Test Your Astronomical Awareness (for fun only!)

Summer Heat It’s hot in the summer months because the Earth is somewhat closer to the Sun in Jun-Jul-Aug, farther away in Dec-Jan-Feb.

Black Holes If the Sun became a black hole, the Earth (and the planets that are even closer to it, Venus and Mercury) would be sucked into it.

Weightlessness The astronauts in the International Space Station experience weightlessness because they are orbiting so high up that the Earth’s gravity is essentially negligible.

Lunar Phases The changing phases of the Moon are a consequence of the changing amount of the Earth’s shadow that falls on it.

Christopher Columbus Before the time of Columbus, learned people in Europe believed the world to be flat.

Circulating Water Water draining from a sink or toilet circulates in one direction in the Northern hemisphere, but in the opposite sense in the Southern hemisphere.

From ‘Down Under’ From Sydney, Australia, the Moon appears upside-down relative to the way we see it in Kingston, Canada.

How did we do? The answers are: False True

Relevant Evidence

Earth and Moon (from a space probe on the way to Mars)

Columbus

The European Understanding

Swirling Waters http://physics.queensu.ca/~hanes/A101-Movies/Twin-Whirlpools.mp4

But: Hurricane Ivan, 2004

Upside Down? Consider This