Astronomy WK10 & WK11 Inner Plantes

On some parts of Mars, it gets cold enough for a gas to freeze out of the atmosphere that does not freeze out by itself at the temperatures and pressures on Earth. This gas makes up some of the polar caps on Mars and is

Carbon dioxide

The largest part of the Earth is its

Mantle

Which of the following statements about Mercury's orbit is TRUE?

Mercury has the highest speed in its orbit of any planet

Why does Mars have an overall reddish color when we see its surface from afar?

The material of Mars's surface contains a lot of iron oxide, the same chemistry that makes rusting metals look reddish

What discovery about Saturn's moon Enceladus has encouraged astronomers to think of that moon as a possible place where life might exist?

There are plumes of salty vapor coming from cracks in Enceladus' surface

The planet that most resembles the Earth in size and internal composition is

Venus

Which of the following is NOT a correct statement about the rotation of Venus?

Venus rotates in roughly the same time period as Earth

The Van Allen belt is

a region of trapped charged particles in the Earth's magnetosphere

The same gas makes up most of the atmosphere of Mars and Venus. The gas is

carbon dioxide

Which part of the Earth has the greatest density?

core

. Which of the following statements about the atmosphere of Mars today is FALSE?

droplets of liquid water rain irrigate the surface of Mars regularly

What makes the Earth different from the other worlds that might have life in the solar system (and easier to detect from far away) is that only Earth

has a biosphere on its surface where photosynthesis can take place

Chemically, the process leading to life on Earth began with lots of liquid water and

hydrocarbons (molecules which had hydrogen and carbon)

Which if the following statements about the planet Venus is true?

it has a thick layer of clouds containing sulfuric acid droplets

Which of the following is a way that the planet Mercury is similar to the Moon?

its surface is heavily cratered

The most likely models of the planet Mercury indicate that more than half the planet may be composed of

metals

A crucial difference that helps explain why Venus is so hot and the Earth isn't is that

on Venus, there was eventually no ocean to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

Photosynthesis, once it was planet-wide, changed the atmosphere of the Earth by introducing a significant amount of

oxygen

According to the theory of plate tectonics,

slow motions within the mantle of the Earth move large sections of the crust around

Which if the following statements about temperature changes on Mercury is correct?

the difference in temperature between Mercury's daylight side and its night side is the greatest difference of any planet in the solar system

One place that astronomers think might have had life start long ago is Mars. Which of the following is NOT a discovery that we have made on Mars so far?

the discovery of organic materials (the chemical building blocks of life, such as amino acids) by spacecraft that have landed

The process of convection involves

the slow upward flow of warmer material and downward flow of cooler material

According to astronomers, which of the following places in the outer parts of our solar system might be a reasonable place for life to exist?

under the ice of Jupiter's moon Europa

For the complex biochemical reactions of life (as we know it) to happen, a solvent is required. What is that solvent for life on Earth?

water

From a scientific perspective, which of the following statements about life elsewhere in the universe is best supported by current evidence?

while we have evidence of the building blocks of life elsewhere in the universe, we have no definite evidence about life around other stars at this time