Astronomy Final
The Earth has a higher mass and a higher density.
How do the Earth and Moon compare in terms of density?
Its large ring system
In appearance, what immediately distinguishes Saturn from all the other planets?
Venus
In brightness, Jupiter is second only to the planet _____ most of the time.
terrestrial
In composition, the _____ planets have rocky materials like the asteroids.
True
In most places on the seacoast, there are two high and two low tides a day.
Uranus
In terms of axial tilt, which of the jovian planets shows us the largest inclination?
formed from the same flattened, swirling gas cloud that formed the Sun.
In the leading theory of solar system formation, the planets
Jupiter
In the telescope, _____ shows the most turbulent atmosphere, with changes easily seen even with amateur telescopes.
troposphere
In what part of our atmosphere do we live?
True
Many astronomers now regard Pluto as just one of the largest of the thousands of Kuiper Belt bodies found beyond Neptune.
True
Most astronomers now believe the demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was caused by a large asteroid impacting the Yucatan peninsula area.
False
Most of our detailed knowledge of the jovian planets comes from the Hubble Space Telescope.
True
Neap tides occur at first and third quarter phases of the Moon.
lie beyond the orbit of Neptune, and close to the ecliptic.
Objects in the Kuiper belt
It reaches Earth's surface, where some is reflected and some is absorbed.
On a cloudless day, what happens to most of the visible light headed toward Earth?
The clouds reflect much of it back to space, though some still reaches the surface.
On a day with complete cloud cover, what happens to the visible light headed toward Earth?
False
One characteristic of the terrestrial planets is their extensive moon systems.
spacecraft exploration.
Our most detailed knowledge of Uranus and Neptune comes from
meteor shower
Particles ejected from a comet can cause a(n) _______ on Earth.
are almost circular, with low eccentricities.
Planetary orbits
only rocky and metallic particles could form close to the Sun.
The solar system is differentiated because
False
The solid surface of Jupiter lies just below the cloud layers that are visible from Earth.
Saturn
The spacecraft Cassini went into orbit around
first or third quarter
The smallest high tides occur when the Moon phase is
True
While Voyagers were probes that flew past in a few days, Galileo and Cassini are orbiters, designed to study Jupiter and Saturn over prolonged periods of time.
True
William Herschel was the discoverer of Uranus.
The Kuiper belt and Oort cloud can be described as __________.
between Mars and Jupiter
Meteor showers
consist of particles shed by comets as they orbit the Sun.
The Kuiper belt and Oort cloud can be described as __________.
regions from which comets enter the inner solar system
True
Saturn is less dense than water.
weaker surface gravity
Saturn's cloud layers are much thicker than those of Jupiter because Saturn has
Plasma Tail
A comet's _______ stretches directly away from the Sun.
Nucleus
A comets ________ is the frozen portion of a comet.
true
A gravitational assist, or slingshot, can be used to either speed up or slow down a spacecraft.
a streak of light in the atmosphere.
A meteor is
a chunk of space debris that has struck the ground.
A meteorite is
meteorite
A solid body from the outer solar system that arrives intact on the Earth's surface is called a(n) _____.
Oort Clouds
About a trillion comets are thought to be located far, far beyond Pluto in the
Uranus
Adams and Leverrier both predicted the position of Neptune, based on its effects on
False
All four jovian planets are made primarily of hydrogen and oxygen.
True
All four jovian planets spin faster than any of the terrestrials.
True
All jovian planets have rings around their equators and at least eight moons.
False
All the planet's orbits are evenly spaced.
False
All the planets orbit the Sun in exactly the same plane as the Earth.
False
All the planets revolve around the Sun in the same direction, except for Venus and Uranus.
True
All the terrestrial planets lie inside the asteroid belt.
create light and dark bands.
Alternating zones of rising and sinking gas in Jupiter's atmosphere
True
Although it is almost the same size as Jupiter, Saturn's gravity is about 2.5 times less, because of Saturn's lower mass and density.
True
Asteroids, meteoroids, and comets are remnants of the early solar system.
Uranus
At which planet can the pole remain in darkness for 42 years, then have 42 years of constant daylight?
True
Because of tidal forces, the Moon is in a synchronous orbit around Earth.
