ASTR 101 Exam 3

Clouds are white because of dispersion

False

Like on earth, the sky on the moon is blue too.

False

Reading: All of Jupiter's surface rotates at a uniform rate.

False

Reading: Like the Moon, Mercury has a small iron core (relative to its size).

False

Reading: Mercury's has a nice, thick atmosphere.

False

Reading: The figure on the top of p. 91 in HTRTSS (caption="Mercury's perihelic advance....") shows Mercury's orbit always traces out the same elliptical path.

False

Reading: The term 'inferior planet' is meant to mean 'insignificant.'

False

Reading: We are sure Venus' volcanoes are still active.

False

The sky is blue because of dispersion

False

With global warming, a lot of nitrogen in the atmosphere traps IR light near the earth's surface

False

The original Nebula our solar system likel formed from was mostly made of

H and He

What region of the solar system is full of "space junk" that never formed into a planet?

Kuiper Belt

The frost line is between

Mars and Jupiter

Light travels at this many miles per second

hundreds of thousands

For a primary (nice and bright) rainbow, the blue light is always on the bottom

True

Reading: A 'transit' is when Venus moves directly between the line-of-sight between the Earth and Sun.

True

Reading: In in 1700s, a transit of Venus helped to establish the size of the solar system.

True

Reading: Mercury's shows phases, just like the Moon.

True

Reading: Sometimes a day on Mercury would have two sunrises.

True

Reading: Venus has many, many volcanoes.

True

Reading: Venus is covered with clouds, that are there all the time.

True

Reading: Venus is the 2nd brightest object in the sky after the Sun.

True

When white light emerges from a single water drop in a rainbow, the red light is on the bottom and the blue light is on the top.

True

Nitrogen and Oxygen molecules tend to wriggle a lot when they are hit by

blue light

You see a star and the sun directly overhead. As you continue to rotate on the earth, which will appear overhead first, once again about a day later?

both at the same time

What is an outward force that exists only while spinning?

centrifugal force

In the gravity equation, the denominator is

d squared

A "nebula" is

dust

Clouds are white because of dispersion

false

Reading: According to the fig. on p. 188 of HTRTSS, the Earth was closer to Jupiter in November.

false

Reading: Mars has a very thick atmosphere.

false

Reading: Mercury's year is longer than the Earth's.

false

Reading: Missions to Mars have a very high success rate.

false

Reading: There is no evidence that water ever flowed on Mars.

false

Reading: There's no chance of finding life on Europa.

false

Reading: Venus does not show phases, like our Moon and Mercury.

false

Reading: Venus has excellent solar wind protection.

false

Stars would twinkle, if observed from the surface of the moon.

false

The centrifugal force always pulls things toward the center of a circle

false

The index of refraction is constant over all wavelengths.

false

The same face of Mercury always faces the sun.

false

The sky is blue because of dispersion

false

When an excited atom releases a photon, the outgoing photon will always go in the same direction.

false

In the Nebular Hypothesis, the originating heat that led to the star forming came from

friction

In the nebular hypothesis, the original heat that led to the star forming came from

friction

IR-light is most associated with

heat

What event happened about 4.5 billion years ago and resulted in the intense cratering of Mercury?

heavy bombardment

The Mariner spacecraft went to Mercury and was able to finally determine Mercury's

mass

Light at 550 nm enters water of glass and has a n=1.33. What possible value of n would be possible for blue light?

1.34

The Solar day is

about 4 minutes longer than the Sidereal day.

The Sidereal day is

about 4 minutes shorter than the Solar day.

What makes an object spin faster when its mass is closer to the center?

angular momentum

The water drops that form rainbows are relatively

large

Mercury is difficult to study because of its

location

The star that comes from a cloud of dust usually forms

on the axis of spinning cloud of dust

The hard part about fusion is

overcoming the repulsion of two H-atoms

You see two "dots of light" in the sky. One is twinkling and one is not. The one not twinkling is likely a

planet

This sits at the center of a simple atom

proton

A sidereal day is ___ than a solar day.

shorter

Rocky planets formed closer to the sun do to the

solar wind

You are on a stool spinning around. When you pull your arms inward you

speed up

Reading: Hmmm...so it appears as if all of the excitement about life on Mars was due to a translation issue between English and Italian?

yes

Even in the presence of the centrifugal force, gravity is ALWAYS an attractive force

true

Reading: An 'inferior planet' lies between the Earth and Sun.

true

Reading: It appears as if Io has quite a few volcanoes.

true

Reading: Mars has polar ice caps.

true

Reading: Mars' day is about as long as Earth's.

true

Reading: Mars' moons are likely captured asteroids.

true

Reading: The great red spot on Jupiter is a vast hurricane.

true

Reading: Venus has a 'retrograde rotation.'

true

Reading: Venus is a completely dry planet.

true

Reading: Venus rotates very slowly.

true

Reading: Venus' atmosphere is almost all CO2.

true

Reading: With Jupiter, Romer worked on some of the first measurements of the speed of light.

true

Spinning is a central theme to the Nebular Hypothesis

true

With the Doppler Effect, when the emitter is going toward the receiver, the wavelengths get smaller.

true

For Mercury, how is the solar day related to the orbital period?

twice as long

The rotational speed of a collapsing gas

will always increase