Survey of the universe week 6 quiz

The first spacecraft which did not merely fly by a jovian (or giant) planet, but actually went into orbit around it for an extended period of time was:

Cassini

Where has frozen water has been discovered on the Moon?

Deep inside craters in the regions near the Moon's poles

I want to examine the surface of a planet which is completely covered by a thick layer of clouds all the time. What wavelength of electromagnetic radiation would I be smartest to use:

radio waves (like radar)

The troposphere (the lowest layer in the atmosphere) of Venus

resembles being about a kilometer or so under the Earth's ocean -- a huge mass of air keeps temperatures pretty much the same all over the planet

Which of 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

According to the giant impact hypothesis about the formation of the Moon, why did the Earth not break apart into many pieces when the giant impact happened?

the impactor was about the size of Mars or smaller, so it ejected material from the Earth but did not break it

The same process that explains why astronomers see less helium in the upper atmosphere of Saturn when they take spectra also explain:

the reason Saturn is warmer than we expect

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 large circular coronae on Venus are:

large regions where hot magma rising from the interior of Venus puts pressure on the surface material.

Sometimes, when the Moon is a thin crescent, you can still dimly make out the full disk of our satellite. What is the reason for this?

light reflecting from the Earth onto the Moon

Which of the following is made of the densest material?

mercury

The bluish color that makes the atmosphere of Neptune so beautiful to the human eye is caused by the interaction of sunlight with what gas?

methane

The dwarf planet Pluto was discovered in 1930. Since that time, which jovian planet has completed a full revolution around the Sun?

more than one above

In the far future, a daring interplanetary tourist wants to go "hang-gliding" on the jovian planet with the highest equatorial wind speeds. Which planet would have the fastest wind at its equator?

neptune

The jovian planet that has the longest year (period of revolution) is:

neptune

In what way is the Moon similar to the Earth?

none of the ones listed

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

Jupiter has enough mass to make 318 Earths. In contrast, Uranus and Neptune have only enough mass to make:

15 Earths

The largest continental (highland) area on Venus is called:

Aphrodite

The planet that has an axis that points roughly straight up, and thus has no seasons to speak of, is:

Jupiter

The spacecraft that really gave scientists their first good close-up look of the planet

Mariner 10

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

The highest mountain on Venus is also the only feature to be named after a man; its namesake is the Scottish scientist who laid the foundations for our understanding of electro-magnetic waves. This is Mount:

Maxwell

he spacecraft that soft-landed successfully on the surface of Venus (and briefly sent back pictures while sitting in that destructive environment) were called

Venera

Why are the largest craters we find on the Moon and Mercury so much larger than the largest craters we find on the Earth?

because the largest craters were made early in each world's history, and geologic activity has erased all traces of this early period on the Earth's surface

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

carbon dioxide

Which of the following is NOT something that was accomplished by the Apollo missions to the Moon?

discovering that the Moon has a great deal of water under its surface

Why are almost all the craters we see on the Moon circular?

discovering that the Moon has a great deal of water under its surface

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 theory of Mercury's origin can best explain the fact that its core is made of such dense materials?

giant impacts in its early history may have torn away much of its original crust and mantle

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)

The largest planet in the solar system (by mass) is:

jupiter

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

they do not have an atmosphere

The planet that orbits "on its side" (i.e. has its rotation axis perpendicular to the plane of its orbit) is:

uranus

There was a pair of spacecraft whose components both orbited the planet Mars and landed on its surface in 1976. These spacecraft were called:

viking