phys201 2

The world in the solar system that is most active volcanically is:

Io

A planet in our solar system whose composition resembles that of our Sun is:

Jupiter

Which of the following is NOT a terrestrial planet?

Jupiter

The largest volcano on Mars is called:

Olympus Mons (Mt. Olympus)

The observation that began the 19th and early 20th century fascination with Mars as a place for life was:

Schiaparelli's seeing what seemed to him to be long straight features on the red planet

The Oort cloud is a reservior of comets in the outer solar system

True

There may be a ninth planet in the solar system

True

The smaller objects in the solar system made of rock and metal (most of which orbit between Jupiter and Mars) are called:

asteroids

What drives the motion of the continental plates on earth

convection cells in the mantle

Order of the major steps of solar system formation

gravitational collapse of the solar nebula - condensation - accreation

In general, the further planets are from the Sun, the cooler they are. What other factor can have a significant influence on a planet's surface temperature?

its atmosphere (whether it has one and how thick it is)

All the planets (without exception)

revolve around the Sun in the same direction

According to the theory of plate tectonics

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

In its overall composition, the Moon roughly resembles

the Earth's crust and mantle

Our modern understanding of Pluto is that it is a member of

the Kuiper Belt (of trans-Neptunian objects)

The process by which Venus became so much hotter than the Earth is called:

the runaway greenhouse effect

What is the most important reason that astronomers have learned more about our planetary system in the last 30-40 years than all of history before then.

we have been able to send spacecraft to gather information about planets and moons up close

What evidence can you give that shows the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa must be relatively young?

we see very few craters compared to the surfaces of Callisto and Ganymede

Which of the jovian planets does NOT have any satellites?

you can't fool me, all the jovian planets are accompanied by satellites

Mars appears to have long branching channels that have the appearance of being formed by a flowing liquid. Yet we know that liquids would not stay liquid in the very thin atmosphere we have on the Martian surface? So how can we explain the channels?

Mars had a thicker atmosphere long ago when the channels formed

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

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

At their centers, all the jovian planets have cores made of:

a solid mixture of rocky and icy materials under great pressure

If there are at least a million asteroids, how did spacecraft like Galileo survive their trip through the asteroid belt?

although there are many asteroids, they are widely spaced (there is lots of space between them)

Why do we see the same face of the moon at all times

because the moons rotational period and orbital period

Astronomers estimate that the plains of Venus are only about 500 to 600 million years old. How do they estimate dates like this?

by counting the craters visible on the surface and comparing crater counts to other worlds

The average temperature on planet Earth is higher than you would expect just from the heating of sunlight alone. What is the explanation for this?

carbon dioxide (and other gases) in the atmosphere cause a greenhouse effect

If you were to take a large sample of the four giant planets, the most common element you would find in them is:

hydrogen

The element that can act like a metal when it is under tremendous pressure and is probably responsible for Jupiter and Saturn's magnetism is:

hydrogen

Astronomers believe that Mars formed with a much thicker atmosphere than it has today. Where did this atmosphere go?

it escaped into space (and some later froze out as Mars got cold)

How is mercury similar to the moon

its surface is heavily cratered

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

its surface is heavily cratered

In a bad late-night science fiction film, a villain is using a large collection of rare radioactive atoms as energy for a weapon to threaten the good guys. The atoms have a half-life of 1 hour. The villain has 4 kilograms of the radioactive material now, and he needs a minimum of 1 kg. for his weapon to work. After how much time will the weapon no longer be a threat?

just a little after 2 hrs

Earthquake producing faults are much more likely to be found

on the boundaries of continental plates, where they meet other plates

The large reservoir of comet nuclei far beyond Pluto, from which we believe new long-period comets come into the inner solar system, is called:

oort cloud

The canals that late 19th and early 20th observers thought they saw on Mars turned out to be:

optical illusions

Which of the following does the composition of a planet like Jupiter resemble:

the Sun

In the four terrestrial planets, the densest, heaviest materials are at the center and not evenly distributed throughout the planet. Scientists interpret this observation to mean that:

the four terrestrial planets must once have been hot enough to be molten (like a liquid)

What makes astronomers think that impact rates for the Moon must have been higher earlier than 3.8 billion years ago?

there are ten times more craters on the older highlands than the younger maria

Which of the following characteristics do all four terrestrial planets have in common?

they all have solid surfaces with signs of geological activity on them

What is one important way in which both the Moon and Mercury are different from Earth?

they do not have an atmosphere

A ring around a dwarf planet was discovered by an observation an occultation

true

The asteroid belt lies between mars and jupiter

true

The inner galilean moons have higher densities then the outer moons

true

The kuiper belt is just beyond the orbit of neptune

true

The largest volcano on mars is larger then any mountain on earth

true

The Red Spot of Jupiter is:

variable in size long-lived (observed since the 1600's) made of a reddish colored material a high pressure storm system in the atmosphere