True
Changes in the predicted motion of Uranus led to the search for an eighth planet.
True
Cometary dust tails lag behind the bluish ion tails as the comet rounds the Sun. Cometary dust tails lag behind the bluish ion tails as the comet rounds the Sun.
True
Compared to Earth, the Moon lacks a hydrosphere, atmosphere, and a magnetosphere.
roughly the same size.
Compared with Uranus, the planet Neptune is
True
Differential rotation is when a planet's equatorial and polar regions rotate at different rates.
False
Due to its larger mass, the Sun's gravitational effect on Earth's tides is greater than the Moon's.
False
Due to their great masses, all four jovian worlds are much denser than the Earth.
True
During the northern summer of Uranus, an observer near the north pole would observe the Sun high and almost stationary in the sky.
False
Earth is nearly twice as large as Venus.
a large cyclonic storm (hurricane).
Essentially, the Great Red Spot is
False
Jupiter's atmosphere looks uniform and calm, with no visible detail.
True
Jupiter's axial tilt is similar to that of Mercury, while Saturn's is more like ours.
False
Like the discovery of Uranus, the finding of Neptune was accidental.
The Oort Cloud
Long-period comets are believed to originally come from
the direction of the Sun.
Relative to the comet, the direction of the ion tail tells us
imply the nearby presence of a massive body.
Small deviations in a planet's orbital motion
Atmosphere composed mainly of hydrogen and helium
Some jovian storms such as Jupiter's Great Red Spot have been observed to last for years to decades. The reason why these large storms live so long is not well understood, but astronomers have begun to monitor these storms more closely with spacecraft and have discovered some common properties among them. Which of the following properties does not contribute to the longevity of large jovian storms?
True
Storms in the jovian planets' atmospheres are generally much longer lived than storms on Earth.
interior rotation rates.
Studying the magnetospheres of the jovian planets has allowed us to measure their
False
The Earth's hotter, inner core is liquid and its cooler, outer core is solid.
The spacecraft used a gravity assist from both Venus and Earth.
The Galileo mission put a spacecraft into orbit around Jupiter. Which statement is true?
True
The Galileo probe was deliberately steered into Jupiter's atmosphere, ending its mission.
beyond the orbit of Neptune
The Kuiper Belt is found where in the solar system?
one-sixth
The Moon lacks an atmosphere because its surface gravity is only _____ the Earth's.
Earth's tidal force.
The Moon's near side always faces Earth due to
a spherical cloud of cometary nuclei far beyond the Kuiper Belt.
The Oort Cloud is believed to bea spherical cloud of cometary nuclei far beyond the Kuiper Belt.
sixty degrees ahead or behind Jupiter, sharing its orbit about the Sun.
The Trojan asteroids are found
Oort Cloud
The _____ is a vast, spherical array of long period comet nuclei far beyond the orbit of Neptune.
Spring
The _____ tides have a large change from high to low, near new and full moons.
water vapor and carbon dioxide.
The atmospheric gases primarily responsible for our greenhouse effect are
accretion
The process by which small debris condenses into planetesimals is _____.
False
The axial tilts of Uranus and Neptune are similar.
Coma
The bright spherical part of a comet observed when it is close to the Sun is the
False
The continuing rise of carbon dioxide concentration in our troposphere is leading to worldwide cooling as dry ice forms at the poles.
ozone layer.
The critical part of the atmosphere for protecting life on the ground from excessive ultraviolet radiation is the
Neptune
The farthest major planet from the Sun is
higher or hotter
The greenhouse effect always results in a(n) _____ surface temperature.
is temporarily absorbed by greenhouse gases and then reemitted in random directions
The greenhouse effect raises Earth's surface temperature (from what it would be otherwise) because the infrared light radiated by Earth's surface __________.
dust and rocky particles trapped in methane, ammonia, and water ice
The ingredients of a typical comet's nucleus are most likely ________.
ceres
The largest asteroid, and probably the only one to be a spherical "world" is
False
The less internal heat a jovian planet emits, the more it stirs up its clouds.
Light gases
The low densities of the Jovian planets tell us they are mostly composed of what materials?
Venus's very slow rotation rate does not allow a magnetic field to form.
