Astronomy Exam 2
The first human landing on the moon was
Apollo 11 in 1969
The second space probe to reach the planet Mercury was the
Messenger
Venus rotates
backwards, so the sun rises in the West
Asteroids are usually found in the asteroid belt, which is
between the orbits of mars and jupiters
The distance from the earth to the sun is
one astronomical unit
Saturn has an extensive
ring system made of ice-covered rocks
The spacecraft Galileo
went into orbit around the planet Jupiter and dropped a probe into its atmosphere
The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft
went into orbit around the planet Saturn and dropped a probe into Titan's atmosphere
The Law of Inertia says that if an object is not acted on by any outside force, its acceleration
will always be zero
What temperature is closest to what you might expect in the planet Jupiter?
-250 degrees F
An ion rocket engine produces 1 newton of thrust. What acceleration can it give to a space probe with a mass of 1000kg?
0.001 m/s^2
An ion rocket engine produces 5 newtons of thrust. What acceleration can it give to a space probe with a mass of 1000kg?
0.005 m/s^2
Suppose that you lift an object by exerting an upward force of 22 newtons on it. If gravity exerts a force of 10 newtons downward on the object, what is the total force of the object?
12 newtons
What temperature would be most likely at noon on the hottest day of the year in the warmest part of mars
50 degrees F
What total force will cause an object with a mass of 5kg to gain 10 meters per sec every sec?
50 newtons
The first spacecraft to go into orbit around Jupiter was
Galileo
Neptune has an atmosphere of
Hydrogen and helium with some methane
What spacecraft operated in Mars orbit for 9 years, finding traces of water and an early magnetic field?
Mars Global Surveyor
Which planet is farthest from the sun?
Neptune
The first space probes to land on another planet were from the
Russian Venera series
What spacecraft went into orbit around Mars only to find the surface totally obscured by a planet-wide dust storm
The Mariner 9
A horse is pulling a cart along a road. What is an action-reaction pair?
The force of horse on the road and the force of road on the horse
A book, weighing 10 newtons, sits on a table. What is an action-reaction pair?
The force that the book exerts on the table and the force that the table exerts on the book
Which of the following three systems is regarded as the most normal for a terrestial planet?
Venus, with no moons at all
Saturns magentic North and South poles are
almost exactly alignes with its rotation axis
Mercury has
almost no atmosphere
Venus has
an atmosphere of carbon dioxide with about 90 times the surface pressure of Earth's surface
Saturn has an atmosphere of
an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium with no real surface
Saturns moon Titan has
an atmosphere whose temperature and pressure permit liquid methane
When do comets get their tails
around where they cross the orbit of Mars
Jupiter has
at atmosphere of hydrogen and helium with no real surface
How many moons does Jupiter have
at least 62
Galileo's approach to understanding moving objects was to
build things that he could measure
Milankovich cycles refer to
changes in the intensity of sunlight due to shifts in both the earths orbit and rotation axis
The currently accepted theory of how the moon formed is the
collision theory
Jupiter has a few rings made of
dark rocks
Mars orbit is currently
elliptical enough to make the intensity of sunlight vary by 40%
Comets usually follow orbits which are
elliptical with aphelia far outside the orbit of mars
The magnetic field of Mars is
essentially 0
The magnetic field of Venus is
essentially 0
The magnetic field of Earth's moon is
essentially zero
Most asteroids can be described as
flying rocks or mountians
The International Space Station (ISS) is in a roughly circular orbit near the surface of the Earth, moving at around 5 miles per second. Suppose the Space Shuttle pushes it and quickly increases its speed to 6 miles per second. The ISS will then
follow an ellipse that rises and then decends again
The force of gravity explains
how the tides work but not how lightning works
The circular structures on the surface of the moon are the result of
impacts
The presence of frozen water on Venus is
impossible because every part of it is too hot for water or ice
The rotation axis of Neptune is
inclined at an angle to the perpendicular that is similar to Earth's rotation axis
The moons orbit
is somewhat titles relative to the plane of the Earth's equator
Mars has a solar day that
is very close to an earth day in length (39 min longer)
The planet Neptune was located because
its gravity disturbed the orbit of Uranus
Galileo said that a moving object with nothing pushing or pulling on it will always
keep moving at the same speed
The Law of Inertia states that a moving object will
keep moving if no force acts on it
In the surface environment of Mars, water exsits
mostly as ice and water vapor
When an arrow is fired from a bow, the arrow keeps moving after it leaves the bow because
no force stops it
Earth's magnetic field plays an essential role in
protecting the Earth from charged particles from the sun
Space probes often visit several planets before getting to their final destinations. The main reason they do this is to
reduce the amount of rocket fuel needed
Asteriods are usually made of
rock and possibly iron
When Galileo dropped a wooden ball and a heavier iron ball at the same time, he found that
sometimes the wooden ball hit first, sometimes the iron ball hit first
What is a distintive feature of the Earths atmosphere?
