Earth is correct. The moon orbits the
Earth.
c) They are rocky planets/ they are closest to the Sun.
d) They are gas planets/ they are furthest from the Sun.
e) 760 s

18. Laurie is standing at point X on the Earth’s surface.

a) How can you tell it is night time at point X?
b) Redraw the diagram to show where point X will be after 12 hours.
c) The Moon does not emit light. Explain how Laurie is able to see the
Moon.
 d) Name the force which keeps the Moon in orbit around the Earth.
e) Describe the movement of the Moon.
f) A ball dropped on Earth will fall faster than an identical ball dropped on
the Moon. What does this tell you about the Moon’s gravity?

Answer
a) Point X is facing away from the Sun.
b) X will be 180° round from the position shown.
c) The Moon reflects light from the Sun.
d) gravity
e) The Moon orbits the Earth, taking 27.5 days to do so.
f) The Moon’s gravitational field strength is less than Earth’s.

19. From which two elements is the Sun mostly made?

Answer
Hydrogen (75%) and Helium (24%)

20. Give an approximate value for:

a) the temperature in the Sun’s core
b) the temperature of the Sun’s surface
c) the solar mass
d) the percentage of sunlight that is in the infrared, visible and
ultraviolet parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Answer
a) 15 ×106K
b) 5800 K
c) 2 ×1030 kg (mass of the Sun)
d) infrared = 50%; visible = 40%; ultraviolet= 10%

21. Name the process that makes stable stars, such as our Sun, shine.
Answer
(thermo)nuclear fusion
22. What two properties do molecular clouds have that allow them to collapse?
Answer
They are cold and dense enough to collapse.

23. Why can nuclear fusion only occur at high temperatures?

Answer
The nuclei all have the same positive charges need to be moving fast enough
to overcome the electrostatic repulsion.
24. What causes the centre of a star to warm up when it forms?
Answer
In the process of collapsing the gravitational potential energy in the
molecular cloud is turned into kinetic energy. Collisions between particles causes
kinetic energy to be transferred to thermal energy.

25. Figure is a plot of the recession speed of superclusters against their distance
from Earth.

a) Calculate the Hubble constant, expressed:

i) in km/s per million light-years
ii) per second. (Hint: it will help to recall that 1 light-year = 9.5x1012 km.)
b) Use your answer to part a) ii) to work out the age of the Universe.

26. Would you expect the orbital speed of Jupiter to be greater or less than that
of Saturn? Explain your answer.
Answer
Higher because Jupiter is nearer the Sun than Saturn
27. A comet travels in an elliptical path around the Sun. Draw a sketch of the path
of a comet and mark the position of the Sun on your sketch.
Answer

28. The motion of the Earth and Moon explain many natural events. State
which of the following statements is not true.
A The Earth orbits the Sun once every 365 days.
B The Moon orbits the Earth in approximately one month.
C Day and night are due to the Earth spinning on its axis.
D The Sun rises in the west and sets in the east in the Southern
hemisphere.

29. Calculate how long it takes light to travel from the Sun to Mars. Take the
distance of Mars from the Sun to be 228 ×106km and the speed of light to be
3 ×108m/s.

30. Venus is nearer to the Sun than the Earth.

i) Compare the orbital speed of Venus with that of the Earth. Explain your
answer.
ii) Explain why Venus takes less than one Earth year to orbit the Sun.
Answer
i) Greater as Venus is nearer the Sun.
ii) Less, as circumference of orbit is less and it travels faster.

31. a) Jupiter is further away from the Sun than is the Earth.
i) Compare the surface temperature of Jupiter with that of the Earth.
Explain your answer.
ii) Compare the mass of Jupiter with that of the Earth.
iii) Compare the orbital speed of Jupiter with that of the Earth.
b) The orbital time of Mars round the Sun is 1.9 Earth years and the orbital
path is 1.5 times longer than that of the Earth.
i) Calculate the ratio of the orbital speed of Mars to the orbital speed of
the Earth.
ii) Compare the speed of Mars with that of the Earth.
Answer
a) i) Lower; Jupiter is further from the Sun so receives less radiation/m2
ii) Larger
iii) Lower
b) i)
2𝜋𝑟
𝑣=
𝑇
𝑣𝑀 2𝜋𝑟𝑀 𝑇𝐸
so = ×
𝑣𝐸 𝑇𝑀 2𝜋𝑟𝐸

1.5
=
1.9

= 0.78

ii) Slower
32. The Universe is composed of stars and galaxies. Which of the following
statements are not true?
A The Universe is a collection of galaxies.
B There are billions of stars in a galaxy.
C The Sun is a star.
D Our Solar System belongs to the Andromeda galaxy.

33. How long does it take light to reach the Earth from a galaxy 10 million light-
years distant from the Earth? Choose your answer from the following times.
A 10 years
B 30 years
C 300 thousand years
D 10 million years

34. When a low mass red giant has consumed most of the helium in its core it
may turn into a
A yellow dwarf
B white dwarf
C supernova
D neutron star.
35. When a high mass red giant has consumed most of the helium in its core it
may become a
A white dwarf
B yellow dwarf
C planetary nebula
D neutron star.

36. a) Explain what is meant by the redshift of starlight.

b) Explain what the redshift of starlight tells us about the motion of distant
galaxies.
Answer
a) Light from glowing hydrogen and other gases in stars in distant galaxies has a
longer wavelength than it does on Earth –the light is ‘shifted’ towards the red
end of the spectrum.
b) Distant galaxies are moving away from us; the further away they are the faster
the speed of recession.

37. State which of the following provides evidence in support of the Big Bang
theory.
A Gravitational attraction
B Supernova explosions
C Redshift of starlight from distant galaxies
D Fusion of hydrogen into helium

38. a) State the forces, and give their direction, which are balanced when a star is
in a stable state.
b) Write down the sequence of stages in the life cycle of a star like the Sun.
Answer
a) Gravity acts inwards; thermal pressure, due to the high temperature of the star,
acts outwards.
b)