The magnetic fields in all planets are generated by the dynamo effect, caused by rapidly rotating and conducting material flowing in the interiors of the planets. We have just seen that all four of the jovian planets have magnetic fields. Earth also has a planetary magnetic field, but Venus does not, although it is very similar to Earth in mass. Which of the following would be a reason why Venus does not have a magnetic field?
in the Oort Cloud.
The most distant objects in our solar system are
Jupiter
The most massive planet in the solar system is
a few kilometers in size, and very low in density.
The nucleus of a comet is typically
An atmosphere
The wide variation in the lunar surface temperature is due to its lack of which of the following?
less than 250 years ago
Uranus was discovered
True
Weather occurs in the troposphere.
O2 and N2
What are the two main constituents of Earth's atmosphere?
It is returned upward in the form of infrared light.
What happens to the energy that the ground absorbs in the form of visible sunlight?
Hydrogen
What is the primary component of the atmosphere of Jupiter?
The denser planets lie closer to the Sun.
What is true about solar system densities?
The difference between low and high tides would be greatest.
What is true of spring tides?
They are equal.
What is true of the Moon's orbital and rotational periods?
Convection
What phenomenon causes all weather and wind on Earth?
Neptune
What was the first planet discovered by mathematical prediction?
Heluim
Which common gas is less abundant in the top of Saturn's atmosphere, compared to what we observe at Jupiter?
comets
Which of the following have an icy composition?
High mass
Which of the following is NOT a property of a terrestrial planet?
The jovian planets have orbits that are highly inclined to the ecliptic and do not revolve in the same direction as the terrestrial planets
Which of the following is NOT a way in which the terrestrial and jovian planets differ?
They all have greater density.
Which of the following is NOT true of the Jovian planets when compared to Earth?
asteroids
Which of the following is not icy in composition?
The deeper you dive into the atmospheres of the outer planets, the higher the temperature.
Which of the following is true?
Galileo
Which of the following spacecraft went into orbit around Jupiter for years, and even dropped a probe into Jupiter's atmosphere?
hydrogen
Which of these gases is least abundant in our atmosphere?
Its strange tilt produces extreme seasonal variations, especially at the poles.
Which of these is true about the seasons of Uranus?
Jupiter
Which planet by itself contains the majority of mass of all the planets?
Adams, Leverrier, and Galle
Which three played a role in the finding of Neptune?
Kuiper Belt
extends from about beyond the orbit of Neptune to about twice the distance of Neptune from the Sun.
Float
if you could find a bathtub big enough for Saturn, the planet would
Oort cloud
is a huge, spherical region centered on the Sun, extending perhaps halfway to the nearest stars, in which trillions of comets orbit the Sun with random inclinations, orbital directions, and eccentricities.
Magnetosphere
is a zone of charged particles trapped by a planet's magnetic field, lying above the atmosphere.
Aurora
is an event that occurs when atmospheric atoms are excited by incoming charged particles from the solar wind, then emit energy as they fall back to their ground states.
plasma tail
is one of two tails seen when a comet passes near the Sun (the other is the dust tail). It is composed of ionized gas blown straight outward from the Sun by the solar wind.
Tidal Locking
is the circumstance in which tidal forces have caused a moon to rotate at exactly the same rate at which it revolves around its parent planet.
Kuiper belt
is the comet-rich region of our solar system that spans distances of about 30-100 AU from the Sun. Kuiper belt comets have orbits that lie fairly close to the plane of planetary orbits and travel around the Sun in the same direction as the planets.
coma
is the dusty atmosphere of a comet created by sublimation of ices in the nucleus when the comet is near the Sun.
Van Allen Belt
is the name given to either of two doughnut-shaped regions of magnetically trapped, charged particles high above Earth's atmosphere.
nucleus
is the solid portion of a comet, and the only portion that exists when the comet is far from the Sun.
Synchronous Radius
is the state of an object when its period of rotation is exactly equal to its average orbital period.
Orbital period
is the time it takes a body to complete a full orbit around another body.
Rotation period
is the time it takes for a body to rotate around its axis.
Meteors can be viewed only __________.
on worlds with atmospheres in space
The length of a comet's tail is determined primarily by __________.
the comet's distance from the Sun