temperature and pressure to permit all 3 phases of water
In Newtons Theory,
the earth and moon move around a common point which, in turn, goes around the sun
An artificial satellite such as the international space station stays up because
the earth curves out from under it as it falls
Suppose you drop two objects from the same height at the same time. Both objects are heavy enough to be unaffected by air resistance. If one object is twice as heavy as the other, Aristotle would predict that
the heavier object would hit the ground before thr lighter one
Pluto is now regarded as
the largest dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt
Suppose that an object with a mass of one kilogram and an object with a mass of two kilograms are both in free fall near the Earth's surface. As compared to the one kilogram object, the two kilogram object accelerates
the same because gravity pulls on it more strongly and it has more inertia
Which of the following statements about the moons of terriestial planets is currently accepted?
they sometimes capture moons by accident
The distance from the Earth to the moon
varies enough that sometimes we get an annular solar eclipse
What temperature is closest to what you might expext on the planet Uranus?
-350 degreed F
How many moons does Mercury have?
0
How many moons does Venus have
0
The Earth's Moon is
1/4 the size of the Earth, which is unusally large for a moon
Jupiter rotates on its axis once in about
10 hours
What total force will cause an object with a mass of 1kg to gain 10 meters per sec every sec?
10 newtons
What total force will cause an object with a mass of 2kg to gain 5 meters per sec every sec?
10 newtons
Compared to the Earth, Jupiter is roughly
11 times as large
Uranus rotates on its axis once in about
17 hours
How many moons does Mars have
2
Suppose that you lift an object by exerting an upward force of 12 newtons on it. If gravity exerts a force of 10 newtons downward on the object, what is the total force of the object?
2 newtons
A suborbital rocket such as an intercontinental ballistic missile or perhaps a passenger rocket from North America to Australia is most likely to leave the Earth's atmosphere at a speed of
4 miles per second
Compared to Earth, the planet Uranus is roughly
4 times as large
What total force will cause an object with a mass of 1kg to gain 5 meters per second every second?
5 newtons
Suppose that you lift an object by exerting an upward force of 5 newtons on it. If gravity exerts a force of 10 newtons downward on the object, what is the total force of the object?
5 newtons downward
The density of water is 1000kg/m3 while the density of iron is 7800kg/m3. Which of the following values is a plausible value for the density of a terrestrial planet?
5000 kg/m3
What is the second largest moon of Jupiter
Callisto
The first spacecraft to go into orbit around Saturn was
Cassini-Huygens
Earth's orbit is currently
Elliptical enough to make the intensity of sunlight vary by 6 percent
Who discovered Newton's first Law of Motion
Galileo
What is Jupiters largest moon?
Ganymede
What is the correct order of the outer planets from the Sun, from the closest to the farthest.
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune (farthest)
The dark marking on the Full Moon that make up the face of the "Man on the Moon" are called
Lunar Maria
What space probe made detailed three dimensional maps of Venus using radar from orbit around the planet
Magellan
The first space probe to reach the planet Mercury was the
Mariner 10
What is the correct order of the inner planets from the Sun, from the closest to the farthest?
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars (farthest)
The first space probe to place a robotic rover on the surface of mars was the
Pathfinder
The first space probe to test the air-bag landing system was the
Pathfinder
Which of Mar's moons rises in the West?
Phobos
What spacecrafts were the first ro fly past Jupiter
Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11
What was the first spacecraft to fly past Saturn?
Pioneer 11
The first successful soft landing on the moon was
Surveyor 1 in 1966
What is Saturns largest moon?
Titan
Voyager 1 was the first space probe to fly past
Titan, one of Saturns moons
What is Neptune's largest moon?
Triton
The temperature at the poles of Mercury is expected to be
Very hot all of the time on mountain peaks hit by the Sun and very cold all of the time in craters never hit by the Sun.
The first soft landing on Mars was by the
Viking landers
Which of the following spacecraft is the only one to have flown past Neptune?
Voyager 2
A surface feature that is unique to Saturn is
a hexagon-shaped pattern on clouds at its North Pole.
