ASP Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield ASP facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. Includes President, Vice-Presidents, Secretaries, and Treasurer → Officers
2. What is the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) primarily designed to observe? → Infrared wavelengths
3. What is the angular resolution of a telescope primarily limited by? → Diffraction due to the finite aperture of the telescope
4. Can preside in absence of President, assist in Society matters. → Vice-Presidents
5. Which planet has the largest number of confirmed moons in our solar system? → Saturn
6. What is a charge-coupled device (CCD) in astronomy? → A highly sensitive electronic light detector that converts photons to electrical signals
7. What is the term for the point in a planet's orbit when it is closest to the Sun? → Perihelion
8. What is the event horizon of a black hole? → The boundary beyond which nothing can escape the black hole's gravity
9. What was the primary mission of the Voyager spacecraft? → To fly by the outer planets and eventually leave the solar system
10. What determines where a star will fall on the main sequence? → Its mass
11. Which layer of the Sun is responsible for the sunspots visible from Earth? → Photosphere
12. What is a neutron star's typical diameter? → About 10–20 km
13. What is the Oort Cloud? → A distant spherical shell of cometary nuclei surrounding the solar system
14. Not permitted, members must be present and dues paid to vote. → Proxy Voting
15. Charles Messier compiled his famous catalog of nebulae and star clusters in the 18th century. What was his original motivation for creating this list? → To avoid confusing these fuzzy objects with comets he was hunting
16. What is the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation? → Thermal radiation left over from the Big Bang
17. What is the International Space Station (ISS) primarily used for? → Microgravity research and scientific experiments in low Earth orbit
18. What phenomenon describes the reddening of starlight as a star moves away from the observer? → Redshift
19. National program improving astronomy teaching through partnerships. → Project ASTRO
20. What is the Hubble Space Telescope's orbit and its significance? → Low Earth orbit at ~540 km altitude, above most of the distorting atmosphere
21. What stellar remnant is left after a low-mass star like the Sun ends its life? → White dwarf
22. What is the resolving power of a telescope? → The ability to distinguish two closely spaced objects as separate
23. What is the Drake Equation used to estimate? → The number of communicating extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way
24. What is a T Tauri star? → A young pre-main-sequence star still contracting toward the main sequence
25. What is a stellar parallax used to measure? → A star's distance from Earth
26. What technology does the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) use to achieve its resolution? → Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) linking radio telescopes across the entire Earth
27. Which type of telescope uses a parabolic mirror as its primary optical element? → Reflector
28. ASP's quarterly online membership magazine covering various astronomy topics → Mercury
29. Members who have been elected as per the society's guidelines → Active Members
30. What type of supernova results from the thermonuclear explosion of a white dwarf? → Type Ia