24 ES solar system
10) What is the age of the moon? A) 4.5 billion years B) 5.025 million years C) 3.14 million years D) 4.527 million years
A
18) Which planet displays retrograde rotation? A) Venus B) Mars C) Neptune D) Saturn
A
25) What gas makes up 97 percent of Venus's atmosphere? A) Carbon dioxide B) Methane C) Hydrogen D) Helium
A
29) What process produces the alternating dark-colored belts and light-colored zones visible on Jupiter? A) Convective flow B) Dust storms on the surface C) Volcanic eruptions along tectonic boundaries D) Acid rain
A
38) What is the term that describes the bright halo of a comet created when escaping gases carry dust away from the comet's surface? A) Coma B) Comma C) Corona D) Cosmos
A
41) Flying by Pluto in July 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft transmitted images of a complex landscape called Sputnik Planum. Which of the following best describes Sputnik Planum? A) A large ice field with tongues of flowing ice B) A large volcanic field with lava flows composed of frozen methane C) A field of overlapping impact craters D) A landscape shaped by flowing water
A
8) What was the name of the manned space missions that have successfully landed on the surface of the moon? A) Apollo B) Gemini C) Mercury D) Sputnik
A
34) Which two satellites are the only ones in the solar system known to have substantial atmosphere? A) Neptune's moon Triton and Jupiter's moon Io B) Saturn's moon Titan and Neptune's moon Triton C) Uranus's moon Miranda and Saturn's moon Rhea D) Jupiter's moon Io and Earth's moon
B
6) How many planets are in our solar system? A) 5 B) 8 C) 10 D) 13
B
9) Which of the following processes created the lunar maria? A) Solar winds eroded wide, shallow basins, which were later filled with ejecta. B) Large impact craters were then filled with basaltic lava flows. C) Liquid water flowed across the landscape, which later froze. D) Rocks exposed to the solar winds oxidized.
B
11) What kinds of rocks were most commonly retrieved from the lunar highlands? A) Flood basalts B) Granite C) Anorthosite D) Frozen hydrogen
C
13) Because of the low relative mass, the gravitational attraction on the moon is ________ that of the Earth. A) 1/2 B) 1/4 C) 1/6 D) 1/8
C
15) What is the most common igneous rock found on the lunar maria? A) Anorthosite B) Regolith C) Basalt D) Pumice
C
16) The planet Mercury absorbs most of the sunlight that strikes its surface. Why is so little reflected back to outer space? A) Mercury has a great deal of frozen methane on its surface. B) The planet is covered by a thick haze. C) Mercury has little or no atmosphere. D) The surface of Mercury has not been disturbed by meteorite impacts.
C
17) Only a few thousand impact craters have been identified on Venus's surface, even though it, too, would have experienced the same heavy bombardment period that affected Mercury and the moon. Why does Venus appear relatively unscathed? A) Venus was not impacted. B) The gravitational forces of Mercury deflected the meteorites. C) Venus's surface was reshaped by extensive volcanism. D) Extensive stream networks buried the impact sites with sediments.
C
19) Because of an extreme ________, surface temperatures on Venus average more than 450°C. A) friction B) impact C) greenhouse effect D) volcanic eruption
C
2) The ________ explains the formation of the solar system by describing how the sun and planets formed from a rotating cloud of interstellar gases. A) transit of Venus B) escape velocity C) nebular theory D) theory of plate tectonics
C
22) Which of the following best describes the process that resulted in the Valles Marineris on Mars? A) Stream erosion carved a deep central valley. B) A comet skimmed across the surface of the planet. C) Down-faulting created grabenlike valleys. D) A violent volcanic eruption blasted out a long caldera.
C
28) During the formation of the solar system, which planet came the closest to starting the process of nuclear fusion, which would have resulted in a second sun? A) Saturn B) Mercury C) Jupiter D) Uranus
C
33) Which scientist first observed the rings of Saturn in 1610? A) Christian Huygens B) Isaac Newton C) Galileo Galilei D) Johannes Kepler
C
37) ________ are small, solid, extraterrestrial particles that will burn and glow when passing through Earth's atmosphere. A) Comets B) Asteroids C) Meteoroids D) Mesocoronas
C
4) What is a planetesimal? A) A rotating cloud of interstellar gases B) A celestial body that orbits the sun but cannot clear its own neighborhood C) Rocky material accreted through repeated collisions D) The core of a star that has gone through a nova
C
40) ________ is the largest known asteroid. A) Pluto B) Eris C) Ceres D) Andromeda
C
5) What substance makes up the core of large Jovian planets like Saturn? A) Mercury B) Hydrogen C) Iron D) Ice
C
7) ________ is the speed required for an object to escape a planet's gravitational force. A) Obliquity B) Impact weathering C) Escape velocity D) Terminal velocity