The Great Red Spot is
a hurricane on Jupiter
The magnetic field of Jupiter indicates that its core must contain large amounts of
a liquid that can conduct electricity
The magnetic field of Mercury is
about 1% of the earths magnetic field
The magnetic field of Jupiter is
about 10 times the intensity of the Earth's magnetic field
Galileo's approach to science is best described as based on
active construction of simplified experiments
The rotation axis of Uranus is
almost in the plane of its orbit so that its ring system can sometimes be seen as near-circles
In comparison to Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion, Newtons theory of Universal Gravitation predicted
almost the same motions but with correction
Mars has
an atmosphere of carbon dioxide with about 1% of the surface pressure of Earth's
The Lunar Maria are actually
ancient lava flows on the moon
Kepler's laws
are explained by a force that attracts each planet to the sun
When Galileo dropped a wooden ball and a heavier iron ball at the same times, he was expecting that
both balls would hit at exactly the same time
Space probes often use gravitational slingshot maneuvers. The main purpose of these maneuvers is to
change the direction and speed of the probe without using rockets
Relative to the distant stars, Mercury
completes 1.5 rotations each time it orbits the sun
Relative to the distant stars, Venus
completes less than one full rotation each time it orbits the sun
Most comets can be described as
dirty snowballs or flying icebergs
Neptune's magnetic North and South poles are
displaced from its rotation axis poles and also from the center of the planet
Uranus's magnetic North and South poles are
displaced from its rotation axis poles and also from the center of the planet
Jovian planets are mostly made up of
gas and ice
Freely falling objects with different masses fall with the same acceleration because
gravity exerts more force on the more massive object
The density of rock is about 3000kg/m3. The density of the Earth is
greater than 3000kg/m3 because the Earth has an iron core.
Mercury rotates so that it
has a solar day that lasts for two complete orbits around the sun
The statement that lunar meterial is much "dryer" than Earth material refers to the absence of
hydrated minerals
What two gases are jovian planets mostly made of
hydrogen and helium
Uranus has an atmosphere of
hydrogen and helium with some methane
Comets are usually made of
ice and possibly frozen gas
Kuiper belts are usually made of
ice and possibly frozen glass
When Newton calculated the magnitude and direction of the acceleration for a planet that was following Kepler's Laws, he found that the magnitude of the acceleration was
inversely proportional to the square of the planets distance from the sun
If the acceleration of an object is zero, its speed
is not changing
The Law of Inertia says that if an object is not acted on by any outside force,
its acceleration will be zero
A unit of mass is the
kilogram
The Russian Venera 9 space probe was sent to Venus where it
landed on the surface and took pictures
Jovian planets typically have
large systems of moons
The temperature on Saturn is
much colder than anywhere on Earth
The temperature on Jupiter is
much colder than anywhere on Earth.
The temperature on Uranus is
much colder than anywhere on earth
A unit of force is the
newton
The moon rotates on its axis relative to the distant stars
once every sidereal month
The presence of frozen water on mercury is
possible because it has no axial tilt so that its poles never face the sun
The current model for the way that planets aquire magnetic fields requires which of the following combinations of things?
rotation and a core that contains a liquid electrical conductor
The magnetic feild of Saturn is
similar to the intensity to the Earth's magnetic field
The range of temperatures on Mars is
similar to those in Antarctica
Aristotle said that a moving earthly or "mundane" object with nothing pushing or pulling on it will always
slow down and stop
Since the last Apollo mission to the moon and the last Soviet LUNA sample-return mission
spacecraft began to be sent there again starting in 1990
Aristotle said that the amount of force on a moving earthly object determines it
speed
As astronomical unit is defined to be
the average distance frrom the earth to the sun
The force that acts on a rocket because its engine is firing is exerted by
the exhaust on the rocket
According to Galileo, a thrown spear keeps moving after it has left the spear thrower's hand because
the force of friction with the air is not enough to stop the spear
According to Aristotle, a thrown spear keeps moving after it has left the spear thrower's hand because
the force of the air disturbed by the spear keeps it in motion
Suppose that you drop a wooden ball and an iron ball, both the exact same diameter, from the same height at the same time. Aristotle would predict that
the iron ball would hit the ground long before the wooden ball
In Newtons theory of planetary motion
the sun and earth move around eachother
The fact that the international space station is above most of the earths atomosphere is important because it means that
there is no friction to slow the space station down
In the ancient Greek theory of gravity, everything was attracted to the center of the universe. In Newton's theory of gravity, everything was attracted
to every other object in the universe
When Newton calculated the magnitude and direction of the acceleration of earth's moon, he found that the direction was
toward the earth
When Newton calculated the magnitude and direction of the acceleration for a planet that was following Kepler's Laws, he found that the direction of the acceleration was
toward the sun
If an object is moving at a constant speed in a straight line, its acceleration is
zero
