Telescopes and space missions

Grade 9 Science Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

1. 1.

   Four plan cards, labeled A to D. Esme plans to study faint, cool dust clouds that glow in far infrared. Which plan fits?

   • A visible-light telescope on a mountain
   • A cooled infrared telescope in space
   • A small telescope flown closer to the clouds
   • A radio dish, since infrared is radio
2. 2.

   NASA: Voyager 1 is near one light-day from Earth, more than 16 billion miles. If the team sends a command, when will they see the reply, by Jun's math?

   • About 16 billion seconds
   • About 1 day
   • About 2 days
   • At once
3. 3.

   Luz's friend says space telescopes are better because they are closer to the stars. Which response is best (NASA)?

   • Agree: Hubble flies near the stars
   • Agree: each kilometer up helps a lot
   • Disagree: they gain by being above the air, not by being closer
   • Disagree: ground telescopes see each kind of light just as clearly
4. 4.

   Two mirrors, one twice as wide, with areas shaded. Milo's cousin says doubling a mirror's width doubles the light it gathers. Which response is best?

   • Disagree: mirror size does not matter
   • Agree: and doubling again gives 3 times
   • Disagree: twice as wide gathers 4 times the light
   • Agree: light grows with width
5. 5.

   Noah's friend says Mission Control can steer a Mars rover live, like a video game. Which response is best?

   • Agree: radio reaches Mars at once
   • Agree: the delay is under a second
   • Disagree: signals take minutes each way, so commands are planned
   • Disagree: rovers get no commands
6. 6.

   Hubble, 2.4 m, orbiting Earth, about 560 km up; Webb, 6.5 m, orbiting the Sun, 1.5 million km from Earth. Compare Webb's distance from Earth (1.5 million km) with Hubble's height (about 560 km). About how many times farther is Webb, by Pia's math?

   • About 270,000 times
   • About the same distance
   • About 2,700 times
   • About 27 times
7. 7.

   Light gathered grows with diameter squared. A team wants images 4 times as bright from faint galaxies. By how much must the mirror's diameter grow, by Ren's math?

   • 16 times the diameter
   • It cannot be done
   • Twice the diameter
   • 4 times the diameter
8. 8.

   17 km/s; one year 3.16 × 10⁷ s. NASA gives Voyager 1's speed as about 17 km/s (61,000 km/h) relative to the Sun. About how far does it go in one year (3.16 × 10⁷ s), by Tala's math?

   • About 5.4 × 10¹⁵ km, a light-year
   • About 17 km
   • About 540 million km, about 3.6 AU
   • About 1 AU
9. 9.

   The spectrum with the air's open and blocked bands, plus ground and space telescopes. Why do astronomers use both ground and space telescopes, by Ari's reading?

   • Space ones are closer to the stars
   • Bigger mirrors matter just in space
   • Ground telescopes see each kind of light, so space adds little
   • Ground ones can be huge; space ones see the blocked light
10. 10.

    Voyager 1 launched in 1977 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and is still sending data (NASA). Why does a one-light-day distance make every command a careful plan, by Bo's reading?

    • Voyager is just a few hundred km away
    • Voyager is a rover on Mars
    • Commands arrive at once
    • Each command takes a day to arrive, and the reply a day to return