C
24.3 Short Answer Questions 1) Provide three examples of planetesimals.
Comet, meteors, asteroids
1) ________ is the study of the formation and evolution of the bodies in our solar system. A) Astrology B) Astronomy C) Cosmology D) Planetary Geology
D
14) Today, erosion on the moon is dominated by ________, which helps to smooth the landscape. A) Water B) Wind C) Ice D) Micrometeorites
D
20) Compared to Earth's atmosphere, the Martian atmosphere has surface pressures that are ________. A) 50 times those on Earth B) 32.1 times those on Earth C) 1.5 times those on Earth D) 0.1 times those on Earth
D
24) Which of the following physical features are found on both Mars and Earth? A) Active volcanoes B) Heavily cratered landscape preserved from early planetary histories C) Oceans with liquid water D) Erosional features related to flowing water
D
26) Which planet has the most moons in orbit around it? A) Neptune B) Saturn C) Uranus D) Jupiter
D
31) Outside of Earth, which body in the solar system is likely to have liquid water beneath its icy surface? A) Mars B) Neptune C) Rhea D) Europa
D
35) What is the definition of cryovolcanism? A) Pyroclastic volcanism that ignites methane-rich atmospheres B) Cessation of volcanism because of increasing atmospheric pressures C) Increase in rate of tectonic motion due to lubrication of ice D) Eruption of magmas derived from partial melting of ice
D
36) Earth's axial tilt is currently 23.5° from vertical. Uranus's axis of rotation is completely horizontal. How did this occur? A) It formed that way originally. B) Extreme volcanism realigned the planet. C) Plate tectonics shook the planet's alignment. D) Extraterrestrial bombardment knocked the planet over.
D
1) Planetary geology focuses only on those planets with a rocky surface such as Venus and Mars.
f
11) Saturn is the only planet in the solar system with rings composed of particles of water ice and rocky debris.
f
12) Uranus is famous for its large red circle called the Great Red Spot.
f
14) Neptune has only one satellite, and it is a moon named Triton.
f
4) The maria are the light, highly cratered highlands visible on the moon.
f
7) Water erosional features are commonly found on the moon, particularly in the highland areas.
f
9) The smallest of the planets in our solar system is Pluto.
f
10) Because of its immense gravity, the diameter of the planet Jupiter shrinks by a few centimeters each year.
t
13) Because of Pluto's inclined orbital plane, it appears to cross paths with Neptune and will occasionally be closer to the sun than Neptune.
t
2) Meteorite bombardment of the rocky planets occurred after their formation as protoplanets.
t
3) The inner planets are the smaller rocky planets that are close in proximity to the sun.
t
5) Because the period of rotation on its axis equals its period of revolution around Earth, the same side of the moon always faces Earth.
t
6) Seismic events called moonquakes occur in the moon.
t
8) The atmospheric pressures on Venus are approximately 90 times greater than those on Earth, which had the ability to crush spacecraft sent there in the 1970s.
t
30) The most volcanically active body in the solar system is ________. A) Mars B) Io C) Ganymede D) Earth
B
32) ________ is a moon of Saturn. A) Io B) Tethys C) Ganymede D) Europa
B
12) The major bombardment period that shaped much of the surface of the moon ended ________. A) 5.0 billion years ago B) 3.8 billion years ago C) 2.2 billion years ago D) 767 million years ago
B
21) The largest shield volcano in the solar system is ________ and is located on ________. A) Maat Mons; Venus B) Olympus Mons; Mars C) Mauna Kea; Earth D) Sif Mons; Venus
B
23) Which of the following physical features has not yet been found on Mars? A) Polar ice caps B) H2O-rich atmosphere C) Extinct volcanoes D) Sand dunes
B
27) The reason Jupiter has so many moons around it is that ________. A) these small moons are in the process of accreting to become one larger moon B) many bodies were either captured by Jupiter's gravity or were the remnants of collisions with other bodies C) the moons are an asteroid field from a planet that failed to form D) the moons are the result of massive volcanic eruptions on the planet
B
3) An estimated 99.85 percent of the mass in the solar system is concentrated in ________. A) Jupiter B) the sun C) the Kuiper Belt D) the terrestrial planets
B
5) What process is responsible for the extreme volcanic activity on Io?
Io is caught in a "tug-of-war" between Jupiter and other Galilean satellites. Tidal forces between Jupiter and the other Galilean satellites generate enough friction within Io to melt rock.
2) Compare the composition of planetesimals that would have resulted in the terrestrial planets and the Jovian planets.
Terrestrial planets were created by rocky planetesimals, whereas Jovian planets were created by icy planetesimals.
6) How do astronomers know that asteroids are left over debris from the solar nebula?
The combined mass of all asteroids is now estimated to be less than of Earth.
3) Why doesn't the moon have an atmosphere?
The moon doesn't have a high enough gravitational force to retain the gases necessary for an atmosphere.
4) What visual evidence do scientists have to support the fact that Jupiter is the fastest-rotating planet in the solar system?
There is a bulge in the planet in the equatorial region and a slight flattening of the poles.
